CHAPTER 7
- Where should I help?
Lee looked at Bill and then at me with wide eyes as if I were a ghost, and just pointed:
- There!
Nobody understood anything, but I heard Bill saying hours later to Lee:
- He hits the hammer just like him, look at the hard work;
- It really looks like Noah building the ark, said Lee laughing.
Bill raised his eyebrows and muttered:
- If I hadn't seen the burial, I'd say...
- But we saw Bill, unfortunately we saw that funeral.
- I know... I know... I know... He rubbed his hands in his hair, starting Bill's head to boil with life's coincidences.
It was a strange night, seeing that policeman there working non-stop until dawn messed with Bill's psyche.
And so it happened every night, he was always the last one to arrive and he only left at dawn with Bill and Lee, he did everything, he didn't open his mouth to say anything, while everyone rested or had lunch he stayed there alone working, but he never stopped.
Four weeks passed, every day without stopping, everyone worked on building that house. It was a beautiful house with five bedrooms, and three bathrooms inside the house with plumbing and even one for her in the room with a bathtub, the kitchen was huge where Bill and Lee made a table just like the one she wanted, with fourteen chairs, because she said all her family and friends there would be welcome as long as they brought the food, because she was terrible in the kitchen, poor Jack ate a lot of burnt or raw food and never complained, but after the pregnancy everyone knew she had intensive course with Abgail and Rose and other women of the city and ended up doing wonders in the kitchen, according to her baby could not starve.
Today was Sunday, a beautiful sunny Sunday, everyone heading to church with their families, Philip knew that today he would see that young widow up close again. He never heard her voice again, or saw her up close after that first pass through the town of Hope Valley months ago, when she fell into his arms. Just thinking about that day, he could already smell the lavender coming from her.
But now the house was ready and would be handed over to her after the celebration of God's word. He knew that Abgail, had made snacks for everyone, Bill would be responsible for distracting her and taking her by wagon to her new home. In... that if he managed to retain her, because everyone knew that she always after the celebration ran and climbed on her sergeant horse and headed home, she still rode a horse even at five months pregnant and all that belly.
Sometimes Philip stood at a distance watching Elizabeth climb onto her sergeant horse. It was a beautiful animal, all black, a very well-kept coat and always shiny, it had a great mane, it was her late husband's horse, he had only seen it from afar, whenever he went to the stable the horse was not there, because she often used it and left it in a neighbor's barn next to the germinated house to make it easier for her. This woman was a true horsewoman, even pregnant and being a woman he could see from the way she rode that she was great and had a synchronization with the animal that many experienced riders could envy.
During the time they spent in the construction work of Elizabeth's house, he heard several stories and facts of her life, in that city the people really loved Jack Thorton and especially they loved Elizabeth Thorton, he discovered that Jack who taught Elizabeth to ride, who she had never been on an animal before, but no one could ever say she wasn't born on top of a horse, until dismounting him with him still riding like the mountie he taught and the most amazing thing she learned perfectly. He learned how she arrived in the city, how stubborn she was, how persistent and how she fought in the mine to help her friends. There was also the part of the confusion between Rosemary Leveaux when this girl arrived in the city of Hope Valle after her fiancé Jack, thus disturbing his and Elizabeth's courtship and this crazy woman came after the fiancé after breaking up with him two years ago, on that day Philip looked at Lee and had to apologize because he started laughing and couldn't stop all night. He learned how the couple faced everything for love, got married and it all ended up in a crazy accident, ending Jack's life and their dream of a happy family. It was at this time that Philip took advantage of this and sent a telegram to his superior, Commander Collins, inquiring about a few things about this young Mrs Thorton...
"Like Jack being a good policeman, full of medals of honor, killed in the line of duty, honoring his uniform, how come his widow still hasn't received her pension? Why wasn't a mountie well prepared to break the news to that young widow's death? How many other mountie widows or mothers have had this same problem? Why a police officer with no training to deliver news like this, how was he assigned to this mission? And what was headquarters going to do for this woman who was also expecting Mountie Jack Thorton's child?"
We were all busy these weeks ago, it was a lot of burglaries, it got bigger and bigger, now it was three to five houses or farms every day, Bill and Philip and the young mountie all on work all over the region and still couldn't get it, it form of the robberies there were many people, because the robberies were all at the same time, and always two to four bandits in each, there had to be a great leader, and that leader seemed to want to put fear in the city. They were all tired, because in addition to the bandits, commanding young mountie was a lot of work and both he and Philip had an accumulated paperwork that would take days to be filled out and resolved, but just knowing that they managed to make Elizabeth's dream come true and that would be a reason to seeing her smile already made Philip's heart lighter.
