When Calls The Heart doesn't belong to me
The Confrontation
Elizabeth made her way quickly across the road. Some of the residents of Hope Valley were standing outside Bill's office waiting for him to emerge – an impromptu parade had been organized complete with a band and photographer to give him (and his Mountie uniform) a proper send-off. Elizabeth had fully planned to be part of that group of people, laughing and seeing Bill off, but not anymore.
She supposed that confronting Nathan in front of most of the town wasn't the best plan she'd ever had but she was… scared. She didn't think she could handle talking to Nathan in private, so she was taking the coward's way out and talking to Nathan about things she knew would best be talked about in private out in public, in front of Lucas.
She had told herself that it was for the best, she didn't have anything to hide, and Lucas and everyone else who was still whispering about it would see and know that she and Nathan had nothing more than friendship between them.
Big mistake.
Almost as soon as Nathan began to tell her about Allie and how the little girl was afraid to see her without her father present Elizabeth knew that she'd made a mistake. She hadn't been ready for this talk – not now and certainly not in public. She needed Nathan to realise that she was the bad guy in all this and that Allie should hate her and not him, instead she was looking at Nathan and hearing him tell her how much she meant to him, to both of them really, and how she was the reason that he was still here in Hope Valley.
Looking at him, Elizabeth also saw something else.
She had always been surprised at how easy it was for her to read him and sense his moods. Really, he was so quiet and guarded but somehow after a while she had been able to get behind those walls and know him better. Which, she supposed, is why she could see that some of those earlier walls were back. Without thinking too much about it she asked him to tell her what it was that he was holding back.
As Elizabeth walked away from Nathan, holding back her tears she was part glad and part unhappy that she forced him to talk to her in public because if they'd been alone she knew without a doubt that Nathan would not have let her walk away from him in tears.
Illogically she wished that he would follow her but she knew that he was too honourable for that and that he knew she needed time to digest the things that he'd told her. She also knew that he blamed himself for Jack's death and probably thought that she did too.
Elizabeth quickly made her way to the pond replaying the whole conversation in her head. He hadn't wanted to stay in Hope Valley, he'd tried not to tell her how he felt about her… he'd been disciplined and Jack had taken his place.
Jack had died.
Jack was dead.
She took a deep breath and began to pray.