The sun was just starting to make its final descent of the day when Nathan and Bill heard the gun shots. Turning around in their saddles, they saw a column of smoke rising from what appeared to be Hope Valley. Both turned their horses around and headed back towards the town. As they got closer, they could see that a signal file had been started not far from the pond with someone standing nearby, but weren't able to see who it was. Also near the pond, there was a group of men sitting on the ground, with another group standing watch over them. Finally, Nathan and Bill were close enough to see Joseph standing near the smoking signal fire, and Mike, Lee, Henry and one other person standing over the men on the ground with their rifles pointed at them.
"What's going on here?" Bill called out as soon as he knew they could hear him.
Joseph said a prayer of thanks and began dousing the fire before coming and joining the group.
"Lucas," Nathan called, once he'd reached them, "What are you doing here? You were supposed to stay at the saloon!"
"I wasn't going to let you guys do this alone, I am still a part of this town," was the governor's reply.
Bill repeated his question for a moment before, "What's going on here?"
Henry handed his gun to Joseph, who had joined in keeping an eye on the group of men, and began to explain. "These are Shaw's men. Joseph noticed them as he was walking home. I was coming down the road from the other direction and got a few shots off to alert Lee and Mike, and once they got here, we were able to restrain them." He stopped for a moment, looking at the others, before continuing. "Nathan, it was your house they were messing around with."
"What!?", Nathan shouted, "Allie was there watching Little Jack and Goldie."
Lee spoke up, "Yes, she heard us shouting and came out to investigate. Thankfully, we had everyone tied up, and I had her and the kids go to our house and stay with Rosie. I also alerted everyone else to stay inside and lock their doors"
Feeling somewhat relieved at that information, he looked at Lucas, "And your story?"
"Like I said, I couldn't sit in that office, like a scared puppy with Jeanette, so we left through the delivery door. I took her to the Mercantile and grabbed a horse. As I was leaving, I heard the gun shots and came this way as fast as I could. Luckily, these men of Shaw's are not very bright, nor are they very loyal when they have rifles pointed at them and the Governor begins asking questions."
The sound of multiple vehicles coming down the road interrupted them. Turning, Nathan saw the reinforcements that had been requested hours ago.
"And the signal fire?" Bill questioned.
"That was Mike's idea," Henry explained, "We wanted to make sure you knew to come back if you hadn't heard the gun shots."
"Constable Grant?" a man behind him called, causing Nathan to turn around and acknowledge that was him. "Constable Jones," he said pointing at himself before turning and motioning to the second small group of Mounties, "And this is Constable Collins. We've got eight men between us with orders to report to you. What's the situation?"
Nathan pointed to the group of men sitting on the ground, "These are Shaw's men, being detained by some of the men from the Town. Let's get them properly confined and have some of your men begin to talk to them, see if they can get any more details about their boss."
"DAD!" a shout was heard from the other end of the row houses. Nathan, hearing the voice, took off towards her. She crashed into his arms and he felt her start to shake a little bit.
"Allie, are you okay? What about Little Jack and Goldie?"
"We are fine, but dad, Mrs. Coulter and Mrs. Thornton still haven't come home."
Lee, overhearing that statement, came rushing over, exclaiming "What?" the same time as Nathan.
"They should have been home hours ago, Allie." Lee said.
"But they aren't." Allie answered.
"Constable!" This time, it was Ned's voice who caught everyone's attention. "Something is going on at the saloon. I tried to take a message over, but the door was locked, and I think I heard screaming."
Nathan would never be able to explain how he knew, but as soon as Ned said something about the saloon, he knew Elizabeth was involved. Fear overtaking him, he ran to Newton and jumped on, signaling the horse to run and pointing them towards the saloon. Bill doing the same thing, shouting "Collins, you're up."
Constable Collins took charge of the rest of them. Joseph pulled a terrified Allie into his arms and walked her towards the Coulter's home, while the other Hope Valley men, except for Lee and a few constables, stayed with the prisoners.
Arriving at the same time, Nathan and Bill slowly creeped towards the two windows by the doors. Peeking in, they saw Rosemary tied to a chair with a gag in her mouth, and a man sitting across from her cleaning his gun. Suddenly, another man appeared from the back with drinks for himself and his partner. Slowly they backed away from the windows and door and moved out to the street. By this time the rest of the Constables, Lee and Lucas had arrived.
"Is Rosemary okay." Lee desperately asked.
Bill explained what they'd seen inside, and Nathan grabbed Lee before he could leave the group.
"Lee, we will get her, I promise, but we need to be smart about this." Nathan told him. Together they nodded and Nathan spoke to the rest of the group. "Constable Collins, I need a few men to quietly check the saloon doors for other men, we need to detain them before doing anything else."
"Mack, you take your team and report back." Collins called out. A few moments later, the men came back with not only their report, but three men in handcuffs who were doing everything they could to escape.
"Excellent," Collins told him, "Take them back to the others and stay there. Get any information you can out of them."
Turning back he noticed Bill looking up at the balcony of the saloon, looking himself he saw a man looking out one of the windows. "We've got at least one more upstairs," he said, looking over at Nathan.
"Okay, here is what we are going to do, there are a total of four doors around the building, I want two men at each door, except the front door, that's where the rest of us will be. We will force our way through the front door and you gentlemen follow once you've heard us. Guns up, shoot to wound but only if necessary. Lee you head straight to Rosemary, Bill and I will cover you. Take Bill's knife and once we get to her, get her free and head back out the front door. Go straight to the Valley Voice, lock the door and stay there." As soon as Lee had Bill's knife, Nathan continued, "We don't know how many other men he has in there, so be alert and try to subdue as many as you can. Hopefully the noise will get the attention of anyone that might be upstairs. Once the saloon is secure, we will move upstairs."
Once assignments were given and everyone was in their spots.
Nathan and Bill had just make sure Rosemary and Lee were outside when they heard, "I've got a pretty little hostage up here, so better do what I say." Both looked up the stairs and there was Shaw, standing at the top of the stairs, waving what looked like a pink jacket in the air. Nathan, knowing who it belonged to, took off towards the man, but Bill grabbed him before he got very far and forcefully pulled him back. "Nathan," he said, "No! That's not the right move, and you know it."
"I don't care, Bill, he's got Elizabeth."
"I know but, Nathan," Suddenly the noise of two men tumbling down the stairs caught their attention, and they watched as Mike and Shaw landed in a heap on the floor.
Running towards the two men on the ground, they saw Mike struggling to get away from Shaw, but not having much luck. "Hands up, Shaw," Nathan said, pointing his gun at the gangster.
"Mike, are you okay?"
"Yeah," Mike said standing up, "I think I hit my head on that last stair though"
"Let's make sure you get checked out by Dr. Carter."
By this time, Constable Collins had arrived, allowing Nathan to officially arrest and handcuff the
was placing Shaw under arrest and started walking him towards the door when Nathan heard a gasp, turning towards the stairs he saw Lucas carrying an unconscious Elizabeth slowly down the stairs.
It was a sight Nathan knew would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life, and always in slow motion. Lucas coming down the stairs with Elizabeth lying limp in his arms. He knew that him being a Mountie had always been a struggle for her, that Elizabeth was worried about something happening to him because of this profession, but he'd never fully considered what would happen if the situation was reversed, and she was the one injured or worse. For one second he was frozen in fear, the next he found himself at the bottom of the stairs reaching for Elizabeth once Lucas had made it down.
"She's breathing." Lucas told him, as he met Nathan at the bottom of the stairs and gently handed her over to him, "but we need to get her to Faith."
Bill grabbed Nathan's arm and pulled him out of the saloon and down the street to the infirmary.