Chapter five –Stories, Snake, and a Spat

"I told you about Bunny. Her Cree name translates into Small Rabbit in the Grass. But we all just call her Bunny. She fell in love and married a trapper. He joined her tribe. She died in childbirth," Lucy said simply as she hung her sheets on the backyard clothing line the next afternoon.

"You never mentioned earlier that she died in childbirth, is a ghost, and lived 40 years ago!" Elizabeth said accusatorily.

"Didn't I?" Lucy shrugged. "I guess I forgot. But I told you that she helps pregnant women. She kept me from getting diphtheria. Hand me a clothespin."

"How?" Elizabeth questioned as she handed the wooden pin to Lucy.

"I told you. I was on my way to the Keplers when I saw Bunny. I followed her and got distracted and never made it to the Keplers. They all ended up with diphtheria. If I had visited with them, I would have gotten it."

Elizabeth vaguely remembered Lucy talking about that the day they had first met, but Lucy had been talking so much and so fast that Elizabeth had thought that the woman had said that she had followed an actual bunny.

"Did you actually see her?"

"Well, I'm not positive. I suppose that it could have been Mrs. Granson. She has long dark hair. Or maybe Madge Jamison. She also has long dark hair. And I only saw her from the back. But I assumed it was Bunny", Lucy answered with a shrug.

"Why in the world would you assume it was ghost named Bunny?"

"I don't know. I just did. Pass me another clothespin please."

"Have you ever seen her?" Elizabeth asked as she reached into the basket of clothespins and handed one to Lucy.

"Not "seen" "seen" her, but I've felt her."

"You can't possibly believe in ghosts."

"Haven't you noticed strange things happening? Like someone watching out for you. Protecting you." Lucy asked as she finished hanging up the last piece of laundry and turned to look at Elizabeth. "And besides, there are no other pregnant women in town but you and me. So if it wasn't Bunny, who exactly did you see?"

This is absurd! There is no such thing as spirits, Elizabeth thought at the end of the school the next day. She had tried concentrating on lessons, but she had found herself getting side-tracked.

"Margaret", Elizabeth called after one of the mothers as the children ran outside.

"Were you living here in Bear Creek when you were pregnant with Toby and Silas?"

"I was. We've been here 'bout 12 years now. Since we moved from South Carolina. I guess I still have my southern accent ", she said with a laugh.

"I was just wondering if anything odd every happened to you when you were pregnant."

"Honey, everything about being pregnant is odd. We've got a person growing inside of us. If that ain't odd, I don't know what is."

Elizabeth wondered how to broach the subject without sounding crazy. She remained quiet as the women walked along the street, the children running ahead of them.

"You've seen Bunny", Margaret finally said. It was a statement; not a question.

Elizabeth nodded.

"I was wondering if you would. Not all women do. I didn't see her when I was pregnant with Toby. Maybe she was helping me out and I just didn't realize it. But I know she was there when I was pregnant with Silas."

"How do you know?"

"I was eight months pregnant with Silas. Toby was about 3. I was so tired from being pregnant and running after Toby and doing chores. I had been running all over hell's half acre. I had put Toby down for a nap and I just wanted to sleep for 15 minutes. That's all. 15 minutes. It turns out I slept more than that. I was still sleeping on my bed when something woke me up. I looked around and nothing was there. That's when I went looking for Toby.

. . . . While I had slept, Toby had woken up and been bored. He saw me sleeping, and decided he was going for a swim. He just walked right out of the house and down to the crick. I found him dangling his feet in the water.

. . . If Bunny hadn't woken me up, I reckon he could have fallen in and drowned.

. . . She saved my boy's life. And I know if something had happened to Toby, with me being eight months pregnant, I would have probably gone into early labor."

"But you don't actually believe that, do you? You didn't see her."

"No, I didn't see her. But it was her. Looking out for me. Ask around. Decide for yourself. But I'll tell you this. Childbirth's not an easy thing. And yet, not one woman in Bear Creek has died in childbirth in the last 40 years. Someone's looking out for us. And it ain't just the doctor."

Throughout the next few days, Elizabeth asked around. Casually questioning the women when they came to pick up their children. Or when she saw them at the grocery store.

Elizabeth firmly expected the women to laugh and say it wasn't really a ghost protecting them, merely a humorous town folktale. But to her surprise, almost every woman chose to believe in Bunny. More than that, they were willing to tell Elizabeth their stories.

"I was pregnant. Picking mushrooms. I had a whole skirt full of them and was walking back home when I tripped and they all spilled out. I didn't fall but I dropped my hold on my skirt. Old man Mac was walking by and stopped to help me pick them up. He noticed that I had picked the wrong kind. I had planned on making a dinner with all those beautiful deadly mushrooms. . . . If something hadn't made me trip, I would have likely killed me and my husband. I know it was Bunny that made me stumble and drop them."

. . . .

I wasn't due for two weeks and my husband was going out of town for just one night, but every time he tried to leave, something stopped him. A wheel broke on the wagon. He couldn't find his wallet. A calf escaped from the barn. Finally, it was too late for him to leave that day so he decided to wait 'til morning instead. I went into labor and had the baby that night. I would have been all by myself at the homestead if he had gone."

. . . .

"I was going walking and was about to sit down on a log when I saw a mouse run by. Startled me so much I jumped up before I touched the log. When I turned around to sit down again, I noticed for the first time that the log had a huge bee hive in it. If I had sat down, I would most certainly been stuck by the whole hive. I know Bunny scared that mouse into running by me."

Elizabeth listened to story after story from the women of Bear Creek who insisted that the native Cree woman had saved them.

Not all the women in town had experienced something unusual during pregnancies, but they all agreed on one thing. In the last 40 years, not one woman had died, or had her baby die, in childbirth. Bunny and her baby had been the last sad ending to a pregnancy in Bear Creek.

Before long, Elizabeth, who had always prided herself on being educated and rational, realized that it felt really good to know that something was looking out for her.

The more she thought about the strange things that had been happening to her since she arrived in Bear Creek, the more Elizabeth began to believe that Bunny was real.

"This is absurd, Elizabeth. Even you have to agree with that."

"Well, who did I see?"

"Probably someone from an outlying area. Or someone who was traveling past Bear Creek."

"Do you think I only have one oar in the water?" Elizabeth asked inquisitively as she dried the dinner plates.

"I don't even know what that means", Jack said looking at her with frustration and puzzlement.

"It's an expression Margaret uses it," Elizabeth explained. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

"I don't think you're crazy. I think you're pregnant and overly emotional and worried about giving birth. So you believe these crazy stories the women are telling you. There are no such things as ghosts. You saw a woman in the woods and your imagination got carried away."

"But Jack –"

"Elizabeth!" Jack said sternly as he gave her a serious look.

"No, Jack. You listen to me! You used to always tease me about being trouble. About how I got myself into situations. Think about what it's been like since I've been here. I haven't been hurt once! All these things that could have turned out badly but they didn't."

"Elizabeth! You said it yourself earlier. It's just coincidences or luck. "

"But what about the lavender? I keep smelling it. "

"So what?!" Jack practically yelled in exasperation as the couple stood in the kitchen arguing.

"I saw her in the lavender fields!"

"Oh, my goodness, Elizabeth. Think rationally. Just because you saw a woman in lavender fields and you think you smell lavender in our home, does not mean that there's a lavender-scented Native American dead woman haunting you!"

"Not haunting. Protecting", Elizabeth corrected him.

"With lavender?!"

"She smells like lavender because she used to pick it. That's why I keep smelling it here. She's been visiting me."

"Forgive me for thinking that as a Mountie I needed a gun. Maybe I should just go around with a sprig of lavender to protect and serve!"

"You don't need to act jealous just because she's taking care of me when you're not around!" Elizabeth yelled back.

"I give up. I'm going to bed. Are you coming, or are you and Bunny going to sit down for a cup of tea and cookies?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"Good morning", Elizabeth said pleasantly as she saw Jack enter the kitchen the next morning. When she had woken up an hour earlier, she had miserably realized that for the first time in their marriage, as she and Jack had laid under the sheets throughout the night, they hadn't touched each other even once.

Elizabeth was determined to put the strain of last evening's argument behind them. After a good night's sleep, she realized that she had been silly for believing in ghosts. Probably.

"You're up early", Jack said politely.

"I feel really good this morning. I know you have to do morning rounds today and I want to make you a big breakfast. How about some hash browns?" she offered happily.

"Sounds great."

"Is that the letter you got yesterday from your mother?" Jack asked, nodding to the envelope and sheets of paper on the table while he poured a cup of coffee.

"It is. I was just reading it again."

"What's new in Hamilton?"

"Mother wants me to come to Hamilton for the last month of my pregnancy and have the baby there. She says the doctors are much better and I can rest and be pampered at the mansion."

"Do you want to go?"

"Of course not. I'm staying with you!" she answered immediately. "Besides . . . "

"Besides, Bunny's here to keep you safe when you're in labor. That's what you were going to say." Jack finished her statement for her when her voice trailed off.

Elizabeth remained quiet and avoided looking at Jack, instead focusing intently on slicing an onion.

"Why don't you just take her with her to Hamilton?" Jack asked casually as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Take her with me? . . Do you think people can take ghosts with them?" Elizabeth asked in surprise as she looked up.

"Considering that she's just a figment of your over active imagination, it seems that you could take her anywhere", he said dryly as he picked up the newspaper and began reading.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes in frustration as she went to the pantry.

The shattering of the stoneware jug as it crashed to the floor caused Elizabeth to jump back in surprise.

"Elizabeth!" Jack came running into the small pantry. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I'm fine. I was just going to get some potatoes for the hash browns when the jug I use for bacon fat fell off the shelf," Elizabeth said with a perplexed look on her face.

Jack stooped down and began picking up the larger shards of stoneware, tossing them into a nearby wastebasket with one hand, while he used his other hand to push away Rip and Comet, who had darted into the room and were trying to lick up the bacon grease.

"Can you hand me a—-", Jack started to say something but quickly changed his instructions.

"Slowly back up", Jack ordered Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked up and saw what Jack had seen. A snake, easily four feet in length, was slithering among the potatoes.

"Slowly back up and get me my weapon" Jack ordered her as he kept his eyes on the reptile.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asked as she hurried back with Jack's pistol and handed it to him.

"A Massasauga Rattler"

"Are you sure?"

"Black spots on a tan body and -–".

Before Jack could finish, the snake made its distinctive rattle.

"Yep. I'm sure"

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Jack asked when he had finished taking care of the snake and cleaned up the broken jar. He walked into the front room and saw Elizabeth sitting quietly on the couch, which was kept pushed up against the back wall to make room for the students.

"I wasn't anywhere near the jar. I don't know how it fell off the shelf."

"You probably brushed into it by accident."

"I wasn't near it", Elizabeth repeated calmly.

"Then your heavy footsteps. Or opening the door and banging it against the wall caused the shelf to shudder. The jar was probably close to the edge and fell."

"No. No. and . . . No", Elizabeth responded evenly.

Jack took a deep sigh to calm himself before speaking. "I don't care what caused it to fall. I'm just glad it did or your hand would have been too close to the rattler. And we know what that means."

Elizabeth didn't say anything.

"I know that look in your eyes. You're thinking that maybe Bunny did this. Stop, Elizabeth. Don't even go there. There is no such thing as ghosts", Jack said emphatically.

"It just seems odd that the jar fell."

"A jar fell. Things happen. It doesn't mean that it was pushed off the shelf by a ghost named after a hopping mammal. It didn't fall off the shelf to keep you from getting bitten by a snake. For Pete's sake! . . . . I thought we discussed this. There is no Bunny. What's happened to you?!" Jack said with a shake of his head. "Where is my sensible smart wife?"

"I'm right here, Jack. Just think about it. Think about what's been happening. The eggs fell off the counter just at the right time for me to go outside and meet Lucy at a time when I desperately wanted a friend and -"

"So now your ghost is in charge of your social calendar?" Jack said mockingly as he interrupted her.

Elizabeth ignored his barb and continued.

"When I needed someone to move the heavy furniture, the boys saw me in the window, even though I had earlier closed the drapes. When I was frustrated and couldn't find a letter, it just blew in front of me-"

"It was the wind! You've seen wind before. It blows things. That's what wind does. And you probably had opened the drapes and just forgot."

Elizabeth looked at Jack skeptically and continued listing strange things that had happened.

"Something woke me up and saved me from the fire. I saw a woman when I was lost in the woods. Comet is acting strange."

"Comet is a cat! Cats always act strange. And since when do you base your judgment on how a cat acts?!", Jack countered.

"I keep smelling lavender! In the hotel. And here. We cleaned this whole place when we moved in and there's no lavender in here but I smell it! Don't you smell it?!"

"No, I don't! It's just your imagination. You have to be practical."

"Jack, it is not just my -–"

Elizabeth stopped talking when she noticed Jack's expression. He wasn't just frustrated with her. He wasn't angry at her. And he wasn't just worried about her.

He looked almost disappointed in himself. Tormented by something.

Elizabeth remained quiet as she watched Jack's shoulder slump in defeat.

"Elizabeth, I know you're pregnant. And I know we've gone through a lot lately, with the . . . the shooting incident in Hope Valley. And then moving here. And living in a store instead of a real house. Not having a schoolhouse. Away from your family and Abigail. But please, Elizabeth. Please be sensible. I'm worried about you and the baby if you believe in this. Please just be sensible", he pleaded with her.

"Jack, I'm fine."

"I've been thinking about this. This is because of me", he said as he ran his hand through his hair and looked down.

"This has nothing to do with you", Elizabeth said in confusion.

"It has everything to do with me! You're believing in this ghost because I haven't done a good enough job of protecting you in our marriage", he said guiltily.

"What are you talking about?"

"That's why you want to believe that there's a spirit protecting you. Because I didn't. I didn't protect you before." Jack said, looking stricken. "You said it earlier, that I'm not around to protect you all the time."

"Jack, please don't think that. I totally trust you. I didn't mean that", Elizabeth said earnestly.

"This is all my fault. I didn't protect you before with Emily Gregorson. When you got shot. When we had to run. When you fell in the river. I let you down. You don't think I can keep you and our baby safe."

"You're not to blame for all that trouble before. You've protected me plenty times ever since I first came to Coal Valley You saved me from Mr. Spurlock and then from the Toliver gang", she reminded him.

When Jack looked up at her miserably, she quickly continued. "And the stuff that happened later, that wasn't your fault. And besides that's past us. This is something different. I sense something. I know it's hard for you to understand, and I know it's not rational. But I feel something. I don't know what or why. Maybe it's because I'm pregnant. Maybe I'm just more sensitive. But something's here."

Jack looked at his pregnant irrational wife and let out sigh. "I'll just grab an apple or something for breakfast. I'll see you tonight."

Jack didn't bother coming home for lunch. And dinner was tense. He tried to pretend that he was fine with Elizabeth's believing in a ghost, but it was obvious to her that he wasn't. He was hurting and concerned.

As they cleaned up the dinner dishes, Elizabeth finally broached the subject.

"Jack, I'm sorry. I love you. And I trust in you to keep our family safe. I'm sorry. Really I am. "

"What do you say we turn in earlier tonight?" Jack asked with a weak smile.

Elizabeth could tell that he wanted to believe her.

She could also tell that he wasn't sure that she was being honest with him about trusting him to keep them safe.

"Let me go close up the front drapes", Elizabeth said as she returned his smile.

Ignore it. Just ignore, she told herself.

But no matter how hard she tried, Elizabeth couldn't ignore the scent of lavender as she walked through the front room after pulling the drapes closed and making sure the door was locked.

She also couldn't ignore the fact that she was beginning to trust Bunny to keep her and the baby safe.

The rain beat down on the roof and the wind blew the drops of water against the window pane making tapping sounds.

Elizabeth lay next to Jack listening to the thunder getting closer. She remembered something her mother had told her on her wedding day. "Men like to feel needed. No matter how much Jack loves that you're an independent strong woman, he still wants to feel that he can protect you. That you need him", she had told Elizabeth.

When a bolt of lightning slashed through the air, illuminating the room for a split second, Elizabeth braced herself for the crack of thunder.

As the noise shattered the quiet in the room, she quickly moved closer to Jack, pressing her body up against his like a small ship trying to seek shelter in a cove.

Immediately, Jack turned onto his side, and laid an arm across her. "I've got you", he said reassuredly as he held her tight. "I've got you."

Okay, so I'm not really scared. But a little white lie never hurt anyone! And it makes him feel good to comfort me, she realized as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Jack holding her.

It's just a silly town folktale. I don't need a ghost to protect me. Or do I? she worried as she fell asleep in Jack's arms.

Up next: Chapter 6