Nathan came in the door from the mudroom after removing his boots. He'd been on rounds in town, and he walked across the clean wood floor in his socks to hang up his hat, his heavy blue wool jacket, and his belt and holster on the front door rack.

Elizabeth was sitting on the living room sofa with Jack in front of the fire. She looked up from hemming her blue dress and said, "You're a very considerate husband, you know that?"

He raised his eyebrows. "At the risk of sounding like I'm just fishing for more compliments, what brought that on?"

Elizabeth inclined her head toward his feet. "You in your socks. Lots of men would walk right across the floor in their snow and mud-covered boots when they come home from work."

Nathan looked down and frowned. "Why would I do that?"

Elizabeth sighed. "You see? I'm married to the perfect man."

Nathan walked over and sat down next to her. "I hope that my taking my boots off is only one of the reasons you're happy to be married to me," he said softly. He'd been imagining this for most of the day. Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her, slowly. Elizabeth sighed, feeling the familiar outdoor chill of his lips turn to fire in only seconds. When he pulled away to look at her, Elizabeth's eyes were still closed and her sewing forgotten.

She opened her eyes slowly and smiled. "Yep. Perfect."

Nathan stood up and went over to the quilt. He sat with his back up against the hearth and Jack put down his toys, except for his Mountie, and crawled into his lap.

Nathan was still wearing his red serge and Jack put the small wooden figure up against it. "Dad Mountie, Jack Mountie, Mama Mountie..."

Laughing, Nathan said to him, "Mama's a Mountie, too? Good for her!" He looked up at Elizabeth. "Well, he's mastered that word."

Elizabeth nodded, "Yes, and about a hundred others. It's happening so fast. He'll just be chattering away, making no sense at all, and then suddenly he'll string all his words together, saying, 'Hello Lizzie, bye bye cookie, all gone, Mountie red.'"

Jack looked up at Nathan and said, "Mountie red," just by way of illustration.

They both laughed. Nathan put his mouth on Jack's neck and blew, making the noise that never failed to make him giggle. "Smartest boy in the world. I'm not surprised," he said to Jack, who curled up in his lap, talking softly.

Nathan looked tenderly across at Elizabeth for a few moments. "How have I not seen you since breakfast? This is a very small town."

Elizabeth picked up her sewing again. "Well, I was in school, probably while you were standing outside of your office leaning against that post, looking all tall and dark and handsome, drinking coffee, tipping your hat and making the young sawmill wives swoon."

Jack crawled down to his toys again, and Nathan laughed as he moved back up to sit next to Elizabeth on the couch. "You really need to understand that you see me through a different lens than anyone else. How about that I'm standing there looking all awkward, all gangly and like I'm nothing but ears?" He frowned. "Did I tell you that they used to call me 'the teapot' in school?"

Elizabeth laughed and reached her fingers up to touch his ears. "Your ears are just the right size. They hold your hat up."

Nathan snorted. "As I said, a different lens."

She kissed his cheek. "But I won't forget you told me that..." She giggled. "Teapot."

Raising his eyebrow, Nathan said, "I'll need to get some baby pictures from Mom." He reached up and pulled one ear forward. "They were exactly this same size when I was born. I just sort of grew into them."

She looked at him from under her lashes. "You grew up just fine," she said softly. She snuggled into his shoulder. "So, then after school, I got Jack from Laura, and we stopped by your office and you weren't there..."

"I went up to the Anderson farm. They think they might have a wild boar out there killing chickens."

Elizabeth frowned and looked up at him. "Be careful. I was just telling the children that feral pigs can grow to be up to six hundred pounds."

"Some larger." He smiled at her and touched his finger to her cheek. "Don't worry. Bear protects me."

"Good," she said softly, moving back down to his shoulder. "So...then we went to the Mercantile for a few things, stopped in and said hello to Rosemary and Violet at the dress shop, went to Le Bistro and saw Julie, and you still weren't in your office, so we came home."

Nathan smiled crookedly. "You forgot the part about asking Julie to go into the kitchen and get you some chocolate croissants..."

Elizabeth giggled. "I don't always do that!"

"Did you today?" he said, leaning down and kissing her forehead.

Elizabeth sighed again. "Yes..."

"Good," he said softly. "Save me one for breakfast."

Elizabeth sighed. "Then I talked to Mother on the phone this afternoon."

Nathan looked over at her. "And what did Grace have to say?"

"What she always has to say these days. Why is Julie in Hope Valley? And she always manages to slip it into the conversation that I've somehow bewitched her youngest daughter and that we're living on the frontier surrounded by savages and eating raw turnips..."

Nathan laughed, pulling Elizabeth closer. "She's never been here. She just doesn't understand how civilized we all are." He made a very scary face and Elizabeth burst out laughing.

"Oh, you're going to be a big help," she said. "Maybe I should go to Hamilton alone..."

Nathan pulled her to him and kissed her firmly. "Just try it," he said softly. "Speaking of which..." He put his hand on Elizabeth's stomach. "...How's the baseball team?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I think we're in the middle of the World Series." Looking down, she said, "You know, with Jack, it was a lot quieter. But with two of them... either they're egging each other on, or one sleeps and the other moves and then the opposite... I don't know, there's just so much more kicking than I remember."

Nathan looked at her, concerned. "And it's okay? You sure it doesn't hurt?"

Smiling tenderly at him, she said, "It doesn't hurt at all. In fact, I'd be worried if they were still for too long. It's like they're giving me a little nudge and saying, 'We're here!'" She kissed his cheek. "I love it."

Nathan stood and unbuttoned his tunic, finally warm from his long cold day in the saddle. He hung his red serge around the back of a chair and pulled out something that was sticking out of the pocket.

Standing in front of her, he said, "We may have a problem." He held up two envelopes. "I stopped off for the mail on my way home because I saw that the stage came late."

Elizabeth looked up and read the return addresses on the two envelopes. One was from Rebecca, and the other from Stella Kendall in Spruce Grove.

Elizabeth brightened. "Stella answered you? Are she and Jessie coming for Christmas?"

"Yes," Nathan said, smiling. "They're very happy about the invitation and can't wait to see Hope Valley. Jessie is looking forward to meeting Allie..." he said, "...and her horse."

Elizabeth frowned. "So, what's the problem?"

Nathan opened the letter from Rebecca and read, "Charlie and I find ourselves missing all of you terribly, and it doesn't make sense for us to spend Christmas all alone up here when you're in your new house with Elizabeth expecting. We'd like to take you up on that invitation to visit whenever we can, and come for Christmas."

"That's wonderful!" Elizabeth said. "You know I'd love to have a houseful for the holidays!"

Nathan still wasn't smiling. In fact, he took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes a little. "Mom. And Stella."

The light dawned in Elizabeth's eyes. "Oh. Yes." She frowned. Then she smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Well, I suppose that means we have to move from speculation to answers."

Nathan sighed and sat down. "How do we have that conversation? I don't even know where to begin."

Elizabeth shrugged. "We just come right out and ask. I feel close enough to Archie that I could do it, if you want." She turned to Nathan. "He's said he'll always be honest with you. I believe he will."

"I just don't feel like we can have Mom here if she might get blindsided. It doesn't feel fair to her," Nathan said.

Elizabeth nodded and took his hand in hers. "We'll do it together." He wasn't looking at her, and she lowered her head, peering into his eyes. "It'll be better to know, don't you think? And not only for us. Jessie could be Allie's cousin. Just more family for her to love."

They heard the mudroom door close, and the sound of boots stomping outside the kitchen.

Nathan looked at Elizabeth and took a deep breath. "Thank you for standing next to me. Always." He kissed her quickly. Elizabeth could see that his eyes were very blue.

"People make mistakes, Nathan. Your father has made some bad decisions, but he owns up to them. We're family," Elizabeth said softly, putting aside her sewing and standing up with him.

Archie came through the door and saw them both standing there. His brow furrowed. "What's up?" he said, looking from one to the other.

Nathan could see that they had immediately made him nervous, so he went over and put his arm around his father. "We need to talk to you, Dad. Can you sit with us for a minute before Allie comes home?"

Archie sighed. "Well, this looks bad. What have I done?" He looked at Elizabeth, tilting his head.

"Nothing, Archie. We just have some questions."

Sitting down at the harvest table, Archie said, "About what?"

Nathan pulled out a chair for Elizabeth and then sat down across from Archie. "About Stella and Jessie."

Archie raised his eyebrows. "Ah." He nodded. "This has been coming for a while." He looked at both of them, his eyes slightly narrowed. "I'll tell you anything you want to know, son."

Nathan took a breath. "Mom is coming for Christmas with Charlie."

Archie nodded. "And I take it Stella and Jessie said yes to your invitation? Which means they're coming too?" He looked from Elizabeth to Nathan. "And you're worried about some secret coming out?" Archie sighed. "Don't know whether it would be worse for you to think I'm her father, or for you to find out who really is."

That was not what Elizabeth and Nathan were expecting to hear, and their faces showed it.

"So, you're not Stella's father?" Elizabeth said.

Archie shook his head and looked at her. "No." Then, looking at Nathan, he said, "Though I can understand you thinking that. She's not mine, but I have a duty-bound responsibility to care for her. And Jessie."

"Why, Dad?" Nathan said, finally.

"It might help if I tell you Stella's full name. It's Stella Edmunds Kendall."

It only took Nathan a moment to remember why that name was so familiar. "As in... Donnie Edmunds?"

"Yes, son."

Elizabeth frowned. "The man who stole the necklace?"

Nathan nodded, understanding. "When I arrested him, he told me that you'd been cellmates for years and that you'd had a picture of Sarah and me on the wall of your cell. That you talked about us all the time." Nathan sighed. "I'm guessing Donnie had a photo of Stella over his bunk?"

"And Jessie as a baby," Archie said. "Been a long time since he's seen them. But he knew where they were, same way I kept track of you. It's why I went up to Spruce Grove when I left here." Archie looked down at his hands. "We made a promise to each other that if only one of us got out, we'd watch over the other's kin. If things had been different, it might have been him here with you, son."

Nathan's eyes went dark. "So I put Stella's father... and Jessie's grandfather... in prison. For a very long time."

Archie looked up quickly and shook his head vehemently. "No, you did not. Donnie put himself there. You were doing your job. Even Donnie knows that."

Elizabeth took Nathan's hand and held it tightly while she spoke to Archie. "Does Stella know her father is in prison?"

Archie nodded. "She knows everything."

Nathan said softly, "So, when I was in Edmonton, and we were sitting in that restaurant together... Stella knew that I was the one who arrested her father?"

"Yes," Archie said. "And she holds you no ill will for it. In fact, she's nothing but grateful now for what you did finding Jessie."

"And why didn't you just tell me that Donnie was her father? When I was up north?" Nathan asked.

Archie looked down sheepishly. "I could tell you thought she was mine. And I knew you felt the same kind of... connection... as I did. With Sarah and Allie." He looked up at Nathan and frowned, "I always knew you'd do your best, son, but I didn't think it would hurt for a little while for you to think she was your kin too."

Archie straightened up and looked his son in the eye. "Now I know you better, I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away. You would have done everything for them, kin or no. Because it's your job." He paused. "I should have trusted you more. I won't make that mistake again."

Nathan sat back, needing a moment to breathe.

Archie looked carefully at him. "I'm guessing this conversation didn't go the way you thought it would."

Raising an eyebrow, Nathan smiled at his father. Then he said simply, "Nope. Not even close."

Archie smiled. "I did a lot of terrible things to your mother, son. But I never cheated on her. I can see how you might think so, but the only other woman I ever danced with was Lady Luck."