Misty's True Love (Mail Order Brides of Pioneer Town, Book 2) Read Free Page A

flowers in his arm, he
quickly gathered them up into his hand and presented them to her.
“A welcome gift. We do not usually see roses in these parts, so I
hope they are all right.”
    “ They are beautiful,” she
gushed as she hugged the cluster of flowers to her bodice, half
hidden behind the blooms as she smiled shyly at him. “Thank you so
much Mr. Cody, um., Mr. Claudius, um, Mr. Mills?”
    He smiled at the questioning tone in
her voice. “Cody is perfectly fine between us. I probably should
have mentioned that in the letters.”
    “ I was no better!” she
declared. “Goodness, we could have both stood here for a good hour,
waiting to meet each other!”
    They both shared a laugh as he studied
the young woman, who blushed and started to smooth out some sort of
invisible wrinkles in her skirt that only women seemed able to see.
He had thought her attractive in their brief encounters
before.
    Now that he could take the time to
appreciate the vision more openly, he was surprised that she had
ever been a mere maid to a wealthy family, especially with her hair
in a nice style about her shoulders. Her hair almost seemed to glow
in the sunlight. She had a fair complexion, as was the fashion in
the city. Long lashes framed the most mesmerizing brown eyes that
he had ever seen, but her smile was really what drew him the most.
It was so bright that if someone told him that she was an angel
fallen from the heavens, he likely have believed it. It was the
smile only a person without a speck of guile in them could give.
Warm, friendly, and open. Vulnerable.
    “ Just imagine the
conversations we could have had, if we knew to whom we were
writing,” she mused.
    “ Indeed. We certainly have
no shortage of things to speak of on the way to town.” He nodded in
agreement as he gestured to an attendant, and gave instructions to
place Misty’s luggage in his cart.
    * * *
    Misty was half afraid that she was
going to wake up on the train. Surely this was a dream? Yet at the
same time she hoped with all her might that it was not a dream. She
breathed in the scent of the flowers. They had a fresh, clean scent
that was new to her. She could see herself filling the rooms of a
home with them every day.
    As Cody talked to the attendant about
her luggage, the reality of the situation came crashing down on
her. She felt her heart pound in sudden anxiety as it sank in that
Cody was the man from the letter. She knew that Cody was a wealthy
ranch owner and that he and Indian’s new husband, Morgan, shared
business ventures.
    She would never have presumed that he
would ever have been interested in someone like her. In fact, she
could not see him having any trouble finding a wife at all, even in
a remote place like Pioneer Town, Wyoming. Why wouldn’t he have
responded to the upper class ladies that answered his ad? Surely
there had been a slew of them.
    “ Are you sure it is all
right?” she asked shyly. She tried to melt in behind the flowers as
she fought a wave of anxiety. Cody stopped mid-instruction to
listen to her question with such suddenness, one would think she
was royalty and not a former maid.
    “ Of course!” he said with a
reassuring smile. His expression was so warm and inviting that she
was sorely tempted just to drop the issue nagging at the back of
her mind. “I know it was a long journey, so I shall not tire you
with a tour of the town right now. My mother has invited us to
lunch. I hope the two of you will grow to enjoy each other’s
company.”
    “ No.” Misty shook her head
as she tried to gather her courage. Better now than later, while
she could flee back into the train, before she got attached to this
dream.
    As he furrowed his brow in that
studious, confused way of his, she gazed up at him. “I can’t tell
you how happy I am that the man on the other end of the letter was
you all along. But I am not a lady of any rank. I told you in the
letters that I am only a maid, and I know you said that it did