They've arrived — Chapter 39

Elizabeth, now eight months pregnant with twins, was getting heavier and harder to walk every day, but she was radiant, her skin glowed, her smile was huge and her eyes held a love that enchanted everyone who came near her.

Wynn and Frankison, were in their red serge to honor the reunion of their soldiers with their families. Bill, in his suit, as the town judge, already had several documents ready for the new documents of the two men, They would be recognized as alive later that day. Abgail, in her most elegant outfit, was as mayor of the town. Lee, Lucas, Fiona, Jesse, Clara, Henry, Ned, Carson, Faith, Frank and several other adults from Hope Valle were there in the square to celebrate the return of their friends mountie and their parents. The love they all had for Elizabeth, Gab and Nathan was enormous. The children were all behind Elizabeth, smiling at the surprise they had for their mountie, loving their teacher and their mountie. Edward stood next to Elizabeth, holding little Jack on his lap, as Elizabeth could no longer do so due to her weight and late pregnancy. And when little Jack called him Uncle Edward, he fell all over himself for that child. Jack Junior felt all imposing, he was in the highest place and still on Uncle Edward's lap, and even better, he was wearing red serge. Even Edward's parents came to the reception, staying at Gab's house for a few days to keep Lilian company.

When the coach arrived, the first thing they saw from afar was the banner that the children from Elizabeth's school had made...

GRANDPAS, WELCOME HOME.

The stagecoach door opened and a red serge visage descended, Nathan and Gab got off looking at everyone with tearful eyes, they knew their community and there they saw a lot of love. Gab's searched for his Lilian in the crowd, while Nathan felt his hair on the back of his neck stand on end and looked back, he knew his beautiful wife Lizbeth was there, he felt her presence as if her breath were on the back of his neck, he smiled at her as he wanted to run and take his wife in his arms and smell her perfume, and his children, all of whom he missed, Nathan saw Alien with tears in her eyes, he knew she recognized her grandfather. Gab and Nathan helped their parents downstairs, the two of them looked around, not believing what they were seeing; that's when they saw Elizabeth and ran to embrace her, lots of smiles, hugs, tears, and words of love between the three of them, they looked at her belly and when she said you will have two new grandchildren, at that moment the two gentlemen fell in love with Elizabeth. The two gentlemen and Elizabeth cried a lot, they knew everything they had been through in their escape, and these gentlemen prayed all the time for her and her little son, it was a big hug from the three of them, a bear hug. Nathan and Gab, seeing the commotion and knowing that it couldn't be good for Lizbeth, went to calm things down. Opal and Emily came and hugged the two gentlemen, handing them the bouquets of flowers. Everyone was introduced and they made their way to Abgail's café. Nathan held Lizbeth around the waist, there was such love between them that everyone sighed at the sight of their gestures and looks, they had goofy smiles. Nathan's father was Sidney and Gab's father was Matheus. They both fell in love with little Jack, who never left their arms, calling them his grandfathers. Alien sat next to them, in fact on the bench in the middle of them. She was going to take advantage of the fact that she had two grandfathers, and was even planning to go fishing with them.

— Now Mom, I have a lot of grandfathers... Grandpa Bill, Grandpa Wynn, Grandpa Henry, Grandpa Sidney, Grandpa Matheus, all good grandpas who love me and love all of us, and there's bad Grandpa Will who doesn't like us and wanted to hurt you but you told me he'll get well one day, but we can't see him now, right Mom?

Everyone looked at Elizabeth, I knew the pain she was feeling for her father's actions, but she smiled and said:

— Yes, my child, you will wait like me. One day, God will touch his heart and he'll be a good grandfather, but until then you already have the best grandfathers in the world and the best uncles and friends too.

Sidney, Matheus, told Nathan and Gab all about Elizabeth and little Jack, everything they had been through and how hungry she had been that morning, and how their hearts had been broken. They fell in love with her as soon as they saw her, it was less than ten hours together and they couldn't stop thinking about them and their well-being. They even looked for them in nearby towns, but found nothing. Each time the story was shared, Nathan and Gab discovered something more. Elizabeth never talked about it and Nathan worried about that. Sidney said that the night was freezing cold, it was minus two degrees in the city, they worked all day and got little money, they went to the city dump because next to it there was a small pumpkin patch and they knew it had pumpkins, which would serve as food. They picked two small ones that they could find and went to the old house to make some soup, with only some leftover lard and salt and two loaves of stale bread from a few days ago. When they got there, it was dark, but the two were used to it. They felt something strange, a sense of someone in the place. As they had been trapped for a while, they were always cautious to avoid being attacked by a prisoner during the night, but even with the feeling, they saw nothing. They lit the fire and when it got brighter, there was a big surprise: leaning against one of the fallen beams, half-hidden under an old ladder to protect her from the cold, she was holding her child, like a shell, with her body she was protecting the child, she had taken off her coat and put it on the boy, a children's book lying on the floor which read my hero father and a picture of a young soldier in red serge, a mountie. We called her, but she didn't wake up. It was a beautiful image to see a young woman and her son sleeping soundly, but our fear there was enormous, if someone with a bad idea wanted to harm them, they would now have them in their hands, they were so tired and hungry that they slept like stones. We took the two pieces of old blanket that we always use to keep us warm, and I'll say in passing that it wasn't very clean, and I threw them over her and the baby to keep them warm during the night, she said thank you even though she was sleeping, laughed Matheus, but she continued to sleep soundly until the next day.