Nathan awoke at the dining room table with his head laying on books. He must have fallen asleep there last night. Nathan groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. Yesterday didn't go as planned. With all the women out of the lawsuit, Vincent deposed Fred. While Fred was a good witness, Nathan could see where Vincent was going with his questioning. Since there wasn't a written agreement between Lucas and Fred, Lucas was allowed to raise the rent. Luckily for Nathan, he had other witnesses who also had verbal agreements with Lucas which showed a pattern of verbal agreements.
Allie came back inside after doing chores.
"You look awful." Allie said.
"You're so kind." Nathan said.
Allie shrugged her shoulders. She went over to the stove and put the pan on. She cracked a few eggs.
Nathan rubbed his eyes.
"What are you doing at school today?" Nathan asked.
"We are going on a field trip to the woods. You signed the permission slip, remember?" Allie said.
The last few weeks have been such a blur. Allie could have put a paper to commit him to an asylum in front of him and he would have signed it.
"Oh yeah." Nathan said.
Allie put the eggs on two plates and gave one to Nathan. Allie sat down across from Nathan.
"Who are you deposing today?" Allie asked.
"Lucas." Nathan said.
"Why do you have to depose people before a trial?" Allie asked.
Nathan took a bite of the eggs.
"In a deposition, they are under oath. So, they can't or shouldn't lie under oath. So, when I question Lucas at trial, if he changes his story or lies, I can go back to that deposition to try to catch him in a lie." Nathan said.
"That's smart." Allie said.
Nathan smiled.
"But the other attorney could question your client and do the same thing at trial?" Allie said.
"Yes. But if I know they are going to lie under oath, I cannot have them testify." Nathan said.
"Will I be able to watch you at trial?" Allie asked.
"It is going to be a bench trial meaning the Judge will be deciding instead of a jury." Nathan said.
"How come?" Allie asked.
"Because it would be difficult to find anyone in town who wasn't biased against Lucas. Judge Avery is a fair man and isn't easily swayed." Nathan said.
Allie nodded.
"And yes, you can watch me during trial." Nathan said.
Allie smiled. Nathan looked at his watch and excused himself from the table. He went to clean himself up. Today he would be wearing a gray suit. Allie walked by his room.
"I like you better without a suit." Allie said.
"Me too." Nathan said. Nathan found himself missing his suspenders the last couple days. When he saw himself in a suit, he didn't recognize himself.
Allie headed to school and Nathan headed to the Judge's office. The sky was gray and it seemed windy out. When Nathan had arrived the Judge's office, Nathan's witness had arrived. It was another man who Lucas had a verbal agreement with about not raising the rent. Lucas would be deposed after lunch.
For the rest of the morning, more of Nathan's clients were deposed. At noon, they broke for lunch. Nathan headed over to the café. The wind was starting to pick up. Nathan looked over at the woods and saw the trees swaying. Nathan went over to the Mountie office. There was a sign on the door that he was out for the day. Judge Avery was also out of town. Nathan wanted someone to go up to the woods to check on Elizabeth and the kids.
Nathan saw Lee and went over to him.
"Lee. Is there any way you can go up the woods and check on Elizabeth and the kids?" Nathan asked.
"I have to make a delivery." Lee said.
"I'm just worried about Allie." Nathan said. And Elizabeth, Nathan thought to himself.
"Elizabeth will protect the children. I wouldn't worry about it." Lee said walking away.
Nathan went over to the café and grabbed lunch to go. He went back to the Judge's office. He pulled out his questions that he was going to ask Lucas. Vincent and Lucas arrived shortly after Nathan.
"Is this going to take long?" Lucas asked with an annoying tone.
"It will take as lone as it takes." Nathan said.
"Easy gentlemen." Vincent said.
After everyone was ready, Nathan started his questioning.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Bouchard. I just want to start off with some background information." Nathan said.
"Go ahead." Lucas responded.
"Before moving to Hope Valley, can you give me all the places you have lived?" Nathan asked.
"I moved around a quite a bit. The list is going to be long." Lucas said smugly.
"That's fine." Nathan said.
"Before Hope Valley, I spent time in New York City, before New York City, I spent time in New Orlean's. Then I headed back to Canada and spent time in Winnipeg, Montreal and Va- "Lucas stopped. He took a sip of water.
"Vancouver?" Nathan asked.
Lucas drank from his glass.
"No. And then as a child my parents and I spent time in Venice." Lucas said changing the subject.
Nathan annotated a note to look into Vancouver.
"What brought you to Hope Valley?" Nathan asked.
"The saloon." Lucas said.
"How did you hear about the saloon being for sale?" Nathan asked.
"An associate of mine passed by this town in his travels and saw the saloon for sale. He called me up and told me there was a business opportunity." Lucas said.
The wind was blowing loud and could be heard outside the windows. This distracted Nathan.
"But in Hope Valley? Wouldn't that be a small town?" Nathan asked.
"Small towns can be made into big towns." Lucas said. Nathan nodded looking out the window.
"And what made you decide to buy the land where the row houses sit on." Nathan asked looking out the window.
Vincent looked out the window to see what Nathan was looking at outside.
"A business opportunity." Lucas said looking out the window.
Suddenly, there was a big boom. A tree had fallen over outside.
"The wind is strong today." Vincent said.
"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to stop proceedings." Nathan said.
"Why?" Vincent asked.
"My niece is out in the woods." Nathan said.
"Nathan, we agreed that Mr. Bouchard would only be deposed one day. If you leave now, you are done questioning him." Vincent said.
Nathan wanted to catch Lucas in a lie. He wanted to beat Lucas. But Allie and Elizabeth were in those woods.
"I'm done questioning." Nathan said. Nathan took off his jacket and left his briefcase and went outside to Newton. He untied Newton and they headed toward the woods.
Nathan rode Newton faster than he ever had to make it up to the woods. When Nathan got up to the woods, he dismounted Newton. He started looking around and calling out for Allie and Elizabeth. After calling out, there was a soft response. Nathan kept yelling and went toward the soft response until the response got louder. He finally saw Elizabeth and Emily crouched down by a tree.
"Grab on." Nathan said putting out both his arms. Emily and Elizabeth grabbed on.
"The others are at a cabin nearby." Elizabeth yelled and pointed toward the direction of the cabin. Nathan walked with Anna and Elizabeth back to the cabin and went inside. He let Elizabeth and Anna go.
"Uncle Nathan!" Allie shouted and came over to hug him.
"Is everyone okay?" Nathan asked.
The kids nodded their heads.
"We made to the cabin before the wind picked up." Elizabeth said.
"And I made the stupid decision to go out to find an arrowhead I had found." Emily said with her head down.
"And you went to go look for her?" Nathan asked Elizabeth sharply.
"I wasn't going to just leave her out there." Elizabeth said back.
Nathan nodded.
Everyone waited for the wind to die down. Once it died down, the kids went outside until it was just Nathan and Elizabeth.
Nathan had his arms crossed.
"What's wrong?" Elizabeth asked.
"You are one of the smartest people in town but going after Emily was one of the dumbest things." Nathan said.
"I couldn't just leave her out there!" Elizabeth said raising her voice. Emily is a smart girl; she would have found a place to hide or waited for someone to come rescue her." Nathan said.
"That was not a risk I was willing to take." Elizabeth yelled.
"What about my niece and the other children. What if something happened to them?" Nathan yelled.
"They were safe in the cabin." Elizabeth yelled. Nathan scoffed.
"What is this really about?" Elizabeth asked.
"You want to know what it is really about? I had to stop a deposition to come up here because there was no one else in town who cared enough. Sometimes I wish I could have my old life back where I didn't have to care about anyone." Nathan yelled.
Elizabeth looked toward the door. Nathan turned and saw Allie standing there. Tears started forming in her eyes.
"Allie, wait." Nathan said. Allie ran off. Nathan sighed.
"Maybe you should go back to your old life." Elizabeth said walking past Nathan.
Nathan went back to the Judge's office to gather his belongings. As he rode Newton back all he could think about was how much he had hurt Allie. It was his decision to stop the deposition. Allie is his world now. There were going to be a lot of opportunities to get Lucas.
When Nathan was putting Newton back in the stable, he saw Buttercup was gone. Allie wasn't home. And who could blame her? But Nathan knew Allie always went when she was upset. Nathan mounted Newton and headed toward the cemetery.
Just as Nathan expected, Allie was sitting in front of her mother's grave. As Nathan got closer, Allie looked at Nathan.
"Go away! I don't want to talk to you." Allie yelled.
"Allie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean those things." Nathan said.
"Liar! Just go back to Hamilton. I'll go live with the Coulter's." Allie said.
Nathan stood about ten feet away from Allie.
"I can't do that Allie. You're too important to me now." Nathan said.
"I'm just an inconvenience. You never cared about me. You only sent Christmas and birthday presents. I was just your sister's kid." Allie said.
Nathan walked closer.
"You are right. I never came to visit. And I only saw you as my sister's kid. I sent Christmas and birthday presents because that's what you are supposed to do, not because I cared." Nathan said. He got close to Allie.
"And ten months ago, I would have seen you as an inconvenience to my life." Nathan said.
"She's the only one who truly loved me." Allie said looking at Colleen's grave.
Nathan squatted down to Allie.
"Ten months ago, I thought my life was perfect. But I was wrong. It wasn't perfect because you weren't in it. What you saw in the cabin was the old me. The old me who didn't care about anyone. But today, when a tree fell near the Judge's office, all I could think about was you. I was scared that you were hurt. If something ever happened to you, it would tear me up inside." Nathan said.
Allie wiped her tears.
"Uncle Nathan from ten months ago seems like a jerk." Allie said.
Nathan laughed.
"He just didn't have his priorities straight." Nathan said.
Allie hugged Nathan.
"You are never an inconvenience. I'm sorry what I said." Nathan said.
"It's okay Uncle Nathan. But I don't think I'm the only one you need to apologize to." Allie said.
Nathan knew Allie meant Elizabeth.
After the cemetery, Allie went home and Nathan headed towards Elizabeth's house. He was going to have a big slice of humble pie. Nathan knocked on Elizabeth's door with his heart in his hand.
Elizabeth opened the door.
"Hi." Elizabeth said.
"Hi." Nathan said.
"What are you doing here?" Elizabeth asked.
"I was hoping we could talk." Nathan said softly.
Elizabeth opened the door wide and Nathan went inside.
Elizabeth closed the door.
"If you are here to call me stupid again, I'm not in the mood." Elizabeth said.
"I'm here to apologize." Nathan said.
Elizabeth didn't say anything but stared at him.
"I'm sorry about what I said at the cabin. You saved Emily's life. I would have done the same thing if it was Allie." Nathan said.
Elizabeth softened.
"How is she?" Elizabeth asked.
"We talked. I told her that sometimes Uncle Hamilton Nathan comes out." Nathan said.
Elizabeth gave a little chuckle.
"I know that happens to me sometimes." Elizabeth said.
"I was just scared that Allie was hurt. And you." Nathan said with a low voice.
"Thank you for coming to our rescue. I heard Bill and the Constable were out of town. And to be honest, I was scared in the woods. Until you showed up." Elizabeth said.
"Elizabeth. I just want you to be safe. Because… you matter to me." Nathan said. He let out a sigh of relief.
Elizabeth stared at him with a surprised look.
"Goodnight." Nathan said walking to the door.
"Goodnight." Elizabeth said.