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The door opened and a blast of cold air whipped around Josiah as he hurried inside. He dropped a lifeless beaver onto the floor and then lifted the bar back over the door before pulling off his coat. "Back to reading, are you?" he gruffly observed. "As soon as I skin this here beaver, I want the meat cooked up for lunch."

To Emma, the creature looked more like a large drowned rat, rather than a viable source of food.

While the trapper set about skinning, Emma thumbed through her Bible to a passage she had been wanting to reread ever since that first night with Josiah.

"Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." It was from First Peter chapter three, and those two verses gave Emma hope. Hope for a future with a God-fearing husband. Emma turned to First Corinthians, and read, "For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?"

"Set this to cooking," Josiah interrupted Emma's thoughts. He glanced at the Bible and frowned; he was liking that book less and less by the moment.

"I really appreciate your giving me the Bible," Emma thanked him.

"You won't be thanking me when you start wishing fer coffee," he griped, planting his leather bottom on the dirt floor before the fire.

"I never even knew you had coffee," replied Emma, putting the beaver meat into the kettle to begin cooking. She apprehensively watched as Josiah picked up the open book and roughly flipped through its pages. "You may read it whenever you wish," she offered, hoping that he wouldn't mistreat the fragile volume, for the cover had threatened to come off in her hands.

With a careless shrug, Josiah returned the book to where Emma had left it.

Emma turned her eyes to the fire, thinking over what she had just read. God was giving her a promise for Josiah's soul. Her speech and actions could be a witness to him, and ultimately turn him to Christ.

Letting out a loud belch, Josiah was now polishing his prized Hawken rifle.

Emma sighed. It took a lot of faith to believe that such a wild man as Josiah Brown, would ever become a Christian. She didn't know if she was strong enough to maintain the witness he would need to see in her life, but she felt God was requiring this of her.

Josiah scratched his leg and then pulled off his hunting shirt to repair a busted seam.

Feeling her face grow warm, Emma turned her eyes from his masculine form. She had an even bigger problem right now, and as comforting as these promises were, she needed help.

After lunch, Emma retreated to her Bible to search the Scriptures for more guidance.

When evening came, they ate the last of the beaver and drank cold water from the bucket. After supper, Emma returned to the fireplace, her mind focused on what she had been reading.

Josiah was ready for bed, and went to go lay down on the buffalo robes for some sleep. When Emma didn't soon follow, he raised his head to observe her still curled by the fireplace, intently reading her Bible.

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