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Alanna closed the door before Ian replied, but she had the uneasy feeling she had just witnessed a performance that would have done a professional actress credit. She would have liked to have provided an excuse herself and also eaten in her room, but unwilling to take such a cowardly option, she forced herself to join the family. Her apprehensions proved unfounded when there was nothing threatening in Hunter's manner during the meal, and as they left the dining room for the parlor, she stepped close.
"I gave Melissa your message."
Hunter barely nodded his appreciation, and because Melissa had not asked Alanna to convey a reply, she kept their conversation to herself. John wanted to hear more about the skirmish with the French, and she and Rachel excused themselves and went to their rooms, rather than listen to any more of the disastrous tale. Once there, however, Alanna found it impossible to prepare for bed. She knew she ought not to be so curious about what had transpired between Hunter and her cousin, but Hunter's anger and Melissa's denials had left her aching to know the whole story.
She was still dressed and wide-awake when she heard her uncle and cousins come up the stairs. She listened at her door, expecting to hear them tell Hunter good night before he went up to a guest room on the third floor, but apparently he wasn't with them. Had he decided not to spend the night? she wondered. Or had he merely gone to meet Melissa?
She opened her door a crack, and sat down where she would be sure to hear anyone passing by her room. She sat nervously fidgeting in the dark, and prayed that any footsteps she heard would be Hunter going upstairs to bed, rather than Melissa sneaking out to meet him. She had nearly nodded off when the clock in the parlor struck midnight. Instantly alert, she rose and moved to her door. In the next instant she felt rather than heard Melissa tiptoe past her room.
Alanna did not mean to spy on Melissa, but she did not think her headstrong cousin ought to meet Hunter alone either. She waited a few seconds to allow Melissa to reach the bottom of the stairs, and then followed her outside. The moonlight reflecting off her white nightgown created a ghostly image, and Alanna had no trouble keeping her in sight. She followed at a discreet distance, but realizing that Melissa was headed for the dock, she swung around to the south and approached through the trees bordering the river. She was too far away to overhear Melissa's conversation with Hunter, but she could at least keep an eye on her cousin and run to her aid should she need it.
Unaware that they were being observed, Hunter rushed forward to greet Melissa. He drew her into a warm embrace and kissed her with a demanding passion meant to inspire the truth. Rather than welcoming his affection as she had in the past, however, Melissa was coldly unmoved by his ardor and stood stiff in his arms. When he released her, she wiped the back of her hand across her mouth.
"I'm a married woman," she stated proudly, "and I've come to tell you goodbye. I've already spoken to Ian about you, so you can just forget making any vile threats. He'll never believe you."
Hunter grabbed her arm to again pull her close, and slid his hand over the slight swell of her belly. "Does the fool believe this babe is his?"
"It is his," Melissa swore.
"Not if you were wed in May."
"We were secretly married a month earlier. That's when the child was conceived."
Her golden hair glowed in the moonlight, but her features were shadowed, and Hunter recalled how many nights he had lain awake trying to see her face clearly in his mind's eye. He had remembered her blue eyes had the bright sparkle of the sun and her fair skin the cool beauty of the moon, but now he saw her as no more than the pale reflection of his own desires. Cold, heartless, that she had deceived him so easily filled him with shame.
"You were with me in April," he reminded her.
"That was no more than a foolish mistake I shan't repeat."
"Neither will I," Hunter responded with equal bitterness, "but how can you be certain who fathered your babe?"
Melissa knew the truth, but she had buried it so deep in her soul that she could not admit it to anyone, least of all to him. She wrenched free of his grasp and began to back away. "Don't try and make trouble for me," she warned. "If you even hint to anyone that I so much as kissed you, I'll swear you raped me. My honor is as precious to my family as it is to me, and you'd not live to stand trial for the crime."
Shocked by the venomous hatred dripping from her words, Hunter forgot the string of ugly insults he had practiced, and merely shook his head in disbelief. "Is it really me you despise, or yourself?"
"You! Now go away and don't ever come back!"
Hunter didn't try and stop her when she ran from him. Instead, he turned toward the river and wished with all his heart that he had had the sense not to climb out of the bateau the first time he had visited the Barclay plantation. That had been his first mistake. His affair with Melissa had been another, but he vowed there would not be a third.
The brevity of Melissa's meeting with Hunter had assuaged Alanna's fears for the moment, and she hurried back to her room. She did not know what she had expected, but if Melissa and the Indian could settle their dispute so quickly, then she tended to believe her cousin's story had been closer to the truth than his. Grateful that Hunter would be gone in the morning, she climbed into bed and promptly fell asleep.
* * *
Accustomed to waking early, Alanna's late night vigil did not prevent her from following her usual routine and going out to the stable shortly after dawn. She swung open the door and nearly tripped over Hunter, who lay asleep in the straw piled just inside. She hesitated a moment, thinking the sudden burst of light would awaken him, but he continued to sleep undisturbed.
He had impressed her as being a proud man, and she wasn't surprised that he hadn't wanted to sleep in the house. Melissa had undoubtedly dismissed him with a remorseless vigor that had to have left him feeling both abused and bitter. His happiness wasn't her responsibility, anymore than Melissa's probable cruelty, but she could not help but feel sorry for him.
She knelt in the straw and reached out to touch his shoulder. "Hunter, it's morning, wake up," she urged.
Exhausted, Hunter came awake slowly, and because it suited his dreams, he mistook the blond woman silhouetted against the open doorway for Melissa. He reached out to grab her arm, pulling her off balance and into the straw beside him. He closed his eyes as he kissed her and her initial reluctance to respond inspired rather than discouraged him. Peeling away her cap, he wound his fingers in her curls so she'd not escape his eager kisses, and he tried with a tenderness he'd not shown her at midnight to rekindle the passion they had shared all too briefly.
Taken completely by surprise, Alanna was so shocked by the Indian's sudden passion for her that she didn't have the presence of mind to struggle. Instead, she placed her hands on his chest and pushed against him with such a light touch it went unnoticed. Whenever Graham leaned down to kiss her, she turned her cheek, and therefore she was unprepared for a man who lacked such elegant manners, and instead took what he wanted. His insistent kisses weren't in the least bit unpleasant though, and her initial dismay gradually turned to a ready appreciation of what Melissa must have liked about him.
She savored the sweetness of his adoring kisses until she realized he had transferred his affections from Melissa to her with unseemly haste, and, unwilling to be a substitute for her cousin, she summoned the anger to shove him aside. "Yesterday it was Melissa you wanted, and now it's me? I had no idea men could be so fickle."
Finally realizing his mistake, Hunter let out an anguished moan. He sat up quickly and handed Alanna her cap. "You must forgive me," he begged. "I didn't see you clearly, and I thought you were Melissa."
For a few magi
