CHAPTER 6

Bill, only now standing next to him, replied grimly:

- Not a big place for a millionaire's daughter, not at all for a Thatcher princess as she was known, I've frequented her mansion and this isn't even half her room, but this here was planned by her late husband Jack, it was done for her, and when she saw the drawing that Jack made she was amazed with this project, it was their dream for the Thorton clan. Money for that girl is nothing police. You should have seen her days after she got here, fighting to get the widows of miners killed in the mine evicted.

Philip, going, with hands on his stomach, said amidst his laughter:

- I imagine the scene, a little princess from the big city talking and complaining without knowing what to do besides scandals.

- That's where you're wrong! said Bill very seriously as if he remembered the time. She first looked for something in the books, tried to claim rights by law, but when Henry Gowen who at the time prevented her from doing something. There's just so you know, Henry over there, he was pretty mean back then, but Our Lady Thatcher asked Jack for an outfit and she...

Then Henry Gowen who was listening to everything, entered the conversation, because he thought he was the best to explain what happened.

- I was in charge of the coal mine, I had given a period of fifteen days for the women to leave their homes, after all their husbands had died and I needed to place other families, I needed workers. Abgail and eleven other women made a deal with me, they entered the mine, they had to clear the tunnel that had fallen killing the forty-seven men, that is, they would do the work of their dead husbands and children in exchange for the house. They had already been there for a week, they were exhausted from so much tiredness. It was a useless service and I knew she wouldn't get it, even miners with experience would have a lot of difficulty in this service, that's when my problem started, when the children appealed to the teacher's love, they started talking to her under love and sadness at the being forced to leave town, and that was the day that Elizabeth Thatcher took a big risk, sent the children home and didn't come back until a week ago, then she went to Jack and asked for an outfit from him and so she went into the mine and went to work with women. You wouldn't believe it, but she organized all the women who were inside the mine and when I saw the women of the city, even though I wasn't related to any of the dead miners, they were there working, because if the princess could enter the mine and work, they would too. . It was a great team effort, she made the women organize themselves and they worked twenty-four hour shifts and managed to clear the tunnel within the deadline, that is, I had to give the houses with their deeds to these women.

The policeman's eyebrow rose, as if formulating a question, so the huge scar that hid beneath his large, bushy beard turned out to be worse than it was.

- And that good cop, Jack Thorton, left women in the mine? At risk of life?

Bill added, followed by much laughter from all the men present:

- Well, he couldn't do anything in the law to stop women, and so Elizabeth just said neither them nor me, and so more laughter was heard.

"Sir Officer, if that's all you wanted to know, we need to be done here for today," Lee said. Because we've got a Thorton baby coming soon and we want them to have a new home.

On the way home, Philip, he was thinking about everything that was heard there at the work, could it be that he was so wrong about Mrs. Thorton? Did he judge her unfairly? What was it about her that made everyone fall in love with her? If she was so correct, even him as a mountie had to honor the mountie code, protecting and helping a fallen brother's family.

The next morning Philip dismounted his horse and watched over the hill. It seemed that he had formed a habit, waking up at dawn, chopping wood at school, lighting the fire and leaving quickly so that no one caught him in the act. It had been a week since that happened and he would never forget the sight of seeing the look of astonishment on Elizabeth's face, every time she arrived and saw the fire and the heated school. It had been a month and a half since police officer Philip had been in Hope Valle, he could see that she was transforming in her pregnancy, she was beautiful, I always saw her smile and her love for the children, but whenever she was alone she caressed her belly and talked to her puppy, but her look was a lost look. He never saw her in the city, it was funny that, as she did her shopping or did her appointments, it started to hammer in his head. Guys, how beautiful she is, it seems that she has an aura under her, it seems like a magnet pulling me to look at her. Philip, came down from the hill, frowning, very angry with himself for letting this woman dominate his mind and thoughts, he went on his rounds and decided he would not fall for her sorcery, dear teacher. I'm not like Jack Thorton and I'm not like those men in this town you dominate with a simple smile. And so Philip spent the whole day in a bad mood. In the afternoon Philip and Bill went on patrols further south of Hope Valle, several robberies were happening in houses and even aggression against residents had been happening in the last few days, they needed to look at the more isolated farms, because the risk of these thieves killing or hurting someone now it was very strong, that same day three more young mountie arrived in the city to help, because according to the general command in Hamilton, there were many gangs in that region trying to escape and making riots wherever they went. All that they fought in the territories of the North, where robberies, deaths, rapes and violence against children and women were enormous, waging that war to defend those people, now the small towns on the borders were suffering because of a corrupt judge who released those gangs and various thugs. At night, after a good bath and dinner, Philip started to get impatient, he didn't know what was going on, but it seemed that there was an animal gnawing at him inside, sending him looking for something, and that's how he went to the stable and got Duke his horse, and rode off aimlessly, let his horse lead him, for it seemed that he, too, was anxious to go somewhere.

- What the hell am I doing here? He spoke aloud to himself.

Not even he, a trained mountie, realized where he was going with his horse. Lots of lights in that place today, they came well prepared, and there was a lot of movement down there, it looked like there were more people today than there were that night, getting closer, he noticed that Bill, Frank, Lee, Henry, Carson, and several parents of students they were there. Plus several locksmiths and bar workers, all working towards the construction of a dead mountie's wife's house. When he realized, he was already beside Lee and Bill, taking the hammer and asked: