While Allie looked at the lace on the collar of Elizabeth's dress, Nathan was keeping his distance and practicing silence, which, in light of their interactions yesterday, felt like his best option. He stood next to Newton and ran his fingers absentmindedly through his mane while Elizabeth talked softly to Allie. She moved on from the lace and was now curling a lock of Elizabeth's hair around her finger. Nathan thought Allie might see Elizabeth as just a larger version of one of her very pretty dolls.

Thinking about that made him smile and look down at his boots, and when he raised his eyes again, Elizabeth was looking at him.

There was no coldness in her eyes, which was encouraging. "I'm amusing you again, Constable Grant."

He smiled and shook his head slowly, thinking of how to answer. In truth, he was hoping for a conversation of longer than a few sentences before they were at each other's throats again. "No," he said, measuring his words carefully. "I like to see Allie happy." He inclined his head toward his niece. "She's happy with you."

Elizabeth smiled radiantly and Nathan suddenly found himself needing another breath. Elizabeth looked at Allie and said, "I like you, too." She looked back over at Nathan. "She's your...niece?"

Nathan nodded. "Yes, my sister's girl. Colleen, my sister... passed away. Five months ago." Nathan still hadn't mastered the kick in the stomach that came with that phrase. No matter how many times he said it, it didn't seem to get easier. To cover his discomfort, he looked down and pushed a small rock with the toe of his boot.

"I'm so sorry," Elizabeth said quickly, her eyes soft. She could see that Nathan was avoiding her eyes and she gave him some space. She looked back at Allie, who was still playing with the curl that fell just in front of Elizabeth's ear. "When I was a little girl," Elizabeth said, "I had an older sister and a younger sister. And we used to curl each other's hair." Allie looked into Elizabeth's eyes, and Elizabeth smiled, thinking, There's a lot going on inside that little head.

"How old are you, Allie?" Elizabeth asked.

Allie put up her hand with three fingers. "You're three?" Elizabeth asked, with a look of mock surprise on her face. "You look older than that," she said, smiling.

Nathan moved from around Newton. "She just turned four in August," he said. "August 8th."

Elizabeth looked at Allie's fingers. "So if that's three, how many is one more?" Allie looked at her hand and Elizabeth gently took her baby finger and put it up with the others. "One, two, three, four!" she said, and Allie giggled.

"Four," Allie said.

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "And do you know what that means?"

Allie shook her head.

"That means that next year, you will be one of my students," she said. "And I will be your teacher."

Allie digested that information for a moment and then said, "Do you want to see my dolls?"

"Oh," Elizabeth said, "I would love to see them, but right now I have to go to the Mercantile."

"Okay," Allie said, wriggling out of her arms as Elizabeth set her down carefully on her feet. Allie took Elizabeth's hand and started walking back toward town.

Nathan said quickly, "No, Allie... We need to... get home."

"Why?" Allie said, turning to him with her forehead furrowed.

Nathan was wracking his brain for a reason that made sense. Actually, he needed to go home and get into his uniform so that he could work for a while. He didn't have a plan for Allie yet today.

Elizabeth spoke softly so Allie wouldn't be disappointed if he said no. "I could take her." But speaking more softly meant she needed to move a little closer, and Nathan did the same.

It was impossible not to think about it. To not remember what it felt like. How her exhaustion and his worry still couldn't keep the feelings at bay last night. They both knew it.

Elizabeth held tight to Allie's hand, and Allie stood patiently waiting for the grownups to figure it out. She passed the time by sticking her fingers into the wide row of open lace at the hem of Elizabeth's dress.

Nathan and Elizabeth looked at each other, and to Elizabeth, time seemed to stretch out a little, in the way it did when she'd had a little too much champagne last year at the Hamilton Museum Ball.

It had to be his eyes that were rattling her senses. She didn't think she'd ever seen eyes so blue, and she could swear that they were actually increasing in intensity the longer she stood here.

"You wouldn't mind?" he asked.

"Mind what?" Elizabeth said, having completely lost the thread of the conversation.

Nathan frowned, thinking maybe he'd misunderstood. "Did you... just say you would take Allie with you?"

"Oh," Elizabeth said, nodding. "Yes, of course, I'd be happy to take her."

"It would actually be a big help. If you don't mind. She seems to be... to have an ease with you. I need to get home and change and then go to work for a while," Nathan said. "If you could bring her to my office?" Then he realized he might be assuming too much. "It doesn't take me long to change my clothes..." He stopped himself, his eyes wide. "I can be... fast," he finally managed to say.

Elizabeth tilted her head and narrowed her eyes a little. She was trying to reconcile the Constable Grant she'd met out at the stagecoach with this one. Because the one she'd first met seemed to have as many words as he needed at his disposal. In fact, perhaps too many, she thought, remembering how casual he was about her distress. But this Constable Grant, the one with the adorable niece who was right now happily occupied tucking tiny rocks into the holes in the lace at the bottom of her dress, was different.

And then Elizabeth reminded herself that it didn't matter whether she liked this Nathan Grant, the tongue-tied one, better than the one she'd met yesterday morning. Because she had no business liking either one of them.

"Constable Grant... I..." Elizabeth started.

"Do you think you could call me Nathan?" he said, softly interrupting her.

To her dismay, Elizabeth felt a blush begin. She did her best to pretend it wasn't there, but the Constable's irregular smile was starting again.

"Elizabeth," she said, feeling the heat grow in her cheeks. She was trying to use the voice she used in class, to show she was in charge.

"I need to tell you something... Nathan," Elizabeth said. She straightened up a little and realized that her skirt was beginning to feel like it weighed a bit more. She looked down and realized that Allie had managed to put quite a few tiny rocks into the lace. But Elizabeth just had one more thing to say and wanted to do it now. And Allie was being very good.

Elizabeth looked up and met Nathan's eyes. "Mrs. Stanton mentioned to me this morning that there has been some... talk," Elizabeth said.

"About us?" Nathan said without thinking.

Nathan realized he was beginning to recognize the warning signs. Two eyebrows were a question, but one eyebrow was a warning.

"There is no us, Constable..." Elizabeth started. Then she heard herself and stopped.

"I'm sorry," she said, blushing and looking down again. "I don't know what it is about you that makes me so... so..." She was trying to choose between rude and unkind when Nathan saved her from having to decide.

"Look, Elizabeth..." She looked up at the sound of him saying her name. He didn't quite get all the syllables out, so it came out something like Lizbeth. It sounded almost like an endearment, and the charm of it made her stomach flutter again. And this time she knew she wasn't hungry.

"Can we just start over?" Nathan said.

"Yes, but..." Elizabeth started. She looked up at him and there was that crooked smile again.

"How can there be a but when we just started over?" Nathan said, raising his eyebrows.

"Because last night doesn't just go away," Elizabeth said quickly.

That silenced both of them.

For a moment they both stood, eyes joined and minds racing. Elizabeth hadn't meant to say it so bluntly, and Nathan was frantically trying to decipher what she was saying to him.

"And by last night, you mean..." he said tentatively.

"Well, when I..." Elizabeth said, trying to decide between hug and embrace.

"Yes," Nathan said, saving her the trouble.

Whatever word disease Nathan had, Elizabeth realized she was rapidly catching it. She shook her head. This is ridiculous. Spit it out, Elizabeth.

"Abigail says that people saw us, and that it might not be seemly for the new schoolteacher and the new Mountie to be so...familiar. She suggested that I let the mothers get used to having a new teacher, without… complications."

Nathan was nodding, but not speaking. He realized that this would be the perfect solution to his need to keep his distance from Miss Elizabeth Thatcher in order to better fulfill her father's wishes. But he was also realizing he had very little desire to keep his distance.

As Elizabeth waited for him to say something, she was feeling herself being pulled slightly toward the ground and she looked down again. The wide lace at the hem of the dress was bulging and Elizabeth laughed. "Allie?"

The little girl looked up at her with such a sweet grin that Elizabeth couldn't even chastise her. Nathan looked down and saw what Allie had been doing, and started laughing too. "Allie. Please stop decorating Miss Thatcher's skirt." He bent down and started removing the small stones, and Elizabeth did the same. Now all three were crouched in the middle of the path, laughing, while Nathan held the hem of Elizabeth's skirt and they both picked at it.

At one point, they reached for the same rock and their fingers touched. They looked up and now their eyes met from an even shorter distance. Neither of them could look away.

"Hello," came a voice from behind Elizabeth. It was Abigail, walking toward them.

"Hi!" Elizabeth said, popping up as if she were on a spring. What made Abigail smile in spite of herself was the fact that Nathan did and said exactly the same thing at the same time. They were like two children who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Abigail looked down at the small pile of rocks and saw the ones still left in the lace, and along with the fact that Allie was industriously beginning to put them all back in, she had the whole story. She looked at Elizabeth and raised her eyebrows. "I'm heading into town, Elizabeth. Would you like to join me?"

"Yes!" Elizabeth said, a little too brightly. She looked at Nathan and said, "I can still take Allie, if you'd like?" Then she looked at Abigail with a question and Abigail nodded slightly.

"That would be great," Nathan said.

"Great!" Elizabeth said.

Abigail looked down at her basket to hide the smile that she couldn't prevent, saying very softly, "Great."