Chapter One
Lula Astor did herbest to keep calm and lend support to her friend, Ella, as they waited for their grooms to arrive.They had both worked for an elite hotel in Beckham, Massachusetts, before leaving all they knew to be mail-order brides for lumbermen in the District of Alaska.
While Lula was not nervous about being a bride, for she was a widow and had lost her great love, she was afraid her secret would become known to her groom and ruin their relationship.Even her three friends who had traveled across the country with her didn’t know her deepest, darkest secret.
When two men approached them in the store where they waited to be married, Lula grasped Ella’s hand, praying that the men before them were kind, good men who would treat them well and be good providers.She pushed a strand of her long dark hair behind her ear and lifted her chin, willing her brown eyes not to show how hard her heart was beating.
“Lula?”asked one of the men.Lula smiled in return, though she studied him carefully, taking in his dark hair and the calm steadiness in his expression.
“I’m Lula.This is Ella,” she added, knowing her friend would be too shy to speak.Ella was a good person, but she was incapable of making small talk with strangers—especially men.
Ella simply nodded at the man who hadn’t asked for Lula.
Lula smiled at the man who was to be her husband in a few short minutes.His dark hair was neatly combed, and when he turned fully toward her, she caught the startling blue of his eyes.“You must be Sebastian.”
“You must be correct!”he responded.“How was your journey?”
Lula wanted to complain about how difficult her trip to Alaska had been, but she knew nothing good would come of it.“It was very long.”
He chuckled.“That it would have been.I came from Duluth, Minnesota, and that was a very long trip as well.You would have traveled days longer than I did.”
“Did you come here as a prospector?”Lula asked.She knew little about Sebastian other than the fact that he wanted a bride.
He shook his head.“I was raised in lumber camps.I’ve been swinging an axe since I was just a lad.I thought about trying to find gold, but then I realized, miners need lumber.I already knew how to be a lumberjack, and Thompson was hiring.”
“That makes sense to me.Support others with a skill you already have.”
“And you worked at a hotel?”
Lula nodded.“We all did.I started working there six years ago when my husband was killed.”
“I’m sorry about your husband.”
She smiled.“Me too.”What else could she say?Bill had been the man she’d looked to for everything, and his demise—at the age of twenty—had nearly destroyed her.
“Are you ready to try again with another man?”
“I believe I am.”She looked at him for a moment before adding.“I don’t know that I will ever love again the way I loved Bill.I doubt it’s possible.But I will be the best wife I can be.”
He nodded.“I understand.”
She heard a faint Norwegian accent when he spoke for the first time.He’d written he was the eldest son of immigrants, so she wasn’t at all surprised.“Are you ready to be a husband?”
He shrugged one shoulder.“I am.I don’t expect to find love or happy-ever-after, but I will be the best provider I can possibly be.”
“That’s all I ask.”
Together, they walked to the owner of the store they were in.Bernard Johnson was considered a good man by all who knew him.He’d left the ministry to seek his fortune, but with all the new women moving into town, he realized he could be a man of the cloth as he’d trained for and always dreamed he would be.
They spoke their vows quickly, and Sebastian kissed her cheek when prompted to kiss her.Lula was pleased he wasn’t forcing an intimacy upon her that she wasn’t ready for.She’d told him in her letters that she would rather wait to get to know him before consummating the marriage.
As they left the store, Lula glanced over at Ella, wishing she could stay a little longer for her friend, but she knew her place was with her new husband.
As Lula and Sebastian walked toward his cabin, a cool breeze tugged at Lula’s long, dark hair, sweeping it across her shoulder.Sebastian glanced at her, and for a moment the fading daylight caught in his blue eyes before he looked ahead again.He told her he'd had a new stove installed for her so she could cook on it and said he’d tried to make his house more welcoming.
“Thank you for that,” she said softly.“I would have made do with a fireplace.That’s all I had when I was married to my first husband.”
“What were your parents like?”he asked.
