Jasper's Wish. Grooms with Honor, #10

Can the couple weather the embarrassment of Julip's past, or will the truth tear their marriage apart?Jasper Kerns, a carpenter and furniture maker in Clear Creek, Kansas, is stunned when his friend, Holly Clancy, remembers a woman named Julip, back in Miller Springs, Montana Territory, when Holly lived there a few years ago. Jasper always wondered what happened to Julip Washburn, the girl sold at a slave auction with him when they were young.
He went back to the Washburn Plantation after the War, but Julip had married and left the area. Widow Julip Washburn Grover was entertaining men in a log cabin on the edge of Miller Springs to keep her two young children from starving to death. She was close to starvation herself and was sure she'd died when her old friend Jasper Kerns stood in the cabin's doorway instead of her next customer. Julip marries Jasper for her children's sake and moves to Clear Creek, Kansas.
Love grows between the couple until a man from Julip's past stops in town and reveals Julip's sordid history. Jasper's Wish is a stand-alone sweet romance set in 1887, but you'll want to read the whole series to enjoy the stories of the Clear Creek, Kansas community.