Chapter Eight
It had been two days since Ance had dropped Penelope off at the orphanage. He had sent word to an Audrey Reynolds in a small town further east in the territory. He figured he'd hear from her real fast if the woman really was waiting for word on her daughter... but two days had past and the wire had gone unanswered.
Sometimes Ance hated being right.
And yet for some reason he was still here. He was still in Briggston and couldn't find any good reason why he should be other than the fact that every time he pointed his horse out of town something pulled him back.
He'd caught a few glances of Penelope here and there as she'd sat on the porch of the orphanage. She was unable to keep up with the other children and they didn't seem to have any interest in slowing down to make it easier on her. She seemed so lonely, so sad, as she sat and looked out over the horizon. Ance had made sure she never saw him... he didn't want to make things harder on her than they already were by having to say goodbye to him again.
Evening time had passed and darkness now filled the sky so Ance made his way to one of the saloons and sat down at a poker table. After ordering a beer from a passing saloon girl, Ance picked up his cards and began to play.
He had always been good at poker but found himself struggling tonight just as he had every night he'd played in Briggston. His mind kept wandering to a little girl with pigtails, freckles and hope in her brown eyes staring up at him from a crate in the back of a wagon. He kept hearing her voice talking his ear off day and night and singing silly little songs that made no sense and yet he understood perfectly.
Ance was about to give it up for tonight and throw down his cards when whistles and cat calls filled the saloon. He looked up to see a young girl, around fifteen, enter through the swinging doors. She was glancing in every direction, her dirt stained dress swishing with her movements.
The saloon keeper, a handsome woman just past middle age, approached the girl and whispered to her. The girl whispered something back and the saloon keeper pointed toward Ance.
Great. Who the hell was this girl and why was she looking for him!?
The girl quickly came to him, wringing her pale hands around the folds of her skirt. "Sir? Are you Ance?"
Ance pulled his cigar from his mouth and leaned back in his chair. "I might be. Who's looking for him?"
The girl's full bottom lip trembled and her gaze dropped to the floor. "It's Penelope. She's hurt real bad...."
Ance didn't even wait to hear the rest. He was out of his chair as if he'd been shot from a cannon and his large body barreled toward the door, his broad shoulders knocking men and saloon girls this way and that.
"What the hell happened?" he demanded of the girl who was running to keep up with him.
"Headmistress Gretta beat her... she beats all of us but she beat Penelope real bad..."
Ance's blood was boiling in his veins. He couldn't remember a single time in his life when he'd been so damned angry. He leapt over the small fence gate and stormed up the walkway to the orphanage. Without bothering to knock, Ance kicked in the closed door and looked at the girl who was still following along behind him.
"Where is she?" he growled. "Where is Penny?"
"Up the stairs. First door on the left."
Ance didn't wait a moment longer. He bounded up the stairs, taking them three at a time and burst into the lamp lit room that the girl had indicated. He saw Penelope curled up upon the bed and the sound of her tears and whimpers of pain were like knives straight through his cold, iron clad heart.
Another child was sitting beside the bed--a boy around the same age as Penelope. He had been whispering quietly but when Ance burst in he leapt to his feet and threw himself against the wall, his blue eyes wide with fear.
Ance strode to the bed and dropped to one knee. When Penelope saw him, her tear reddened eyes filled with happiness and she called out his name. Ance tried hard to hold back his temper even as a tendon jumped and a muscle quivered beneath his beard.
"What happened, Penny?"
Penelope fell very uncharacteristically quiet and the boy stepped forward. "Mistress Gretta whipped her with The Reckoning Strap," he stated.
Ance raised a brow and frowned at the boy. "The what?"
"It's a strip of leather," the girl who had found him in the saloon replied. "It's two feet long and three inches wide and she whips us with it for bad behavior."
Ance's jaw clenched so tightly he heard a tooth crack. "And just what did Penny do to earn a whipping?"
"I sp..spilled my plate on the f..floor.." Penny whimpered, sucking in large gulps of air. "I didn't mean to! The floorboards are...crooked and broke and I got my b..bad leg stuck and I fell...."
Ance put his hand on her back to comfort her and the girl winced. Ance frowned. He'd had a few whippings in his life so he knew how they felt but Penelope acted damn hurt.
With her insisting that he needed to stop and swatting at him, Ance motioned for the boy to turn his back and then began lifting up Penelope's dress so he could see just what Mistress Gretta had done to her. If Ance's blood had been boiling before, it was damn near combustible now. Penelope's good leg was covered from the back of her ankle to her bottom in large bloody welts. Her underclothes were stuck in the dried blood and Ance raised her dress further to reveal that her back was in the same shape with dried crimson blood seeping through her undershirt.
"Penny, you wait right here on me. I'll be right back," Ance said as he stood straight.
"Don't leave me again!" Penelope cried, reaching out for his hand.
Ance gave her tiny hand a gentle squeeze and a rare smile curved his lips as he gazed down at her. "Don't worry, Penny, I won't ever leave you alone again. I'm coming right back in a few minutes. Okay?"
Penelope sniffed and then nodded. Ance pointed toward the boy. "You stay with her until I get back."
Without waiting for a response, Ance strode from the room. It wasn't hard to find Gretta. She was bustling around as if she were a mad hen, clucking away about who would dare break down her door.
Ance stopped on the bottom step and cleared his throat. "That would be me."
Her tiny blue eyes widened substantially as her wrinkled cheeks paled. "What are you doing here?" she snapped.
"Where the hell is this strap I've heard tell of?" Ance demanded.
"Strap?" Gretta questioned, her brow furrowing up.
"Yeah," Ance snarled. "The one you like to beat helpless children with until they're welted bloody messes."
Gretta's lips closed in a thin line and she shook her head stiffly. "I only whip children who have done wrong."
Ance's knuckles popped from the amount of force he was using in clenching his fists. He turned to the girl who had found him and she pointed down a hall. "Down that hall, last door. The strap hangs in the kitchen above the stove."
"Why you ungrateful little..." Gretta lunged toward the girl but Ance caught her by her hair and yanked her into him.
"Go sit with Penny and assure her I haven't left," Ance growled at the girl. "I'm gonna go take care of something."
With Gretta kicking, squirming, hitting, cursing and yelling threats, Ance dragged her down the hall and into the kitchen. His gaze fell on that strap above the cook stove and he cringed as he imagined the pain Penelope must have felt as it had fallen over and over again upon her soft, pale skin.
Without a word, Ance grabbed that strap and threw Gretta to the floor. He used his boot against her back to hold her down on the wooden planks and threw up her skirts. She kicked and struggled but Ance ignored that. He raised that strap in the air, renewed his convictions that women were nothing but pure evil, and then brought that strap down hard over the backs of Gretta's legs.
She howled in pain but Ance wasn't done. Over and over again he brought down that strap. Sweat tricked down the back of his neck and Gretta's legs, backside and back were soon a mess of bloody welts.
Ance did not stop until his arm simply refused to lift the strap again. He dropped it to the floor beside a simpering, sobbing Gretta all curled into a ball and then headed back to Penelope's room to gather her up and get her the hell out of there.
It wasn't until Ance had Penelope settled down in a hotel on the other side of the large town that the girl spoke. "Ance?" she whispered.
"Yeah?" he replied as he unhooked her brace and slipped her dress off of her. Her underclothes were covered in blood and sticking to her back.
"Please don't make me go back there."
"Never," Ance vowed. "From here on out, you stay with me."
"But.. My mama..."
"I sent her word right after I dropped you off, Penny. She hasn't said a single word back. I think it's time for you to admit that you might have been wrong about her."
Penelope began to cry softly and Ance patted her messy blond hair. "I'll go get a doctor," he said as he stood up. "I'll let them tend to your back."
Penelope nodded, her face buried in the pillow. Ance sighed and his boots dragged the ground as he headed for the door. Penelope's mother was a new kind of evil that made Ance want to give her a brain leak with a .45 round.