Misty's True Love (Mail Order Brides of Pioneer Town, Book 2) (2 page)

Misty could not wait to put a face
with the name. Would he be thin? Tall and rugged? A dapper dandy
sort? She could not quite see the last one. It seemed too over the
top for a practical man who worked the fields himself. But she
still had to wonder. He never spoke of his appearances in his
letters. Come to think of it, she did not even know what color his
eyes were.

Misty felt a wave of anxiety as she
clutched the letter to her chest. She had written to this man for
weeks, but she knew so little of him. She didn’t know his favorite
food or any of his habits, good or bad. She did not even know if he
was who he claimed to be in the letters. For all she knew, he ran a
sweatshop full of young ladies without families to look for them.
She felt a lump of worry in the back of her throat. Not even
Indiana knew she was coming this way. For the first time, Misty
regretted her silly decision to surprise Indiana by showing up in
Pioneer Town unannounced. If she disappeared, no one would know she
was coming here. Maybe she should have announced her coming after
all?

She took in a steadying
breath and shook her head. Surely she was being silly.
Even if it all goes badly, I can find Indiana’s
home. I’ll be okay
, she thought

The man sounded kind and compassionate
in the letters. She was just letting her mind run away with her. It
would be all right. Indiana was there. And her husband.

The image of Morgan’s business partner
rushed to the forefront of her mind. Cody had been a very kind man.
Truth be told, she had been attracted to him the instant she had
laid eyes on him. She had hoped to learn more about him. Maybe she
would have a chance to be friends with him, now that she would be
in regular contact with his business partner’s family. Of course,
that would depend on how Claudius felt. She’d not cause friction
with him over an acquaintance, not if Claudius was as kindly a man
in person as he was in letters.

“
Approaching Pioneer Town,”
the conductor bellowed, causing the other passengers to stir and
collect their belongings. Misty blinked and twisted to try to get a
peek. Suddenly the endless trip was approaching its end. The
reality of the event came crashing on her like a giant
wave.

She could not decide if she was
excited or terrified. This was a new land, possibly a new life,
with new people to meet and others to learn more about. Misty
caught her breath. Should she be ashamed that she willed the train
to move backward at the thought? She should be ready to race
forward! She had accepted the ticket and invitation after all. She
did want to meet Claudius, but at the same time, so many unknowns
were terrifying indeed.

Did she want to rush forward, or race
back? She had no idea what she wanted to do. She gazed back out the
window, glad to see they were once more on solid ground. She took
in a slow breath, and let it out as she squared her shoulders.
Scary or not, forward or back, she would take it one step at a
time. First she wanted to meet Claudius. Regardless of how things
turned out, she needed to meet him. From there, she would know what
her next move was.

She hoped that it would be a good
meeting.

Misty’s heart beat frantically as the
train ground to a halt. She looked out the window. Heat emanating
from the train in boiling waves. It hissed and clicked, and a thick
smog hung above her head, as some white steam continued to billow
softly out of the inverted funnel that sat on the black locomotive
down at the other end of the platform.

Misty could not believe her eyes. She
thought she would faint at the sight of the man standing on the
platform.

Chapter 2

He wore a white shirt so crisp and
clean that it had to be straight from the tailor’s. His hat was
cocked to one side ever so slightly, just enough to give him a
roguish appearance, especially with that friendly half grin as he
trained his eyes on the doorway from which she was exiting. Bright
yellow and purple wildflowers were held awkwardly in the crook of
one arm, as if he were not quite sure what to do with
them.

Misty tried not to gape as she
regarded the man on the platform. She felt her face redden as they
stared at one another in mutual shock.

“
Mr. Cody! What a
surprise!” she called out in greeting, raising a hand in a shy wave
as she stepped out into the sunlight.

“
It certainly is!” Cody
stated as he gazed from her, to the train, and back again. “Good
afternoon, Miss Misty. I certainly didn’t expect to see you here.
Is Miss Indiana here?”

“
Oh no. It’s going to be a
surprise,” she stated as she gazed around the platform, looking for
Claudius. To her surprise, no one else seemed to be here. Was he
running behind? Surely he did not forget that she was coming
today?

Cody followed her eyes, gazing on the
empty platform. “If Miss Indiana isn’t expecting you, who do is
expecting you, Miss Misty?”

“
Please, just Misty,” she
said as she felt a small wave of awkwardness over the title. It was
so strange to hear it after being a maid for so long. Only those
who held tightest to titles and etiquette had referred to her as
anything but Misty. It sounded especially strange coming from a
gentleman such as Cody.

Cody looked quizzically at the train,
and then her with a curious expression. “You are waiting for
someone?”

“
Yes. I am meeting…” It was
too embarrassing to say she was meeting her future fiancé,
especially being the man in question was nowhere to seen. What if
it was all a cruel joke? What if Claudius had no intention of
meeting her? “Well, I am meeting someone I have been writing to for
the past little while. He must have been delayed, for he said he
would meet me when I arrived to town.”

The young woman felt her heart sink a
little at the nearly empty platform. She had been so certain this
mystery man would be waiting for her to arrive. She didn’t assume
they would have a fairy tale meeting, with him sweeping her off her
feet and carrying her off into the sunset, but she did expect him
to at least be here!

“
What’s his name? Maybe I
could take you along the way. I know most of the folks round
about,” Cody said politely.

“
Thank you, but I’m sure
he’ll be here presently,” she said as she glanced at the
wildflowers with a soft smile. “It looks like you are expecting
some company of your own. I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

She also did not want to entertain a
pang of jealousy over the lucky mystery woman. While they had never
stopped to talk for any great length when he had been in San
Francisco, she had developed quite a crush on the rugged yet kind
rancher. She chided herself silently for such a childish reaction.
Here she was to meet a perfectly nice, if not exactly punctual,
man, yet she was becoming jealous of a mystery woman receiving
wildflowers from Cody. At times, she scarcely knew what to make of
her own behavior.

“
It wouldn’t be an
intrusion in the least,” Cody said as he gazed at the train once
again with a worried frown. And an expression of confusion. “Miss
Misty, would you permit me to ask you a rather odd
question?”

“
Of course.” She nodded
hesitantly. They had spoken so little in the past, it was difficult
to guess what would be considered an odd question.

“
You have been living in
San Francisco up until recently?” he asked as he regarded her with
a curious expression, on brow raising slightly.

“
Yes. After Indiana and I
parted ways, I went to take care of my aunt. She passed away
recently,” Misty responded. Was the person he was waiting on also
coming in from San Francisco? But what were the chances of
that?

Cody’s mouth dropped open as if he had
seen a ghost, but then he seemed to recover himself, as he smiled
widely. “Well now, that does explain a great deal.”

She was glad it explained something.
However, she was at a loss as to what it was! Misty blinked in
surprise as Cody boldly reached out and took her hand and leaned
down to press a light kiss to it. She opened her mouth as she felt
the blood rush to her face, trying to remember how to speak after
the sudden and unexpected act.

* * *

“
Miss Michelle Fields,
allow me to welcome you to Pioneer Town. I know it doesn’t look
like much compared to what you’re used to, but I hope that you will
come to think of it as home.” Cody said with all the formality of a
gentleman as he straightened back up.

Despite his display of confidence, his
mind was reeling as he reassessed the whole situation. The woman he
was waiting on was the pretty little maid from San Francisco. While
he tried not to make mention of it, he had been sorely disappointed
that Misty had not followed Indiana and her kin to the town when
they joined Morgan’s family. He had not had many opportunities to
chat with the woman, but there was an open kindness to her that he
found very attractive. What were the chances of all the women in
the world to read the ad, she would have been the one he would meet
here?

He grinned from ear to ear as the
woman flustered wordlessly, her surprise at the announcement of her
name further confirming his suspicions. The girl always seemed to
wear her heart on her sleeves. It was something he liked most about
her during their brief encounters in the city.

“
Are you Claudius?” she
asked hesitantly, the disbelief apparent on her face. He could not
help but smile as he gave a brief nod. There was something about
the way she expressed her surprise. It almost made him want to
tease her a bit, just to see it for a little longer.

“
My given name is Claudius
Mills. Folks called me Cody when I started to work the ranch, and
the name stuck. Everyone calls me by the name nowadays.”

“
This is wonderful!” she
blurted out with such a delighted expression that he actually found
himself at a loss for words. She almost seemed more pleased than he
was at the circumstance.

“
I have to agree,” he said,
glad that his voice sounded more steady than he felt. The last
thing he wanted to do was stammer like a madman in front of his
future fiancé. Suddenly remembering the 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.