“Hello,” Jasper said, causing her to jump.
Emma Jane didn’t turn around. “If you’re here to continue our argument, I’d prefer you just leave. Moses is sleeping.”
“No. I came to apologize. I shouldn’t have taken all of my anger and hurt out on you.”
She stood and whirled around to face him. “So what’s the truth, Jasper? Do you resent me for taking away your choices, or is it something else?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. His broad shoulders rose and fell, then he spoke. “It’s the truth. I am hurt. I imagined my life different than this. But I can either stay stuck in the past, angry that I didn’t get my way, or I can find a way to make my life good in spite of those things.”
Then his lips turned up slightly. “Like you did in the bandits’ cabin. That’s what you were trying to tell me back there, isn’t it? We didn’t have a choice in being there, but you were making the best of it.”
“Yes.”
He crossed the room to sit on the bed, then patted the spot next to him. “I don’t know how deep your role in trapping me into marriage was, but I’m choosing to forgive you. The past hurts, and we need time to heal from that. But rather than dwelling in it, I’d like to start over.”
His words tumbled around in her head. Even now, Jasper still believed that Emma Jane was complicit in her family’s plan to force a marriage between them. She’d been honest with him and told him of their plan and that she didn’t want to go through with it. Yet he still blamed her.
But he was right. There was no sense in dwelling on it. She could proclaim her innocence until the day she died, and he still wasn’t going to believe it. So what did arguing about it accomplish?
“All right,” she said, sitting beside him. “I’m willing to start over.”
Moses made a noise in his sleep, and Emma Jane looked at him briefly, reminded that this was about more than just their marriage, but a little boy relying on her for his care.
“But you have to understand that I refuse to give up Moses. I love him, and somehow you’re going to have to find a way to accept him.”
Jasper followed her gaze to the sleeping baby. “What if I can’t love him?”
Squaring her shoulders, Emma Jane lifted her chin and gave him a no-nonsense look. “You will be kind to him. I’ve lived with unkindness from a parent, and my son will not have that same existence.”
In the silence, Emma Jane could hear Jasper swallow. “I’ve never been unkind to a child.”
“I wouldn’t know that.” She looked at the ground. Had she been wrong to make the comparison between Jasper and her father? Jasper had been angry with her, but he hadn’t been cruel. And while his words hurt, he hadn’t made her feel worthless. Rather, in their argument, while they had disagreed, she realized that he’d done his best to treat her with respect.
“No. I don’t suppose you know me well enough.”
Jasper stood and held out his hand. “Ordinarily, I’d ask you to go for a ride with me in my carriage, but since the wind is still howling, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to head down with me to the kitchen to see if Olivia has any cookies.”
An olive branch. Jasper wanted to make peace, and that gave Emma Jane hope. Perhaps they could find a way to make a life together, after all.
She glanced over at Moses.
“He’s asleep. He’ll be fine.” Then Jasper paused. “If you leave the door open, you’ll hear him if he cries.”
It wasn’t a declaration that he would care for Moses as his own, but the fact that he was giving consideration to Emma Jane’s feelings for Moses, well, it was a start.
Emma Jane smiled. “Then I’d be delighted.”
She took Jasper’s hand, and they walked down to the kitchen, where Olivia was pulling a batch of cookies out of the oven.
“You knew she was baking cookies,” Emma Jane teased.
“I am motivated by many things,” Jasper said with a grin. “And freshly baked cookies are one of them. Mother was always harping on me for being in the kitchen when Cook was trying to bake.”
Emma Jane rolled her eyes. “I can imagine. And I can’t imagine that Cook was put out at all by your presence.”
“No. She even let me eat some of the unbaked cookie dough, which is my favorite.”
He grabbed a cookie from the pan. “Ouch!”
“Patience,” Olivia admonished with a smile. “Let them cool for a few minutes. I’ll leave you two alone, but please, save some of the cookies for the others. Stephen and Charles went to go check on the livestock, and they’ll be mighty disappointed if you ate them all.”
The kitchen door opened, and Molly, one of Abigail’s daughters, entered. “Grammy? Is dem cookies ready?”
Jasper handed her the cookie that had been cooling in his hand. “Here’s one for you, sweetheart.” He patted her light blond hair and gave her a smile.
Molly grinned, then scampered away.
“Well, I did hear you have a reputation for the ladies,” Olivia said with a grin, putting some cookies on a plate.
“What can I say? I can’t resist a pretty face.”
Jasper winked at her, but Emma Jane turned away. Why did he have to rub in the fact that she was so plain and unattractive? Especially now, dressed in a dress borrowed from Abigail that was too loose and slightly too long. Her hair had been pulled back into a serviceable braid, and she hardly looked the picture of any of the society debutantes Jasper had courted.
He reached for her hand. “Hey. I’m married to one of the prettiest faces in all of Leadville, so no need
