Made For Each Other

Chapter 11

Once again Elizabeth was having a hard time falling asleep. What was it about Friday nights she mused to herself. As her mind once again began replaying the events and conversations of the past few hours.

Elizabeth sighed, who would have thought that what had started as a lovely beginning to the rehearsal dinner and start of their wedding weekend would have ended up with them missing the rehearsal at the church all together, forcing Rosemary to make up an excuse as to why they weren't going to be there. While they took a walk so that they could..."Talk".

Not sleeping anyway and feeling an urge to check on Little Jack she thought that perhaps a cup of chamomile tea might help her get some rest. So Elizabeth got up, put on her slippers and reached for her robe at the end of the bed. Crossing the hall she carefully opened the door so as not to wake her son. She was just able to make out the outline of his sweet little face from the moonlight that shone in through his window and she could hear the quiet sound of his even breathing.

Elizabeth wondered to herself how Lucas could have thought for even a moment that she would be ok leaving him for almost three months? Yet when she had said, "I can't be away from Jack that long." Lucas had replied "but he will be with family", as if that made it all fine. Then when she had voiced her concern as to whether Julie really could handle taking care of Jack all alone in Hope Valley for that long Lucas had calmly said. "Not to worry, Julie won't be by herself. I have arranged for Little Jack to go to Hamilton with her and when we come back from our voyage, we will stop to pick him up. Then all three of us can travel back to Hope Valley as a family together."

Elizabeth didn't know what had upset her more. The fact that Lucas had arranged for her and Jack's son to travel halfway across the country without her permission? Or the fact that he obviously had thought that she would be ok with it? "What does that say of me as a parent?" she wondered to herself, remembering all the times she had left Little Jack with other people in order to do things alone with Lucas.

Or that Lucas would think this was all just something fun to surprise her with! She didn't hide the fact that she really didn't like surprises. In fact, at this point if someone asked her, she would straight up tell them that she hated surprises!

Satisfied that Jack was contentedly sleeping like a little angel Elizabeth quietly closed the door. Lighting a candle before heading down the stairs she paused on the landing long enough to cast a wistful look at the happy smiling faces Jack had drawn of the two of them. She couldn't remember the last time she had smiled so big and from a place of pure genuine joy and contentment. Everything always seemed so worrisome to her these days and often she found herself smiling simply because she felt people expected it of her.

As she waited for the water to warm Elizabeth's mind wandered over the conversation she and Lucas had at the bridge. Already having gone over the problems she had with being away from Little Jack for so long they had not come to any kind of a satisfactory resolution.

Then having discussed how seriously Lucas might or might not be considering getting more involved in his father's business, he had assured her that he had not said yes to anything. However, the fact he had planned into one of the honeymoon stops to discuss it more with his father still left her wondering if it wasn't more serious than he was letting on. But since he said that he wasn't planning to do anything that would make them have to leave Hope Valley she had let it drop and moved on to ask him what his mother had meant by her question of, "how soon will your new house be finished?"

This topic clearly seemed to have touched a nerve and Lucas broodingly answered her question with his own question of, "Did you tell Jack he couldn't build you a house on his land?"

Telling him, "That was different", Lucas had quipped sarcastically "Why, because you loved him?"

Thinking about it now Elizabeth realized it reminded her of when he had been upset with her another time and had said "and what would you know about fighting for love?" But in the moment, being very taken aback by the way in which he was speaking to her, she had made no response, only looked at him, wondering where this was coming from.

Obviously frustrated, Lucas had said almost as if to himself, "and to think, all this time I thought I just had to beat out Nathan, and now I am realizing it's actually Jack I have been competing with all along!"

"That's not fair" she had managed to tell him, reminding him that it was he himself that had told her he knew that Jack was always going to be a part of her and Little Jack's life.

"Part of your life, yes!" Lucas said, "but I will not forever live in another man's shadow like you want me to do by living in yours and Jack's house. I will not be sitting in Jack's chair or sleeping next to you in Jack's room! Always wondering the whole time we are making love if you are actually thinking of me or if you are remembering what it was like when you and Jack were making love in that exact same room!"

Lucas's voice had been raised and she had gasped at the boldness in which he spoke about their future intimacy and that of what had been between her and Jack. She was thankful that they had walked all the way out of town so no-one else could hear.

Lucas, still visibly upset, ran his hand through his hair and, sighing heavily, asked, "Do think that Little Jack has never played hide and seek upstairs in your room when I have watched him? Do you think that I don't know that you have a wall of pictures of you and Jack in your bedroom? Or that I haven't seen whose picture sits on your bedside table?"

Lucas paused with lips pressed together, working his jaw. Waiting for Elizabeth to respond. But as she had just stood there staring at him still trying to process what was happening he had finally continued with a bit of a twitch of his moustache "Well, let's just say, we both know that it isn't a picture of me that sits there now is it?"

Elizabeth remembered how she had just stood there as if she were frozen in place feeling as if there wasn't enough air in her lungs to speak and not knowing what she could have said, even if she had been able to speak, for what was there to say? As indeed it wasn't a picture of Lucas that she looked at each night before going to sleep and each morning when waking up.

After what had seemed like forever Lucas finally said with a sigh "I am willing to stay in your house long enough for a new house to be built. If we go on the honeymoon, I have planned our house will hopefully already be halfway built by the time we come home. Then Maybe you can talk Rosemary into asking Lee to build them a new house next to ours."

"But" Lucas posed for emphasis and spoke more determinedly," I am not going to live as a henpecked husband. I will be the man of the house. If you are not ok with that, then so be it." Then he walked away.

Having prepared her cup of tea, Elizabeth sat down on the settee, put her feet up and snuggled under the quilt the widows of Hope Valley had made for her after Jack's death. She ran her finger along the stitches of one of the hearts. As her mind wandered to Abigail and what she had told her when she, Rosemary, and Julie had all come to check on her after the rehearsal was finished at the church. And of course to bring Little Jack home.

"No one will think badly of you, Elizabeth, or be upset if you and Lucas decide to postpone the wedding until you are able to work out whatever differences it is that you are having." Abigail had assured her. "We all want what's best for you. And if there are things that the two of you cannot come together on before the wedding then saying I do won't make it any easier. You don't want to do something that you may live to regret."

But the thought of how humiliating it would feel to cancel the wedding after all the family had come from such a long way away to be there made Elizabeth feel sick. Could there be anything more embarrassing, she thought to herself. And even if they were just saying they were postponing it for a month or two, it wasn't like their family could just come back again. The wedding had been scheduled and arranged months ahead around a date that they could all make.

Rosemary's take on it had been to chock most of it up to pre-wedding jitters and in her words "a case of Lucas really needing to learn that you simply don't like surprises!"

Julie had of course apologized to her for not telling her that Lucas had asked her to take Little Jack to Hamilton. "It all just seemed so romantic to me, Lucas taking you to all the places he loved! Why didn't I even stop to think that you might not want to be away from your sweet little boy for that long? Or that you might not be ok with him traveling on a train without you. Can you ever forgive me?" Julie had begged. Hugging her sister, Elizabeth had told her that she knew it wasn't her fault. "It was just yet another one of Lucas's grand ideas."

Finishing the last of her tea and hearing the clock chime that it was midnight Elisabeth was about ready to head back upstairs to give sleep another try when she heard a soft knock on the door. Moving closer and asking who it was, she recognized Lucas's voice. Feeling her heart beat faster, not sure if him coming so late was a good or a bad sign, Elizabeth took a deep breath and said a silent prayer before opening the door.

Looking a bit abashed Lucas said, "I hope I didn't wake you but I thought I saw a bit of light shining through the window."

Elizabeth, letting him come in, admitted that she hadn't been able to sleep.

Lucas looking pleadingly at Elizabeth and taking her hand said. "I need to apologize for the way I spoke to you on the bridge and the fact that I didn't talk to you about how I was feeling sooner.

He paused for a moment to formulate the words he wanted to use. "When you told me that the house I wanted to build for you would never feel like home, that you had so many memories here in this house, that this was your home..., well… it hurt. And yes, I know I said I understand... but that didn't mean I was all the way ok with it". He took a deep breath before continuing. "Being The dreamer that I am, I started thinking that maybe you just needed to see that there were new memories to be made!" he said becoming a bit more animated and enthusiastic "And that maybe if we went away for a long honeymoon just the two of us, then when we came back to Hope Valley you would be ready to make new memories with me rather than cling to the those from the past."

"But" he continued, "I see now that I should have talked about it with you, rather than just try and turn it into one of my "grand ideas" as you call them". A small smile played around the edges of his mouth though his eyes still held the doubts he felt as to whether Elizabeth would ever truly love him in the way it seemed she still loved Jack. He had been so smitten with her from the first day he met her that he had been determined to win her for his own. And while it seemed he had succeeded, had he truly won her heart?

Elizabeth, who looked rather apologetic herself said, "I am sorry too. I told you I didn't want to deny you of your dreams, but I am beginning to realize that in saying no to the house you wanted to build for me, that was actually exactly what I was doing."

"Does that by any chance mean you are willing to reconsider a new house?" Lucas asked with a more hopeful expression. And when Elizabeth nodded her head and spoke. "Yes." Lucas let out a sigh of relief and flashed her the first true genuinely happy smile he had had since she had given him the "Look" after hearing his parents at rehearsal dinner.

"But," Elizabeth added tentatively. I still don't want to be away from Little Jack for almost three months."

"Well," Lucas said, "in regard to that. I am afraid I am still not very good at the dad thing yet. Not to mention that I was often left alone or with a nanny when my parents would go away on their business trips. But realizing that you didn't want it be away for as long as I had planned, I have spoken to my father and he feels he has enough contacts that he can either sell our steamship tickets to someone else or exchange them for one's that he can use when he goes on one of his next business trips." Lucas said smiling.

"Oh Lucas"! Elizabeth exclaimed, beaming from a mixture of gratitude and relief.

"I believe you told me earlier," Lucas said, moving closer and speaking in a more slow and alluring manner. "That you had been thinking we would only be gone for two or three weeks at most. So, I was thinking that we could keep our train tickets to Halifax and either stay there or possibly even find our way up to Prince Edwards Island for part of the time, and still easily be back within three weeks…"

With no signs from Elizabeth that she had any objection, Lucas gazed at her manfully as he gathered her into his arms, whispering into her ear. "I still have every intention of treating you like a queen." then kissed her passionately, leaving Elizabeth breathless. Then lingeringly kissing her hand as his eyes conveyed the promise of more to come he softly said, "until tomorrow my lovely bride."

Leaving Elizabeth once again thinking of nothing but the fire of desire he so expertly knew how to arouse in her.