Chapter 55
Christmas in Hope Valley
Elizabeth woke feeling refreshed and energized. As she rolled over in her bed, she thought of the events of last night. Hearing Jack's voice and the words that he spoke came back to her, along with the beautiful locket were such a surprise. The wonderful words, I love you was the best Christmas present that she could have ever wanted from Jack. She was going to make sure that she wore it tonight for the children's program. As for now, she needed to start the day. Pulling back her covers, she stretched her arms and let out a big yawn.
Later on, she was all ready to go. She grabbed her purse and got ready for the walk into town. It was nice and sunny out, so she enjoyed the walk on this brisk December day. Coming onto Main St, she waved to Rosemary who was doing some last minute shopping. She saw Lee coming out of the saloon,he was close enough to her that she could hear him call to her.
"Hi Lee, how is everything going with you and the sawmill?" Elizabeth noticed Lee's eyes starting to wander over to where he saw Rosemary coming out of the merchantile. Elizabeth cleared her throat, trying not to laugh.
"Oh what? yeah the sawmill is going really well, we got some contracts from some big buisnesses. Oh hey, the reason that I called over to you is because I saw Jack this morning, and he asked me to tell you that he will be away all day. You shouldn't worry and that he'll be back in time for the program tonight." Elizabeth thanked Lee and told him that she would see him tonight. Working her way towards the resturant, she just so happened to see Lucas and Henry closing up their establishments. This made her extra happy, because not only would they be at the Christmas program but that they would be closed for Christmas Day. The day of Christ's birth should be spent with family and friends, not working.
"Hi Elizabeth,how are you?" Clara came out of the kitchen and showed her to a table.
"Pretty well Clara, is Abigail around?" She nodded and left to go get her out of the kitchen.
"Hi Elizabeth, is everything ok?" Abigail brought out the coffee pot and a mug. The restaurant was slow at the moment so she poured Elizabeth some coffee and sat down.
"Yes of course it is, I just had 2 things that I wanted to ask you. I wanted to make sure that you were ok with all of the refreshments for tonight and then I wanted to see if the town does anything special for dinner on Christmas. I wasn't sure if you all had a comunity dinner like Jack told me happened on Thanksgiving." Abigail nodded and refilled their cups and Clara appeared with a tray of scones.
"Yep, I will have everything at the school about 15 minutes before it starts. As for your 2nd question, here's what we always do. Everyone is on their own for lunch but for dinner, we usually meet here at 6:00. I make a turkey,a ham, probably a side and the everyone brings their favorite Christmas dish to share. Some people will bring sides and some will bring rolls and some will bring desserts. We all have lots of fun, we play games, sing songs and just fellowship with each other. So we hope that you will join us!" Elizabeth smiled and thanked her for the invitation. She told her that she would definately be there.
"Alrighty Abigail, I have to get going. I still have to pick up something up at the merchantile for tomorrow." Elizabeth stood up and put on her coat.
"Something for Jack?" Abigail teased.
"Um maybe." Elizabeth answered, getting rather pink in the cheeks. She knew that the town knew of her relationship with Jack and for this she was glad. She waved as she headded out the door. She had just enough time to get to the merchantile before it closed. Ned was staying open a few hours later than the others so that people could grab any last minute items for Christmas. Elizabeth hurried into the merchantile and went right to the counter and asked Ned about her package. She paid for that and a couple of other things that she needed and then hurried home to get ready for tonight. She had a really pretty green dress that she was saving just for tonight. Curling her hair, she put on her red shoes, grabbed a sandwich so that she could eat it on the way to the school.
At the school...
As the kids started to arrive, she started to really feel thankful. Thankful for her home, her friends, her students and most of all the birth of Christ that would be celebrated tomorrow.
"Ok boys and girls, let's run through our program from start to finish. Ok, Opal are you ready?"
The little girl started with her reading of the Night Before Christmas." She recited it mostly from memory and used such emphasis on the exciting parts. One by one, the kids all rehearsed their parts of the program and they were all ready by the time Abigail arrived with all the goodies. A couple minutes later the parents and everyone from Hope Valley started to arrive and found their seats.
"Welcome everyone to our Christmas program, it's actually the first one that I have had the privelege of teaching you lovely children:) I want you to know that they have all worked very hard and we hope that you all enjoy the show. First of all, we have TImmie Lawson, he will be playing "O Holy Night" on the piano. With that, the lovely sound of Timmie playing the keys filled the room. It was always so lovely. For the rest of the evening, the people of the town were gifted the children's talents of music, poems and different readings.
"Alright everyone, to finish off the evening, Emily Montgomery will be singing a solo for us. Then Pastor Frank will come and ready us the Christmas Story for us." Once again, little Emily sang her solo so nice, moving everyone in the building. There was not one dry eye in the school house. She went to go sit down beside her family as Frank walked to the front. His Bible in hand,he turned to Luke 2..
"Good evening everyone. Thank you boys and girls and Miss Thatcher for that wonderful gift of your talents. Let's take a look at the story of the greatest gift ever. In Luke 2, it tells us about the birth of our Lord."
While he was talking, Elizabeth couldn't help herself but to turn around and take a casual look around, while the whole time she tried her best not to be noticed. She was hoping to see Jack's smiling face, because he had promised to be here. There way in the back, she finally saw Jack sitting there listening to Frank. He slowly turned his head and started to search the room, like something was telling him to look up. Then their eyes met and he gave here a wink letting her know that he was proud of her. She smiled to herself and turned her attention back to the sermon. Closing in prayer, Frank dismissed everyone and invited them to stay for refreshments. Walking over to the table with the lemonade, she found Abigail getting Cody a cup.
"Cody, you did such a nice job on your song with Robert and Harper. I don't know when I've enjoyed the song "We Three Kings" more. Elizabeth told him as Abigail gave her a cookie.
"Thanks Miss Thatcher!" He grabbed a cookie and ran to find his friends. Abigail laughed and handed her some lemonade to go with her cookie. Elizabeth could see Abigail looking over her shoulder, grinned and motioned for her to look.
"Why hello Jack,it's so nice to see you." Abigail offered him a cup of lemonade also. His eyes met Elizabeth's and her face got red. She was so happy to see him. Abigail went to go find Frank.
"Hi, where have you been? We were worried about you." Elizabeth asked softly. Even if the entire town knew about them, there were some things that should remain just between the two of them.
"I just had an errand to run and I got held up. Were you worried that I wouldn't be ?" Those dimples of his that came through whenever he smiled at her,was enough to make her melt.
"Well... no Elizabeth answered. Yet again, her face got that glow of being embarrased. Lee just told me that you would be here, so we were just wondering."
"Well ok maybe just a little worried." Elizabeth finally admitted.
"Just a little?" Jack starting to tease her because he was enjoying this so much:)
"Don't push it!" Elizabeth wiggled her nose at him the way that he loved so much. This very action was one of the things that attracted her to him right away. He started to laugh and asked the question that she had been waiting for all night.
"May I walk you home?" She nodded right away. She hadn't seen him all day and she wanted to spenad as much time as she could with him. Actually she felt that she couldn't get enough time with him. Jack was feeling the exact same way that she was, wanting to spend as much time as possible with her. Jack grabbed both of their coats, helped Elizabeth on with her coat and they told everyone goodbye.
"It's so good to see you Elizabeth, I missed you." As soon as the door was shut to the school, Jack grabbed her and gave her a kiss that shot a warm feeling all through her body. When they finally pulled away,looking at each other,they continued their walk to her house. The moment that he had broken the kiss, he took her hand and held it close. They strolled along the street hand and hand and it started to snow. It was so pretty, little flakes at first but they quickly turned into bigger flakes. Soon they got to her house.
"How about some hot chocolate before you go? We can't have our Sheriff going home now can home cold now can we? I'll go get you a cup, I think that I have a travel mug around here somewhere " Elizabeth felt like being silly. Having it snow outside while they were walking home reminded her of when she was a kid and all three of the sisters would play outside. So she thought that she would just play a little joke and not invite him in.
" Oh does this mean that I don't get to come inside with you? That's ok,I'll just go back to the jail with RIP." Knowing Elizabeth to well, he knew that she was attempting to be funny so he thought that he would play along. He proceeded to turn around and walk away.
"Jack please wait! I was just joking." Elizabeth was just about to cry. He turned around thinking that they were still playing a game, so he was just about ready to laugh until he saw the tears starting to fall down her cheeks.
"Elizabeth sweetheart, I was just trying to be funny too. I knew that you were playing a joke,so i thought that I would play along. Please don't cry. Let's get you inside where it's warm,come guided her inside where they sat down on the couch. Is everything ok?" He put his arm around her.
"I'm fine Jack. For me, it's sometimes hard to express to you or anyone how I feel about you, and how much I love you. Jack just smiled. Then when you said that you were leaving, I'm afraid I panicked. I had already gone all day without seeing you so having you leave would've just been too much. I'm sorry."
"Elizabeth, you never have to be sorry for telling me how much that you love me. Don't you worry, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to lose you and you're never going to lose me. I love you so very much. Elizabeth started to cry yet again. Hey, don't start to cry again, you promised me some hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows please." He started to laugh and she couldn't help but laugh as well.
About an hour later, Jack said that he should be going but that he would see her tomorrow. Elizabeth happily received his kiss as they said goodbye. He told her Merry Christmas and headed to town. Walking inside, she started getting ready for bed, laying down,falling asleep while dreaming of what her very first Christmas in Hope Valley would be like.
