Chapter 15
A few days later I arrive in Hope Valley, a car with two people, with fine clothes, had an air of royalty, looking at everyone in the square as if people were insignificant.
The men proceeded to the bar, which asked for two rooms for two days, they came to sort things out quickly.
After some conversations at the bar, they got in the car and headed towards the school.
- Who does she think she is to humiliate the Thatcher family like that, bringing a bastard to life? A son of that incompetent, insolent little policeman.
- Charles, you already know! We'll take Beth from here to Hamilton to get this bastard, that freak, out. And from there, we'll go to the registry office to make your wedding official.
- Do you think she will agree, Mr. William? I don't want to see her suffer too much, but she is acting foolish and rebellious by staying here and having a dead soldier's child while she can be well and with someone of my lineage. I can give her wealth and all the children she wants.
Meanwhile, in the city, Ned ran to the police station and not finding anyone, he went to look for Lee and Henry in the lumberyard, where he explained that William Thatcher and Charles Kensington III, were in the city looking for Elizabeth. A rush began there, as everyone in town knew that family, Elizabeth was almost seven months pregnant and didn't need anything else to worry her.
The students said goodbye and ran out, all greeting the teacher with affection and enthusiasm. Elizabeth was at her table arranging her basket, when she heard footsteps and quickly turned around, thinking it was Bill, when she had the biggest surprise.
- Dad, what are you doing here?
- Hi, Charles, I hope all is well with you?
- Willian looked at Beth, his eyes narrowing more and more, realizing that huge belly, how dare she ruin her body and her life with that worm son of Jack Thorton.
- We're fine Beth; but now you go with us. Enough of this nonsense in this town of coal dust, people walking around in slippers without a penny in their pockets, you've done your good deeds and now you're going to marry Charles.
- No, father. I'm not marrying Charles and I'm not leaving, not today and not ever. Elizabeth screamed indignantly with her hands on her hips.
'I didn't accept that little marriage to that little soldier, nor that bastard and I won't accept a widow in the Thatcher family to demean us. Charles has already agreed to marry you, let's just get that little monster out of your belly as soon as we get to Hamilton and on the same day you will marry Charles.
When she realized, Charles was already behind her, grabbing her arms and with her father they tied her hands in front of her body and gagged her, dragging her out of the school.
Tears welled up in her eyes, preventing her from seeing straight where to walk inside the school, causing her to stumble several times.
Opall and Robert were behind the school, looking for firewood to relieve the teacher, when they saw everything happening inside the school, the two ran as fast as possible to the city for help.
Bill and Philip were returning from their rounds at Emily's parents' farm, when they saw the two children running desperately and when they found them, they were informed of what was happening inside the school with the teacher. Bill ordered the children to call Lee in the city with the car and so the children ran there, it was just a way for them to get away, but he didn't know that Lee and several men were already on their way to school.
From a distance Bill and Philip saw the two of them trying to put Elizabeth in the car, the first time she quickly went down the opposite side and even took a few good steps, but they caught her and carried her to the car, Charles holding her by her feet and her father holding her. the log and so they put it inside the car with Charles coming up and grabbing her in a very tight arm so that she wouldn't run away from the bench. She was bound, gagged and struggling, trying to hit Charles with her head. Philip saw the rage erupting in Bill, as he never thought he would, and the two of them took off at a fast gallop towards the school.
Bill jumped off the horse before he even stopped, and jumped on top of Willian after a big punch that knocked him to the ground. Bill grabbed him by the collar and held on so he wouldn't kill that man right there. Philip did the same with Charles, he didn't know why, but he was so angry with Charles. They were still holding the two men, when Bill looked at the car and saw Elizabeth destroyed in tears, his heart felt like it was going to break into pieces, seeing how she was physically and emotionally. At that moment, Henry's car and Lee's car arrived, with Carson and Ned. They ran to the car where Elizabeth was. When they all saw her bound and gagged, the fire of hatred flared in their eyes. Lee and Henry released her, that's when she indignantly told him that they were going to kill her baby, that they were going to have an abortion on her in Hamilton, that everything was already ready there for that, and that on the same day they were going to force her to marry Charles. Henry's eyes were wide with rage and by the time everyone noticed, he had exploded and thrown William Thatcher to the ground, saying that she was a daughter to him and to many in Hope Vale, and if he or anyone so much as touched a hair her, or the baby himself he would kill with his own hand, Lee struggled to hold Henry as Bill looked away and pretended to see nothing.
The two men were taken to jail in Hope Vale, while Lee took Elizabeth to the infirmary, as Carson insisted on checking on her and the baby. Elizabeth had marks on her mouth, because they gagged her very tight and her wrists also had bruises already very dark, on her ankles she had the marks of Charles's fingers and on her torso there were also marks of fingers only from her father Willian, as for the baby Thorton, your heartbeat was very fast, but it could be because of the trauma of moments ago and because your mother had high blood pressure at the moment, she would spend the rest of the day and night under observation there in the ward, Carson would not leave her alone after all this, because she could have a premature birth and while her pressure did not normalize, she would remain there.
In his office, Bill provided a document for Elizabeth to sign, along with Opall and Robert's lines. Most judges didn't accept testimony from children, but he knew one who besides being open to listening to children he also admired Elizabeth, and when he knew what these children heard and saw the aggressions he would be very angry. Besides, I needed to make an urgent phone call.
- Ned, get me the mountie battalion in Alaska, Colonel Wynn Delane.
- Wynn Delane, speaking! Bill…Is Elizabeth okay?
Bill reported what happened, first told about the attempted rape a while ago and then reported everything about Charles and Willian Thatcher, about the kidnapping attempt, the abortion and physical aggression that she has just passed through their hands. Wynn didn't rave anymore because there weren't enough words, he asked Bill to take care of her, get those two men arrested and send them to trial, he would be in Hope Vale in twenty to thirty days from now with his wife so they could look at Elizabeth. and help her with the trial. Bill promised him that he would take care of her, she was like a daughter to him, at the exact moment he couldn't erase the hatred that the sight of her being dragged by those men. He wouldn't leave it cheap, Elizabeth would have justice done, and he would do anything to see William and Charles in prison.
Bill took Elizabeth to the infirmary, a document for her to sign, first he explained everything, mainly that when people do something wrong they must be punished, otherwise they will do something even more serious. Elizabeth, even with removal, signed. Her father and Charles made a lot of mistakes, they had no right to decide who she would marry or not, but if that was all she would even try to forgive, but they messed with her precious son, the son of the man she always loved, her baby was now in pain due to the high blood pressure she was having those two set up, they messed with her son's life, and he was the most precious thing to her and would protect him from anything or anyone, including her own father.
