"Two tickets to Union City."
The man in the red serge turned and looked wistfully around the town he and Allie had lived in for over four years. Before coming to Hope Valley, there hadn't been anywhere where the two of them felt like they belonged; yet from that day in 1916, when he first became the town's Mountie, Nathan Grant knew that this place was unique. What he didn't realize at the time was the massive impact that Hope Valley would have on his and Allie's lives. It was a place where he'd made great memories, lifelong friends, and grew as a human being. In Hope Valley, he formally became Allie's father through the miracle of adoption and, through a set of circumstances that he could never have imagined, was placed on the path where he'd meet his lifetime love. As such, when he stood outside the Stagecoach office that morning, he wasn't just getting ready to leave town to go to a new job. He and Allie were leaving home.
"But I don't understand why you have to go." Opal Weise said as she threw her arms around Allie's waist and wept.
"Awe, Opal. Don't cry. I already told you, Mrs. Gowen said her friends at Mountie Headquarters couldn't get ahold of the man who could fix it. He had already signed the order and then left town immediately afterward. He is on a ship to London and won't be back for another three months. So there's no way to turn it around."
"And then you can come back?" she asked.
"I don't know. I hope so." Allie replied. "But even if we can't come back right away, I can still visit sometimes. Hope Valley is right on our way to where my grandpa lives. And we can write."
"But you're my best friend, Allie. I'm going to miss you."
Allie's tough exterior began to crumble at those words. Before she came to Hope Valley, thanks to her and her uncle Nathan's frequent moves, she had spent her childhood having a hard time making friends. Lucas Bouchard had been her very first friend, and Opal had been one of her first friends around her age and had been a steadfast ally through the years. Of course, she wanted Nathan to be happy, but she hadn't really thought through how hard saying goodbye to this town would be for herself. She hugged her friend, and a tear trickled down her cheek.
"Okay, Allie. We've got our tickets. Hey Opal." Nathan said, walking up beside the two girls then seeing their faces. "What's wrong?"
"I don't want for you and Allie to leave." Opal sniffled. "You have to stay!"
Nathan sighed. "We don't want to leave. But, unfortunately, they made a place for me just outside of Montreal, and unless I want to lose my job, I'm going to have to go. But, who knows, maybe we'll come back someday."
Opal pouted, unconvinced and Nathan ruffled her hair with his hand.
"Listen, dry your tears. Allie and I are going to have dinner tonight at the Queen of the Valley. How would you like to join us?"
Opal put her arms around Allie's waist again and sadly shook her head yes.
"Okay. Let your parents know that I'll drop by around quarter 'til six. Invite any of Allie's other friends that want to come too. We'll make this a party!"
"Okay!" Opal said, finally earning Nathan a smile. "I'll see who can come."
He smiled as she walked away, then looked down at Allie.
"You okay?" he asked.
She paused for a minute and shrugged. "Yeah. I didn't know it would be this hard."
"Well, you know if there was any way I could make it so that we could stay…."
"I know. It's not like we've never had to move before," she replied. "It'll be okay."
He stopped for a moment. "It's okay to be sad, you know. It isn't just someplace. We put down roots here, and we're going to miss it."
She twisted her mouth to one side then lowered her head to hide her eyes, whelming up. "Yeah. We will," she said.
Nathan saw her struggle and put his hand on her shoulder. "What do you say we head back to the house and get changed? Maybe we can catch some fish for lunch one more time before we have to go. Would you like that?"
Allie took a deep breath and shook her head, then took him by the arm as they walked away.
"Lucas, what's wrong?" '
Lucas Bouchard had been sitting by himself, looking out the window of the passenger train suite for the past thirty minutes, not saying a word while Elizabeth read to little Jack. She had finished the book about three minutes earlier and looked up at him, noting a pensive stare. Lucas broke out of his daze and turned his eyes abruptly toward his fiancée.
"Nothing's wrong. I have a lot on my mind, that's all." He replied.
"Want to share? I mean, when I have a lot on my mind, it always helps me if I can talk it out."
"That's alright, my love," he said, smiling softly. "I appreciate the offer, but it's business back in Hope Valley that has me preoccupied – nothing for you to worry about. What would help me is if you would sit back and enjoy the rest of our trip. We'll be back in Union City in around five hours, and then we can go home."
"How am I supposed to enjoy the trip if you aren't? You hardly said a word at dinner last night, and you've been distant all morning," she said, taking a seat on the armrest of his chair and brushing her fingers through his hair to push back an errant lock that was slipping down onto his forehead.
Lucas put his arm around her, drawing her to his lap. He gave her a tender kiss and then held her while she laid her head on his shoulder. "I enjoy being anywhere you are, Elizabeth Thornton. But, please, don't give this another thought. Everything will work out fine." He kissed the top of her head and smiled, but his eyes, unseen to her, told a different story.
Nathan and Allie walked out of the woods and onto the road near Elizabeth Thornton's rowhouse with fishing poles on their shoulders and a bucket of trout in Allie's hand.
"I wonder how many of your friends will make it tonight?" Nathan asked.
Allie sighed. "I don't know. It is short notice, and people have things to do."
"I imagine some will make an effort." He replied.
"Maybe. But, if not, it's okay," she said. "If it's just the three of us, that would be fine."
Walking up to their own row house, Nathan noted Henry and Abigail walking along the side of the building, looking at the windows.
"Good afternoon, Henry. Abigail." Nathan said, approaching them. "Can I help you?"
"Hello, Nathan," Henry said. "We're here to inspect the house to see what work needs to be done before we can open it up for a new tenant."
"Do you know you have a window cracked in back?" Abigail asked.
"Yes. But, it came that way. I always meant to fix it but never seemed to find the time." Nathan replied.
"That's okay," Henry responded. "Tom should have fixed that for you before he left town."
"You work for Tom now?" Nathan asked half jokingly.
"No. Goin' to buy his property," Henry replied. "Tom bought a few of the row houses from the bank when the mining company liquidated its assets. And well, the oil business is picking up, making enough money that Abigail and I can use some of the profits for investment. I see a good opportunity in real estate given all the industry moving in and don't want anyone else to get it before I do, like Lucas did when Tom sold the saloon."
"Plus, with the baby, Clara and Jesse need a new place to live, and they'd have excellent neighbors with the Weises and the Coulters and Canfields and Elizabeth," Abigail said. "Though I doubt that Elizabeth will be there long."
"Really? Why not?" Nathan asked.
Henry cleared his throat. "Well, we really weren't supposed to say anything."
"About?" Nathan asked.
Abigail looked a little uncomfortable, realizing that she had inadvertently revealed something that she shouldn't have. But she'd already opened the door. "It's mostly just speculation." She said. "I ran into Gustave at the mercantile, and he was talking about how happy Lucas looked coming into the restaurant the other day, happier than he's ever seen him. He asked Lucas if he'd finally asked Elizabeth to marry him."
Nathan squinted his eyes with curiosity. "What'd he say?"
"Gustave said he evaded the question. But Florence said she saw Elizabeth just before the two of them got on the stagecoach to catch a train. She said they were heading to Hamilton."
"And the speculation says that Lucas is asking for her hand?" Nathan asked. Allie looked up at him with concern.
"That's correct," Abigail replied.
A smile tugged at the corner of Nathan Grant's face, and he nodded his head. "Well, good for Lucas andElizabeth," He said.
"You're not upset?" Henry asked. "I know you were kind of sweet on Elizabeth, and even though you have that Emily woman in your life…."
Nathan chuckled. "I'm not upset at all. You know, a year and a half ago, I'd never thought I'd be able to say this, but it's true. I'm truly happy for them. They've been through a lot together. They both deserve some happiness."
Allie breathed a sigh of relief then patted him on the back in silent celebration that his heart had healed. He'd always love Elizabeth, but the love he felt toward her was no longer that of a romantic partner. Instead, it was that of a friend. She also knew the reason why and looked forward to bringing Emily back into their lives.
"Well, if you don't mind, I'm still going to see if I can get the order to move to Montreal reversed. If I gave you some sort of deposit, would you mind keeping the house open for a few weeks? I should know within a month." Nathan replied.
Henry squinted one eye and rubbed the back of his neck. "I suppose we could do that. Have some repairs to do anyway."
"And forget the deposit," Abigail added.
"Abigail!" Henry protested.
"No, Henry. Nathan is one of us. He and Allie are family. Nobody is going to be using the house for now as it stands, and there's no sense in charging him for something when we wouldn't be making money anyway."
Henry made a face at her, which Abigail returned with a playful smirk.
"Oh, Alright…" he said. "I'll keep it open."
"Thank you!" Nathan said.
"Thank Abigail," Henry grumbled, walking toward his car. "Dang woman always gets her way."
Abigail grinned and rolled her eyes. "Good luck, Nathan. It looks like I need to sit with my husband and help him understand why this was a good idea that we do not charge you money to hold your house open. I hope it works out well with Headquarters."
"Thanks, Abigail." He replied as he watched her walk away.
A knock came on the cabin door about forty minutes before the train was to arrive in Union City, just three hours remained, and the company would be home in Hope Valley. Elizabeth looked up from her reading over toward the two men in her life who were sound asleep, by the window, Jack in Lucas's lap. She jumped up to prevent whoever was at the door from waking them.
"Emily!" she whispered upon opening the door.
"Have you guys seen Cyrus?" she asked urgently. "Maggie Fay said he left their cabin about an hour ago, and she has no idea where he is."
Elizabeth was about to answer but felt Lucas's masculine hand cup over her own as he had stood up with Jack in his arms to see what was wrong.
"Did I hear you say Cy is missing?" he asked.
"Yes," Emily said. "I've checked the dining car and the observation car. I even walked up to where the conductor sits to see if he could check with the crew in front. Nobody has seen him."
Lucas frowned in exasperation, then gently shook Jack awake.
"Jack, wake up now. It's time to start getting ready to go home."
"Home?" the groggy child said, rubbing his eyes.
Lucas passed Jack over to the little boy's mother. "Would you stay here and gather our things? I'm going to go find Cy."
"Okay. Hurry back," she said, barely getting to kiss Lucas on the cheek as he exited the door.
Despite his injury, Lucas could move very fast when he was a man on a mission, and at this particular time, his mission was to find Cyrus McDougal before they arrived in Union City. He knew that any delay in their arrival would risk missing the coach to Hope Valley, and for many reasons, he very much wanted to be home.
"Where do you think he might be?" Emily said as Lucas opened the door to the next car.
"Where he shouldn't be," he replied just as he reached the other end of the car.
While Allie stayed in the rowhouse, Nathan walked back into town to make a quick visit that he wasn't sure he'd be able to make the next day. Walking behind the Queen of the Valley across the gravel road, he entered through the side door and went directly to Newton's stall. The horse immediately moved to greet him.
"Hey there, buddy. How ya doin'?" Nathan asked, petting his equestrian partner on the snout then giving him a slice of apple he'd prepared before leaving the house. Newton ate the fruit then nuzzled up against Nathan's face.
"Yeah, I know, buddy. I'm going to miss you too. But maybe I'll come back. Would you like that?"
The horse kicked back its head, causing Nathan to laugh. "Yeah, well…I'm going to try. But, in the meantime, what do you say you and I go out for a ride for old time's sake?"
The horse whinnied, and the two crime-fighting partners were soon on their way into the countryside for a bittersweet farewell.
Reaching the end of the train, Lucas and Emily made their way through the baggage car and toward the caboose. Bouchard walked to the door and was about to open it when he heard a dog barking from within. Turning, he went to where Annabelle's cage was and noted the dog was missing.
"Where'd she go?" Emily asked.
Lucas clenched his jaw and huffed, then led her toward the railcar at the end of the train. Inside, they saw two rail workers, who were on the floor playing with Lucas's dog and feeding her pieces of dry biscuit leftover from lunch.
"Pardon me, but what are you doing with my dog?" Lucas asked perturbed."
"Oh, this is your dog?" one of the men said. "I thought it belonged to that southern fellow, the one on crutches."
"No. She's mine." Lucas said. "So, if you don't mind…."Lucas was about to say something else when he heard a loud cackling sound from just outside the window. He looked outside but saw nothing until he looked up and saw feet dangling from above. He gasped. "Oh, good heaven!"
"What?!" Emily asked.
Lucas answered by opening the rear door of the caboose, stepping out onto the deck, and turning around.
"What on earth do you think you're doing, McDougal?!" Lucas cried, looking up toward the roof at his cohort, who was having the ride of his life.
"Oh, hey Lucas!" Cy said. "You gotta come up here and see this! It's great! I feel like I'm flying."
"I'm going to send you flying," Lucas muttered under his breath. "That may be all good and well, but you need to get down here. How did you even get up there?"
"Use your strong leg and hold on tight." McDougal laughed. "I think I'm going to stay here a while longer. The wife got mad at me this morning over something I didn't do with Buford." He replied.
"Cy. The train is going to be pulling into the station in about half an hour." Emily said, joining Lucas on the deck. "You need to come on down here now. We'll be in Union City soon."
"Not until Lucas gets up here." He replied.
"Not until I what?!" Lucas responded. "I'm not climbing up there."
"Then, I'm not coming down," McDougal responded, crossing his arms and nearly toppling over before regaining his hold.
Emily screamed.
"Go back inside," Lucas said. "Find Maggie Fay."
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going to get him to come down," Lucas replied.
The Queen of the Valley was bustling when the Grants and Opal arrived for their reservation. With Lucas gone, there was no host on duty to seat the guests, so Mike Hickham stepped up to volunteer. Efficient as ever, he politely greeted the party of three and led them back to the back of the restaurant, where a party room awaited.
Allie's face lit up as she walked into the room when not two or three but every single student at the Jack Thornton school was present, eager for her arrival.
"There she is!" Anna said.
"Three cheers for Allie!" Timmy called out.
"Oh, gosh!" she giggled. "Is this all for me?"
"Yeah," Opal said, "it's all for you. Mountie Nathan said to invite your friends. It turns out you have a lot of friends!"
Allie looked up at Nathan with misty eyes and a massive smile on her face. He smiled as well, but inside, he was struggling. How can I ask her to give all this up?
"Well, you're the one who put me in charge of him!" Lucas said as he picked up Elizabeth's baggage on the train platform in Union City.
"That was for a job!" his fiancée responded. "I didn't ask you to climb up on the roof of a train!"
"I've done worse," He replied. He turned to see Elizabeth's angry stare. "Before I met you, of course."
"Lucas, that could have killed you! What were you thinking?"
"The train was only going about ten or fifteen miles an hour, and we had a coach to catch in fifteen minutes. But, unfortunately, Maggie wasn't having any luck, and…."
"And Emily was aware of this little acrobatic stunt you pulled?"
Lucas looked over at the nurse and looked down guiltily. "Um, no."
"I would have killed him myself." Emily said.
"Thank you for your support, Miss Reardon," Lucas responded.
"See! There you go!" Elizabeth replied. "You didn't tell Emily, you didn't tell me."
"You were back in your cabin."
"Which is relevant, how? Imagine, the first thing I hear when I get out of that cabin is about you falling to your death off of the back of a train!"
"Elizabeth, you're overreacting. Believe me, sweetheart. I was holding on for dear life. I wasn't going to fall." He replied as they reached the stagecoach ticket office. "Three tickets to Hope Valley, please. Two adults, one child. Oh, and a dog- speaking of, where's Annabelle?"
"Did you check the train roof? I hear it's a perfectly safe place to be," she responded.
"Very funny." He responded, looking around.
"She's with Jack and Buford," Emily said. "We're all riding with you and Elizabeth back to Hope Valley so that Maggie Fay and Cy can talk."
"Swell," Lucas whispered to himself.
"What?" Elizabeth asked.
"Nothing."
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "Lucas, you're not appreciating the gravity of what you've done and how scared it made me when I saw you up there."
"You weren't supposed to see me up there." He said. "I asked you to stay in the cabin."
"The Porter wanted everyone to take their seats – and stop trying to change the subject!"
"I'm not changing the subject. I'm communicating. We are talking things out." He said, opening the door to the stagecoach to allow her to get in. He then took a step back, allowing Emily to board as well.
"No, Emily. You sit by me." Elizabeth said. "Lucas can sit by himself."
"Excuse me?!" Lucas said, picking up little Jack and handing him to Elizabeth and then placing the McDougal's little boy on the coach.
"I said, you can sit by yourself. You need to consider what happens when you do stupid things." She replied.
Picking up Annabelle's kennel, Lucas boarded the coach.
"Fine. And you need to consider what happens when you try to butt into my business."
Elizabeth's eyes grew wide, and Emily quickly tried to capture both boys' attention while the couple fought.
"And, what's that supposed to mean?"
Lucas sat up straight in his seat, determined to take a stand. "What I mean is in appointing yourself my hiring manager, you've now placed that much more responsibility on my desk and added that much more to the stress I feel."
"So you're saying that I'm causing you stress?!"
"No. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that I don't tell you how to teach or write, and I'd ask that you not tell me how to manage my business."
"Fine. Say no more." She responded.
"Fine. I won't," Lucas replied, beginning what was a quiet, though not necessarily tranquil, ride back to Hope Valley.