"He knows."

"What do you mean, who knows?" Edward asked.

"The Mountie. He knows what we are going here. The phone was disconnected," Charles said.

"Are you sure? Couldn't it be that there is something wrong with the phone?"

"No. Not after what happened with Mr. Bouchard. It's too coincidental."

"We need to go! We need to get out of town."

"No, we aren't going anywhere," Charles said. He started to look at his papers and sat back in his chair. Edward looked at him in shock as Charles acted like nothing had happened.

"Well I am going. I am not sticking around for the Mountie to arrest us."

Charles stood up and he got right in Edward's face. "Look we are both in this. I will put all the blame on you if you try and leave. Now, go back to your room in the saloon and I will see you first thing tomorrow." Charles was not worried and he went back to the desk. He didn't even look up when Edward left.

Edward walked out of the office and shut the door quietly behind him. He saw the Mountie walking with a man he didn't recognize. Neither one saw Edward standing by the office. Edward walked quickly but in the shadows towards the stables. When he walked in, he saw a bunch of horses. He didn't want to cause alarm or alert anyone that he was gone. He saw the Mountie's brown horse and a black horse in the stall next to it. He looked across at the other horses and he added the saddle on the horse closest to the back door.

Once the horse was saddled, he walked the horse to the back of the saloon. He ran up the stairs to his room and gathered what would fit in the saddle bags. He ran down to the horse and packed everything quickly. Edward looked around and saw no one. He mounted the horse and started the ride out of town.

–––––––––––––––

The next morning, Elizabeth was down in her kitchen feeding Jack. He was always an early riser and Elizabeth took him downstairs to let her father sleep a little longer in the guest room. William came downstairs about a hour later and smiled at them both.

"Good morning," William said.

"Good morning. I hope Jack didn't wake you."

"Oh no, not at all. I am usually up early, even before your mother." William walked to the kitchen and got himself a cup of coffee. Elizabeth loved how comfortable her father was in Hope Valley but she was sure he would love to be home again. "Would now be a good time to show you the things I brought for you?"

"Of course." Elizabeth picked up Jack and they all walked towards the settee. The trunk and bags that William had brought. William put the things for Nathan and Allie to the side. Elizabeth promised to give the gifts to them but William thought he would see them again before leaving town. He opened the trunk and brought some toys out for Jack.

"A train!"

"That's right Jack," Elizabeth said.

"I had a train when I was a boy and I thought Jack would like it. He should be able to use it with all of his other toys since he likes to build things," William said.

"Thank you father. I'm sure he will."

William pulled out all the pieces of the set and Jack continued to play with the engine, moving it back and forth. Next, William pulled out a large box and he handed it to Elizabeth. "This is from your mother."

Elizabeth opened the top of the box and she saw three beautiful dresses. One looked like what she would normally wear and the other two were fancier dresses with lace. "She also gave me this letter. She wanted to explain about the dresses. She also gave me another box and told me to have you open this one when you were alone," William said to her as he held out the smaller box with the letter on top. Elizabeth took them both and set them to the side.

"There are other clothes and toys for Jack in the trunk as well. I am leaving the trunk with you here so you can open the other things whenever you have time."

"Thank you so much for everything. Not only the gifts, for coming here to Hope Valley to help with all of this that is going on."

"I'm happy I could help Elizabeth, even a little bit."

"Would you like to walk to town with me? I can check if Rosemary is home if she can watch Jack. He should be going down for a nap in a couple hours. I wanted to walk to the mercantile to get something for dinner. Maybe we can ask Nathan and Allie to join us and then you can give them the gifts?"

"Sure, let me get my jacket and we can go," William said.

Rosemary was happy to watch Jack for the afternoon. She told Elizabeth not to hurry back and that she would put Jack down for his nap. Elizabeth and William walked to town. The two of them were talking about Williams travel plans back to Hamilton and Elizabeth was trying to decide when she could come visit. Neither one of them looked around when they reached town so they didn't see Charles standing in the street. His eyes went wide as he saw William Thatcher in Hope Valley.

"What are you doing here?" Charles yelled towards them as he walked quickly in their direction. Elizabeth turned quickly and she was shocked by the look on Charles face. So much hate in his eyes. She could barely recognize him."

William didn't turn around at the sound of Charles voice. He did turn as he looked at Elizabeth and he said, "I could ask you the same Charles."

"Ruining my life all those years ago wasn't enough. You have to interfere with my business now too."

"I did no such thing. You were let go because of the choices you made," William's voice remained calm which only aggravated Charles more.

"The stories that came out after you fired me ruined my chances at so many jobs. Luckily there were still a few people willing to support me as I opened by business."

"Will those people stand by you now? When they learn what you have done with these small towns and the businesses there?"

Charles face went white. Charles knew that the Mountie had to know about his plans but he had no idea that William Thatcher knew. This could ruin everything when he went back to Hamilton. Charles could run from the Mountie. He would never leave Elizabeth and this town. But William Thatcher had more influence that all the people he was working with combined.

Charles panicked and he pulled a gun from inside his jacket. He pointed it at William. Elizabeth gasped and stood frozen in the street. William spoke, "Charles, you don't want to do this."

Nathan heard the commotion in the street and walked to the open door of the Mountie office. When he saw the gun pointed towards Elizabeth and William, he walked quickly out to them. He moved quietly to not cause Charles to start shooting. Charles was so focused on William and Elizabeth that he didn't see Nathan.

"Charles, put the gun down. We both know you aren't going to use it," William said.

"How dare you! You don't want to help me. You never did. All you wanted to do was to take things from me. Now I am going to take something from you."

Charles moved his hand and he pointed the gun towards Elizabeth. Nathan saw everything go in slow motion after that. Even though the gun wasn't pointed at him, Nathan saw his life flash before his eyes. The life he wanted with Elizabeth. Proposing to her. Marrying her. Raising their children and the possibility of more. He saw falling asleep next to her and waking up with her each morning. All of those things were starting to blur as Nathan saw Charles start to press down on the trigger.

Without thought for his own safety, Nathan ran and jumped in front of Elizabeth. The force of him running into her caused them both to fall to the ground. After they both fell, Bill ran down the street towards them and William put his hands up in the air. Charles dropped the gun and tried to run in the other direction, but Bill was right there to catch him. Bill put Charles' arms behind his back and held them there. Bill looked around Charles to see if Nathan and Elizabeth were ok.

William ran over to them as soon as he saw Charles couldn't hurt them anymore. He spoke to Elizabeth, "Are you ok Elizabeth, talk to me."

"I'm fine, I just had the wind knocked out of me. Nathan, are you ok?" Elizabeth tried to shake Nathan but there was no response. William helped to roll Nathan onto his side and Elizabeth sat up. Both of them saw it. The dark stain on Nathan's side, starting to seep through his serge.

"Nathan! No!"

Carson and Faith ran over. They heard the commotion but stayed outside the infirmary until they saw the danger was over. Carson bent down and checked on Nathan. Elizabeth looked up at him waiting for an answer.

"He is alive. We need to get him back to the infirmary to check on this wound."

Bill had walked to the Mountie office and put Charles in the jail. He came back out just in time to hear Carson. "I can help carry him over."

"Me too," William said. Bill, William, and Carson carried Nathan over to the infirmary slowly to not move him to much. When they lifted him from the ground, Nathan groaned. Elizabeth was so relieved just to hear a sound from him. She walked right along side as the men carried Nathan.

"Nathan, darling. Please wake up. Please. We have so many more things to do. You need to be alright, do you hear me?" Elizabeth had tears streamed down her face at this point. After they set Nathan down, William put his arm around Elizabeth and led her outside. They needed to work and Faith assured her that she would come get Elizabeth as soon as she could. Bill said he would go find Allie to let her know what happened. He would then stop at Rosemary's house to check on Jack.

Elizabeth sat outside the infirmary. Staring straight ahead, only hearing the sound of herself crying. There were people walking around outside and everyone was talking about what happened. William sat next to her and he tried to comfort her. Elizabeth heard nothing. She sat there wondering how this could be happening. Losing Jack had hurt but she was able to get through it with time. Losing Nathan would not be the same. It would devastate and break her in ways she couldn't imagine. She needed him to be part of her future. She sat as the minutes ticked by anxiously waiting for news.