"And don't forget to take those tomatoes to Jake at the General Store. Oh, and the lettuce. And that rhubarb will be ready any day. It'll all just go to waste in the garden," Rebecca said. She was issuing rapid-fire instructions to the three ranch hands, who were nodding and taking notes.
Charlie had hold of her arm and was inching her, little by little, toward the steps up to the train.
Rebecca continued, "Go out and take a good look at the far pasture, just in case the campers left anything. If they did, just put it aside and we'll mail it to them when we get back. And you three eat all that leftover food, you hear? Just clear out the kitchen. Anything that goes bad, put in the compost..."
The whistle sounded and Charlie said, laughing, "You'll be here to do it all yourself if you don't get up on that train, woman!"
Finally he managed to step up and take her with him, and none too soon. The steam blew and it started to move.
She turned to Charlie and said, "I hate this train."
He smiled and said, "Yeah, but you love your son. And today, love won out."
After hearing everyone say how much they wanted to stay but that they had to get back to their farms, or their job, or school, or the store, or the switchboard, or their business – Rebecca had thrown her hands up and said, "Well, then, that cuts it. You've invited me, and I'm coming with you. I need to see how Hope Valley throws a party."
Lucas had turned quickly to Bill and said, "No pressure."
Bill had nodded and whispered, "We may need to step up the food tomorrow night."
The cheer that had erupted from the group when she'd said she was coming to Hope Valley for a visit had warmed Rebecca down to her bones.
The Grant Wedding Party was well-represented on the train. Thirty in all, spread out in convivial groups just as they had been at the ranch house and in the clearing. By some law of mathematics, they could be sure that practically everyone had talked to everyone over the three days they'd all been together.
The couple of honor were not interacting much right now, however. They had found a secluded spot next to a warm window and looked to be sound asleep already. They'd used up any energy they had just trying to keep their eyes open on the wagon rides from the pergola to the house and then the house to the train.
Elizabeth had remarked to Nathan that this morning was the second time in three days that she'd seen the sun come up, and, happy as she was, she needed a vacation from her vacation. He'd promised her some sleep on the train, and she was taking him up on it.
Across the aisle from them, Jack was being cared for vigilantly by Anna, Emily, Allie and Opal in the area between two facing benches. They were whispering so they wouldn't wake up Nathan and Elizabeth. They'd blocked off the way out with suitcases and were all contentedly coloring pictures in Jack's makeshift playpen.
Before she'd fallen asleep, the new Mrs. Grant, always the schoolteacher, had given them an assignment. "Why don't you draw some pictures of all the wonderful things you've seen in Airdrie and you can show them to the children who weren't able to come."
"I'm drawing the stables," Emily said. "And Sugar. She was my favorite."
"I liked Sunset the best," Opal said.
Allie said, "Sunset is my dad's horse, but I'm sure he'd let you ride her if you wanted."
Allie had spent such a long time wanting to say my dad that now she couldn't stop saying it. For Allie to call Nathan her father didn't sound strange to the other children because, in the way that children do, they had already thought of Nathan that way. They were a little more curious about Allie's relationship with Elizabeth.
They all knew that there had been lots of times that Allie had spent the night at Elizabeth's while Nathan was away. But until now, they didn't feel like they could ask questions. Now that the wedding ceremony had made them so visibly a family, all the things the girls wondered about came out.
"You're so lucky that Mrs. Grant is your mom now," Anna said. "Is she as nice at home as she is at school?"
Allie grinned. "Yes. She's just the same. Except that I get more time with her at home."
"Does she help you with your homework?" Opal asked.
Allie smiled. "She doesn't give me any answers, if that's what you mean. But if I have a question she'll help me, just like she would with you if you asked her."
Emily sighed. "She's always so pretty." She turned to Allie and said, "Is she that pretty all the time?"
Allie laughed. "She really is. Even right when she wakes up."
If they had happened to look over, they would have seen Nathan smile. Although Elizabeth had gone right to sleep, Nathan was only dozing, half-listening to the girls. When Allie had called him my dad, Nathan had taken a deep breath to fill up the sudden space in his chest.
Nathan had spent plenty of time wondering if he'd messed up being a father to Allie. It had been easier since he had Elizabeth helping him, but before that he was flying blind. Allie being so anxious to make that leap to calling him her dad made Nathan feel he must have done okay after all.
Now, while he listened, he remembered the early days with Allie. She'd stayed for a little while with Rebecca, but when she was just five her grandmother had decided that life on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, so far from anyone, wasn't good for a little girl who wanted friends and to be social. Nathan had a posting that looked to be fairly stable so he'd agreed to take her full-time when Rebecca asked him. Then the Mounties had started moving him around.
Nathan believed that Rebecca had given Allie up because she couldn't raise a young girl, but in truth, Rebecca knew that if a person was going to do well in the world, they had to learn to be in the world. Nathan was in the world. With him, Allie would be too.
As Rebecca had watched Allie over the weekend interacting with her friends, she'd known she'd made the right decision. Raising Nathan and Sarah alone had been one thing – they'd always had each other. But Allie would have been completely alone. With Nathan, Allie had grown into a confident, fun-loving thirteen-year-old with lots of friends.
Nathan moved a tiny bit and adjusted Elizabeth's head on his chest, still keeping his eyes closed. It was warm in the sunshine through the window and it felt incredible to just hold Elizabeth in his arms as she slept. Actually, at this moment Nathan's happiness existed on so many levels that it was hard for him to take it all in.
"I'm drawing a picture of Mountie Nathan and Mrs. Thorn... Mrs. Grant... when they got married," Opal said. Then she smiled. "Jack's pants made him look just like a Mountie too. And your dress was so pretty."
Allie smiled. "I felt like a princess."
Opal was using the red pencil to color Nathan's tunic. She looked up at Allie thoughtfully. "For a long time, I didn't think there could ever be a Mountie as brave as Mountie Jack," she said. "But I think Mountie Nathan, your dad, is just as brave."
Nathan smiled. Next to him he heard a sleepy whisper. "You have no idea what high praise that is."
Tilting his head to look at Elizabeth, he whispered back, "You're awake."
She smiled up at him and snuggled into his chest, her eyes soft. "And you're still here, so it wasn't a dream. Yesterday was such a beautiful day, Nathan." She looked over at the children, who still didn't know they were awake. "And now," she said, "I need to think of lesson plans. And how to get Julie into my place while we camp out at the pond house and, did you give Henry notice for your house? Because maybe Rebecca can stay there and then you can give notice..."
"Whoa, cowgirl..." Nathan laughed. "You just went from a stop to a hard run in about a half a minute." Elizabeth laughed too, and Nathan pushed her tousled hair back from her eyes. "It's all going to be fine. We have rooms in the new house, just no doors. Lee says we'll get the floors done quickly and then we can starting moving in. I have some surprises for you, too, Mrs. Grant."
"What?" she said.
Nathan sighed. "Well, then they wouldn't be surprises, would they?"
Elizabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "So you're telling me not to worry."
"That's correct," Nathan said.
"Okay!" Elizabeth said, sitting up and covering a yawn with the back of her hand. When she did, she looked at her wedding ring and held it up. "Look what I got," she said, grinning.
Nathan held up his hand and wiggled his fingers. "Me too."
She put her hands up to her head and could feel that her hair had come undone. Without thinking, she simply took down all of her combs and ran her fingers through her hair to untangle it.
She felt Nathan's eyes on her. The way he was gazing at her was a new look, a deeper one, and she realized that with her hair down she must look the way she did as they had finished off the last of the cheese, rolls and jam in the early hours of the morning. They'd suddenly realized that they'd each had a finger sandwich and a bite of cake since yesterday's breakfast, and they were starving.
Elizabeth smiled back at him, remembering how they'd sat on the bed, wrapped in the quilts, and had talked about anything and everything while they ate every last morsel.
Nathan raised one eyebrow and smiled. "You're blushing," he said, softly.
Elizabeth matched his eyebrow and said, "Your eyes are very blue."
Nathan moved closer and said, "We won't ever be able to keep secrets from each other. We're too transparent."
"That's a very good thing," Elizabeth said. She looked across the way and everyone was engrossed in their drawings. She kissed him tenderly. "Have I said I love you today?"
Nathan laughed softly. "Since midnight?" He nodded. "A number of times."
Elizabeth said, "No! Not since then. Since... the sun has come up, and it's been morning..." she said, finally laughing. "You're impossible."
"You're incredible," he said very softly. He was just about to kiss her, when suddenly their presence was noticed.
"Mama!"
Elizabeth looked up and quickly pulled her hair back with her combs. "Jack!" She said, laughing, "Mama's awake."
She put her hand on Nathan's face and said softly, "We'll finish this conversation later."
He smiled at her and took her hand. "Yes. We will."
They stood up and went over to the children, who wanted to show Mrs. Grant their drawings.
Except for Opal, who went straight to Nathan. She held up her drawing of a man in red serge, a woman in white, a small boy in striped pants and a girl who looked like a princess. "Mountie Nathan. I want you to have this. Since you were up there, you might not know what you looked like." She smiled at him. "This can remind you."
Nathan smiled and sat down on the bench behind her. "Opal, this is about the nicest drawing I think I've ever seen. And you're right, now we know what we looked like." He held it up and gazed at it and then he gave Opal a hug. "Thank you. This will go on the wall of our new house."
Opal went back to the others, beaming. By now, Jack was in Elizabeth's arms and she was telling the girls how lovely their drawings were.
She looked at Nathan and he held up Opal's drawing for her to see. She walked over and Jack put his arms out for Nathan, who handed the picture to Elizabeth and then put Jack on his knee.
"Opal gave it to me. In case we didn't know what we looked like," he said.
"Oh, Nathan," she said. "She gave this to you?"
He nodded. The girls were laughing and talking now, sharing pictures, after being so quiet while Nathan and Elizabeth had slept.
Anna said to Allie, "Can we have another sleepover at your new house when it's ready?"
"Sure!" Allie said. "We can make cupcakes again!"
With Jack on his knee and listening to the delight of the girls, Nathan took a deep breath.
"A hockey team might be just right," he said softly to Elizabeth. He raised his eyebrows. "Only four more..."
"Four!" Elizabeth said, laughing. "How about we take it one at a time?"
Jack suddenly called out "Doo-ee!" as Julie came down the aisle.
"There's my favorite little nephew!" Julie said happily, scooping him up in her arms. She positioned him comfortably on her hip as Elizabeth watched.
"You're different, Julie," Elizabeth said softly as they stood in the aisle together. "It's like it happened over a weekend. I had a little trouble at first imagining you in Hope Valley, but now I can completely see it."
Julie leaned closer and raised her eyebrows at her sister. "It didn't happen over a weekend. It's been happening for months. Probably years. If you ask Mother or Viola, they'll tell you I've been moving away for a long time." Julie looked at Jack and kissed his cheek. "I'm so happy to be coming with you all, Elizabeth. I would be very sad alone on that train back to Hamilton."
Elizabeth hugged her, and Jack was caught in the middle. He didn't seem to mind.
Nathan was now leaned over the bench and the girls were vying for his attention, giving him their colored pencils and asking him to draw a horse. He was laughing and making faces and thoroughly entertaining them.
Julie looked at Elizabeth. "I absolutely adore your husband, sister."
Elizabeth smiled, speaking softly. "It wasn't very long ago that Nathan felt completely out of his element with Allie and her friends." She looked back at Julie, remembering. "Before Nathan and I had even acknowledged our feelings for each other, Allie had a sleepover and I volunteered to bring cupcakes over to his house so they could decorate them."
Julie raised her eyebrow. "That was rather forward of you," she said with some admiration in her voice.
Elizabeth frowned. "No, I was just being a good teacher, Julie."
Julie nodded, unconvinced. "Uh-huh."
Elizabeth blushed softly, "Oh, you would have been very proud of me. I actually flirted with him," she said, smiling at the memory.
Julie tilted her head. "And what does flirting look like at a sleepover with cupcakes?"
"I have no idea what got into me. I put frosting on his nose."
Julie smiled and shook her head in mock-consternation. "Hussy."
Elizabeth laughed. "No, Julie, it was actually a pretty bold move." She looked at Nathan, now drawing with the girls. She said softly, her eyes going tender, "It was the first time I'd touched him."
Julie took one look at her sister's glazed eyes and nodded. "Oh, we really need to talk."
Elizabeth sighed, still looking at Nathan. "About what?"
Julie just shook her head, laughing. She looked at Jack and opened her eyes wide. "About what, she says!" Jack reached out and put his fingers on her necklace. "You like that, Jack?" Julie said, holding it up for him and making it sparkle in the sunlight.
Julie looked around her. It wasn't quite like Elizabeth taking a stagecoach out west and being robbed and then riding into town in the back of a wagon.
But it was still quite an adventure. And Julie couldn't wait to see how it turned out.
