Chapter Ten
"Ance?"
Ance grunted as he focused all his attention on the current task at hand. Sweat trickled down his back as he held Penelope's soft strands of blond hair in his gnarled, calloused hands and tried to remember how the hotel maid had taught him to braid it.
"Can we go swimming in that lake over there?"
Ance let his gaze flit to the glistening water before going back down to Penelope's hair. "Do you know how to swim?" he asked skeptically, growling loudly when a chunk of hair escaped his grasp and he was forced to start over in the great braiding expedition.
"Um...." Ance knew the girl well enough to know that she was gnawing on that lip of hers even though he couldn't see her face. "A little?" she replied.
Ance found himself chuckling. "That means no, doesn't it?"
"My mama said my leg wouldn't let me swim," Penelope admitted. "But I really would like to try."
Ance let out a whoop of pride when he finished up the braid and secured it in place with a leather throng. He stood up and walked around Penelope to admire his handiwork. "Not too damn bad for an outlaw with calloused hands and knuckles that have been broke a time or two," he stated.
Penelope beamed with happiness and gently ran her hand over the braid. "Thank you, Ance! I knew you could do it."
Ance nodded and scratched at his beard. "If anyone asks, you did it yourself. I have a image to keep up."
"You aren't really mean," Penelope giggled.
"I am," Ance countered. Then he stooped down and tweaked her nose. "Just not to you." Ance was amazed at the love he felt for this little child. Never in his entire life had he cared this much about another person. He would take on the world to keep her happy and make sure anyone who dared hurt her paid dearly. Seeing Penelope in the shape she'd been in after the headmistress had beaten her had had Ance coming to terms with his feelings quickly.
When Penelope had looked at him two weeks before, after she'd already spent a week in bed healing her back and crying tears for the mother who abandoned her, and begged Ance to keep her forever, he'd been unable to tell her no.
Should he have a child with him? Was he really the best place for a little girl? Was his life the safest? No, was the answer to all those questions but he knew that he would trust her to be nowhere else other than by his side.
"So can I go swimming?" Penelope asked again. "Please?" She batted her lashes up at him and Ance sighed.
"Alright, Penny. I'll take ya in the water and let you swim around a bit."
Ance helped the girl to her feet and helped her to pull off her dress. "You can swim in your underclothes," he assured her. "It's hot enough that you'll dry out soon enough."
Once Ance had shed himself of all but his long john pants, he removed Penelope's leg brace, lifted the smiling girl into his arms and carried her to the water's edge. "Are you ready, Penny? It might be cold," Ance warned.
Penelope laughed and nodded. "I'm ready!"
Ance grinned and then hopped into the chest deep water. Penelope let out a squeal and climbed up him as Ance laughed loudly. "I told you it might be cold," he reminded her.
"Really cold!" Penelope exclaimed.
Ance spent the next hour helping Penelope swim through the water. While her leg made truly swimming impossible for her, she was able to float and make some headway through the water with her good leg and her arms. The pride beaming in her brown eyes made the wet ass he'd be sitting on the rest of the night worth it.
Ance built up a fire once they were done and used some branches and rope to hang up their clothes to dry. He tossed Penelope a sack of hardtack and jerked beef and she sighed.
"Again? Can't we have something else?"
"What the hell do you think I am? A café?" Ance grumbled. When Penelope merely fixed him with a pointed stare, Ance mumbled a few choice words under his breath and dug around in his sack until he found a can of beans. "I can heat these up, princess. Would that make you happy?"
Penelope smiled brightly. "Very much so."
Ance was chuckling even while he was muttering. He grabbed his large knife and began cutting off the lid of the can. "Ance?" Penelope spoke again.
Ance raised a brow but didn't look at her as he found a rock, placed it on top of a few dancing flames and sat the can atop that to heat. "What is it, Penny?"
"Where are we going?"
Ance shrugged. "I didn't have any particular place in mind. Why? There somewhere you're wanting to go?"
For a moment Ance feared she would say she wanted to go back to her mother. After spending a solid week laid up in the hotel crying over her wayward mother, Penelope had finally dried her tears and hadn't mentioned the woman again other than to say different things her mother would or wouldn't let her do.
Ance knew one thing was for sure. He had been with Penelope for over a month now and he had no intention of giving the girl back to the bitch that birthed her or anyone else. Penelope was his now and he was going to care for her just the way she deserved to be cared for--the way all children deserved to be cared for.
"I don't care where we go," Penelope admitted before tearing off a piece of jerky with her teeth. "But I'd sure like to have a real bed soon. This makes four nights on the ground!" Penelope held up four fingers as if to ensure Ance knew how many that was.
Ance laughed. "You're complaining over four nights? Hell, Penny, I've gone four weeks, four months even, without a real bed."
Penny glared. "I want a bed, Ance."
Ance sighed and clicked his tongue as he leaned back against a tree and folded his hands behind his head. "Can you handle two more nights on the ground? We'll be in Grandy on the third morning and you can have a real bed to sleep in for a few nights."
"Where do you live, Ance?" Penelope asked suddenly.
Ance stared off into the growing darkness. "I don't have a particular place, Penny. My home is wherever I lay my head at night."
"You mean you don't have a house?! Everybody has a house!"
Ance shook his head. "Not everybody."
"Then where will I live?"
"Wherever I live."
"So wherever we lay our heads at night?"
Ance grinned. "That's right. Don't worry, Penny. I'll see you're taken care of and don't want for anything. I'll make an outlaw out of you yet."
Penelope giggled and pointed to her brace which was still lying on the ground beside them. "I'm not mean enough to be an outlaw. Now help me get my brace on, I have to find a bush."
Ance's laughter filled the evening as he did what she bid. "See, you're already starting to talk like a ruffian," he announced. "There's hope for you yet."
***
Audrey hadn't slept. She couldn't sleep. When she slept she saw her daughter's face. Her beautiful Penelope. The daughter she was beginning to think she would never see again.
Audrey had been so certain that tracking Ansel Adams and her daughter would be easy but it hadn't been. She had counted on Rodger and his tracking abilities to find the pair quickly but he hadn't been able to. And Audrey was beginning to think he hadn't truly tried.
Rodger had hit her today.
That was the other reason she could not sleep. She was afraid for her very life with Rodger York sleeping so near.
How could Audrey had been so wrong about him? She had thought him a decent man! But he had attempted to kiss her today and when Audrey had once again refused his advances, he had slapped her across the face, cursed her and then stormed off, leaving her alone in camp.
He'd returned a short time later with a wild flower and an apology. Audrey had smashed the flower beneath her shoe and told him to take his apology and get lost with it and he had merely laughed. It had been a cold, calculated laugh and it had frightened her dearly.
What was Rodger's plan? Why was he acting this way? Why had he offered to help Audrey if he truly had no interest in finding Penelope? Had it all simply been an excuse to spend time with her in hopes of getting his way? Surely the man was not that cold-hearted...Was he?
Audrey glanced at the sleeping man and then found her gaze drawn to the sack he kept close to him. She knew he had a journal in that sack. She'd seen him scribbling in it several times over the last few weeks, though she had never asked exactly what he was writing down.
But now her curiosity was getting the better of her. Something very strange was going on and Audrey wanted to know what it was. She figured that journal might offer her some insight. Moving as silently as she knew how, Audrey walked over to Rodger and crouched down beside him. She scooped up the sack and nearly forgot how to breathe when the man grunted and shifted on his bedroll.
Her heart thundering in her ears, Audrey prayed he'd simply roll over and continue slumbering and she was relieved seconds later when that's exactly what he did. Audrey took the sack back over to her bedroll and opened it quickly.
It didn't take much rummaging before she found what she'd been seeking. With a deep breath and a quick glace at Rodger, Audrey opened the book. She looked down at the scribbled page, an entry toward the end, and her heart fell to her feet as her blood began to boil and her head swam with disbelief.
That crazy bastard.
There wasn't much scribbled here but there was enough written down to tell Audrey all she needed to know about the man's mental state and his role in what had happened to her daughter--it also spoke to his motives.
Rodger had sold Penelope to Barnaby Wallace to give himself the chance to ride to the girl's rescue and, in doing so, win Audrey's heart. Things had gone wrong when they'd discovered that Penelope was with Ansel Adams instead of with Barnaby where Rodger had planned.
Audrey wanted to read further--wanted to find out just how deep Rodger's treachery reached but she ran out of time as the man stirred upon his bed and sat up. "Audrey?" he whispered.
His ice blue eyes narrowed when they fell upon the journal in her hands. Audrey knew the moment that their eyes met that Rodger knew that she knew of his deceit. "You nosy bitch," he growled.
Audrey clenched her fists and shoved herself to her feet. "How could you do this?!" she exclaimed as she waved the journal in the air. "To me? To Penelope? You claim to care about me? About us?!"
"Goddammit, Audrey! I did you a favor! That brat was nothing but a pain in the ass! Always limping around, moaning about this or that." Rodger got to his feet as well and snatched the diary from her hand. "Now we can start our own life, our own family, without memories of your first husband hanging around us."
Audrey was at a complete loss for words. Tears burned hotly in her eyes. She wanted to scream, to yell, to kill the man before her and tear him limb from limb. She laid her hand over the cheek he had struck earlier in the day. "You are very wrong, Rodger," she vowed. "I will never be with you. Penelope is my life and you are nothing. I will get my daughter back and I will see that you pay for everything you've done!"
Rodger reached out for her but Audrey sidestepped him and shoved him hard. Rodger roared with anger. "You dare put your hands on me? For five long years I've done everything I can to have patience with you!" Rodger's eyes were narrow and spittle flew from his lips as he screamed. "I didn't get rid of your good for nothing husband and tend to you all these years only to have you continue to push me away!"
Audrey's world stopped turning. "You... you killed my husband?" It couldn't be true! Surely Audrey would have known.. Would have realized...
Rodger snorted. "Of course I did. He was never good enough for you, Audrey. Now come on and take my hand now. I'll take care of you."
Audrey shook her head and turned on her heel. She ran several steps but was stopped when his hand closed around her hair and yanked her backward. "Where do you think you're going? You can't fight me, Audrey. I'm a U.S. Marshall and you're nothing but a poor widow woman driven out of her mind with worry for her daughter. Do you honestly think anyone would take your word over mine?" Audrey watched with despair as Rodger tossed the journal, all the proof she had of his wrongs, into the fire. "You are mine, dear, and the quicker you accept that, the easier this will be on everyone."
Audrey knew she had to get away from this man. Her mind was still racing with all the details of exactly how demented and disturbed he was. Her daughter was in the hands of an outlaw, her husband dead--all because this man had wanted something he never would have had regardless of circumstances.
So she did the only thing she knew to do and she spun in his arms and brought her knee up hard on his unsuspecting groin. Rodger let out a howl of pain as he released his hold on her hair and Audrey shoved him backward. She covered her mouth with her hand and let out a cry of shock when Rodger stumbled backward, tripped over a rock and fell onto the small campfire.
Flames licked at his clothes and he screamed out with rage and pain.
Audrey didn't stick around to help him. Instead she turned and fled into the night with his howls of agony ringing out in the night behind her.
A/N: Another perfect example of a story taking on a life of it's own and my characters doing things their own way instead of the way I had planned! Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter!