I was shocked during an early Season 8 episode when Elizabeth admitted to Helen that there were times when she felt no joy in life. I know I'm not the only one who's not fully onboard with Elizabeth's personality change this season. I'm just trying to understand where it's coming from. That's what this story is about.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Elizabeth trudged home, the usual bounce in her step clearly missing. Her basket was bulging with student papers that needed grading and a few grocery items she'd picked up at the Mercantile.
She smiled and said hello to everyone she passed in her usual friendly manner. It was becoming harder and harder to go on with this pretense.
For three years, she'd been living a lie. Pretending to be happy with a life that included her son, her teaching, her writing and her friends. The facade was cracking.
The truth was she still grieved Jack Thornton every day. He was constantly in her head and in her heart.
Rosemary was leaving her own house while Elizabeth unlocked her front door. The two women nodded at one another but did not speak.
Elizabeth walked inside. took Jack from Laura and dismissed the girl. It was Friday evening and she wanted nothing more to stay in her house alone. Away from everyone and everything other than her son.
She placed Jack in his playpen and collapsed on the couch. With Landis threatening to shutter her school, Lucas setting her free and Nathan's continued decelerations of love she felt overwhelmed and overwrought. It was as though she were drowning with no life raft and could not reach shore.
She imagined life if fate had intervened three years ago and Jack was not taken from her. He would have come home and they would have shared her pregnancy and the birth of their son together. They would have built their home on Jack's land. In all likelihood, they would have had another child by now.
Elizabeth had been in emotional turmoil for months now, but there was one emotion pertaining to Jack's death that she was just beginning to deal with. Anger. Why did he take that assignment when he was newly married and they were planning their life together? Why did his sense of duty when it came to being a Mountie always outweigh his obligation to her?
She knew she had unleashed her repressed anger onto Nathan and it was so unfair to him. He was not Jack Thornton. He loved being a Mountie, but he had unexpectedly been thrust into a parental role at a young age and nothing came before Allie, including his job.
Elizabeth reimagined the scene from a few days ago when Nathan had been in her home. Just being near him took her breath. There was a spark, a physicality that had existed between them since the first time their hands had accidentally touched in the library. Sometimes she suspected her physical attraction to Nathan was stronger than anything she'd ever felt before. Even with Jack.
Elizabeth got up and went about the task of feeding Jack and attempted to eat herself. She gave her son a quick bath and then settled him in bed.
Elizabeth could not fall asleep and when Jack toddled into her room with a book, she was more than happy to oblige him.
"Mama. Read me," he said.
"Of course. Come up here, baby."
Jack snuggled into her bed next to her.
"Oh, you picked a good book to read. This is called "The Princess and the Woodcutter."
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Cristobel. The princesses father, the king had promised her a handsome prince who lived across the mountain. Cristobel knew she would live in a castle even bigger than her current. The prince would lavish her with jewels and beautiful gowns to wear.
Yet, Cristobel did not love the handsome prince. Instead, she loved a kind and simple woodcutter who lived in a small cabin in the valley below.
The princess was torn between her love for the poor woodcutter and her obligation to her father and her kingdom. She loved her father and knew he expected her to marry the prince in order to avoid a feud between the two kingdoms...
Little Jack's eyes began to droop and Elizabeth closed the book and carried him back to his own room.
After reading her son the story, Elizabeth slept better and awoke with clarity. She would go to the Mountie office and talk to Nathan today. She would say those three words that had been stuck in her throat for all these months.
"I love you. I love you, Nathan Grant. I want us all to become a family. As quickly as possible."
So Princess Cristobel made her decision. One night her mother the queen, who had died when Cristobel was a child , came to her in a dream. Her mother gave her simple advise. Follow your heart, my daughter.
With that, the princess left a letter for her father, left the palace and ran to find her beloved woodcutter.
The End
Enjoy! I've had this one in my head for awhile. I haven't forgotten my other series and plan to continue it soon!