CHAPTER 76

In the city of Regina that same afternoon, Bill, Frankison and Henry followed a trail that led them to a small cottage on the outskirts of town, where they met Jane, the butler who had worked in Willian Thatcher's house many years ago. She was defensive and didn't want to talk to them. She tried her best to close the door to stop them, but Frankison shouted:

- Please, I beg you... I need to know if Elizabeth is my twin sister?

Jane, behind the door, felt that boy's pain... Elizabeth, that beautiful baby, she was such a sweet child... And that's when Jane, in her pangs of conscience, decided to open the door; when the three men entered, they noticed how precarious her house was and that she hardly had anything to eat. Her old mother was sleeping in the only bed in the house. She poured tea for everyone and, looking at Frankison, said:

- How is she? Jane knew Frankison, as she had worked at the Thatcher home until that unfortunate day in the stable.

- She's fine, yes... And now she's married to a mountie like me. Elizabeth is identical to me, except her eyes are blue. Frankison smiled.

- She's become a beautiful young woman from what you've described to me, even with everything she went through in her childhood.

Henry looked at Bill, he didn't like that story.

- Please, we need to find out the truth about our birth and you can help us, I beg you?

She told him about the day she gave birth, about the babies she couldn't see until Willian ordered her to, that only the woman with the scar could have contact with them, and that after years she discovered that she had never been a real midwife; she was a woman who performed abortions at her husband's request. She said that William raped her just before she ran away from the house, on the day he tried to abuse Elizabeth in the stable, after the girl was taken away and locked in the room, he physically assaulted Grace and then they had sex right there in the stable, where he left her lying there without her clothes and laughingly told her to wait for him. At first I pitied the woman, but I saw that she liked it. When he entered the mansion, he wanted the girl, he screamed and I could only try to stop him from doing that barbaric thing to her. Only I and Merye, the woman with the scar, were in the house that day, and that's when he came and grabbed me and shouted that if he didn't get the girl, it would be me instead, he hit me and threw me into his living room... he raped me there in that room, while Merye watched everything and laughed, she watched everything with pleasure, that woman had been used to going to Willian's bed since Elizabeth was born, and she always did her naughty things in exchange for jewels or money and Grace knew and agreed.

I was very hurt, I couldn't stay there or he could hurt me even more, that man was crazy, that's when I gathered what little I had in my bags and ran away at dawn, passed through my hometown and we moved here, where I've been hiding until today. This town of Regina was my start after everything I'd been through at the hands of that animal.

- Do you think Willian or someone else could have swapped the children?

Jane looked from one to the other, lowered her gaze and spoke heavily:

- I can't prove anything. But they're very cruel people, I've seen things happening in that house that even God doubts. I didn't see them swapping the children, so I can't say that. But that day was all very crazy; besides, they... that whole family never supported or loved Elizabeth. Grace never loved her as a daughter, neither she nor Willian. A father and a mother, I think their main motivation in life would be to love and protect their children and they did that with Julia and Viola..., but Miss Elizabeth, she was like Cinderella, thrown in the corners, she couldn't have her meals with them, it was always with us in the servants' wing and our food, and when she was locked in her room, she was given small portions, a dry bread with water when she woke up and a plate at lunch and always without meat or vegetables.

Frankison and the others were horrified and Frankison spoke in astonishment:

- Did she go hungry? Is that what you're telling me? A tear ran down his cheek and Bill held his hand, giving it a little squeeze, a comfort between the two men.

- I tried my best to help and there was Ruan, a man who worked in the stables with the horses, whenever she went there, he would feed her in hiding, and I would do the same. But when she was locked up, it was three, four, five days there. Her room had padlocked windows and a keyed door and only Grace had a copy of the key or Merye.

- There was one time when the family went on a trip and only Merye and I stayed there, Elizabeth was locked up for a week, because Grace didn't want her on the trip to get in the way of their family trip. It was a crazy time, a week of very hot weather... I remember the newspapers issuing health warnings because of the heat.

- Yes, I remember that time. The Mounties had a lot of work to do because there were fires all over Canada and we had to help fight them. Bill said.

- Yes, Hope Valley suffered from water shortages at the time.

Jane continued:

- Merye didn't let us take anything for her, the whole closed room turned into an oven. The house was well-structured, and all the rooms had bathrooms, but Merye decided to be more cruel in those days... whenever Elizabeth was grounded, the power to the room was cut off, William said that the less comfort she had, the quicker she would learn to behave. But Merye had an idea when she saw that the girl was taking too many cold baths to cool down. On the second day of that week, she turned off the water in her room. Elizabeth was given a glass of water and stale bread every day for breakfast, and for lunch a plate of meatless food, usually reheated leftovers, and with it a 500 ml bottle of water, and that was all she needed to get through until the next day at the next breakfast. The water came from the tap, and it was hot, because Merye wouldn't even let him have cold water. But that week the heat was unbearable, everyone was getting sick and being taken to hospital, so you can imagine that girl's battle, the whole room locked up with no water to drink for hours. Nobody deserves to go through something like that, and that girl was a sweetheart; the kindest, gentlest person I've ever seen in my life, the kind who always smiled but never complained about anything. For a while everything was normal, the girl didn't say anything or complain. But two or three days later, she started screaming that it was too hot, and that she was thirsty, she screamed for water, she asked for a glass of water... she begged for hours... I remember Merye laughing; it was more than twenty-four hours and she was always begging, she was almost voiceless..., but then night came and everything stopped... she didn't scream anymore, it was total silence in that room. I called out from the door, but she didn't answer. Her parents would be back at the end of the next day, but I didn't see that as a solution to her problem. I looked for Ruan at dawn, and we confronted Merye, who after a long time decided to hand over the keys. We ran to the bedroom, Ruan had a flashlight...

- The room was dark, and as we opened the door, the steam from the heat in the room hit us like a blazing furnace. Every step forward seemed to plunge us deeper into the fiery furnace, where the air was saturated with searing heat. The walls pulsed with heat, and sweat instantly broke out on our foreheads. Every breath was like inhaling a dragon's fire, and the whole environment seemed to conspire to envelop us in its embracing wave of warmth. It was as if we had entered a realm where the heat itself had a physical presence, enveloping us and enveloping us with its relentless intensity.

- The bed was tidy, but Elizabeth's dress was all stretched out and her shoe was on the floor. The plate of food from the day before remained untouched, creating an atmosphere of desperation and anguish in the air. Ruan came forward with his flashlight, and we searched the room frantically, but couldn't find her anywhere.

- Elizabeth was in the bathroom, wearing nothing but a nightgown, lying on the cold floor to avoid the suffocating heat. Next to her, a glass of water. It was then that the pain of the situation hit us hard. Tears of despair filled our eyes, and a feeling of helplessness overtook us. With horror, we realized that Elizabeth, in her struggle for survival, had resorted to an extreme act of desperation. She drank the water from the toilet to quench her thirst, an image that cut us like a blade... The agony and despair in her eyes at that moment were indescribable, and the sight of it left us anguished and powerless, as if we were witnessing the very essence of human pain in its darkest and cruelest form.

- Ruan called out to her, but she didn't answer, and that's when I got close to her, her cheeks were red and her face hot, a slight heat fever... She smiled and asked if anyone wanted to read it; Ruan had tears in his eyes but was holding them back. Elizabeth sat down and we joined her, and in her husky voice, she read a beautiful chapter that said...

"One day someone will take you in their arms, cradle you and love you. And that love will make up for everything you've suffered so far. God is just testing you. So when you meet those who really love you, you'll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Don't be fooled by fine words. Suffer, fight and conquer those who really deserve your love.

- That day, Ruan and I were speechless when we heard her say that. Elizabeth's pain was enormous, but she believed in something. Ruan asked her if she was thirsty, but she denied it and said that she still had some water, that they could lock her up again and that she could stay until her parents got back from their trip, because Willian and Grace were terrible about anyone trying to interfere with their punishments.

- Did she take water from the toilet? Bill asked indignantly, standing up and running his hands through his hair, he was very nervous and so were the other men.

- Yes, she had no other choice, she was very clever and saved her own life. Ruan was mad at the time, but he knew that if it hadn't been for that she might have fainted or dehydrated, or worse, because of the heat in that room. He went down to the kitchen, got an apple, some fruit juice, a gallon of cold water, some food, some new bread and shouted that if anyone stopped him, he would call the police. She told us that she hadn't eaten for days, so she could avoid using the toilet, after all she needed that clean water to drink, it had been days without food, you had to see how hungry she was, during that week practically all she ate was old bread. Ruan forced Merye to turn on the water in that room and I bathed her. She had lost weight, but she was very pretty with her red hair and blue eyes. I put her to bed and we left her to sleep until her parents returned. Ruan warned all the staff and Merye, who for the first time was afraid of someone, that when Willian Thatcher arrived, they shouldn't say a word about it, and not to touch his name or mine when entering that room, because Ruan knew that if Willian found out, the girl would be punished once again.

The three men were crying, the pain of knowing that she had been starved, humiliated for a simple glass of water and that she only wanted to find someone who loved her. And that was all the more reason for those three men to fight and love that girl.

Jane offered to help in any way she could as long as they guaranteed her and her mother's safety.

Bill made it clear that, even after so many years, he wanted justice on her behalf. He was going to sue Willian Thatcher for rape. Everything he could put on Willian's record, whether past or present, would help the court's assessment, and so they could show that he was not the decent, honest person that society believed him to be.