CHAPTER 55

Willian Thatcher arrived at his office that morning, totally refreshed, yesterday afternoon with Ju and then her begging him to stay with her all night, showed him that at least for Ju, he was still a virile man. That girl was so in love with him that she couldn't stay away from his touches for long.

As he sat down at his desk, he found a small gift box, "I wonder who left that there", thought Willian, because he knew that Ju was in the hotel dead tired after the night of love where he had left her on her legs.

When he opened the box, he found a tape and listened to it.

Someone knew about him and Hargraves and now wanted money to keep quiet. And he only had two hours to sort it out.

Willian thought about the day, only Ju was in the front office. He needed to check with her and see her reaction. So he called the hotel room, he needed to see if she was there and to his surprise she answered in a sleepy, sly voice, which made his heart pound and his blood boil. "How could I think something like that about her?" "She was your girl, your wife!". He could never, ever doubt her. He threw her off by saying he missed her, but didn't say anything about the recording. Of course she couldn't have been involved in this; that hot young woman had been with him all afternoon and evening and was now in bed recovering her strength. He said goodbye with a laugh, that drooling old man face... He needed to find out who had upset him with that recording, but as time was running out, he decided to call the bank and have the payment made. His men would find out. Alves went to Hargraves, but he had Charles in his hands and at the moment he couldn't be suspicious of him, or he could end up with Charles.

Once Charles was well settled in, where the mounties couldn't find him, he would order Hargraves to fetch Elizabeth and send her to Charles, at least he would have a diversion and be able to relieve himself a little. A man needs those moments of relief and Elizabeth would serve him well.

Willian thought of his middle daughter, he had noticed for years that she was getting a tempting little body, it was hard for him to resist, but he preferred to leave it to Charles, but Grace after all these years, decided to stall their gaze, at least as a family she wanted to keep up appearances of perfection. Willian laughed and thought to himself: "If she only knew..."

At their mansion, right there in Grace, Viola and Julia were planning to bring Elizabeth back. Julia, with her friends from college, had found a comrade who would do anything for money, Bile Hamyll, a clever, ambitious, good-looking fellow who, dressed up, would fool anyone as being from high society. He would pick Elizabeth up and bring her back. He would just throw her in the coach and she would come home to marry Charles. Grace, Julia and Viola were horrified by the story of this marriage to a mountie. "How could she disgrace her family like that?" "Marrying a man with no blue blood like Mr. Lionel, a man of low rank, who didn't belong in society. A man who was only good for going to war, fighting and dying for the rich and powerful," Grace couldn't get it out of her head.

Meanwhile, in the city of Regina, Lee and Rose were saying goodbye to their sister. After so many years apart and fighting, Lee was now the happiest man alive, thanks to his wife Rose, who did everything she could to ensure that peace reigned between the siblings. And their happiness would be complete in a few minutes when they arrived at the orphanage and picked up their son. For months they thought about it and worked on it, hiding it from everyone. They wanted it to be a surprise for everyone at Hope Valle, but if it went wrong they didn't want anyone to be sad but them.

But today, little Lucas, six months old, would be going home with them. All the documents were signed and Rose had already bought millions of clothes for the boy. When they arrived at the orphanage, there was a small farewell party before Lucas left.

They got into Lee's car and drove off to Hope Valle.

Everything was going well; Lee hoped that Elizabeth would be all right after that kidnapping. They had to leave soon after finding her and could barely help her, but his nephew Paul was going off to war and they needed to meet up and bring comfort to his sister, now back home, he was going to baptize that beautiful baby, and hoped that Elizabeth and Jack would agree to be his guardian.

- Rose, do you think Elizabeth will accept?

- Lee, I know Elizabeth, she'll fall in love with Lucas as soon as we arrive. The hard part will be getting Lucas out of her hands... laughed Rose.

For Lee and Rose, there wasn't a more beautiful family in the world than theirs...