Page 70 of Montana Lawman Rescuer
“I know.” But it made little difference to most people. If he hadn’t had the support of the Marshall family, he probablywouldn’t be sheriff. He’d once harbored the hope he could run from his heritage but soon learned it dogged his heels. Ironic that he would like to forget his past while Emily wanted so desperately to remember hers.
“Do you want coffee outside?” Emily asked from the doorway.
Gram got to her feet and called Mikey. “You two will have to drink your coffee without us. We’re going for a walk.” And Gram left out the back gate.
“That was strange,” Emily said. “She hadn’t mentioned any plan to leave.”
Jesse didn’t say anything about that. “Let’s have coffee out here.” The setting was pleasant and quiet.
Emily carried a tray with two cups of coffee, a generous slice of cake on one plate and a much smaller one on a second plate.
He grabbed a stool and brought it close for her to put the tray on.
They sipped coffee and ate the rich spice cake. He suspected she had made it. “Good cake.”
“Thanks. I like baking.” She chuckled. “I’ve wondered if I ran a restaurant or if I was a seamstress. Doesn’t seem I could be both.”
She could be anything she chose to be, but he kept his thoughts to himself. He understood well enough that saying it didn’t make it happen.
“Gram has overcome a lot in her lifetime. She told me how difficult it was when your mother chose the sort of life she did. Gram said she agonized in prayer for her daughter to repent.” She shifted so she could look at Jesse as she spoke. “She said the only good to come from that situation was you.”
“So she says.” It hurt to think of his mother’s wasted ways.
“Gram says getting you away from her gave her a new lease on things.” She studied Jesse, her blue eyes intense.
He wondered what she saw—a man who didn’t know who his father was, a man from a sordid background, or a man who wanted nothing more than to be accepted as part of proper society?
“You’ve been a real blessing to her.” Emily’s eyes darkened with emotion.
He leaned closer, wanting to know if that emotion was approval of him or Gram. “Not everyone sees me as a blessing.”
“You mean people like Agnes? How long will you continue to let her opinion shape yours?”
He sat back. “I don’t. I’m not. Others share her opinion.”
“I suppose they do, but not everyone does. My question is, do you listen to the nay voices or the yea ones?”
He stared at her.
She continued. “Maybe it’s time you forgave your mother.”
Forgive her? Never. He looked into the distance, startled at the words that rushed to his mind. He had long since stopped thinking of her, being disappointed in her, wishing she’d cared for him enough to make some changes in her life. He thought he’d forgiven her. But his automatic response indicated otherwise. Could he forgive? Did he want to?
Emily touched his arm. “I’m sorry. I spoke without thinking. I had no right to say that. To judge you.”
Others had judged him, but this was different because of the truth in her words. He tried to think how to respond. Someone banged on the front door, and the sound of a horse racing away jerked him to his feet. “I have to see what that was all about.”
She followed him through the house. He opened the door. No one was there. He looked up and down the street. Because it was Saturday, there was much activity in the center of town but nothing to suggest any sort of emergency.
Emily gave a cry and fell to her knees. She reached past him to something on the step, pulled a soiled white rag toward her chest, and rocked back and forth, crying quietly.
He knelt beside her. “Emily, what is it?”
Emily recognizedthe shirtwaist as soon as she saw it. A scream filled her head, but she choked it back. She could not, however, keep back the sobs that consumed her body. Ignoring the blood and dirt on the fabric, she cradled it to her face.
Jesse was at her side, his hands warm on her shoulders. “Emily, what’s wrong?” He asked the question several times before she understood him.
“It’s mine,” she managed between snuffles.
