Chapter 11

Elise had not slept that much. As she sat on the front stoop of her rowhouse, she held a cup of steaming hot coffee in her hands and looked out across the meadow. Thomas confirmed what she suspected. She suspected it and she kept pushing it back from her mind every single time. Why hadn't Nathan told her about what had happened? Why hide it from her? Did he still love her? Is that why? She knew she couldn't compete with someone like Elizabeth Thornton, and she was stupid for even trying.

She bowed her head, and asked God to give her the strength to get through the day. She had a matter of hours to come up with a plan to help fix Elizabeth Thornton's situation, if she wanted to or not.


Elise had asked Elizabeth and Lucas to come back to her office that morning so she could fill them in on what she found out from Thomas. This time when they appeared, they were not holding hands. Neither of them looked like they had slept much, and Lucas was definitely more disheveled than she had ever seen him. He looked scared and lost, and Elise felt pity for him. Maybe he was a gambler, but he didn't ask for this. Unfortunately a law had been implemented, but wasn't enforced completely. Lucas Bouchard and the Queen of Hearts fell between the cracks and was now stuck there. Elise motioned them to both sit down.

She cut right to it. "My suspicions were correct. Mr Thatcher is aware and prepared to report Mr Bouchard's business dealings to the authorities if he doesn't walk away from Mrs Thornton." A cry of pain came from Elizaabeth's mouth and Lucas stood up, looking like a caged animal, and Elise thought he was going to run from her office.

"I need to go, I need to go… I can't do this". Elizabeth heard his pleas, and she stood up, walked over to him and took his face into her hands. "You can't go. You can't run from this. You can't run from me. We can deal with this. You are not in this alone. We can figure this out." She then put her arms around him as he put his face down into her hair and started to cry. Elise sat there, trying to think of options. If they could prove it was a misunderstanding… If they could give Mr Thatcher what he wants.. The gambler to stay out of his daughter's life… One thing at a time.

Elise gave them a moment. Finally Lucas raised his head and looked at Elise. "Do I have any options?" She motioned for them to sit again. She looked at the legal pad in front of her, with the name Lucas Bouchard written out in big letters. She rolled her pen in her fingers, trying to figure out an easy way to tell the couple what needs to happen. There was no easy way though. "The first thing we need to do is address this," she said, tapping the envelope with her pen. "Your wedding needs to be postponed."

Elizabeth focused on Elise, spinning the ring on her finger. "Postponed? For how long?"

"Indefinitely. Without a wedding, there is no need for a prenuptial agreement."

Elizabeth and Lucas sat there in silence for a moment. Finally, Lucas spoke up. "Miss Monteith, can you give us a few moments please?"

"I'll be right outside". Elise rose from behind her desk, and walked out the door. As she stood along the railing, she listened to their muffled voices, low at first, then raise at intensity, then lower again. The door then opened and Elizabeth walked out.

"Please let me know what you need from me. I'm… I'm going home to my son." Elizabeth moved past Elise, then turned to the right to walk along the back side of town to go to her rowhouse. Elise watched her go, not sure if she felt pity for the woman or not. She then turned around and went back into her office. Lucas was standing in the window, watching Elizabeth walk away.

"I've really made a mess of things haven't I?"

"Maybe. The most pressing issue has been taken care of, for now".

"She doesn't understand why we need to do this. But I know enough about contracts and legal terms to read through the jargon. By her being with me and her father cutting her out of the estate, it would have been detrimental to Little Jack. Or am I wrong?"

"I fear you are correct. He could not be protected here, even with Thornton being his last name. You would all be forced to go back to Hamilton, or some place no one knows the name Thatcher. That's no life for a little boy to live."

He turned toward her. "So where does that leave me now?"

"We need to prove that you were not aware that running the saloon was illegal at the time. We need all of the evidence here in my office in the event this gets to the authorities. I need to be prepared to handle things if you are arrested. So I need the bill of sale, invoices from your distributors. If they come after you, I want to be prepared to give the government the information they are going to want to make a deal - which is your supplier. I am really hoping it does not come to that." Lucas was nodding his head, firmly grasping what the objective was.

"That just leaves my businesses, well, what's left of them. For now."

Elise was thoughtful for a moment. "Tell me your story. Everything. How you obtained ownership of Gowen Petroleum. Your relationship with Mrs Thornton. Everything and anything, it doesn't matter how trivial you may think it is. I want to know it all".

Lucas told her everything - he repeated how he came to own the saloon, how Henry Gowen needed a silent partner to get Gowen Petroleum up and running. He told her how he bought Elizabeth a library to get him on her good side, and brought a taste of the world to the Christmas festival. He talked about the affairs he held at the saloon and tried to make it into more of a facility the community could use and how the weddings that had been there were more on an upscale level. He spoke of how he wined and dined Elizabeth and of how Ned Yost used to joke about him buying all of the candles out of the mercantile when he was trying to impress the girl.

Elise was picturing it in her head. And then she remembered something that Thomas had said the night before - They don't have food like this in Toronto. Elise's eyes drifted to the photograph that was hanging across from her desk. She stood up, walked around her desk and stood in front of the photo. Lucas watched her, not sure what she was seeing. The national forest was starting to bring visitors to the area, but in towns like Jasper, right in the middle of it. But what was before that? Nothing.

"A destination".

"Excuse me?"

"What if you were to take your talent of grand gestures and create a place where people could go to experience it? To make a launching off point for visitors into the national forest. A destination to experience. You already have the hotel, you have the employees, and you have the knowledge. All you need is advertising, which could be placed in papers in big cities across the country, even Chicago and San Francisco. It would make you a legitimate business man."

"It would be a big gamble, but then again, I am a gambler". Lucas looked at Elise, smiled and said, "This might just work".