Elizabeth woke up mentally drained, and her eyes swollen. A headache was beginning to make its presence known as well. She needed to get up and make an important phone call before getting dressed and heading into town. So much had been revealed over the past 24 hours that she didn't know where to start.

When she had left Bill's office, she had gone to Florence and asked her to call Molly to come over. Seeing the look on her face, Ned made the call and left the two women alone. A few minutes later, Molly arrived, and Elizabeth told them about the attempt to reopen the mine. To say the women were upset would have been an understatement.

"I just can't believe someone can reopen that mine Elizabeth," Molly said.

"Just the thought of anyone going back in there makes me sick to my stomach," Florence said, visibly shuddering. "I still have nightmares of being in there."

"I know Florence, and I agree," Elizabeth said.

"Was that why you hit him?" Florence asked, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Huh?" Elizabeth asked, momentarily confused.

"Why did you hit Lucas, I mean?" Florence said with a growing smile.

"You hit Lucas?" Molly exclaimed.

"I slapped him," She answered Molly quickly before turning to Florence, "But how did you know?" Elizabeth asked Florence, shocked.

"Ned and I were walking by just as it happened," Florence said. "Bill and Nathan saw us as we were coming home. I told them because Ned and I thought they needed to know, but I told him to let you know I would not say anything to anybody else." Florence added, wanting to assure Elizabeth she wasn't spreading gossip about her.

"I know that, Florence," Elizabeth said, chuckling.

"Oh, he never brought it up," Elizabeth said. "We just talked about the mine itself."

"So, what are we going to do?" Florence asked.

"I'm going to talk to Cat on my way home and then call Abigail. In the morning, I'm going to hire Samantha Madison to represent the town since she was the attorney of record. In the meantime, Bill will go over everything I gave him from Henry with a fine-tooth comb. But after a cursory glance over the decree, Bill agrees with Henry that it is possible."

"Do you trust Henry, Elizabeth?" Molly asked softly, tears in her eyes glistening.

Elizabeth reached over and squeezed her hand in comfort before answering, "I do, Molly. I gave all the papers to Bill, but they prove what Henry says. He isn't even the one that brought Jerome Smith in on the deal." Molly just nodded.

"Why didn't he just come forward?" Florence asked. "Why not tell us sooner?"

"Because he knew that you would think he deliberately did this." At their dubious looks, she asked, "Have you both noticed how sickly he's gotten?"

"I have," Molly said, "Faith is very concerned about him."

"it's because Henry has been carrying this weight around trying to fix it and not being able to," Elizabeth said. "In his mind, he failed to protect us, and to use his words, he feels like he let the fox in the hen house. Not to mention that, you know, after all that Abigail did for him, he would never do anything to hurt her intentionally."

That had been the final piece to convince them he could be trusted. Cat Montgomery reacted similarly to Molly and Florence but was reassured that Elizabeth would call the attorney. They all knew there was a special connection between Henry and Abigail, even after she had left to care for her mom. Only Elizabeth had known that Henry had taken a trip to see Abigail since she had left Hope Valley. She was grateful that Jack was spending the night with Laura. He had been so excited because he loved being on the farm. They had come up to them after that balloon ride. Looking back, she was happy that they had because of what happened with Lucas later. When she got home, she called them and asked if she could pick him up later that day. Laura's dad offered to keep him one more night so she could deal with the situation and not have to worry about her son. But being mindful of her resolution about him, she wanted to see how he was before agreeing. She chuckled as she remembered how he asked if he could stay another night because he was having so much fun with Mr. Campbell. When he came back on the phone, she readily agreed and thanked him profusely.

Deciding it was time to stir and in need of aspirin, she quickly dressed and headed downstairs, pausing to unlock her door. Elizabeth had just put the kettle on for tea when she heard a knock on the door before it opened, and Rosemary walked in. Smiling at her friend Elizabeth put two cups down on the table and went to embrace her friend.

"Oh, Elizabeth, I can't tell you how sorry I was about my thoughtlessness yesterday," Rosemary said.

"Rosemary, it's fine. I didn't mean to be so harsh in my rebuke. You would never deliberately hurt the people of this town." Then she led her to the table and went to get the kettle. Rosemary smiled gratefully as she sat down. She had been worried that Elizabeth would still be upset and that all the progress they had made repairing their friendship would suffer a setback. But seeing Elizabeth this morning and hearing her words further reinforced their belief that the true Elizabeth had returned from Hamilton and was there to stay.

"Thank you for that, Elizabeth!" Rosemary said softly. Then unable to wait anymore smiled and said, "Now tell me about why you hit Lucas."

Elizabeth chuckled at her friend before saying, "it's simple. After spending time away from him, I realized where my feelings lay," Rosemary caught a glimpse of the pain and regret her friend was feeling and caught the double meaning of Elizabeth's response.

She couldn't handle seeing the look of sympathy on Rosemary's face and said, "I ran into them last night when I went to see Henry. I was leaving when Nathan arrived to see Faith. Involuntarily her eyes teared up, and Rosemary opened her mouth to speak, but Elizabeth stopped her.

"No, Rosemary," Elizabeth said, stopping her. "Don't. He deserves to be happy, and I have no right to be upset, especially since I'm the one that threw him in her arms. Faith is a wonderful woman and one of my dearest friends who deserves happiness. If they have found that with each other, then while I'm sad for myself, I am happy for them."

At Rosemary's dubious look, she said, "Now I don't want to talk about it anymore. I already cried myself to sleep last night. Eventually, I will learn how to handle it but for now, let's focus on the mine."

Rosemary reached over, grabbed her hand, squeezed it, and nodded softly. "I tried to break it off after the balloon thing." They both rolled their eyes as they thought of it. "But he had a meeting to go to. Then I ran into Henry in town, and well, you know what happened there."

Elizabeth stood up to get the kettle and refill their cups before continuing. "We saw Lucas leaving the meeting with a paper in his hands, heading in your direction extremely pleased. So, it didn't take much to figure out where he was heading."

Rosemary just nodded with a sad smile. "But Rosemary, again, I want you to know that my anger was not at you thinking that you would deliberately put business over the feelings of others. I'm sorry if I gave that impression. Lucas is the one that I was angry with."

"Henry was feeling very ill, so I escorted him to the Infirmary and then went to find Lucas. Long story short, I was trying to talk to him, and he just kept trying to put me off and manage me. Do you know what I mean?"

Rosemary nodded and said, "Yes, because I've seen him do it to you before. It was one of the things that bothered me most when you didn't see it."

Elizabeth just nodded. "Just another thing to add to a growing list of I wishes."

"I wishes?" Rosemary said.

"My list of things I wish I would have seen or done." Elizabeth clarified sadly, "I mean, I'm literally trying to talk to him about everything when he starts rubbing my arms, attempting to distract me instead of listening. At one point, he even tried to kiss me again after I had already pulled back once. I admit I finally lost my temper and slapped him."

Seeing the gleeful smile on Rosemary's face, she said. "Which reminds me, I need to apologize to Lucas for doing it."

"What! Why on earth do you think you have to apologize to that man?" Rosemary asked

"Because I shouldn't have raised my hand in anger to him. I teach my students to talk instead of using their fists. So I must ensure that I practice what I teach; otherwise, I lose credibility with them, Rosemary. You know how efficient the gossip mill is in Hope Valley. News of me hitting Lucas will spread through town like wildfire, and who knows what it will resemble the more it does.

"I must admit you are right, Elizabeth because you left a big old handprint on his face." Rosemary chuckled. "Lee saw Lucas when he came in after it happened. He had been looking for ice and mentioned it to Gustav."

"Even more reason that I have to go apologize. Preferably before Lucas finds out about my efforts to block the reopening of the mine. Once he knows Lucas will do whatever he can to ruin my reputation, including that I slapped him."

Rosemary was silent for a moment and then said, "That just means we have to fight fire with fire."

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked.

"I mean, we get ahead of it, Elizabeth. We have you make the apology publicly in front of certain people. Highly respected ones, known for their integrity, whose word would be believed over anyone else who would say otherwise.

Elizabeth realized what she was saying and smiled for the first time.

"Now, what are we doing about this mine?" Rosemary said with a wink. Elizabeth smiled as she heard the conspiratorial tone in her voice. "Bill issued an injunction last night."

"He did?"

Rosemary nodded and said, "I quote, 'Rosemary as the presiding judge of this territory, I am placing a temporary restriction on the release of any information regarding the oil company and its subsidiaries, including anything related to the old Pacific Northwest Mine.' End quote."

"Wow! Lucas isn't going to like that at all," Elizabeth giggled.

"No, he won't, and I can't wait until he sees it's not in the paper either," Rosemary said smugly. "He told the Mayor that it was to prevent what happened when the bank almost went under. That it was to protect the town and businesses." Elizabeth didn't miss the emphasis on using Lee's title, which bolstered her.

Scooting her chair over next to Elizabeth, she gathered her in a side hug and said, "Personally, Lee and I can't wait for the showdown Elizabeth,"

"That means so much to me, Rosemary," Elizabeth said, choked up.

"I assume you talked to Abigail, Cat, Molly, and Florence?"

"I did, and of course, they are going through various emotions about it. I'm going to call Samantha Madison, since she was the attorney of record, to see what she thinks. Abigail plans to come home sooner, which will make Cody happy since he will have some summer left before school starts."

Abigail's mother passed a month ago, and they felt sad about her loss. But the whole town was happy that the Stantons were returning home for good. "I'd better head over to the Valley Voice. See you in town later?" Rosemary asked.

"You will," Elizabeth said. "I need to check on Henry and then talk to Bill." After Rosemary left, Elizabeth placed a call to Samantha Madison's office. Samantha immediately came on the line.

"Miss Madison, I'm Elizabeth Thatcher Thornton. I'm not sure if you remember me, but I lived in Coal Valley, which was now Hope Valley?"

"Of course, I remember you, Elizabeth. You and Abigail were the only women that had faith in me from the first. I prosecuted The Pacific Mining Company versus the Widows, I believe?" She responded.

"Yes, that is actually why I am calling. We believe that someone associated in the past with them is attempting to reopen it."

"That's not possible, Elizabeth; the judge ordered it permanently shut down," Samantha said.

"Well, according to Bill Avery, the judgment is ambiguous enough that he thinks it can," Elizabeth said. "There are already plans afoot."

"Let me get a copy of the summary judgment. If there's a loophole, I will see what possible remedies are available to the town."

"I'd like to hire you to do that, Samantha. Since you are the attorney of record, you have a better chance of getting something done."

"You have yourselves an Attorney, Elizabeth. I'll be in touch later today, and we can talk more after I do some research."

"Thank you, Samantha. I appreciate your help on this." She hung up, took something for her headache, and then headed into town to the infirmary."

She stopped off quickly to check on Henry at the Infirmary. When Elizabeth walked in, she was happy to see that he was dressed and sitting on the side of the bed.

"Oh good, Elizabeth. You are right on time," Faith said, smiling at her warmly. "I was just giving Henry his discharge instructions."

Elizabeth smiled. "Well, that is great news, Henry. I may have more for you. Why don't we go to the cafe and get some breakfast, and I'll fill you in?" Elizabeth said, smiling encouragingly.

"I think that would be just what this doctor ordered," Faith said.

"Well, Henry?" Elizabeth said, "Are you coming?"

He smiled, stood up, and offered his arm to Elizabeth, "Shall we?" After saying goodbye, Elizabeth took his arm and headed to the cafe. She told him of the calls and the reactions of the others regarding his involvement. She saw that Henry's eyes glistened and sought to comfort him, knowing how guilty he felt.

"No matter what happens, we are all in this together, Henry," Elizabeth said, hugging his arm. They entered the cafe and found a corner table.