Elizabeth laughed as she picked up Nathan's plate. "Oh, no, you definitely don't want me to cook," she said, looking over at Abigail.

"You're getting better, Elizabeth," Abigail said, but she was laughing too. "Those biscuits last night weren't bad."

Tilting her head, Elizabeth gave her a skeptical look. "You could use them to drive nails," she said.

Nathan was trying very hard not to laugh at this conversation because it felt like one of those subjects that was funny until it wasn't funny anymore, and he wasn't always the best at determining where that line was drawn. But the "driving nails" comment surprised him, and he snorted before he was able to get the napkin up to his face.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and looked at him, still laughing. "I was thinking about making you dinner one of these nights, but now you've done it. No stone biscuits for you!"

Nathan tried to salvage the moment, but his crooked smile gave him away. "I would love to sample your cooking, Elizabeth."

There it was again. Lizbeth.

She spoke to Abigail but looked directly at Nathan. "Abigail, have you noticed how the Constable says my name? He misses a few of the vowels, and it sounds like Lizbeth." Her eyes went soft. "It's quite charming."

Nathan smiled and rose to help clear the table. "Not a word often used to describe me," he said, passing very closely by Elizabeth to put the dishes on the counter, "So I'll take it."

Abigail was watching this little display from her place at the table and she shook her head and laughed softly. She turned to Allie, who was just finishing her piece of cherry pie. "Allie, would you like to see some pretty dolls?" Abigail looked over at Nathan and Elizabeth and raised an eyebrow, "While your uncle and Miss Thatcher wash and dry the dishes?"

Elizabeth laughed and nodded to Abigail. "Always a price to pay..."

Before they knew it, Nathan and Elizabeth were alone in the kitchen. And though just moments before they had been engaged in playful banter and entirely comfortable, they both felt the familiar shyness coming on. It was never a matter of too little to say to each other. It was always a matter of wanting to say so much, and not knowing how much was too much.

Elizabeth held up the towel. "Wash or dry?"

"Wash," he said.

Elizabeth took a large pot and put it under the pump at the side of the counter. She expertly raised the handle and brought it down again as Nathan watched her.

Smiling, he said, "You do that very well. Most people try to pump by pushing down instead of pulling up. It goes against our instincts."

She looked up at him. "I had to learn. I started out doing just what you described. Abigail has taught me so much."

Nathan took the pot from her and put it on the stove to heat. Before he lit the fire, he looked at Elizabeth with his eyebrow raised, "Unless you want to..."

Laughing, she said, "Very funny." She closed her eyes and put her face into her hands. "Oh, will I ever live that down? Will I forever be known as the schoolteacher who burned down her own teacherage?"

Nathan looked back at her. "No. You'll be known as the very capable woman who opened the bright young minds of Coal Valley," he said.

Elizabeth looked up quickly and smiled, "That's exactly how I see teaching! And they are so bright, Nathan. Wonderful minds, ready and willing. And they've been through so much... but they still see joy..."

Nathan knew he was staring at her, but he couldn't stop. He could see her passion and how much she loved what she did. It was how he felt about his work. He hadn't spent long periods of time around women who had actual jobs, although he'd met plenty of them in Quebec City. He'd thought many of them had sharp edges through no fault of their own, from fighting to be successful in what was essentially a man's world. He and Colleen had talked about how hard it was, but Elizabeth had none of that. She was soft and natural in her work, and he could see her love for her students in everything she said.

"Thank you for taking Allie on," he said suddenly. He surprised even himself by saying it. "I'm grateful you want to teach her. She needs the... encouragement, the creativity... that you can give her..."

Elizabeth put down her towel. They had to wait for the water to heat anyway. She moved closer to Nathan and touched his arm lightly. "There," she said, looking into his eyes. "Why was that hard to say?"

Nathan answered as quickly as she'd asked. "Because it matters."

They stood for a long moment like that, just looking into each other's eyes. Nathan could feel her hand lightly on his arm. Yes, of course, he wanted to kiss her, to take her in his arms and see how it felt to hold her when she wasn't distraught and crying. But this was so much more than that.

He thought maybe Elizabeth understood him. He could see it in her eyes.

"I know what you mean," she said softly. "And if it matters, and you lose it..." Elizabeth was thinking about her own life, her teaching position, her new friends. She hadn't thought about where Nathan's mind would go. But she saw it happen and instantly his eyes went dark and filled with pain. Before she could stop herself, she reached both hands up and held him by the shoulders. "Oh, Nathan," she said, "What happened...?"

He blinked, realizing he'd stopped breathing for a moment. If he could only get the pictures out of his head, he felt like he might be able to move on. But they were so vivid, as if he was still standing there, watching... Nathan looked at Elizabeth and knew it was too soon. He couldn't bear it if there was even the slightest bit of accusation in her eyes...

Nathan took a deep breath and reached up to put his hands over hers. "I will tell you. I just... I need a little more time," he said.

Elizabeth nodded, taken aback at the emotions she saw cross his face. Something terrible happened, she thought, and he saw it. I can see it replaying behind his eyes.

"Take all the time you need," she said softly. "I'm here, whenever you're ready."

Nathan was still holding both of her hands and he drew them into his chest, near his heart. "And you can't know how much that means to me," he said softly.

Elizabeth saw his eyes grow more blue, more translucent. "I want to..." she started to say it, and then she just did it. She wanted to hold him, to give him some comfort, to hug him the way she would Abigail or Julie if they were in pain, and it didn't seem fair that she couldn't do that because of rules made by other people...

She put her arms around him and he pulled her to him as if for dear life. She could feel his chest rise and fall and hear his heart beating strong and steady in her ear. She loved the feel of him, lean and muscular, warm and solid. Elizabeth thought they could stand there for a very long time and neither would mind.

But water boils, and when it gets to a rolling boil it can sometimes spill over. They both heard the splashing and the hiss of the water as it bubbled out and hit the fire, and still, for just a moment longer, they held on tightly to each other.

"Thank you, Elizabeth," Nathan finally said, almost whispering. Then, though he didn't want to, he pulled away and looked into her eyes. He raised his eyebrows and said, "One of us should get that."

"One of us should," she said softly, still lost in his eyes.

Nathan sighed deeply and smiled as he turned toward the stove. Using the towel to protect him from the heat of the handles, he turned the pot over into the wash basin and then used the pump to adjust the temperature. Elizabeth watched him closely.

"You do this all the time, don't you?" she said with admiration in her voice. "You probably cook too?"

Nathan turned to her, laughing softly. "Yes. And I'm not half-bad." He tilted his head. "Why does that surprise you?"

Elizabeth watched as he scraped the dishes into the compost and rubbed the washcloth across a bar of soap. "Because I doubt any man I ever met in Hamilton could wash a dish or cook if his life depended on it."

Nathan looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "And I imagine you met a lot of men in Hamilton?" he said, a little warily.

Elizabeth smiled, picking up her drying towel. "Not as many as you might think."

Handing her a clean plate, Nathan said, "But there must have been one man in Hamilton who caught your eye," he said, smiling. He wasn't expecting a completely serious answer, but he saw Elizabeth look away, and his eyes went a little wider. "Oh, there was."

Immediately, Elizabeth shook her head, "No. Not for me. For my parents," she said cryptically, running the towel around the plate.

"Ah," Nathan said, taking a deep breath. "An arranged marriage. Like Darcy's."

Elizabeth laughed. "Well, I suppose it was like Darcy's in that I was as anxious to follow their wishes as he was with Lady Catherine." She laughed again and shook her head. "Arranged marriages. Barbaric custom."

"Spoken like a true Austen heroine," Nathan said, laughing and handing her another dish. "So who was this paragon of virtue they wanted you to marry?"

"Charles Kensington," Elizabeth said, in her best clipped Hamilton tones. Then she smiled. "He's not a bad person, he's just not at all my type."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "And your type would be...?"

Elizabeth blushed a little and pursed her lips. "The strong silent type... with the emphasis on silent..." she said, grinning and moving over to the table to pick up the last of the forks and spoons.

"And where is Mr. Kensington now?" Nathan asked. He'd often wondered how a woman as intelligent and beautiful as Elizabeth had escaped attachment in a place like Hamilton. In Airdrie, the next girl was many miles away and courting suffered badly for it.

Nathan was glad to hear that Elizabeth's voice was light, without any hurt in it. "Still in Hamilton. He works for my father. He was always my friend, I mean, we grew up together, and the parallels to Darcy don't stop there. I do believe my father liked the idea of 'uniting two great estates' with the Kensingtons." She shook her head and laughed, taking a small plate as Nathan held it out. "So old-fashioned! As if I would even agree to something like that, without being in love..."

Elizabeth stopped suddenly and looked at Nathan. He had stopped too. Something about saying that word out loud had frozen both of them in an instant.

Trying to recover, Elizabeth said quickly, "Did you know that Austen's original title for Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions?" she said, her voice rising a little.

Nathan smiled at her, as always slightly comforted by her nervousness. "I did know that," he said. "She improved on the title, I think, though first impressions can be deceiving," he said, eyebrow raised and his crooked smile in place.

Elizabeth laughed. "I was actually thinking about this the other day. When we first met, I was consumed by pride, wanting to be on my own without your help. And you," she looked pointedly at him, "were prejudiced against a person you thought was a typical Hamilton rich girl."

Nathan was finished with the dishes, and he used Elizabeth's towel to dry his hands. "That's very astute, Miss Thatcher." He took one of her hands in his, amazed that it was now so easy to do. He'd wanted to, so many times. "But we've moved past that, haven't we?"

"Yes," Elizabeth said, inching closer.

Nathan's eyes again began to look like the mountain lake. "Elizabeth," he said, "I can't... I really would... Um..."

"Yes-s-s?" Elizabeth said, smiling up at him.

"I want to spend more time with you." Having finally gotten that out, Nathan took a deep breath and smiled.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Elizabeth said, laughing softly.

Nathan laughed too, shaking his head. "Oh, you have no idea..."

Elizabeth looked back into his eyes. "I want that, too."

"How do we do that?" he asked, frowning slightly.

They looked at each other for a long moment, both thinking. Then Elizabeth grinned. "Nathan," she said, tilting her head. "Would you teach me how to ride a horse?"

A grin broke out on Nathan's face as well. "I would be happy to, Elizabeth."

"Because," she said, biting her lip a little, "We would need to be away from town. To ride."

Nodding, Nathan said, "But how would we get away from town if you don't know how to ride... away from town?"

Elizabeth laughed again, "I'm a pretty fast learner. I'm hoping you can talk me through getting to the pond, and then we can go from there..."

They had been moving closer as they talked, and Elizabeth felt his hands rest lightly on her waist. Nathan was no longer looking into her eyes, he was looking at her lips. He's going to kiss me, she thought. And I want him to. She closed her eyes and she could already feel the warmth in the air that filled the small space between them...

A squeak on the stair turned into what sounded like a herd of buffalo as Allie came running down from Abigail's bedroom. "Unca Nathan!" she said, her voice filled with joy. "Abgail has the same doll! From Gamma! The same hair!"

Nathan and Elizabeth moved quickly apart, backing up against the counters in the kitchen, more for support than anything else. Their eyes were locked in an understanding that they had just been denied something that they both wanted very much. Their chests were both rising and falling much faster than was normal and each gripped the edge of the counter behind them tightly.

Allie ran and stood between them, looking from one to the other. She held up Abigail's doll as high as she could reach. "Look!" she said.

Slowly, Nathan tore his eyes from Elizabeth's and looked down. Allie was so excited, he couldn't help but laugh. "That is exactly like your doll. They could be sisters!" he said, his joy matching Allie's. He bent down and took the doll she handed him.

Abigail was standing on the stairs. "Allie, would you like to take her home with you?"

Allie's eyes went wide. "Can I?" she asked.

Abigail nodded. As Allie ran to give her a hug, Abigail looked around her.

A dinner table filled with happy conversation. The privilege of watching love develop between two people I care about. This precious child, who reminds me that life not only goes on, but it does it joyfully and with abandon.

A month ago, I was alone here, wondering what the future had in store for me. Then a building burns down and I end up with all this.

Abigail reached up and quickly wiped away a tear that slid down her cheek.

Thank you, God, for reminding me that there is always more. When you least expect it, there is more.