The last time fans saw When Calls the Heart’s Elizabeth Thornton and Nathan Grant, they were hopping on a train out of Hope Valley in hopes of a brighter future — but where will they stand come season 13?
“Nathan and Elizabeth take steps forward,” Erin Krakow exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the season 13 premiere on Sunday, January 4, teasing that the TV couple’s time in Cape Fullerton will be important to their growth.
The actress, who plays Elizabeth on the Hallmark series, revealed, “They get romantic together. They get silly together. There are some beautiful, beautiful moments between them.”
Krakow, 41, added that she thinks fans will be “more than satisfied” with Elizabeth and Nathan’s romance in the new season after waiting patiently — and impatiently — for them to get together.
During the season 12 finale, which aired in March 2025, Elizabeth decided to take her son, Little Jack (Hyland Goodrich), from Hope Valley to the bigger city of Cape Fullerton to better access diabetes insulin.
She didn’t reveal how long she’d be gone, but after a health scare with Little Jack, Elizabeth knew she couldn’t wait any longer and headed for the train station before boyfriend Nathan (Kevin McGarry) returned from his shift as a Mountie.
Once Nathan learned of Elizabeth’s plan, he and daughter Allie (Jaeda Lily Miller) headed to the station to join them, with the Mountie telling his love, “Where you go, I go.”
While their time in Cape Fullerton will be pivotal to their relationship, Krakow told Us that the pair won’t be there for a long time — at least when it comes to what viewers see on screen. Elizabeth and Nathan, however, will be transformed, even with their style from the experience.
“I can draw attention to the one thing that we’re all thinking, which is Nathan’s mustache. That’s back,” Krakow said with a laugh, referring to photos released of the character with new facial hair. “That’s something that I guess Nathan grew during his time in Cape Fullerton.”
The actress noted that Allie “thinks it hides his smile,” so just how long the mustache will last is very much up in the air. “That was a fun style change,” Krakow added.
When it comes to Elizabeth’s wardrobe switch, Krakow said it was partially influenced by her real-life pregnancy, which she announced in November 2025. (Krakow is married to WCTH costar Ben Rosenbaum.)
“I didn’t really have much of a bump,” she explained to Us. “I found out part of the way through filming season 13 that I was pregnant, and luckily I had already asked Barbara, our incredible wardrobe designer, if we could start to incorporate some flowier, more 1920s silhouettes.”
Krakow noted that she thought it “would make sense for Elizabeth to come back with a slightly different look to her fashion” after spending time in Cape Fullerton.
“That ended up really working out in my favor, and luckily, I had some little elves who could help me just loosen waist lines as needed,” she laughed. “But it wasn’t really much of a bump when we wrapped this season.”
In addition to Krakow expecting her and Rosenbaum’s first baby, their costars McGarry, 40, and Chris McNally, who plays Lucas Bouchard, both announced their own family expansions almost in tandem.
McGarry’s wife, Kayla Wallace, who also starred on WCTH before playing Rebecca Falcone on Landman, confirmed her first pregnancy in early November 2025.
McNally, meanwhile, shared in December 2025 that his wife, fellow Hallmark actress Julie Gonzalo, is pregnant with their second baby.
“We did talk about it, but it’s not like we sat around in a group and said, ‘OK, go.’ It just, it’s sort of amazing that it happened in this way, you know, within six weeks of each other,” Krakow told Us of the casts’ baby fever. “It’s pretty incredible. I don’t know if there’s something in the water or if, you know, we’re all just fertile. But here we are. It’s been really fun to get to share in this chapter together.”
While Krakow and her castmates are preparing for parenthood offscreen, she said it’s a little too soon to know if her WCTH character will have a baby with Nathan.
“Never say never. I mean, who knows? I [am] constantly surprised and delighted by what the writers come up with for us,” Krakow said when asked about a possible Elizabeth baby. “Let’s take it one step at a time here. Let’s get them engaged first, and then we’ll see.”
As fans wait for an engagement — and possible pregnancy — for Elizabeth and Nathan, they can also expect more romance from Hope Valley’s other characters.
“For our romance loving fans, of which there are many, it’s not just Elizabeth and Nathan [you’ll see in season 13],” Krakow teased. “We’ve got Bill and Georgie. We’ve got Edie and Lucas’ will they, won’t they. We’ve got this beautiful, you know, blossoming puppy love between Allie and Oliver.”
She added: “There’s a deepening love story in marriages, the Canfields, the Coulters, the Hickams. It is all over Hope Valley. So there’s no shortage of love and romance.”
Season 13 of When Calls the Heart premieres on Hallmark Channel Sunday, January 4, at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Hallmark+.
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