"So, here's a question," Nathan said.

Elizabeth gazed at him from the warmth and comfort of their bed. Nathan was standing in front of their closet in only his white shirt and his socks, and her view was compelling.

"The answer is yes," she said, purring like a kitten from the quilts. "Whatever the question is."

Nathan looked at her over his shoulder with his eyes narrowed. "One of these days you're going to need to get out of the house early, and I promise to make it as difficult for you as you've been making it for me lately."

Elizabeth giggled and pulled the quilt up around her chin. "Okay, I'll be good. What's your question?"

Nathan turned back to the closet. "When was the last time you saw a Mountie in red serge driving a car?"

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Hmmmm," she said. "Never."

"Just as I thought," he said, reaching for his plaid shirt, his work pants and his suspenders. He turned to her and threw them on the bed. "And here's an existential question for the schoolmistress," he said while putting on his pants.

He's got that look, Elizabeth thought. A joke is on the way.

"Is a Mountie still a Mountie if he's not mounted?" He raised his eyebrow and smiled at her.

"Say that ten times fast," she said, laughing.

"Not this early in the morning," he said, looking outside. It was still dark and he stopped for a moment, listening. "We're up before Chester," Nathan said.

"I remember when we were in Airdrie on Easter morning and we had to wake up before your rooster," Elizabeth said, smiling at the memory. "I thought I should go out and crow right next to his head and wake him up."

Nathan pulled up his suspenders and shrugged into his plaid shirt. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, speaking softly into her ear. "And you thought it would be worth it to get out of a warm bed in the dark just to make that point to a farm animal?"

Elizabeth put her arms around his neck to hold him there. "I'll admit I didn't think it through completely." Nathan sat on the bed, since it was clear she wasn't letting go. "Why do you have to leave so early?" she pouted.

Nathan kissed her quickly. "So I can get back to you faster," he murmured softly.

She sighed. "In that case..." She released his neck, but he didn't stand up right away. "Should I make you breakfast?" she said.

"No," he said, "I don't want to wake everyone." He winked at her. "I'll just take one of your chocolate croissants."

Her scowl got him to stand and put both hands up in front of him. "I've been told not to mess with a pregnant woman's food supply. I'll see if Gustav will take pity on me. He's always baking this time of the morning."

Elizabeth laughed. "No," she said. "Take one with my blessing. I can finally go into town today after school and if I need to, I'll get more."

Nathan sat on the bed and put on his shoes while Elizabeth sat up, stretched, and reached for her robe. "I must admit, I've really missed school," she said. "I can't wait to see the children again."

Nathan turned to her. "Can you keep a close eye on the Sutherland kids? Mary said Esther is pretty upset about her dad. The boys are handling it a little better, but Thomas has gone very quiet."

Elizabeth nodded. "I will," she said. "Would it help if I stopped off at the Infirmary after school and said hello to John? Can I take him something?"

Nathan smiled and shook his head. "That's kind of you, but maybe give it a day or so. He's still adjusting." Nathan stood up after tying his shoes. "There's some good news," he said, brightening, "Lee said he's giving Jesse a stand of timber of his own to manage, so the desk job will be available. He's going to hold it for John until he's able to be up and around."

Elizabeth smiled happily. "Oh, Nathan, how wonderful."

Nathan opened the door and they started down the hall silently. When they reached the kitchen, Elizabeth got the stove started and put the water on for coffee.

Nathan continued, "Carson said there are some new foot prosthetics that are very functional. He's having one sent from Hamilton. He said John could be up and off crutches in as soon as six weeks."

Nathan pulled one of the croissants out of the bread keeper and held another one up for Elizabeth with his eyebrows raised.

She shrugged. "Oh, why not," she said. "Will you still love me when I'm as big as this house?"

Nathan took her in his arms. "I'll love you more," he said, kissing her. For a moment they stood in the middle of the kitchen holding each other, feeling the warmth of the fire seeping out of the metal stove. There was just the glimmer of light showing through the curtains, and at that moment, Chester crowed.

Elizabeth laughed into the cotton of his shirt. "And... the day begins."

A half hour later, Nathan sat behind the wheel of Lee's car. His eyes were slightly narrowed as he tried to remember back to the day last year when Lee had given him his first lesson.

Lee was sitting next to him in the passenger seat, but Nathan was talking more to himself as he bent his tall frame in order to see all the pedals and instruments. "Right pedal is the brake, middle pedal is reverse, and left is clutch. Hand throttle on the wheel. Parking brake on the left. Ten gallon fuel tank, goes about twenty miles for each gallon. Fill up wherever you find gas after you've gone about a hundred miles..."

Nathan turned to Lee who was staring open-mouthed at him. Nathan frowned. "What?"

"You just said pretty much word-for-word what I told you last year. What are you, a genius?"

Nathan looked back at him without any emotion. "No. I just listen."

Lee laughed. "I'm going to start taking you with me to business meetings so I can have a transcript of what people promise me."

Nathan raised his eyebrows and smiled at Lee. "Yeah, but I might not listen quite as closely to a business meeting. They usually put me to sleep."

Lee sighed. "Me, too."

Nathan laughed and turned to settle himself on the leather seat. He put his hands on the wheel and turned back to Lee. "You ready?"

Lee nodded and said, "As I'll ever be." He turned and looked at the front of his row house. Rosemary was in the window with Violet and they were waving goodbye. "Ah, Rosie," Lee said. He blew her a kiss and then a tiny one to Violet.

Nathan disengaged the parking brake, pushed in the clutch and lifted the throttle on the wheel, making sure to balance them evenly. The car moved forward without stalling, and Nathan turned to Lee, grinning. "Not bad, huh?" he said.

Lee smiled. "Don't get cocky..." And the car promptly stalled.

Frowning, Nathan looked down, as if the car had betrayed him somehow. "What'd I do?"

"Too much gas," Lee said, nodding. "Classic rookie mistake, but you'll figure it out. It just takes practice. So start again..."

Nathan only stalled the car twice more before they made it out of town. One time in front of the Mercantile, just as Florence Blakeley was coming out. She would have been fine if the car hadn't also backfired at that moment, and she nearly jumped out of her skin and emitted a high-pitch squeal. Nathan apologized profusely and Lee was biting his lip to keep from laughing.

Unfortunately, the second time was right in front of the saloon just as Lucas was going in. He turned and smiled with a raised eyebrow as the car jerked to a halt. Nathan smiled back and nodded, narrowing his eyes a little. Yeah, maybe you drive better than I do, but I got the girl. He tilted his head and gave Lucas a little salute.

Lee was right, Nathan did figure it out, and they were soon on the road. It was cold outside and both were wearing heavy wool coats, scarves and gloves. They were warm and comfortable, and Nathan felt confident out on the open road once he had geared up and could relax.

Nathan turned to Lee. "How's Rosemary doing?" he asked.

Lee shook his head. "Better than I am, I think," he said, mystified. He turned to Nathan, "Can you believe it? She's worried about the family. The grandfather and Violet's mother. About whether they'll be cold this winter."

Nathan smiled, keeping his eye on the road. "Rosemary has a big heart, Lee. I guess that doesn't really surprise me." Nathan sighed. "It's what makes these situations so hard. There are some adoption agencies who won't let the adoptive parents meet the birth parents for just this reason. It gets messy."

Lee frowned. "So why do we know about them?" he asked.

"You're not adoptive parents, you're foster parents. You're on the need-to-know list."

Lee looked out at the road and sighed deeply. "What are we gonna do, Nathan?"

"We're going to take it one step at a time." He looked quickly at Lee, and then back at the road. "Do you remember when I went up north to get my father in Edmonton?"

"Yeah," Lee said, nodding.

"We never told you the story about how I found him. I was at my wits' end trying to find a missing girl, knowing if I found her, I would find Archie," Nathan said.

Lee said, "Rosemary told me about her. Her name is... Jessie, right? Same age as Allie?"

"Yes," Nathan said. "So, everything I tried was a dead-end. I had no idea what the answer was. And then I had one short conversation with the girl's mother, and I heard Jessie cared for a horse. Then that the horse had been sold. So I followed the horse and found Jessie." He smiled at Lee. "If you'd told me at the beginning of that investigation that it was all going to hinge on a horse, I wouldn't have believed it."

Lee laughed softly. "Okay, so we don't know how this situation is gonna play out, but it might get fixed by something we never expected."

Nathan nodded, surprised. "That was good, Lee. Most people wonder what in the heck I'm talking about when I tell stories like that," he said. "You understood just what I was saying."

Lee raised an eyebrow. "Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing... I speak Nathan," he said, making a face and laughing.

"You're in good company," Nathan said, grinning. "So does Elizabeth."

Ringing the cowbell, Elizabeth stood on the top step of the schoolhouse, saying goodbye to her students.

"Bye, Mrs. Grant," Emily said, running by. Allie was right behind her. "Okay if I go to Emily's for a while?"

"Yes, just be home by five to get your chores done before dinner. And I'm going to the Mercantile. We haven't been able to shop for a couple of days. Is there anything you need?" Elizabeth asked.

Allie grinned. "Can we make cookies tonight?"

Elizabeth gave her a hug. "I'll get extra sugar," she said, smiling.

After closing up the schoolhouse, Elizabeth walked down to the path, reveling in the combination of the cool, fresh air and the sunshine on the drifts of snow still untouched out on the meadow. The snow over the pond had all melted, so it shone in the sun like a jewel out in a sea of white.

Then, as Elizabeth turned up the path the children had made yesterday, she got to feel the same joy and pride of ownership she always did when she looked at their home tucked in front of the trees.

A curl of smoke came from the living room chimney and also the one above the sunroom. In the distance, the red barn rose up, and Elizabeth could see Archie, as always, working with the horses. He had them out of their stalls and in the sunshine, and he was brushing them as they enjoyed the warmth on their sleek coats after the recent cold days.

Elizabeth smiled. Nathan had come by his love of horses naturally. Perhaps only she could see clearly how alike Nathan and Archie were. They'd walked such different paths, but now they'd converged, and Elizabeth felt privileged to watch them find each other again.

Walking around the back, Elizabeth said hello to Archie and spent some time rubbing Sergeant's nose while she talked to him. He thought it was funny that Nathan was learning to drive a car. "Never catch me in one of those things," he said. "Not while there's a horse around."

Elizabeth hugged him and said, "I'd rather be on a horse, too. I saw enough cars in Hamilton to do me for a while. Anything you need in town?"

"Getting low on matches, if you can pick up a box or two," Archie said, going back to brushing Sarah.

"I will," she said. "I'm taking Jack with me. Allie's at Emily's, and Nathan should be home soon. See you later!"

Elizabeth and Jack walked with Laura as far as the town, when Laura turned and headed toward home. In the Mercantile, everyone was talking about the snow and telling their stories of drifts up to the windows, hot chocolate, and bundling up by the fire.

Elizabeth counted in her head and realized that Christmas was only a little less than two months away. She was gazing out the window and thinking about what songs she might choose for the choir program when she saw Lee's car coming into town with Nathan at the wheel.

Smiling, she stepped outside and waved. Unfortunately, Nathan lost his concentration and the car stalled as he was shifting down. It shuddered to a stop and she walked out looking sheepish. "Did I do that?"

Nathan looked up at her and smiled. "You can't help how distracting you are."

Lee leaned around and said, "Honestly, he hasn't done that for a really long time. He's doing great!"

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Well, I haven't told Bear what you were doing today. I'll leave it up to you to break it to him."

Nathan stepped out of the car and said, "I guarantee you that Bear is glad for the rest after the last couple of days." He kissed her on the cheek, and then kissed Jack. "How was school?"

"Good! We were all very glad to see each other again, and the children had wonderful stories to tell," Elizabeth said.

Lee walked around to the driver's side to join them. Elizabeth said, "Anything new?"

Lee shook his head. "Nope. We just filed the papers for Bill and got a few more specifics from Gabe about Frances and Harold."

Nathan said, "Violet's mother and grandfather," he said to Elizabeth, clarifying.

Lee nodded. "The good news is that they've agreed they aren't able to care for Violet through the winter. The bad news is that Frances has talked to Gabe about how to go about claiming her. As soon as Bill is appointed the judge, he'll grant us a continuance until March 1st. Until then, we are Violet's foster parents and she stays with us." He sighed. "Four months, just wondering. I'm trying to be grateful, but..."

Nathan raised his eyebrows and smiled at Lee. "Remember the horse..."

Laughing, Lee said, "Yeah, the horse. I'll remember." He surprised Nathan by pulling him into a hug. "No one I'd rather have on my side, Nathan. You and Bill make a man feel like he's got a whole regiment behind him."

Elizabeth stepped forward and Lee hugged her too. "Remind Rosemary that if she needs anything, I'm here."

Lee nodded. "She knows, Elizabeth. Thank you." He got into the car and started it up.

Nathan leaned down and said with his crooked smile, "Don't forget you need to ease off that clutch, Lee. You wouldn't want to stall it."

Lee shook his head and laughed. "Yeah, I'll try to keep that in mind."