Agnes smiled.“I don’t think I’d enjoy it near as much with any other man.Jasper is...special.He makes my heart beat faster, and he’s so kind.”
“I feel the same about Tom.I don’t know how Elizabeth can make matches in the mail as she does, but I swear the woman is a genius!”
“I think a lot of it comes from how happy she is with her Bernard.The two of them just seem to understand each other without words.”
“I noticed that too!”Sally smiled.“I feel like Tom and I are getting to that point.”
“Do you love him?”Agnes asked.
“I do.A great deal.I wasn’t sure at first because he would barely speak to me, but now...things are wonderful.He has no complaints about how much I work, and he’s told me if I want to stop doing so much, he’d be fine with that as well.I won’t say he’s perfect, because we all have our flaws, but he’s perfect for me.”
“How did you know you were in love with him?”
Sally frowned as she thought about the question.“I missed him when he was at work.I yearned for his touch, but don’t tell anyone I said that!I...I suppose my feelings just grew.It never felt like there was one moment that I knew I loved him.It was the small things.How I wanted to take care of him.How I would get excited when it was time for him to come home.”She shrugged.“I just knew.And he loves me as well, so all is well.”
“How did you know he loves you?”
Sally smiled.“I told him, and then he said he loves me as well.Nothing earth-shattering.”
“I think I love Jasper, but I’ve never been in love, and it’s hard to know if that’s what I really feel.”
“Tell him.I waited so much longer than I should have to tell Tom.Jasper has a right to know.”
“But...what if I tell him and then realize I’m wrong?”
“What if he died this afternoon, and he’d never heard you say it.How would that make you feel?”
Agnes thought over the question.“I’d feel terrible that he died not knowing I loved him.”
“I think you answered your own question then, didn’t you?”Sally smiled at Agnes, knowing her friend had figured it all out.
They’d reached Agnes’s cabin, and Agnes went down into the shallow cellar to get a fourth of the cheese.She carried it up, wrapped in a cloth, and gave it to her friend.“I didn’t make a lot yesterday.I wasn’t sure how much I should make.But this is a fourth of it.”
“Thank you!I should have barley for you later today.Maybe potatoes.I’m trying to give them as long as I can.”
“I’ll take what you give me and be very happy that I have it,” Agnes said, her mind still reeling as she thought about how she wanted to tell Jasper she loved him.
“Are you enjoying the fishing part of your job?”Sally asked.
Agnes nodded.“Yes, I am.It’s very repetitious, but I challenge myself to do it a little faster every day to make it more fun.”
“Sounds like you!”Sally said.“I think you set the record for the most dishes done in an hour back at the hotel.”
“I did.Timing myself made the work easier.”
“Well, thank you for the cheese, and I will be off to tend my garden.I’ll bring you a basket later.”
“Be ready to take some salmon with you.”
“Save me a couple of fresh salmon for our supper tonight if you don’t mind.”
“Of course I will!But don’t you fish for salmon?”
“I do, but I think I’m going to phase out the fishing.I have enough other things to do with the garden and the piglets.”Sally frowned.“As long as you’ll keep saving guts and heads for me.”
“I also saved whey from the cheese!The homesteading book said it was a good thing to add into pig slop.”
“I’ll take whatever you have!And remember to save table scraps.They love the variety of food in their trough.”
