Rosemary and Allie had only been walking for a few minutes when they heard another car coming. Their immediate response was to hide, thinking the robbers had come back but Rosemary recognized Henry's car before she and Allie could get off the road. Henry pulled the car to a stop and Lee jumped out.
After hugging Rosemary he asked them if they were hurt.
"No, but three men came with Abigail's mother unconscious in the back of the car. They took the car and Abigail. Elizabeth stayed behind with Samantha and Allie and I started the walk back. They're only a few minutes back by car," Rosemary explained.
Nathan and Bill who had followed behind on their horses saw the parked car and galloped the remaining distance. Nathan dismounted Newton and Allie ran over to hug them. She went through the same explanation Rosemary had given Lee and Nathan immediately got back on his horse and rode quickly to the remaining women. Rosemary and Allie got in the car with Henry and Lee and drove to pick up the rest of them with Bill following behind on his horse.
"Nathan!" Elizabeth called from the side of the road seeing the man approach. She carefully left Samantha and all of their things laying in the grass and ran to embrace Nathan.
"I was so worried about you, are you hurt?" he asked, pulling away to look at her.
"I'm fine. Are Allie and Rosemary okay? Did you find Abigail?"
"They're fine. They should be here with the car in a minute. Not yet. The men you ran into are bank robbers. They've hit quite a few towns in the area. They took her because she has access to the bank. How is Abigail's mother doing?"
"Samantha is still unconscious. I am worried, Nathan. What if she dies and Abigail can't be with her?"
"Let's just hope we can get her to the infirmary and she recovers. I don't think that they are going to hurt Abigail, they just want the money. We will find her," Nathan said, trying to calm her fears.
Before Elizabeth could respond they heard the car coming and pulled apart. While Bill and Henry lifted Samantha into the car, Nathan informed Lee of his plan to catch the robbers and keep Abigail safe. With Samantha still unconscious resting on Rosemary's lap in the car and Elizabeth and Allie safe next to them with all of their bags, Nathan and Bill rushed off on their horses to put their plan into action.
Henry drove the car as fast as he could without Samantha getting more hurt. From Elizabeth's brief examination of her injuries, it seemed like someone had knocked her out. She suspected Samantha's arm may be broken, and she had a bump on her head from the fall.
They breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the Hope Valley water tower in the distance. Allie hadn't let go of Elizabeth since they had been reunited. She knew that Allie was worried about her father because she was worried about Nathan too. The priority when they reached their small town was to get Samantha to the infirmary.
"What happened?" Carson asked as he saw Lee and Henry carry her into the infirmary with Rosemary, Allie, and Elizabeth following behind.
After explaining the situation to Carson he started to treat her. I'm going to set her arm, and ice the bump on her forehead in intervals. Hopefully, the swelling goes down, and then we'll just have to wait and see if she wakes up.
"Thank you, Carson," Lee thanked the doctor. Turning his attention to Henry he asked, "Can you go get Cody? I think he's in the cafe."
"Sure," Henry agreed. "Should I tell him everything that happened?"
Lee nodded, "I think he should know. Elizabeth, Nathan told me that Jack is there with Clara so I'm sure you want to see him." In the panic of the last hour, Elizabeth had forgotten to ask Nathan where her son was.
Noticing Elizabeth's reaction to this information Rosemary rested a comforting hand on her arm. "It's okay, Elizabeth. It was a chaotic moment and he's perfectly fine."
"Make sure you walk as quickly as possible without drawing too much attention. It would be best if they don't know you made it back to town," Lee reminded them.
"We'll be safe," Rosemary promised and kissed her husband's cheek before leaving. "You be safe too."
Reaching the back entrance of the cafe they walked in without knocking. The less time they spent outside, the lower the chance the robbers had seen them.
Clara was giving Jack a snack when they came in. "Oh, I've been worried about you."
Jack ran over to Elizabeth and Allie. "Mama, Awee," the toddler said excitedly and held his arms up to be picked up. With one hand still holding on to Allie, Elizabeth picked her son up and placed him on her hip.
Noticing that someone was missing from their group Clara asked, "Where's Abigail?"
"Let's go sit down," Rosemary suggested. Clara followed Rosemary to the chairs while Elizabeth, Allie, and Jack sat together on the settee. Once they were seated Rosemary began explaining, "There are a few men who are trying to rob the bank. They had knocked Abigail's mother unconscious and used her to bribe Abigail into going with them. Samantha is in the infirmary."
"Is Samantha going to recover? Is Abigail okay?" she asked, worried about her mother-in-law and honorary grandmother.
"We hope so. Nathan and Bill are looking for Abigail," Henry said, standing behind them. "Where's Cody?"
"He's in his room doing homework."
"Do you mind if I go up and tell him?" Henry asked.
"Go ahead. Thank you," she said gratefully.
Henry knocked on Cody's door and heard the boy invite him in.
"Hello, Mr. Gowen. What are you doing here?" Cody asked bluntly, turning away from his homework.
After explaining the situation to him he put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We have to hope that your mom will be okay. She won't put herself in unnecessary danger, and she won't risk not being able to see you again." Henry said, comforting himself as much as he was comforting Cody. "Do you want to go see your grandmother now?" he asked.
Cody nodded and hugged him. "Thank you, Mr. Gowen." Henry was taken aback by Cody's embrace at first but realized that the boy was struggling even more than he was. Cody pulled away a few moments later and they walked back downstairs.
"We're going to go to the infirmary," Henry informed them, noticing that Jesse had entered the cafe and was now aware of the situation.
Clara got up from her chair and hugged Cody. "Do you mind if I come too?" she asked.
"Of course, Clara," Cody said.
"I think it's better if I stay here," Jesse told his wife. "Let us know if anything happens and please be safe."
"We will," Clara assured him as they left.
Jesse turned to the rest of the group and excused himself to the dining room.
As soon as the door closed behind him Allie broke down. She had tried to be strong and help when they were walking back and then she hadn't wanted to cry in front of Cody. Now that they were alone she quietly sobbed into Elizabeth's shoulder as her teacher tried to soothe her. Her crying slowed in a few minutes and she slowly pulled her tear-streaked face up. "I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I got your blouse wet," Allie apologized.
"It's not a big deal, Allie," she said, brushing off the issue and handing her a handkerchief. "I'm sorry our shopping trip was ruined."
"I had so much fun before…" Allie trailed off. "I'm worried about Dad. What if he gets hurt?"
Elizabeth knew how she was feeling. She was worried about Nathan too. "We have to hope that he'll be okay. I know it's hard but we have to trust that he'll come home to us."
After a moment of silence, Rosemary suddenly spoke. "Allie, did you know that my dad was a Mountie too?"
"Really?" Allie turned to face Rosemary.
Rosemary looked over at Elizabeth in a silent question. She didn't want to tell Allie about her relationship with Jack if her best friend didn't approve. Seeing Elizabeth's nod, Rosemary began, "I grew up with Elizabeth's late husband. His father was a mountie too."
Allie was shocked. "You grew up with Jack's dad?" she asked, looking over at Jack sitting in Elizabeth's lap.
She nodded her head in confirmation, "We knew each other since we were babies." Rosemary decided it would be better not to tell the young girl about her also being engaged to him.
"How did I never hear about that?" Allie questioned.
Rosemary sighed, "I don't talk about my family a lot. I haven't seen my parents in years, they live in New York City."
"New York City!" Allie exclaimed. "I've always wanted to go there."
"You'll have to go sometime. It truly is magical," she told her. "Anyway, Allie. I know how it feels to be worried for your father when he's gone on a dangerous mission. The fear that he won't come home. I'm sure it was even scarier for you when you didn't have as many people in your life."
Allie nodded her head in agreement and squeezed Elizabeth tighter. She had always been worried about what would happen to her if her Dad couldn't be there for her.
"I know it's difficult but you have to trust that he'll do everything in his power to come home to you," Rosemary said. She had been told similar things when she was younger. "When I was about your age my father went out on a mission to find a very dangerous gang. I worried about him constantly for an entire month. I couldn't do my schoolwork and I refused to play with my friends." Seeing Allie watching her intently, she continued. "Finally my mom came to me and reminded me that my dad wouldn't want me to stop living my life just because he was away. I decided that I would start doing fun things so that I would have lots of stories to tell him when he came home. That's when I discovered my love of acting. It didn't stop me from worrying about him, but I was still able to have fun."
"I didn't know that Rosemary," Elizabeth said.
"It still brings back some hard memories from my childhood. I don't think I've even told Lee that story," she explained.
"Thank you for telling us, Aunt Rosemary. Do you think Aunt Abigail would mind if we use her kitchen to bake cookies for them?" Allie asked.
"I think making cookies would be a perfect way to distract us. And I'm sure your Dad and Aunt Abigail would enjoy some freshly baked cookies," Elizabeth told her.
"Good work finding those hoofprints, Nathan," Bill complimented the mountie, looking at the path leading into the woods.
"These criminals have been very careless so far. We can have someone drive these cars back tomorrow," Nathan said, gesturing toward the cars they had found on the side of the road.
"What's the next part of your plan?" Bill asked.
"I think we should follow these tracks. My guess is that they'll wait until sunset before they make a move. I asked Lee to gather a group of people to guard the bank from the shadows. Hopefully, we can catch them in the act and make sure that Abigail is safe."
"Unlock the door," the man demanded. They had brought Abigail to the back door of the bank so that no one would see them. Abigail fumbled with the key in the lock so that they were out in the open for longer. "Faster," he said coldly. The lock finally clicked and they walked in closing the door behind them but forgetting to lock it again.
Now that they were safely inside the building, one of the men put the gun down on the table. "Now open the safe," he barked.
Abigail shakily turned to make her way to the safe. She was more worried about her mother and Cody than the criminals. If the plan didn't work she was confident that Nathan and Bill would find them eventually. Starting to twist the lock she heard the men laughing behind her. "They're celebrating way too soon," she thought. Opening the door of the safe the men were so mesmerized by the stacks of money that they weren't paying attention.
"Hand the money over," one of the men snarled.
Reaching into the safe Abigail pulled something out but it wasn't money. Spinning on her heel she glared at the criminals. "Hands up," she demanded, pointing her hidden gun at them.
The man closer to the table just laughed, "You wouldn't shoot us," he taunted her. Little did they know that Abigail was deadly accurate. If she wanted to shoot them, she could do it easily.
"Oh yes, I would. Hands up," she repeated in an even more menacing tone than before. Still reaching for his gun Abigail fired a shot. It hit right where she aimed. The table cracked and the weapon fell to the floor. Seeing how accurate her shot was, the men threw their hands in the air in defeat. Nathan and Bill rushed in, guns drawn, after hearing the shot. They found Abigail still pointing the gun at the criminals. "I warned you not to mess with me," she fumed.
"Abigail, we're going to cuff them. You can lower the gun, now" Nathan said calmly.
She lowered the gun but didn't loosen her grip on it. She continued glaring at the men who had kidnapped her as Nathan and Bill put them in handcuffs. While they were making their way to the door to escort the men to jail, Henry came running in. "We'll leave you two alone," Nathan said as he and Bill took the prisoners outside.
Abigail ran right into Henry's arms. She knew more than ever that Henry Gowen was very important to her. "I was so worried about you," he admitted to her after a minute.
"I know. I was worried too."
"Did they hurt you?" he asked her, pulling back just enough to look at her.
"No. I'm perfectly fine," she assured him. Neither spoke as they slowly leaned closer together. Breaking the spell Abigail asked, "How's my mother doing?"
"Cody, Clara, and I were in there when I heard the gunshot. She's still unconscious. Carson treated her injuries, all we can do now is wait," Henry explained.
"You stayed with my family while they were taking care of my mother?" Abigail asked, bewildered.
"Yes," he replied slowly. "I didn't want to leave them alone and I was trying to help Clara comfort Cody," he rambled, unsure if Abigail was relieved or upset to find out he had stayed with them.
Abigail cut him off before he could apologize. "Thank you, Henry. That means more to me than you know. Will you walk me into town? I want to finish this conversation, I just don't think this is the right place or time."
"Of course, Abigail. You've had a long day, I'm sure you want to see your family."
They didn't need words as they walked down the main street arm in arm. They were just happy to be together. Right before they reached the infirmary, Cody ran out. "Mom!" he screamed in relief.
Cody ran to embrace Abigail, "I was so worried about you."
Abigail squeezed onto her son tightly, "I'm okay now, Cody."