A quiver of shocked recognition skittered through her as she stared at the handsome young man in the army uniform. He might have been Alaina’s twin brother. The blond hair, the light-colored eyes, even the shape of his face was the same as hers. Who was he? An uncle perhaps, or her grandfather?
There was only one way to find out for sure. Alaina set the satchel aside and walked to the kitchen where she could hear her parents talking. Garrick sat with his chair against the wall bouncing a giggling baby Mary on his knee as Becky put a pan of rolls in the oven. They both looked up when Alaina came in.
“Finished packing already?” Garrick asked.
“Almost. You were right about me not tossing that satchel. The lining ripped a little.” She glanced at the picture in her hand. “I found this photograph in the bottom. Who is it?”
Becky reached for it. “Let’s see.” At the first glance, the color drained from her face, and she gave a sharp cry of dismay.
“What is it, Becky?” Garrick asked, shifting baby Mary more securely onto his lap.
“C…Cameron,” she whispered staring at the picture as if it were a poisonous snake.
“Oh, Lord.” Garrick exhaled as though the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. “It’s time, Becky.”
“No!” She raised her stricken gaze to his. “Oh no, Garrick, I’m not ready.”
“It’s too late for that now. She knew something was up the minute she saw that picture.”
Alaina looked back and forth between them, and her uneasiness grew. “Does this have anything to do with Mama’s Wyoming secret?”
Becky gasped and cast her husband a disbelieving look. “You told her?”
“No, but it’s way past time that she knew. I promised I would let you be the one, but if you don’t tell her, I will.”
Becky sank down onto a chair with a strangled sob and covered her face with her hands. “I can’t.”
Garrick closed his eyes, the muscles working in his jaw as though he were in great pain.
“Papa?” Alaina asked in a frightened voice. She’d never seen her parents like this.
Garrick opened his eyes, and looked at her as though memorizing her face. “The man in the picture is Cameron Price,” he said finally. His Norwegian accent was noticeably thicker than usual, the way it always was when he got upset. “He’s your father.”
Alaina wondered for a moment if she was going to be sick as the earth rocked beneath her feet. Her brain seemed frozen. “You’re not?”
He shook his head regretfully. “No, Alaina, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are!” Becky cried, dropping her hands and glaring at him. “Cameron may have fathered her but he is not her father. A father stays around and takes care of his children. They don’t leave without a word in the middle of the night.”
“Mama was married before?” Alaina could barely force the words past her lips.”
“No, he never married me. He just left me there to face it all alone.”
“Cameron was in the army,” Garrick explained. “He didn’t know your mother was pregnant when he was reassigned.”
“Didn’t care, you mean,” Becky said with bitter reproach.
Alaina gasped. “Then I’m a b—”
“No!” The word was explosive and came from both parents at once.
“Don’t even say the word, Alaina. Mama and I were married a good six months before you were born. You’re as legitimate as any of the rest.”
Alaina’s head swam alarmingly, and she sat down across from her mother with a thump. “Why did you lie to me? Why did you make up that stupid story about me being born in a blizzard, and Papa having to deliver me?”
“Oh, no, Sweetheart.” Becky reached across the table to touch her daughter’s fingers. “That was all true, every word, I swear.” Hurt filled her eyes when Alaina pulled her hand away and her voice hardened. “Garrick became your father when he brought you into the world. I told him that on the day you were born and haven’t changed my mind since. He’s your father as surely as he is baby Mary’s.”
“Alaina has a right to know about her real father,” Garrick said gently.
“You are her real father, Garrick. If you hadn’t rescued me, she would never have lived. What did Cameron ever do for her other than leave?”
“He didn’t even know she existed until she was eight months old,” Garrick said. “And then she fascinated him.”
“Only because she looked like him. He didn’t care a fig for her otherwise. Besides, I wouldn’t be surprised if he became an outlaw or something.”
“I doubt it,” Garrick said. “He probably stayed in the army where he could be sure of finding lots of action. I imagine he’s made General by now.”
“Cameron Price was an irresponsible adventurer,” Becky insisted. “I can’t think he’s much different now than he ever was. Maybe he got himself killed in the Indian Wars out West.”
Completely bewildered, Alaina grasped onto the one comprehensible fact in a sea of confusion. “You mean he may still be alive?”
Garrick nodded slowly. “As far as we know he is, though Mama’s right about the Indian Wars. Knowing Cameron, he was in the thick of things.”
Alaina was stunned. “You knew him too?”
“Everybody in South Pass knew him. He was a bone fide Civil War hero.”
“I don’t understand,” Alaina said. “What happened to him? Where is he now?”
Becky frowned. “I don’t know where he is, and I don’t care. Cameron Price is ancient history.”
“But, he’s my father,” Alaina said, in a dazed voice.
“Oh, for...Garrick Ellinson is ten times the father Cameron Price would have been. You should be thanking your lucky stars he was there when Cameron walked out on us without a backward glance.”
Alaina hardly heard her mother as she picked up the photograph and gazed at it in sudden sick comprehension. “That’s why I’m different; why I never really fit in here.”
“Balderdash, you’re no different than you were half an hour ago! It’s that treacherous man and this detestable picture that’s turned your head.” Furious now, Becky grabbed the photograph and tore it in half as she stood up. “I don’t know why I didn’t do that eighteen years ago when he gave it to me,” she said, as she lifted the stove lid and threw it inside. “As far as I’m concerned the subject of Cameron Price is closed.”
With an inarticulate cry, Alaina jumped to her feet and ran out of the house.
“Oh, little one, I wish you hadn’t done that,” Garrick said, as the sound of Alaina’s running footsteps faded. “That picture was all she had of her real father.”
Becky made a rude noise. “A father she didn’t even know existed fifteen minutes ago.”
Garrick sighed. “Just because she didn’t know about him doesn’t make him any less important to her. All you accomplished was to set up her hackles and send her off in one of her snits.”
Becky raised her fingers to her lips in dismay. “Oh, Garrick. Jared Brady will be here to pick her up in the morning. What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to let her go to Wyoming.”
Becky stared at her husband. “We can’t let her leave when she’s so upset.”
“I don’t think we could stop her. You know how she is once she sets her mind to something.”
“What if she runs into Cameron?”
“I doubt that she will. The West is a big place. Anyway, I have always said she has the right to know her real father,” he repeated stubbornly.
“Garrick, he left me alone and pregnant. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d have died long before she was even born. Have you forgotten that?”
“No, but it won’t matter to Alaina. She’ll want to know the other half of what she is.”
“I’ll tell her exactly what Cameron is,” Becky said angrily.
“And she’ll decide you’re lying. Alaina has to find out for herself.”
“You’re just going to let her lea
ve?”
“Yes, and she’ll come back.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
“Then I’ll be very surprised. Part of Alaina is Cameron, but mostly she’s like you. She’ll see that soon enough.”
“Are you sure? If she finds Cameron, he’ll turn on that silver-tongued charm of his and fill her head full of all sorts of nonsense.”
“Which she’ll see through just like you did. Don’t you see, Becky? We have no choice. If we force her to stay, she’ll only resent us all the more. This way, at least we leave the door open for her to come back.”
“What I see is that damnable Norwegian logic of yours is going to let our daughter walk straight out of our lives,” Becky snapped. “I suppose the next thing you’ll tell me is I should help her pack.”
“It might not be a bad idea.”
“Oooo.” With a final glare, Becky spun on her heel and left.
With a deep sigh, Garrick gazed down at his infant daughter and rubbed his thumb gently across the tiny hand that gripped his finger. Then he leaned his head back against the wall, closed his eyes, and swallowed against the hard knot in his throat.
About the Author
Carolyn Lampman has won several industry awards for her previous novels, including the National Reader’s Choice Award and the Coeur Du Bois Heart of Romance award. She was also a finalist for RWA’s coveted RITA and the EPPIE. Carolyn lives in a small town in Wyoming with her husband, a Welsh Corgi, and a herd of grandchildren who come and go.
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