The old people -Chapter 13
When she woke up early in the morning, Elizabeth felt the gaze of two old men, who kindly invited her to join them for soup. Jack Junior took advantage of this and gave them lots of love. They lived on the street, from one side to the other, collecting papers and scrap metal, which they sold for a living; all two were the fathers of policemen, who died in the war in the Northern Territories, where Jack Thornton, her late husband, also died; they didn't receive their pensions like she did, because they said their sons were traitors. Elizabeth knew what this pain was, for a year she had been trying to show that Jack was a hero and not a traitor, but one always appeared to leave a question mark on his papers. After a long time, she found out that her father and Charles had fingers in the police and were changing the papers as a way for her not to have any income and to run into Charles' arms, something like that could have happened to these gentlemen. One was Gabriel's father, a corporal, and the other Nathaniel's father, a sergeant. They lost their homes and everything else they owned when they failed to pay the mortgage. Without explanation they were arrested and without explanation they were released. She explained her situation and everything she was facing, and they arranged for her to leave town. They waited for Jack to take a nap in the morning, then, after having a hot soup, they put Elizabeth in the garbage cart, with Jack and her bag inside, covered it carefully and so walked through the town without attracting attention and took it to the next town, where they had acquaintances they could help.
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Meanwhile, out in Alaska Beth Thatcher, Elizabeth's aunt, was praying for her little girl Elizabeth, she knew everything her brother was capable of, she even had to run far away to avoid him, but she loved Elizabeth like a daughter, and she and her family would do anything to protect her. Her husband Wynn Delayne, the mountie's senior colonel, had already been on the road for over a week when he received Lucas's message. He knew he had to run, so he was going to rest as little as possible, his son was already on his way, he tried to contact his son, but there had been no news for days.
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At the hotel in Hope Valle, one Charles stormed out, shouting at everyone, confronting Rosemary, when he discovered that for a week, everyone in that town had been lying and hiding Elizabeth's whereabouts, meaning that she had escaped with the brat from that horrible coal town. But she was his property, like it or not, he shouted, so that everyone in the square could hear as he sped off in his car towards Hamilton.
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Elizabeth was now close to Nunavut, another two hours or so and she would be close to her cousin; Lieutenant he was the son of Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Wynn Delayne and he never failed to protect her and love her like a sister, his wife Dee was a cutie, beautiful, young, full of life and love for Elizabeth, they always wrote to each other, they were one of her relatives present at Jack's wedding and funeral. If she could find Edward, her childhood friend, now a sergeant who was also in this town, she could have more help, she was so tired... The old men had asked for help and it was already ten hours since she and Jack Junior had been in that loading bay. For Jack, Elizabeth made a way for him to stand up and walk a little, two steps each way, but she had been in practically the same position since she entered, but she was moving. For her son, she kept all the food she got from the old people, including the water, and for herself it was pieces of sweet bread that had been in her bag for more than a week, it already tasted strange, she knew it was sour and it already had small molds, but she continued to eat them to have enough for her son, as for the water, only small sips.