Chapter 2: Darts to the Heart
Elizabeth rushed out of the schoolhouse and stood on the steps watching Jack and Charles jovially walking back to town together. Then Elizabeth stormed back into the schoolhouse and slammed the doors shut. Elizabeth paced back and forth up and down the aisle, her eyes flashing. "Of all the nerve - how dare they! Who do they think they are? What audacity!" were just some of the angry phrases that came out of Elizabeth's mouth.
Elizabeth heard a noise at the schoolhouse door and glanced up, hoping that Jack and Charles had changed their minds. In walked Abigail with a concerned look on her face. "Elizabeth, I just saw Jack and Charles . . . and a crowd is forming around them at the saloon. It's all over town already. Is it true they've challenged each other to a darts game to see who'll get to marry you? It's hard to believe you think that's a good idea . . . ," Abigail said carefully.
Elizabeth threw her hands in the air and shouted, "Of course I don't think that's a good idea – it's a horrible idea!" Elizabeth continued hysterically, "After school ended today, Charles arrived out of nowhere and got down on his knee and proposed to me - I was dumbstruck! And then Jack came storming in and . . . the whole thing turned into a mess. Now the two of them are acting all buddy buddy and going to play this stupid darts game. . . " Elizabeth plopped down on one of the benches and put her hands over her face in exasperation. "They're deliberately trying to humiliate me – I hate them both!"
Abigail eyes went wide as she took in Elizabeth's words. "Oh my, Elizabeth, sounds to me like you've pushed both of them over the edge." Elizabeth threw her hands up in the air again. "It's not my fault – I had no idea Charles was even in town, much less that he was going to propose!"
Abigail continued, "Elizabeth, where did Charles even get the idea that you would be open to a proposal from him?" Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it again. Then she opened and closed it again. Then Elizabeth stood up and walked away from Abigail, her arms folded over her chest. "I thought I had made myself clear to Charles that I just wanted to be friends," Elizabeth complained. Abigail replied, "Apparently, you weren't clear enough. Elizabeth . . . that could not have made Jack feel good, seeing you and Charles like that."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I can't believe we're in this situation again after all we've been through! But it doesn't matter anymore, because if Jack goes through with this stupid darts game, I'm never going to speak to him again!" Elizabeth pouted.
Abigail started walking towards the schoolhouse door. "Well, we better go see what's going on at that saloon. Who knows what's been decided by this point – you could be marrying one of them or none of them!"
Elizabeth murmured under her breath, "I'm not marrying anyone," but nonetheless hurried with Abigail over to the saloon. To Elizabeth's chagrin, when she opened the saloon door, the entire room was filled with townspeople watching and cheering on Jack and Charles. Upon seeing Elizabeth, the townswomen tittered and leaned their heads together to gossip about her predicament. The townsmen basically ignored Elizabeth, as they were too busy ordering drinks and placing bets on which man - Jack or Charles - would win the darts game and presumably marry Elizabeth.
Elizabeth could barely see Jack and Charles over the heads of the people in the crowded room, but she could hear them joking with each other; each time Jack or Charles would get ahead in points, he would say to the other, "Oh no . . . I'm winning. Can't have that . . . let's play another round, shall we?" implying that neither of them wanted to win the game and be stuck marrying Elizabeth! Of course, the room roared with laughter hearing the two men rib each other like that.
Elizabeth and Abigail stood in the back with stunned expressions on their faces. Elizabeth put her face in her hands in humiliation. Abigail put her arm around Elizabeth and steered her out of the saloon. "Oh Abigail," Elizabeth cried, "I'm never going to be able to show my face in this town again!" Abigail kept her arm around Elizabeth and assured her, "Elizabeth, this too shall pass. Let them get it out of their system." Abigail walked Elizabeth back to the café, where Elizabeth immediately ran up to her room.
The darts game went on for hours, and the raucous at the saloon barely subsided as afternoon turned to evening. Elizabeth kept looking out her bedroom window to see if the humiliating game had ended, but kept having her hopes dashed as hour after hour rowdy cheers continued to ring out from the saloon.
Finally, Elizabeth heard a commotion as the townspeople poured out of the saloon into the street. Elizabeth sighed in relief, thinking that the fiasco had finally ended. Then Elizabeth heard scuffling and whispering outside the café. Elizabeth peeked out her curtain to see Jack and Charles on the street underneath her window, their arms around each other, launching into song, as the crowd egged them on:
"Let me call you Sweetheart
I'm in love with you
Let me hear you whisper
That you love me too
Keep the love light glowing
In your eyes so blue
Let me call you Sweetheart
I'm in love with you "
Elizabeth quickly closed the curtains, threw herself onto her bed, and pulled the cover over her face, all hopes of living down this day gone.
The two men kept singing and the crowd around them kept hooting and hollering, until suddenly, a gunshot went off. Everyone turned to see Abigail standing outside the café with a rifle in her hand. "Okay, we're done now. Enough – you've made your point. It's time for this to stop," Abigail announced authoritatively.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then the townspeople started to disperse and go on their way home. A few of the men helped a drunken Charles back to the saloon, where he was sleeping for the night. Abigail looked sternly at Jack, but he just shrugged his shoulders and walked back to the jail, sober as a judge.
Lee Coulter, the owner of the lumber mill, came over to Abigail and said, "Well, that was a darts game for the ages – it'll go down in the Hope Valley history books!" Abigail replied, "I certainly hope not, for Elizabeth's sake." Lee chuckled and added, "Whoo boy, Elizabeth got those boys' shackles up this time, didn't she." Abigail sighed and said, "I suppose so. But enough is enough."
Abigail asked, "By the way, do you know who won the darts game?" Lee laughed and said mischievously, "Oh, those two boys lost track pretty early on – they were just having fun with it." Abigail raised her eyebrows and said, "This is not going to be pretty – who knows what's going to happen between Elizabeth and Jack now. She may never be able to forgive him . . . " Lee smiled and said, "Don't worry, Abigail. I'm sure they'll find their way back to each again." Abigail shook her head sadly and said, "I certainly hope so, but this time, they may have pushed each other too far."