After reading the back cover copy of A Time of Proving, you may be thinking that both main characters are fresh with this book.
For Miriam, that’s true. This book marks the first time she appears in the Home to Osceola series. During A Bargain to Keep she was off living in Massachusetts with her sprawling, happy family, and by the time A Choice of Love came, she was in Omaha with Uncle Wallace and Aunt Catherine, but not quite in Osceola.
Jase, however, did make it into A Choice of Love by name.
The Hoffman family, especially Zane, came up quite a bit in A Choice of Love, no question about it. Jase’s scene was a little more obscure. Let me share the details with you:
Silence settled between them. Matt adjusted Austin again, trying to think of something to take away the strain between them. His gaze snagged on his father’s old clock, a family heirloom that had always held a place of honor when he was a boy. Now the clock occupied the wall above Emily’s bed. He studied its familiar lines, then let his gaze linger on the shelf where it rested.
“Who made that shelf?” he asked.
Emily glanced in the direction he pointed. “Colton did shortly before our wedding.”
“I didn’t know he was a carpenter.”
“Colton was always learning something new. He also made this.” She patted the kitchen table beside her.
“Really?” Matt’s admiration for his brother grew. He rubbed his fingers along the butter-smooth arm of his chair “Did he make this rocker too?”
“No, that would have been a little too complicated. One of my old students made that for me.”
“Colton never mentioned that you were a teacher.”
Emily shrugged. “I only taught for one year. Colton and I met that Christmas. We had a whirlwind courtship and were married the week after school let out. I liked teaching, but . . . I loved Colton.” Even though Colton was gone, it was evident that Emily was still just as in love with him as ever. The emotions on her face plainly expressed that.
“Someone must have had a great deal of admiration for you to make such a special gift,” Matt muttered as he again caressed the chair’s arm. “It sounds like the boy was quite smitten with you.” He glanced at her, trying to gauge her reaction to his teasing.
“Jase?” Emily smiled. Based on the way the light danced in her eyes, Matt thought she might actually laugh. But she didn’t. “No. He was only twelve. And besides, he made it as a wedding present and was quite happy for me and Colton. He had a bright mind and was a natural woodworker.” Her eyes lingered fondly on the rocker. “Jase was Elkanah Hoffman’s youngest son.”
“Jase?” Matt frowned, trying to place a face to the name. “I’ve met Zane, Adam, and Benjamin, but I don’t remember a Jase.”
“You haven’t met him.” Emily’s smile dimmed. “He left the area. Jase and his father were always butting heads. He had a passion for building, but Elkanah thought the only acceptable occupation for his sons was farming. And then Jase was accused of a crime I know he didn’t commit, and when Elkanah refused to back him up, Jase ran off. That was over three years ago, and we haven’t heard from him since.”
Matt shook his head. “That’s too bad.”
“Yes.” Emily looked at the ground for a long moment, then blurted out, “Sometimes I’ve felt guilty over Jase’s sudden departure. The day before he left, he stopped by, gave me a slip of paper, and asked me not to open it but to give it to his parents in two days and no sooner. I promised, but I didn’t expect Jase to disappear overnight.” Emily sighed. “Since I didn’t want to break my promise, I waited until the next day to give the note to his parents. Turns out the note told them not to worry about him and that he was going to make his own way in the world. I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I gave the note to Elkanah and Florence right away. Maybe Jase would still be with us.”
Matt rubbed Austin’s back, thinking through what he should say. “It seems like the boy was determined to leave no matter what and that he wouldn’t have appreciated it if you broke your word.”
Emily’s forehead lined. “He was only sixteen. Too young to be away from home.”
Matt smiled. “Guess it depends on how you look at it. I was sixteen when I left home—or what was left of home, at least.”
Emily’s eyebrows lifted. “You were?”
Matt nodded. “I figured I could take on the whole world. ’Course, that feeling changed about halfway across Nebraska. It had been pouring rain for the past few days, there wasn’t a soul for miles, and I’d been living off what cooking I could manage without a fire. That was a low time, to say the least. I started to wonder what had possessed me to wander away from Colton.”
Emily studied him. “Matthew, I don’t know you very well. I know little more than what Colton’s told me.”
“I could say the same about you.” Matt leaned back in his chair and folded his hands. “Maybe we should fix that. Tell me about yourself, Emily.”
The full story that Emily refers to is featured in A Time of Proving, which begins about eight months after this scene. And let tell you, poor Jase has been through a lot. But four years have passed since he ran away and he’s now ready to return home to Osceola and redeem himself. He’ll just have to overcome that one fateful day in his past . . .
You can grab a copy of A Time of Proving right now and join Jase on his quest to make the past right.
P.S. To celebrate A Time of Proving’s release, A Choice of Love is currently on sale for $0.99. This is the perfect time to grab the story if you haven’t yet had a chance!
