"He would have to be."
Alanna waited for him to add a comment about Melissa, but he was regarding her with a sly smile that made it plain he was thinking of her. "Please, you're embarrassing me."
"Why, because I think you're pretty? Any man would."
"Thank you, but really, I must go."
Randolph reached for the doorknob, but hesitated to turn it. "If you're in town often, will you come to see me again? I should have offered you tea. I'll promise to have some ready the next time you're here."
Alanna's first impulse was to say no, but Randolph had such a warm and sympathetic manner, she really did want to see him again. "I don't want to become a pest."
"That will never happen."
"All right then, I will stop by again soon."
"Good." He walked her to the door, and again urged her to visit him soon.
Alanna found herself smiling all the way home. Randolph O'Neil was such a nice man, and he even liked babies. Would he like Christian, she wondered. Somehow, she thought that he would. Graham had insisted that she would be repeating Melissa's mistake, if she married a man simply to make a home for Christian, but what if the man knew exactly what she was doing, and did not object? What if he were a kind and gentle soul who would love Christian? Wouldn't the greater mistake be in not marrying such a man?
Then a truly horrible thought occurred to her: What if she were to marry Randolph, or someone like him, only to have Hunter appear later to claim his son? Then what? What a horrible mess that would be. After all, she was only a cousin, and he was the boy's father. Wouldn't that be the deciding factor?
"Damn it all, Hunter," she moaned. "Where are you?"
After dinner that night, Alanna waited until Elliott went upstairs to his room, and then she followed him. "We need to talk," she announced.
"Really, about what?"
"About Hunter."
Elliott ushered her into his room and closed the door. "I really thought he'd come as soon as he received my first letter. I don't know what to make of him now. Perhaps we expected too much."
"That's possible. I think we ought to go see him."
"You don't mean it."
"Oh, but I do. I think we need to confront him and settle the issue of who's to raise Christian once and for all. If he has no more interest in him than your parents do, we need to know it now, so that we can make arrangements for him to have a permanent home."
"Wait a minute. It's possible that Hunter has been away from the trading post trapping the last month or so, and that my letters haven't reached him."
"It's also possible that he just doesn't care."
"Yes, that's true, but I'd rather not go tramping through the wilds of New York in the dead of winter looking for him. Christian isn't even two months old. He's doing well with Charity, we can afford to wait awhile longer to hear from Hunter."
"And if we never do?"
"Well then, I'll go up to the trading post in the spring."
"I want to come along."
"My parents will never allow it."
Alanna lifted her chin proudly. "They don't want me visiting Christian, and I do that, don't I? I don't see why I should have to get their permission. I'll be eighteen by then. That's plenty old enough to make decisions for myself."
Amused by the fiery gleam in his once painfully shy cousin's eyes, Elliott had to laugh. "All right, if we don't hear from Hunter in three months' time, then we'll pay him a visit. Agreed?"
Alanna let out a joyful whoop, and then, fearing she had disturbed the rest of the house, she hurriedly adopted a sedate pose and shook his hand. "Agreed."
Elliott watched her practically skip out of his room, and shook his head in wonder at how much his dear little cousin had changed. When he had first brought Hunter home, Alanna wouldn't even talk to him, and now she was prepared to go all the way to New York to see the brave. Well, he was certainly looking forward to seeing Hunter, too, but for an entirely different reason. He knew the Indian was tough, but one of the Barclay men had to give him the thrashing he deserved, and by spring, Elliott thought he just might be able to do it.