CHAPTER 25

Bea wrote on the board as she left "Gone looking for a Mountie." She loved leaving these little messages and even better reading his. This morning he had written "Bea Careful!"

Her plan was to ride the route she knew he would return on, with any luck she would meet him on the way. If she hadn't within an hour or so then she would head back.

Lost in her thoughts, how to tell Nathan about Elizabeth and also about volunteering to babysit the bonfire, she missed the sound at first. Then she heard it, she pulled Hero to a halt. There it was again, "You heard that one too didn't you big lad," his ears had cocked up.

She dismounted and tied him to a low hanging branch. Listening again she heard the sound coming from the wood on her right. Bea knew it was the cry of an animal in distress, a deer she thought, she had heard many crying on the moors back home.

She looked for an easy way into the wood, her leg wouldn't cope with jumping over hedges yet. Finding a little clearing she carefully made her way in. The crying was now coming from her left, in that bracken, she thought. She dreaded what she might find.

Breaking a branch from a nearby birch tree she started to force the bracken back and there he was, her blood ran cold.

"It's OK little one, you are not alone now, I have you." She knelt down beside him, a fawn of about 5 weeks she guessed. She spoke in such a way, calming yet reassuring, " turning his face to hers she leant in really close and whispered, " Don't fret baby, I have you."

As Nathan turned the bend in the road he was wondering if anyone was having more luck than he was with this factory business, then he saw Hero. The sense of fear that overtook him would stay with him all his life. He noticed Hero was tied so she must be somewhere.

"Bea, Bea. Where are you?"

"Nathan I am fine, she sensed the panic in his voice, can you bring me my saddle blanket please, quickly."

He leapt the hedge and was in the wood seconds.

"Where are you?"

She lifted an arm and waved "Over here Nathan."

He could now hear her talking in the calm animal voice she used on the horses in the livery.

"Don't worry, I will get you sorted soon, be still little one."

Nathan reached her but couldn't see at first.

"What are you doing in...oh what on earth, poor little thing"

Bea held her hand out for the blanket, "Thank you, I am glad you came when you did. I heard his distress calls from the road, I didn't think I would find this though."

Covering the fawn she pulled the blanket tight which seemed to calm him a bit.

"Is that a trap his leg is caught in, he must be in agony."

"No Nathan I know exactly what this is and it makes me so angry, so angry."

He could actually see she was mad.

"Who has been lighting and letting sky lanterns, Chinese lanterns off?"

"The only time I have seen them here was two Christmas's Bea, why?

"That is what this is Nathan, if you look you can still see some of the fabric attached to it. When the flame goes out and the air trapped in them cools down they just fall to the ground, they don't degrade. I have seen some awful injuries caused by these, mind most have been to birds. The idiots who let them fly infuriate me, adults should know better."

She had managed to get a closer look now.

"I think this little fella has been dragging this around with him a couple of days, his foot has gone through the centre bit where the burner would be, the more he has struggled the worse it has got."

Nathan watched as she carried on talking and at the same time examined the leg and foot.

"Nathan, is your pistol loaded?"

"Bea what, yes always but..."

"I can't save him, that wire has almost severed his foot. The only thing I could have done would be to amputate the leg but here I have no way of looking after him. Back home he could have joined my other waifs and strays, he would need looking after the rest of his life. The only option I have is to end his suffering. May I borrow your pistol?"

"Let me Bea."

"Nathan honestly please let me, this little man isn't the first and won't be the last. Sometimes I just can't fix them, in those cases the least I can do is end their suffering as quickly as I can, please " she held out her hand.

Reluctantly he handed her the pistol.

She knelt right over the little fawn again and spoke to it in a language he didn't recognise, and at the same time she seemed to apply pressure to a point on its neck. Nathan thought it was as if she had hypnotised the poor little thing. Pulling the blanket away she did what she had to do.

Handing the pistol back he could see the tears in her eyes. He helped her up, he knew she would struggle after being crouched like that.

"Nathan what a needless waste."

He just hugged her. "What shall we do with him?"

"Would you carry a knife?"

"I have one, or at least Newton does, shall I get it, what are you going to do?"

"As brutal as it sounds I will amputate his foot and free him of this bloody evil thing, sorry for swearing, but I so needed to. Then we will let nature take its cause, at least the wolf over there will be able to feed her cubs tonight."

Over where he thought, he had no sense of there being one about, when he looked she was right.

Having removed all the wire, she rolled her blanket up and leaning over the fawn he heard her say "Run free little one, run free."

They left the wood together, the wireframe she had kept, that would be used to educate people about the harm these stupid things did.

Handing Nathan her canteen he poured the water over her hands as she washed them. "I hate days like this, all my years of training and I could not save him."

He knew no words would console her, he just wrapped his arms around her and held her so close. This was a different side to this amazing woman, this was the veterinarian.

He lifted her chin and kissed her so softly, "that" he said, "is from that little fella in there." Kissing her again "that is from me. Now come on, let's head back. I think a stiff drink may be needed for you, my precious one."

As they road back side by side, he looked at her and thought "Will you ever cease to amaze me, will I ever stop wanting you, needing you, I hope not,"

Having seen to the horses they headed up the street. Nathan took the wire, he would keep that in the jailhouse for now. Bea was going to head back to her room and change.

"I will call round later, make sure you are fine, we can have something to eat if that is alright with you."

Her new guardian she thought, this one, this one was different, he was heaven sent she knew it.

"I would really like that," Then she suddenly remembered.

"Oh Nathan with everything that happened back there I forgot, I have a couple of things to tell you, One can wait until tonight the other I think you should know straight away. How did she tell him this? How did she drop this bombshell?

Taking hold of his hands she just came right out with it, there was no easy way.

He could sense it wasn't good news, he was getting to know her so well.

"When I was posting the letters this morning I saw a woman I didn't recognise, I hadn't seen her in town before, Nathan it was Elizabeth, Ned says she is back in Hope Valley, well for now."

The image of his face was another memory stored, the look, a mixture of heartbreak, fear, worry. Dropping his hands she reached up and put her arms on his shoulders.

"Nathan listen to me, you have me now, you always will, don't let her cast you back to where you were six months ago."

Then a sudden awful thought crossed her mind, just fleetingly, she had to say it, as much as it would hurt, she had to say it.,

"Unless she is the one you want Nathan, sorry but if that is the case then..."

He looked at her, those huge blue eyes, he saw how much pain even that thought had caused.

"Bea I don't want her, I do have you now and you are worth more than a dozen of her. It was just a shock that is all, and you were right to tell me. At least I am prepared now if I do bump into her. I will see you later and you can tell me this other thing, it isn't another shock is it?"

She smiled " No it isn't I promise and Nathan remember we are a team now, any problems we face together."

She kissed him on his cheek and watched him walk down the street, thanking whoever for sending her to Hope Valley and giving her the most precious of men.