Poppy: Bride of Alaska (American Mail-Order Bride 49) by Cassie Hayes Page A

grew up in the upper crust of Boston society. We traveled to Europe one year, but we stayed at hotels and ate at fine restaurants. Never once, that I can remember, were we invited into anyone’s home.”
    Her perfect, plump lips curved into a smile and a few stray auburn curls bounced as she shook her head. He couldn’t stop the mental image of her hair cascading around her shoulders, and his fingers twitched with a desperate need to touch them.
    “Who would have thought I would know more about the world than you,” she said, ducking behind an ornate Oriental screen to change. Vladimir gave it to them once he heard about their situation. Matthew had objected to telling the man he’d once blamed for his family’s downfall, but Poppy sniffed at his concern, insisting that Vinchenko was as good a man as she’d ever met.
    What about me? Will she ever think I’m a good man?
    The thought had been popping up more frequently lately and no answer comforted him. He’d lied to her on multiple occasions and made it clear that her needs were secondary to his own. Plus there was the whole ‘deceiving the mission’ thing with his plan to skip out on his contract.
    Part of him wanted to point out that she’d deceived Mr. Horton back in Seattle about being a teacher, but the reality was that almost anyone who could read could teach. As it turned out, Poppy happened to have a knack for it. Naturally, she’d charmed all the children, even breaking through to the wildest of the bunch, a feat no one had thought possible. For a lowly, uneducated seamstress from the poorest part of Lawrence, she’d certainly created a fulfilling new life here in Alaska, a place she very clearly loved with all her heart.
    “Did you see the auroras tonight?” she asked while she changed into her nightclothes.  
    He always tried to avert his eyes when she went behind the screen, not so much to preserve her privacy — the screen was very effective — but because even a glimpse of her arm poking above it or her bare toes peeking out from under it sent his pulse racing. It was a short journey from there to thinking about their lone kiss, the way her lips softened under his and how she pressed into him.
    There you go again!
    “Mmmhmm,” he mumbled, trying desperately to clear his mind of the images flitting through it by pulling his sleeping palette from its hiding place under the bed.
    “Weren’t they just breathtaking? I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life, have you?”  
    Poppy rounded the screen dressed neck to toes in a thick pink flannel nightdress, ready for bed. Her hair tumbled down in waves that caressed her neck in a way that made him envious, her eyes bright with excitement. Her simple beauty took his breath away, but he managed to croak out a single word.
    “Never.”

Chapter 11

    Vladimir’s nephew scooted past Poppy and Eddie as they entered the dry goods store early the next morning, running down the boardwalk as only a boy on an adventure can run.  
    “Alexander,” Vladimir shouted from inside, “only few minutes with silly dog, then school!”
    The women entered laughing at the eternal struggle between children and their guardians over going to school. Vladimir greeted them with open arms and light pecks on each cheek.  
    “Poopy, Eddie, what nice surprise. Come. You want to place order? I get new shipment tomorrow of many pretty things when steamer arrive.”
    The arrival of the monthly winter steamship was a big event for the residents of Sitka. Instead of bringing the summer tourists and their fists full of greenbacks, it brought not only much-needed supplies, but also eagerly anticipated news from the outside world. Poppy was hoping for updates from her friends, though her heart really ached for a letter from her mother, as unlikely as that would be. Her father would certainly rather put the two cents a stamp cost toward a bottle of redeye than waste it on a letter to her.
    “Not today, Vlad,” Eddie