The Blue Room was not only exactly the color of Nathan's eyes - it was also where the girls had played as children, and somehow a number of their toys and dolls had found a permanent home there.

When Elizabeth emerged from her bath, she found Nathan sitting in his dress pants and braces, his black patent leather shoes, and his white tuxedo shirt. He had his head practically buried in an enormous light blue dollhouse.

For a moment, Elizabeth thought he might be inspecting the workmanship. But when she got closer and he looked up, she saw his eyes and she bent down and put her arms around him.

"I miss her too, Nathan."

Sighing, he said, "I didn't know I would miss her this much. It's funny, I actually thought that it would be a relief to not have to worry about her for a little while, but now I just worry about her from a distance..." He gave Elizabeth a wistful smile and she leaned in to kiss him.

"Sweet Nathan," she said softly. "What a gift you and Allie are to each other. And I'm sure she's doing just fine with Rebecca. She's probably gotten our first letter by now, don't you think? And maybe written back?" Elizabeth stood to get dressed and Nathan stood with her.

"So..." Nathan started, and the tone in his voice caused Elizabeth to turn and raise her eyebrows. She walked back toward him and put her hands on his chest.

"What is it?" she said.

"Your mother does seem to be... healthy..." Nathan toyed with the lace on Elizabeth's dressing gown.

Smiling, Elizabeth bent down to catch his eyes. "You're wondering how long we'll be staying?"

Nathan looked up at her. "I love having this time with you. I've enjoyed getting to know your parents and Julie, but... When it was an emergency, it made sense to have Bill covering for me and to have Mom caring for Allie. But it just... doesn't..."

"Feel like an emergency?" Elizabeth smiled. "Yes, I know."

"It's just the way you thought it would be, and I guess I didn't entirely believe that she would be as completely fine as she is." Nathan's eyes dropped again, but this time they settled on a spot that he loved to touch, the soft skin over the line of her collarbone.

Then, without thinking, he bent to kiss it. It still amazed him that he could do this whenever he wanted. For so many months he had gazed at that spot just above her white blouses and tried to imagine what it would be like to do just what he was doing. Feeling the soft warm skin under his lips, still moist from her bath, Nathan knew that his imagination simply hadn't been up to the task.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed. "Nathan. We're in the middle of a fairly important discussion and we're expected downstairs in forty-five minutes..."

"Plenty of time..." he whispered, moving his lips slowly lower.

Elizabeth was feeling her resolve weakening. "I still have to get ready for dinner..."

"You're already beautiful..." Nathan said, moving her slowly toward the four-poster bed with the blue canopy the color of his eyes.

Elizabeth laughed softly and said, "Do you think you could be a little less distracted?"

"No," Nathan murmured, lost in the lavender of her skin. "I don't think I can."

"Are you warm enough?" Lee said, reaching over to pull the blanket around Rosemary's legs. She happened to reach down at the same time and their hands touched. Both pulled back as if they'd been burned and then looked at each other and laughed nervously.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," Rosemary said. "We need to talk."

Lee exhaled and turned his eyes back to the road ahead. They had only travelled half of the way to Cape Fullerton and he'd already been worried about how they were going to get through two full days together without touching on the feelings that were plainly obvious to both of them.

"Yes," Lee said, flicking the reins lightly, his heart racing. "We do need to talk."

He turned to her and had to turn back again. It just wasn't right that someone could be so beautiful sitting in a cold wagon on a bumpy dirt road in the middle of nowhere. But somehow, Rosemary looked fresh and bright, her cheeks pink, her curls bouncing and shiny, and then, of course, there was that smile. Lee wasn't a writer by any means, but he thought he might be able to wax poetic about Rosemary's smile.

Another few moments passed with neither one ready to start the conversation. Finally, Rosemary sighed loudly and said, "Fine. I'll start."

She'd been thinking about what she might say to him on this long ride together. Two full days, something she had simultaneously craved and dreaded, anticipated and feared. She'd had the fleeting thought that this much time together would allow her to see that they were entirely incompatible, but already they'd laughed about the people they knew and the things they'd seen in town, they'd talked about serious matters like Jack's pension and how Lee would proceed at Mountie Headquarters, and they'd discussed the apartment that Hickam had already found on the edge of town that would be just right for Rosemary.

Rosemary set her mouth. Lee was practically perfect, bless him.

Lee looked over and smiled. "You're not talking," he said finally.

Rosemary peered back at him and raised her eyebrows. "Imagine that," she said, mystified.

Despite himself, Lee laughed.

"I'm a widow," Rosemary said suddenly. "And as I said before, I don't know how to be one. Honestly, Jack would be shaking his head at me right now. Rosemary LeVeaux, the bohemian actress, worrying about what people might think..."

Lee turned to her again. "Think about what, Rosie?" Lee had finally given in to his desire to call her by this sweetly shortened name. He couldn't imagine her any other way, and she hadn't stopped him, so he'd simply continued.

"About... us," she said simply. Then she turned forward and sighed. "And yes, I know what your next question will be. What about us?" She was silent for a moment and then looked back at him, arching one eyebrow, visibly frustrated. "Feel free to jump in anytime, Lee Coulter. Why is it that you get to ask all the questions?"

He looked over at her, his eyes soft. "Because I don't have any answers."

"And you think I do?" Rosemary said, her voice even sounding a little shrill to her. "Oh, why didn't you come backstage?"

Frowning, Lee said, "Sorry?"

"When you came to New York, and you saw my play. If you'd only come backstage and we'd met then, before I impulsively came to Coal Valley to find Jack. We would have started talking, and then you would have invited me out for a drink after the show..."

Lee smiled. "I would have?"

Rosemary said, "Of course you would have..." Then for a moment she stopped, frowning back at him. "Wouldn't you?"

Lee raised his eyebrows, "Well, yes, if I'd thought I had half a chance of you accepting. But you were practically the star of the show..."

"Practically?" Rosemary said, narrowing her eyes slightly.

Laughing, Lee said, "You were the star of the show. How could I think you'd go for a drink with some strange man in the audience who you didn't know from Adam, and..."

"But, Lee..." Rosemary said, moving her hand back and forth between them, "This... this... connection. It would have happened then, too, don't you think?"

Lee tilted his head and nodded. "Yes." He took a deep breath and smiled. "And you would have been unattached, and I was unattached..." Rosemary was nodding with him now, and Lee said, "I see your point."

Rosemary sighed again. "Well, that's water under the bridge, or over the dam, or whatever people say..." She sat up a little straighter. "So the question is, what do we do about it now?"

Lee kept his eyes forward. "Rosie, I don't mean to hurry you. I can wait..."

Rosemary rolled her eyes. "But that's just the thing, Lee. I don't want to wait. If the last few months have taught me anything, it's that life is too short. You have to grab hold of that shiny red apple and take a big bite."

They had another silent moment, listening to the soft sound of the horses' footfalls on the dirt and the creak of the wagon.

Lee finally turned to her. "Rosie, the last thing I want to do is add any worry to your life right now. But I want you to know that I'm here. Whatever you need, for yourself, or... the baby..."

Rosemary felt the sting of tears behind her eyes. She looked down at her hands in her lap and twirled the wedding rings Jack had given her. Her voice was so soft that Lee could hardly hear her. "You see what a good man you are? Most would run the other direction as fast as they could from a complicated, pregnant, dramatic, confused widow..." She looked over at him. "But not you."

Lee laughed softly, feeling the warmth of the compliment he'd just been given. "I have a feeling you'll always be complicated and dramatic, Rosie. It's what I..." he almost said it, but stopped, just in time. It's what I love about you. "It's what makes you so special."

Rosemary spoke softly, looking down and adjusting the blanket on her knees. "A lot of people would say, have said, it's what makes me so difficult..."

Finally, Lee couldn't help himself, and he reached over and took her hand. They both had to take a breath as they felt the familiar shock of it, but this time, instead of pulling away as he always did, Lee threaded his fingers through hers, and Rosemary put her other hand over his.

They had a feeling something was shifting. For Rosemary, it was as if a great weight was moving from her shoulders to be shared with him. For Lee, it was nothing less than the pure joy that came with that weight.

"You shouldn't have to do this alone, Rosie," Lee said. "And those who love you..." he looked over at her pointedly, his eyes and his voice steady. "Those who love you don't want you to do it alone."

Her eyes filling, Rosemary said, "I know that."

Rosemary took her hand off of their clasped hands and placed it on her stomach. Still invisible, but such a presence in her life already. "Madeleine Charlotte," she said softly, looking over at Lee.

His face lit up in a way that she would never forget for as long as she lived. "A little girl? You know that so soon?"

Rosemary raised an eyebrow. "We actresses are very perceptive," she said, giving him a brilliant smile.

Then she saw Lee's eyes glisten, and the perceptive actress in Rosemary saw love. And in a moment, she knew that this was the man she wanted in her life. For him to feel such immediate love for a child that wasn't his, for the complicated and dramatic woman that she was – well, Rosemary knew that doesn't just come along every day.

Rosemary had loved Jack with all her heart for as long as she could remember, but Jack had never stayed. Now, the love she felt for Jack began to move over to make room.

For Lee. A man with such a big heart, who made her laugh like no one else, who wanted nothing more than to be there for her and help her.

Lee. A man who would stay.

Elizabeth stood from the dressing table and found Nathan in front of the full length mirror struggling with his bow tie.

She walked toward him and he saw her in the mirror. Turning, he exhaled and shook his head. "You look... incredible," he said.

Elizabeth still had a closet full of ball gowns in Hamilton and she'd chosen one in robin's egg blue. The combination of her dress, the simple silver necklace she wore, and the silver ornaments she'd tucked into her upswept curls, took Nathan's breath away. And of course, he was having trouble separating this vision in front of him from the one he had still in his head from just ten minutes ago. Nathan knew very well how the soft flush had come to be in her cheeks.

"And you look very handsome." Smiling, Elizabeth gazed at her husband. Somehow the full black tuxedo jacket against the crisp white of his formal shirt made him appear even taller, and his dark brown hair and the blue of his eyes combined to make him look as if he'd been born to this life.

But she knew he hadn't been, and he flipped the ends of his bow tie up in frustration with a look that made Elizabeth laugh. She knew already how little he liked wearing ties of any kind, and this one promised to make it a long evening. Elizabeth loved him even more for his willingness to literally sacrifice his neck for this dinner party.

"Let me help you," she said, walking toward him. While she skillfully adjusted his collar and tied it into a perfect bow, Nathan looked down at the sound of her charm bracelet, jingling cheerfully on her wrist.

"Not exactly formal wear, is it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you have about a hundred diamond bracelets to choose from for tonight?"

Elizabeth raised her chin defiantly. "Yes, but I love it. And all the diamond bracelets in the world can't compare to this one."

She finished with the tie and turned him so that he could see himself in the mirror. It was perfect.

Nathan narrowed his eyes a little. "Should I ask how you got to be so good at that? Perhaps your father taught you?"

Elizabeth tilted her head and smiled sweetly. "Nope."

Now his eyes narrowed further, but Nathan didn't say anything.

Turning him again, Elizabeth pushed him gently against the blue wall. She leaned up to kiss him and whispered in his ear.

"Collins," she said.

Nathan laughed softly, the relief evident in his voice. "Of course. Collins."

Elizabeth held Nathan at arm's length and looked at him for a moment.

"What?" Nathan said.

Smiling, Elizabeth said, "I need to capture this. You, in this tuxedo, looking so handsome, in the blue of this room. Your eyes..." Her voice trailed off as she gazed at him in wonder.

Nathan laughed and put his arms out in front of him, pretending to be made of stone. "I'll never move..." he said.

Elizabeth laughed too. "No, my father has a camera. After dinner, I want a picture of you against this blue wall. To have forever."

He pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her fragrant curls, careful not to disturb them. "You have me forever, if that helps. But I'll happily pose for a photograph. Because no one will ever be able to believe me in this getup otherwise."

They stood for a moment with her head on his chest and their eyes closed. Elizabeth could hear the strong comforting sound of his heartbeat in her ear, feeling as she always did when they stood this way – as if she was home.

Finally, she sighed and turned to look at the clock. She looked up at Nathan and raised her eyebrows. "Ready to meet Clyde, Constable?" she said, smiling.

Steeling his courage, Nathan said, "Ready as I'll ever be, Mrs. Grant."