Chapter 24: Caught in the Act
On Friday morning, Nathan stopped by the Coulters' house first thing to discuss the details of the wood necessary for the event the next day. Rosemary was ecstatic that Nathan was willing to help out. Lee decided to leave with Nathan to head to the sawmill office to arrange for the wood to be dropped off behind the Mountie office as soon as possible. That way, Nathan could start phase one of the wood-chopping process after morning rounds.
Lee gave Rosemary a kiss goodbye as he headed out to the sawmill office. He called back to her to say that he'd return within the hour to pick her and the children up. She waved goodbye and headed back inside to prepare for work that day.
Lee spoke to some of the men at the mill and arranged for a load of wood to be delivered to the back of the Mountie office within the hour. Then, he headed back to his rowhouse to pick up his family for the day. As he got out of the car, he saw Elizabeth coming out of his rowhouse and waved to her.
Elizabeth and Little Jack headed into town. It was early, but it was a beautiful day for a walk, and there were a lot of things to do. Before she left, she had picked up a list from Rosemary of things to get from the mercantile and things that needed to be done in preparation for the nect day's bonfire. During their walk into town, Elizabeth and Little Jack walked hand in hand, discussing the various things that they saw on their "adventure". At one point, as Little Jack was chattering away, Elizabeth looked down at her son and smiled. She truly cherished these times with her little boy. It was something that would never grow old.
As they were making their way to the preschool, the Thorntons waved hello to Mei and Faith, who were chatting outside of the pharmacy. Anna, who was outside of the cafe setting up tables, waved hi, and Judge Bleakney passed by, tipping his hat and offering a warm greeting to the Thorntons. They stepped into the preschool and were greeted by Laura and Sarah Wolf. Little Jack let go of his mother's hand and ran to them. When Elizabeth protested, he simply turned and said, "Bye Mama, see you later! I'm going to play and learn now! " Elizabeth chuckled and waved to the three and exited the building.
She went on over to the mercantile to pick up the things on the list that Rosemary needed. As she walked in, Ned greeted her from behind the counter and Florence from the switchboard. Elizabeth shared the list with them, and Ned informed her that if she could give them about an hour or so, they could have the items boxed up and ready for her. She thought for a moment, then nodded and handed the list over to Ned.
"Thank you, Ned. I would definitely appreciate that! I'll go over to the schoolhouse for a little while and come back when it's time. ", she replied with a smile. With that, she turned and walked out of the mercantile and down the steps. Once at the bottom, she made her way over to the schoolhouse, but chose not to go inside. Once again, it was a beautiful morning, and she wanted to savor it before things got too busy with all the hustle and bustle. She sat on the swing and immediately started the back and forth motion, closing her eyes and taking in the early morning sounds of Hope Valley.
All of a sudden, the peaceful quiet was interrupted with a thwack. Elizabeth made a face but kept her eyes closed, choosing to ignore the sound. But, then it came again, thwack. Elizabeth's eyes remained closed, refusing to let her peace be disturbed. But then, it happened a third time, thwack. With that, Elizabeth opened her eyes and exclaimed, "WHAT IN THE WORLD...". But she didn't finish her sentence, because it happened once more, thwack. This time, though, she saw the reason why from across the field.
There was Nathan, in his jodhpurs and his short sleeve henley shirt, in the process of chopping the bonfire wood. Just like the night before, Elizabeth noticed the definition of not only his upper arms, but his chest and back as well as the shirt accentuated every part of his build that his shirt usually covered. As she watched Nathan chop the wood, it was like she was in a trance. She couldn't take her eyes off him with this task. It was truly mesmerizing.
She wasn't sure how long she had been like that either. Finally, she was shaken out of her trance when Nathan stopped for a moment and stretched. When he did that, he took in his surroundings and caught Elizabeth's gaze in his direction. He took a double take and then chuckled to himself as he was reminded of another time when it seemed he was being watched by her many years ago with the binoculars on the day of the rescue in the mountains. Like the time before, he put his hand up and waved to her. Elizabeth came to her senses when she registered what Nathan was doing, blushed profusely, and waved back. She looked around the surrounding area after that and then headed hurriedly into the safety of the schoolhouse. As she closed the doors behind her, she took several moments to compose herself and start breathing normally. "What is going on with me lately?!", she thought to herself as her heart and mind still raced with the scene she had just experienced.
From where Nathan was, he just watched the scene that took place with Elizabeth. Once again, he chuckled to himself and shook his head. Sometimes, I don't understand women. ", he thought to himself, and went back to work on the wood. He had about fifteen more minutes that he could give to the task before he needed to get started on paperwork. After his afternoon's rounds, he would see if he could enlist some others to help chop more wood for the next day's event.