Chapter 10 - The Woman Everyone Thought He Should Choose
Clara Whitmore arrived in a polished carriage.
Copper Falls stared.
She wore a tailored green traveling dress and carried herself with the confidence of someone who had never wondered whether she belonged in a room.
Ellie met her outside the clinic.
“You must be Eleanor.”
“Ellie.”
Clara smiled warmly.
“Jasper has written about you.”
Ellie blinked.
“He has?”
“Frequently.”
That wasn’t what Ellie expected.
Clara explained that her father had once done business with Silas Cain.
She had known Jasper as a boy.
“I came regarding the ranch.”
Not romance.
Ellie felt foolish for the relief that followed.
But the town did not abandon its favorite story so easily.
Whispers returned.
Jasper has money now.
He won’t marry a nurse.
Look at Clara.
Look at Ellie.
The comparisons became cruel.
Ellie tried to ignore them.
Then she overheard two men outside the stable.
“Cain would be a fool not to reconsider.”
“Man can buy himself a proper wife now.”
Something old and wounded reopened inside her.
That evening Jasper found Ellie unusually quiet.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
She smiled weakly.
“Maybe you should reconsider.”
His face went still.
“Reconsider what?”
“The wedding.”
Silence.
Ellie immediately regretted saying it.
Jasper’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Why?”
“You have choices now.”
“I had choices before.”
“Not like this.”
“What exactly do you think money changed?”
“Everything.”
“For you?”
“No.”
“Then why would it change me?”
Ellie looked away.
“Because Clara—”
Jasper stared.
“Clara?”
“She’s beautiful.”
“Yes.”
Ellie flinched.
He continued.
“So are you.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“Correct.”
He stepped closer.
“Clara is Clara. You are you.”
“That sounds simple when you say it.”
“It is simple.”
“It isn’t to everyone else.”
“I’m not marrying everyone else.”
Ellie’s eyes filled.
Jasper understood.
His anger disappeared.
“They got inside your head again.”
She hated how easily he saw it.
“I thought I was past this.”
“You don’t erase years of cruelty because someone puts a ring on your finger.”
He took her hand.
“But don’t punish yourself for being hurt.”
Ellie looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
Jasper almost laughed.
“I crossed half Wyoming looking for my sister. Fought Boone on a frozen river. Got mauled by a bear and survived your broth.”
“My broth saved you.”
“Debatable.”
She laughed.
He cupped her face.
“I have never been more certain of anything.”
The wedding proceeded.
On the morning of the ceremony, snow began falling unexpectedly.
Soft flakes.
The first of the season.
Copper Falls church overflowed.
Harlan stood near the front.
Samuel leaned on a cane.
Rose cried before the ceremony even started.
Jasper waited at the altar.
Then Ellie entered.
The room became silent.
For one terrible second, the old fear returned.
They’re staring.
Then Jasper saw her.
His expression destroyed every remaining doubt.
He looked at Ellie exactly as he had in the cabin.
Directly into her face.
Not around her.
Not through her.
At her.
His eyes filled with tears.
Ellie walked toward him.
When she reached the altar, Jasper whispered, “Angel.”
She smiled.
“Still delirious?”
“Probably forever.”
They married while snow fell beyond the church windows.
At the reception, Sheriff Harlan raised a glass.
“I once told Eleanor Caldwell she wasn’t fit to be a nurse.”
A murmur moved through the room.
Ellie looked at him.
Harlan continued.
“I was wrong.”
Simple words.
Public words.
Words he owed her.
“She saved Jasper Cain when better men would have been afraid to try. She saved people in this town who didn’t deserve her kindness.”
Ellie’s eyes filled.
“And Copper Falls is fortunate she stayed.”
People applauded.
Jasper squeezed her hand.
That night, after everyone left, they stood outside beneath the stars.
“Mrs. Cain,” Jasper said.
“Don’t get too pleased with yourself.”
“Too late.”
He kissed her.
For once, Ellie believed happiness might be allowed to remain.
But marriage was not the ending of their story.
It was where the hardest part began.
Because the following spring, an epidemic reached Copper Falls.
May you like
And Ellie would be forced to choose between the family she had finally found and the town that once rejected her.
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