December 4th, 1910

Inspector William Avery

Mountie Headquarters

Edmonton Alberta

Dear Inspector Avery,

You won't recognize my name, as I never had the pleasure of attending one of your Forensics Investigation classes while training in Edmonton. But I've recently spoken with some of my fellow recruits and they have nothing but good things to say about your methodology, your thoroughness, and to a man, your sense of humor. That last quality may not seem to be a requirement for the job, but I could argue the point. They also say that you have a history of fighting for the underdog. And that you're a Yankees fan, but more on that later.

I'm certain your schedule is pretty full, but I wanted to make a personal appeal on behalf of a small town in southern Alberta called Coal Valley. The town has been dominated by one Henry Gowen, who is the man who runs the Pacific Northwest Mining Company and employs more than three-quarters of the men in town. Until the moment I set foot here, he'd conducted business in Coal Valley as if the town belonged only to him, and in essence, it did.

There was an explosion in the mine seven months ago that killed forty-seven men. Though I never had the honor of meeting any of them, I look into the eyes of their wives and children daily. The grief there can fairly knock you over some days.

Mr. Gowen doesn't strike me as the type of man who is overly concerned with how these fine men died. He seems much more worried about how to continue to squeeze a dime's worth of hard work out of those who are left. The only investigators who have gone into that deadly shaft were bought and paid for by Gowen or the Mining Company, and I would be very surprised if negligence, or possibly even foul play, wasn't involved in the explosion.

I was pleased to discover that you had recently been promoted to Inspector, and I wonder if that serves to ease up your schedule or make it worse? In any case, I would like to humbly request your assistance. This little town needs your help, and so do I.

In the interests of full disclosure, and I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot here, I am a long-time Detroit Tigers fan. As part of our agreement, I would promise not to bring up the game of August 7th when the Tigers just squeaked by on top. If it helps, I will admit that it seemed to be a bad call at home plate there at the end, and your boys probably should have won.

Thank you for your consideration. I realize it's fairly unorthodox to make this appeal personally rather than going through channels, but desperate times call for desperate measures. These are such good people. They need good people on their side.

Respectfully,

Constable Nathan Grant

Coal Valley

Alberta

Abigail stood back from the curtains to make a final check on whether the tie-backs were even on both sides. She knew that wouldn't have any bearing on the quality of the food, but she just wanted everything to be as perfect as possible.

She had absolutely no idea what she should expect on her first day of serving food at Abigail's Café. Many people in town had already tasted her cooking, some had been inside the Café helping with repairs and painting, and quite a few had stopped by in the last few weeks to see how things were going. But as far as paying customers were concerned, Abigail knew that the possibility existed that she and Katie Yost would sit all day with plenty of food and no customers at all.

The bell rang over the door and Abigail turned sharply. Nathan walked in holding Allie, and Elizabeth was right behind him. She smiled at them. "My first customers," she said, looking back into the kitchen to find Katie standing at attention with the coffee pot.

Nathan took off his hat and smiled back at her. "But not the last. There's a line starting outside the door. We thought we'd just crash in here early to be sure to get a good seat."

Abigail went to the window and pulled back a corner of the curtain. "Oh, my," she said, "There are people out there." She looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that there were still five minutes before her scheduled opening time of eight o'clock. "What should I do?"

Elizabeth laughed. "Well, to start, you might get another pot of coffee brewing."

It continued throughout the day, and no one was more surprised than Abigail. By ten in the morning, she was completely out of blueberry scones, and the ones she put in the oven to replace them seemed to bring even more people through the door.

There was a venting system in the café that took all the lovely aromas of Abigail's baking and sent them wafting down the main street of town. Even those who had just finished a perfectly good breakfast at home found themselves following their noses to Abigail's. Then at lunchtime it was the freshly-baked bread and the beef barley soup that brought them in. And at suppertime, the warm, savory smells of shepherd's pie made people reconsider the cold chicken and hard biscuits waiting at home.

By eight o'clock in the evening, Abigail had cycled three times through every cup, saucer, plate and piece of silver she owned, and she'd pulled Sally Weaver and her sister Martha in to wash dishes in exchange for supper to take home to their large family.

By nine o'clock, she was sitting with Nathan, Elizabeth and Allie with the door securely locked against any from the saloon who might think a late-night snack was just the thing they needed.

Abigail laughed, exhausted. "What was I thinking?" she said, leaning back with a cup of tea in her hands. "Not only am I dead on my feet, but now I need to get started on the food for tomorrow. I've already doubled my order with Ned, and can only hope the supply wagon isn't late in the morning. Do you think it will be like this every day?"

Elizabeth smiled. "There may have been a few extras today who simply wanted to find out what all the fuss was about, but yes, I think you should assume the best." Elizabeth helped Allie with her cherry cobbler and then took a bite of it herself. "I'm only glad we're having school in the church now, because it would have been a challenge to get the children to concentrate after recess with the smell of your ginger cookies filling the street."

"Katie was selling them out the back door at lunchtime! I'll need to have twice as many on hand if that keeps up." She sighed and sat forward, smiling at her friends. "How can I ever thank you?" she said softly.

Frowning, Elizabeth said, "Thank us? For what?"

"Encouragement, faith, painting..." then looking at Nathan, she said, "... fixing the leaky roof..."

Nathan smiled and looked over at Allie, who was now wearing nearly as much cherry cobbler as she was managing to fit in her mouth. "And how many times have you watched Allie when I needed help…?"

Elizabeth took her hand across the table. "And Abigail, you took me in when I was so scared and lost. You gave me a home. I'll never be able to repay you for that."

Abigail smiled back at the three of them. "I suppose we help each other," she said. She took a deep breath. "I don't think you two know how you've transformed this town." She raised her eyebrows and lifted her teacup. "I'm thinking we should change the name from Coal Valley to Hope Valley. Even Henry Gowen came in for lunch today. I couldn't find him a table, which sent him scowling out the door saying he'd have better luck at the saloon."

Nathan lifted a spoon from the table and rolled it over in his hands. "Abigail, I want to be sure you're ready for whatever Henry Gowen throws at you once this investigation starts." He looked up at her. "He'll be desperate to blame anyone but himself, and that might include Noah. Are you prepared for that?"

Abigail sat up a little straighter. "Yes. And I trust the people of this town to remember who Noah was. I know he was the supervisor, but everyone remembers that Gowen would dock anyone who balked at setting foot in that mine, no matter what the dangers were. The men had been telling him for nearly a year that it was very difficult to breathe in the deepest shafts. Noah and Peter would come home light-headed more often than not, and they always used to say the smell in there was foul."

Nathan nodded. "I'm hoping that Inspector Avery will agree to come down here and investigate, and I have an idea for what we should do once he does. This town knows how to pull together. We've learned that." Nathan focused his gaze on Abigail. "We know Gowen can make pretty speeches, and Coal Valley has been under his thumb for so long, it's hard for the people here to imagine fighting back. But if we use our time after church, which we know Henry never attends, to have community meetings, I think we can anticipate his reaction to an investigation of the mine."

Abigail spoke slowly. "And what about his henchmen? Those terrible Pinkertons he sends to stand in the back of the church?"

Nathan nodded, "Yes, I know. And we'll never close the doors of that church to anyone in the community, but since Gowen lost Spurlock, Mayfield seems to have fewer teeth. And the new man, McBride, feels to me to be more Pinkerton than henchman. He's older and I've actually had some good conversations about the Agency and the work he's done in the past."

Abigail frowned, "You think they can be swayed?" she said, skeptical.

Nathan smiled. "Well, we all know there are colors to the way we tell stories, and Spurlock just liked a fight wherever he could find it. I don't think these two will be as quick to start squabbles. Just my intuition."

Elizabeth took his hand on the table. "Which is excellent."

Nathan smiled at her and kissed her hand. "Thank you," he said softly.

Abigail looked over the rim of her teacup at them and smiled. It didn't seem that long ago that she and Noah were looking at each other that way. She loved being with Nathan and Elizabeth. The joy they felt in each other's company was palpable, and it filled her with hopeful energy.

Taking a deep breath, Abigail put down her cup and pushed back from the table. "I haven't been this tired in as long as I can remember, and the day will start early."

Elizabeth smiled up at her. "I'll be up in just a bit. We're halfway through the A's in the encyclopedia and I have my lesson plan for tomorrow, so I'll get up early with you to help with the baking."

Abigail smiled. "Would you? I'd be so grateful, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth nodded. "I can't sleep through the smell of your scones anyway. I might as well get up and help," she said, laughing.

Abigail walked around the table and leaned down to give Allie a kiss on the cheek, getting a little taste of cherry cobbler in the bargain. "Mmm, your cheek is very yummy..." she said, making Allie laugh. "How about we get a cloth with some of the warm water from the pot and clean you up?" She raised an eyebrow at Nathan and Elizabeth, "Which will give your uncle and Miss Thatcher a chance to say goodnight..."

Nathan looked at her with a crooked smile from under his brows. "Thank you, Abigail..."

She took Allie by the hand and helped her down from the chair. On the way behind Nathan she reached down and gave him a light hug. "I'm so very glad you chose Coal Valley, Nathan."

He looked up at her as she started through the curtain to the kitchen. "So am I, Abigail."

When they disappeared behind the curtain, Nathan took Elizabeth's hand and stood, pulling her up to him. He put his arms around her and they simply stood together as they loved to do, in silence, listening to each other's hearts.

Elizabeth murmured softly into his cotton shirt. "We fit together very well..."

Nathan sighed into the silkiness of her hair. "In every way possible..."

She leaned back and looked up into his eyes. The lighting in the Café was soft, with a golden tinge that reflected off of the natural tan Nathan always seemed to have from spending so much time outdoors. "We're going to have a fight on our hands with Gowen, aren't we?"

Nathan smiled and touched a curl at her forehead with his finger gently. "Do you know one of the things I love about you? You don't say that Abigail is going to have a fight on her hands... it's our fight."

She smiled softly. "If there's one thing the people in this town have taught me, it's that doing things together is always easier than trying to do them alone." She hooked her thumb absentmindedly through his suspender. "Do you know, I was thinking the other day, I have no idea who our neighbors were in Hamilton? But you know who did know the people who lived closest to us? The servants. They knew the servants on the other estates. And I've realized that they understood so much better than we did about community."

"Do you ever miss Hamilton?" Nathan said.

"I miss my parents, and I miss Julie with a passion, but no, I don't miss that life at all." She laughed suddenly. "I take that back, indoor plumbing would be nice."

"So you never think about going back?" Nathan asked.

"Oh, heavens, no," Elizabeth said quickly. "This is my life now. This town is my life." She looked up at him and ran her fingers across his lips tenderly. "You are my life, Nathan."

He bent to kiss her and held there for a long moment. She knew him so well now that she could feel the emotion welling up in him, and it spurred on the feelings that were already so close to the surface in her.

It was impossible to describe this adequately, and she'd tried so many times in her journal. The feeling that she would do anything to give Nathan even an ounce of comfort. The gratitude she felt that in this immense world they had found each other. The knowledge that though she might not know the size and shape of the hole that would be left in her life if she'd never met him, she would still feel it, an unexplained emptiness somewhere just below her heart.

She curled her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck and felt him shiver slightly at her touch as his kiss deepened. They might have stood there all night, Elizabeth thought, if Abigail hadn't spoken softly to Allie from behind the curtain, warning them that they would soon not be alone.

By the time Abigail parted the curtain with Allie in her arms, Allie's eyes were closing on her shoulder. "I think this one needs to get to bed," she said, handing her gently over to Nathan. Abigail yawned, "And so do I..."

"Goodnight, Nathan," Abigail said sleepily, going through the curtain.

"I'll be up in a minute," Elizabeth said. She put her arm through Nathan's and walked him to the door of the café, pulling the bolt back.

He put his arm around her and she snuggled up against Allie's impossibly soft face.

"She loves you, you know?" Nathan whispered.

Elizabeth looked up at him. "And I love her," she said, brushing her lips across Allie's cheek.

Bill Avery sat back in the saddle, preparing himself for a long ride. Normally he would take the train down to Coal Valley, but he'd decided that he might be there for a while, so he wanted his horse with him.

Avery had been impressed with Nathan Grant's letter. Not just the mystery of the mine, because mysteries always drew Bill in, but also Grant's love of the town and his passion for the grieving of its people. And of course, the baseball talk hadn't hurt. It had been a long time since Bill had a decent discussion about baseball, and if Grant knew about that squeaker of a game between the Tigers and the Yankees, he must be a real fan.

But there was another reason Bill Avery was making the long trip down to Coal Valley.

Henry Gowen. A name he hadn't heard in a long while, and never expected to hear again. No surprise that Gowen was now running roughshod over a tiny town. That was always Henry's way. Find a small town, or a small company, or small people - and step on them.

It really was time someone put a foot on Henry Gowen's throat.