Only 05 - Autumn Lover

was—Bill Moreland.
    “You made all those footpaths to the B Bar,” Elyssa said.
    Shoulders straight, spine rigid, Penny kept her back turned to Elyssa.
    Elyssa went to the other woman and hugged her.
    “How long have you loved Bill?” Elyssa said.
    For a time it seemed that Penny wouldn’t answer. Then her whole body trembled as she gave way to the grief she had tried for so long to hide.
    “Since I was b-barely fifteen,” Penny said in a strained voice. “But he couldn’t see p-past Gloria to me.”
    Elyssa hugged Penny harder.
    “Then Gloria died,” Penny whispered, “and after a time it s-seemed that Bill was finally s-seeing me.”
    Silently Elyssa held Penny, stroking her back soothingly, wishing she could do more to comfort the older woman.
    “Then you c-came home,” Penny said starkly. “Bill stopped looking at me at all.”
    “It’s not like that between us,” Elyssa said, her voice gentle.
    “The hell it isn’t!” Penny retorted. “He n-never comes to the rise by Wind Gap anymore. I g-go out there and I wait and I wait and I—”
    Penny’s voice broke.
    “It’s not because of me,” Elyssa said. “He’s probably afraid the Culpeppers will follow him.”
    “It’s you he wants now,” Penny said wearily. “That’s why he doesn’t come to me anymore.”
    “Penny,” Elyssa said gently. “It’s not what you think. Truly.”
    “It is!”
    “I’m Bill’s daughter.”
    Penny went absolutely still. For the first time she looked Elyssa in the eye.
    “His daughter ?” Penny said.
    “That’s what he told—”
    Abruptly Elyssa changed her mind. She wouldn’t talk about Hunter’s brother, a spy in the Culpeppers’ camp.
    Someone might overhear.
    “—me,” Elyssa finished.
    “When?”
    “Does it matter?” Elyssa asked calmly. “The fact is, I’m Bill’s daughter, not his paramour.”
    A long, shaky breath came out of Penny.
    “Truly?” Penny asked.
    “Yes.”
    Penny let out a long sigh and hugged Elyssa hard.
    “You don’t seemed surprised that I’m Bill’s daughter,” Elyssa said after a moment.
    “I’m not, now that I think about it.”
    “Why?”
    “About two years before you were born, word came that your father—that is, John Sutton—had died hunting gold in Colorado Territory.”
    Elyssa thought of her mother alone and waiting for her husband’s return. Waiting while the absence grew longer and longer, waiting and hoping and fearing. Then word of John Sutton’s death arrived.
    It took no great wit to guess what had come next.
    “It took Bill more than a year,” Penny said tightly, “but he finally won Gloria.”
    Elyssa closed her eyes but never stopped stroking Penny, trying to soothe away the tremors that ran through the other woman’s body in long waves.
    “Then one day your father—John—rode up,” Penny said. “Gloria was hysterical. John and Bill had a terrible fight. Bill left and started the B Bar. Nine months later you were born.”
    “Then I could be just what I thought I was. John’s daughter, not Bill’s.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t think your father could get a woman pregnant,” Penny said simply. “He stayed home for five years after you were born, but Gloria never was pregnant again.”
    “There’s no guarantee that Bill could, either.”
    “Yes, there is.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’m pregnant,” Penny said simply.
    Elyssa couldn’t hide her surprise.
    “That’s why you’ve been feeling so puny,” Elyssa said after a moment. “Morning sickness, not the ague.”
    Numbly Penny nodded.
    “Does Bill know?” Elyssa asked.
    “No,” Penny whispered.
    “We’ll have to tell—”
    “No!” the other woman interrupted fiercely. “If he cared, he would ask.”
    “But the Culpeppers—”
    “Didn’t stop him from talking to you,” Penny interrupted again.
    “By going there I nearly got Bill killed and myself hauled off to be a Culpepper whore,” Elyssa said bluntly.
    Penny’s eyes widened in shock.
    “If Hunter hadn’t followed me,” Elyssa said, “only the devil knows what would have happened.”
    “Dear God,” Penny said. Then, hesitantly, “If Bill isn’t your lover and you didn’t know he was your father, why did you risk so much to see him?”
    “Because I was tired of seeing Ladder S livestock go through Wind Gap and never come back.”
    “Bill wouldn’t—” began Penny hotly.
    “I know,” Elyssa interrupted. “But drink changes a man, as