Chapter Fourteen

"Ance, don't you dare shoot my mama!" Penelope exclaimed as she reached out her hand and swatted at his arm.

Ance lowered the gun slowly as he swallowed hard and clutched Penelope tighter against him. The woman stepped a little closer. "Ansel? Please, give me my daughter."

Recognition dawned in Ance's mind. He'd met this woman before... She had been at the hotel in Briggston. Ance remembered seeing her and he remembered thinking that the blond of her hair and the brown of her eyes were familiar..... She had looked like Penelope.

"Ance, let me go. I told you my mama was looking for me!" Penelope struggled against him.

Ance let her go and settled her on her feet but still couldn't seem to speak or move. Penelope's mother? She was here? She wanted Penelope? Why? The woman had sold her! She hadn't come when Ance had sent her word! Ance had given her a chance to come get the girl and the woman hadn't done so.

Why now? Why here? Why now that Ance couldn't possibly see his life without this little girl in it was her mother coming to take her away?!

Penelope ran as quickly as her leg would allow to her mother and Ance watched as the woman dropped to her knees and gathered her daughter up into her arms. Tears were streaming down the woman's face as she sobbed and laughed all at the same time and squeezed Penelope with everything she had. An emotion as raw as that could not be faked.

Ance felt his heart ripping apart in his chest. He'd been wrong. Barnaby had lied to him. Penelope had been right all along. Her mother loved her, her mother had been searching for her and now her mother was here....

Ance was no longer needed.

***

Audrey could not believe that after all the searching, all the tears, all the nights of having nothing but hope to cling to, she was finally holding her daughter in her arms.

"Mama, they said you didn't want me but I knew you did," Penelope promised as she squirmed in Audrey's tight hold. "I told Ance.. He sent you a letter but you didn't answer..."

Audrey remembered the outlaw then. "We'll talk about everything, Penelope, I promise." Audrey kissed her daughter's freckled cheek and then quickly swiped her hand across her own face and pushed herself to her feet. She kept one hand firmly on her Penelope's shoulder to keep the girl from disappearing once again.

Audrey's eyes went to where the large, mysterious man had been moments before but the space was now empty. The band continued to play, those that had been aware of their short-lived stand-off had already seemed to lose interest and were back to their conversations and dances.

"Where's Ance?" Penelope whispered as she glanced all around.

"I don't know..." Audrey replied, searching just as intently as her daughter.

"Ance?!" Penelope called out, sounding frantic.

Audrey looked down at her and saw the tears shining in her brown eyes as she searched in every direction. "Ance, wouldn't leave me...." Penelope vowed, her lip trembling.

Audrey felt jealousy tug at her heart but forced the emotion back. She wished her daughter could simply be happy to see her but she understood that Ance, as Penelope had referred to him, had been the person taking care of her for over a month. He had been a hero for Penelope and therefore the girl had grown attached.

"I'm sure he didn't leave..." Audrey prayed he hadn't hurt her daughter that way. Penelope didn't deserve any more pain in her life. "I'm sure he was just wanting to give us some time alone," she offered.

Penelope nodded and offered Audrey a shaky smile. "Did you see me dancing, mama?"

Audrey slid a stray hair from Penelope's face and smiled. "I sure did. Now what do you say we go to the hotel and rest a bit? Irish should have us a room all ready."

"Irish?" Penelope brow creased in a frown. "You know Irish?"

"Yes I do. He brought me here," Audrey replied as she held Penelope's hand tightly and led her toward the hotel.

"I know Irish too! He's Ance's friend, but Ance grumbles when you say so. Ance saved his life, mama. Bad men were going to hang him and Ance saved him. Ance is really nice, mama...."

And that was how the night went. Penelope entertained Audrey with story after story about Ance and her adventures with the man. Swimming lessons, riding lessons, cursing lessons, shooting lessons--it seemed the man had been busy teaching Penelope everything that he could.

And Penelope had also told Audrey about how she had come to be with Ance. Barnaby had had her caged like some kind of animal and Ance had saved her from another bad man and rode off into the night with her. Audrey hoped Rodger was dead but even so she knew she would never forgive the man for what he had done to Penelope.

Audrey was thankful when Penelope finally drifted off to sleep with that outlaws name still on her lips. Her chatter had kept her from asking Audrey any questions about where she'd been, who she'd been with or any details about her search for Penelope.

Audrey curled up beside her daughter on the hotel bed and could only hope and pray that Irish would find Ance the way he had promised and let the man know that he couldn't leave Penelope without letting her say goodbye to him properly....And Audrey had to thank the man as well. She owed him a huge debt for saving her daughter's life.

Breathing in Penelope's scent and taking comfort in the fact that her little girl was finally safely by her side, Audrey forced her eyes to close and willed sleep to come, knowing that tomorrow could prove to be an emotional day regardless of whether or not Ance showed himself again.

***

Ance pulled his hat lower over his head and chewed the tip of his cigar when he realized the figure riding through the dark toward his campsite was Irish.

Of all the times for that annoying bastard to find him it had to be now. Ance wasn't feeling up to Irish's antics. Shit, Ance wasn't feeling up to much of anything just now. He simply wanted to sit out here with town a distance flickering of kerosene lamps on the horizon and forget all about the last month and a half of his life.

"Don't ya shoot me now, Ansel. It's your ol' pal Irish ridin' in."

"We're not pals, Irish, and I don't want to be bothered. Go away," Ance growled.

"I don't mean to intrude on your busy evenin', Ansel, but does this mood I find ya in have anythin' to do with that little lass Penelope and her beautiful mama?"

Ance shoved his hat back and looked up at Irish for the first time just as the man dismounted his horse. "What the hell do you know about that?" Ance demanded.

Irish shrugged. "I know that you've been carin' for the lass since we parted ways in Briggston and I know that her mama has been searchin' high and low for her and finally found her here...."

"And just how did the woman come to be here?" Ance growled through tight jaws.

Irish grinned sheepishly and kicked at the dirt. "I found her out wanderin' in the night.... Her story is an interestin' one, Ansel, and a dangerous one as well. Ya may want to go and have a wee chat with her because I don't believe that she and the lass are truly out of the woods just yet."

"You brought that woman here?!" Ance growled.

"Are we back on that again?" Irish sat down and sighed. "We met in the wilderness 'tween here and Briggston. She was lost and so I took her in. She admitted to me that she was lookin' for ya and had left out just behind ya. I knew that Grandy was the nearest town so that's where we came."

Ance shoved himself to his feet and kicked Irish hard in the arm sending the man sprawling on the dirt and grass. "You no good son of a bitch!" Ance bellowed. "That little girl was mine! You should have taken her mama somewhere else, anywhere else! Next time I come up on men trying to hang you, I'm gonna stop them just long enough to ensure the knot is tied just right and then watch you go swinging with a smile on my damned face."

"It'd be the first smile I've truly seen there," Irish stated. Ance glared at the man when he heard the amusement in his voice. Irish was lying flat on his back and watching him closely. "Ya know, Ansel, I've never seen ya so animated. Why you're pacin' and everythin'. Ya aren't the type to pace. If that lass means so much to ya then why did ya run off like a coward into the night without so much as a word to her?"

Ance clenched his fists. "Don't call me a coward."

"Ya know she cried over ya? She cried to her mama because she wanted ya, ya big blockhead."

Ance froze. His pacing stopped. "She did?" he whispered, feeling guilt rip him apart inside. He hadn't thought that Penelope would even realize he was gone.. Hell she was just going to be one more person who left.. One more person who was there one minute and gone the next....

Irish shoved himself to his feet and smacked Ance in the chest with his hat. "O'course she did! Now I've done my part and came lookin' for ya the way Audrey asked me to. The rest is up to you. Ya can either go back and bid farewell to the girl properly or ya can ride away and break her heart... After all, why do ya care? You're Ansel Adams and ya don't care about nobody, right?"

With a wink, Irish jumped back on his horse and rode away leaving Ance standing there feeling more confused than he'd ever felt before.

Dammit!

Could he go back into that town, say goodbye to the girl and ride away? Or would he give in to the outlaw in him that said she was his and take her away from her mother, escape into the wilderness and keep Penelope with him always????

Grumbling under his breath, Ance sat back down beside his meager campfire and simply stared into the flames.