Love and War: The Coltrane Saga, Book 1 Read online

  He turned as she threw herself upon him, raking his face with her clawing hands, kicking at him, pummeling him with her fists in a rage of fury.

  For a moment, she’d caught him unaware, but he quickly recovered to fling her away effortlessly, throwing back his head to laugh and sneer at her, “You shoulda killed me when you had the chance, you little spitfire, because you’re going to get the beating you deserve.”

  He raised the whip high above his head once again, and Kitty threw up her arms to protect herself as best she could. Closing her eyes in anticipation of the cutting slice that would be crashing down upon her—she blinked them open again at the sound of his laughter—and saw that he was flinging the whip aside.

  “Naw, it’d be a shame to mess up anything that looks like you do.” He leaned over, and she could smell the redeye on his breath. Scooping her up as she hit at him uselessly, he roared, “A good fuckin’ is what you need to calm you down, and I’m the man whut can give it to you…”

  He started off with her slung over his shoulders, in the direction of one of the slave cabins. “Get the hell outta there!” he roared, and slaves scattered, emptying the shack.

  Stepping inside, he set her down and hooked the fingers of his left hand into her bodice and ripped it down, her breasts spilling out. “God…” he breathed, as she staggered backward, trying to cover herself.

  “Don’t you touch me!” she cried hoarsely, darting her eyes about for any kind of a weapon. “Nathan will kill you for this…”

  “I’m willin’ to take that chance…” He licked his puffy lips as he fumbled with his pants. “You just lay down on that cot yonder and it’ll be good for both of us. You need this, Kitty…you need tamin’…”

  “Not by you, Tate!”

  They looked to the doorway where Nathan Collins stood, fists clenched, legs apart, eyes boiling with the fury of his anger. In one of his clenched fists, he held the bullwhip Tate had discarded, and without warning, he brought it slashing down across the overseer’s shocked face.

  Tate fell to his knees as Nathan hit him again, and the sound of the leather slicing into flesh and muscle made bile rise in Kitty’s throat. She stumbled away from the shack and out into the cool November air, retching against the hands she pressed to her lips.

  The sounds of the whip stopped. She could hear Tate moaning. “You get off this land by sundown,” Nathan yelled. “If I ever lay eyes on you again, I’ll kill you. I swear it!”

  She shook herself back to reality, moving quickly from the porch across the clearing to where a crowd was gathering around the pregnant woman. They parted respectfully as she shoved her way through.

  “Move this woman into a cabin so I can examine her,” Kitty ordered, then she turned to the boy, whose face was streaming with blood. Reaching down, she ripped one of her petticoats to make a wad of bandage to press against the cut. “Someone see to him. You’ve tended whip cuts before.”

  “Please take care of Jenny,” the boy whimpered as she moved away. “Don’t let nothin’ happen to our baby…”

  Nathan ran up just as Kitty was about to enter the slave cabin where Jenny had been taken. “I’ve sent for the carriage. I’m taking you home. I’m sorry all this has happened, Kitty, but it’s best you leave now.”

  An agonized snarl made both of them jerk around to see Luke Tate staggering into the clearing. His face was covered in blood, and his shirt hung in bloodied shreds of cotton. Pointing a finger at them, he cried, “I’ll get you both for this…you’re a dead man, Nathan Collins, and I’ll make you beg for mercy, Kitty Wright…”

  He stumbled toward the woods, and Nathan ignored his outburst, more concerned at the moment with taking Kitty home and getting her out of the terrible situation. “Come on now.” He grasped her waist. “I’m so sorry, Kitty. I want to get you out of this…”

  “No!” Jerking away she moved on toward the cabin door. “I’ve got to see to Jenny.”

  The woman was lying on a filthy mattress stuffed with corn shucks, writhing and moaning, hands clutching her stomach. An old black woman was bent over between her legs. Straightening, she said to Kitty, “It ain’t her time yet, missy, but she’s a’birthin’…”

  “Kitty, listen to me.” Nathan stepped inside the slave shack, then, realizing several women were milling about as Kitty bent to examine the girl in labor, he raised his voice to snap, “Get out of here! All of you!”

  The women scurried, bumping into each other as they each rushed to follow their master’s orders. Then Nathan was across the dirt floor in two great steps to clamp his hands down o Kitty’s shoulders, yanking her up and whirling her about to face him.

  “You listen to me, Kitty,” he hissed, eyes blazing with fury. “You’ve got to get out of here. This is an embarrassing situation for you to be in. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m in love with you. My parents are going to be very upset about all this, and your staying isn’t going to help matters…”

  “Nathan, you’re in my way,” she said softly.

  He stood back as Kitty shouted for the other women to get busy with boiling water and clean rags. “Well,” she jerked her head up to see him still standing there, gawking, “this is no place for a man. Get out of here, will you?”

  He stumbled backward, turned, and then bolted through the door.

  Fortunately, the baby came easily, but it was tiny—about two months early, Kitty figured, as she held him in her arms and sponged away the blood and mucus. Wrapping him in a blanket someone handed her, she instructed them on how to care for him, keeping him warm by snuggling him close for their body heat.

  “And don’t let her try to nurse him.” Kitty nodded to the young mother who was panting with exhaustion. “One of you with milk in your breasts can take care of him until she gets her strength back.” She instructed them to get in touch with Doc Musgrave right away if Jenny developed fever or any sign of complications.

  “No white doctor comin’ here,” an old gray-haired woman said tonelessly. “If she get sick, we take care of her.”

  “Doctor Musgrave will come here if you ask him to,” Kitty snapped. “And if he’s busy, I’ll come and do what I can. Do you understand?”

  The women nodded.

  Kitty sighed and gathered the remnants of her dress about her and stepped out onto the front porch. A small cluster of white men sitting atop their horses was directly in front of the cabin.

  One of them was Aaron Collins, and as she stepped onto the porch, he dismounted and walked toward her. Kitty noticed that Nathan, standing nearby, hung back.

  “Miss Kitty, I’d like to have a few words with you.” Aaron motioned for her to walk with him out of hearing range of the others. Wearily, she fell in step beside him, apprehensive of what was to come because of the grim, set lines of his face, the cold anger mirrored in his eyes.

  “I’m shocked by what has happened here today,” he said tightly, popping his riding crop against the smooth leather of his boot as they walked.

  “On top of everything that happened at the party,” he sighed, “you embarrass my son and my family further by remaining to deliver a…a slave baby.”

  Kitty could take no more. She stopped walking, turned to face him, and, not caring who heard, cried, “Mister Collins! Lest you forget, I’m the one who was insulted here today. Yes, I delivered that little baby. He’s a human being, and I always help human beings when I have the opportunity—which is more than I can say for you. I’m shocked at you, Mister Collins, and if it takes going to war to free these people from the likes of you, then maybe I’m all for it!”

  They stood there, glaring at each other, both afraid to say more.

  Nathan, unable to stay out of the situation any longer, hurried to where they stood. He took Kitty’s arm. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

  “Yes, I think that’s a good idea.” Aaron Collins’ blazing eyes did not waver from the young girl who returned his fury. “Take her home…get her off of Collins land and do not bring her bac
k here again.”

  “Father…”

  “I mean it, son. And further, I forbid you to call on this girl. She’s not our kind.”

  “Thank God for that.” Kitty whirled about and walked toward the waiting carriage, head held high.

  Chapter Five

  Kitty’s escapades at the Collins party spread throughout the county like dandelions in a March wind.

  John Wright laughed and said Aaron Collins got what he deserved. Lena Wright was so upset she went to bed for three days with a sick headache.

  Kitty, herself, was a mixture of emotions. All things considered, she regretted only that she had obviously lost Nathan. It had been three weeks since the party. November had turned to December, and the war clouds grew darker and thicker. The air that hung over the countryside was tense and strained. Everywhere, people talked of war. Kitty could think only of Nathan, and the love she felt for him. Now she realized that the emotion had smoldered within her for years, and once it erupted, instead of something wonderful happening—the fire was choked out before it had a chance to burn brightly.

  She flied to stay busy around the farm. Winter was just a few weeks away. In fact, any morning they could wake up to sleet. Once in a while they even had a light snowfall.

  The day Nathan came, Kitty had decided to get away for a while with her thoughts, and she had saddled one of their few horses and gone riding in the woods.

  The oak trees were bare except for scattered clumps of mistletoe high in their tops, but the pine trees were thick and green with needles, the air fresh and sweet with their fragrance. She rode along a gurgling creek, thrilling at the sight of a doe pausing to drink, then sprinting through the woods as her nostrils picked up a human scent.

  Squirrels and chipmunks danced along the ground, gathering the last of the pecans for winter hoarding. A cardinal sang to her from a nearby branch. She looked at his bright red feathers and closed her eyes and made a wish. Her father said wishes made on redbirds usually came true.

  “Kitty…” Her eyes flashed open at the sound.

  He was just a few yards away from her, still hidden by the thick underbrush, sitting atop his horse.

  Wishes on redbirds did come true, she thought with a rush of joy. “Oh, Nathan…” His name escaped her lips as they both sprang from their horses at the same time, running across the brush with arms outstretched.

  They came together, entwined, lips meeting for quick, anxious kisses—and then one so deep it took their breath away. Gasping, they drew apart. “I’ve been riding in these woods every day for weeks, waiting for a chance to speak to you,” he said excitedly. “I thought you’d never show up, Kitty.”

  “I thought you never wanted to see me again.”

  He took her hand and sat down on the mossy velvet carpet beneath a huge old pine tree, pulling her down beside him. His arm slipped around her shoulders as he pulled her closer. “I had to see you, Kitty. I love you. I can’t let you go.”

  Her heart was pounding. “But your father forbid you to see me, Nathan.”

  “I’ll have to be honest and say that your name brings instant wrath when mentioned around our house. Mother is especially mad about the whole situation. She’s moved Nancy in with us, determined to get us married before I get a chance to become involved with you. What they don’t know is that I’m already very much involved.”

  “But your father won’t let you call on me…”

  “Then we’ll meet here, in the woods.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m not going to let anything stop me from loving you, Kitty, and if you love me, you’ll be willing to slip out and be with me.”

  She thought a moment. Her father had said he thought it had all happened for the best, that a union between her and Nathan Collins just wasn’t meant to be. He further said that he disapproved but hadn’t said so before, because he wanted her to make her own decisions. If she were to slip out to meet Nathan, it would be best to keep it a secret from everyone, including her poppa.

  And then she remembered the clouds above. “Nathan, how long before we go to war? And what happens to us then?”

  “War will come soon,” he sighed, gazing toward the brook with worried eyes. “And you and I will be married before I go off to fight.”

  “Married?” She blinked at him.

  He kissed her briefly, then smiled, “I’m not about to go off to war without a wife waiting for me. Already we’re forming a company, calling ourselves the ‘Wayne Volunteers’. We’ve got twenty-two men, with more expected to join up as the war comes closer; My father’s going to pay for our uniforms—soon as we get the orders and know what they’ll look like—he’s having them made at a factory in Wilmington.

  “Hey…” he snapped his fingers with enthusiasm, “Kitty, would you make our battle flag?”

  “Battle flag?” she echoed blankly.

  “Sure. Every company has to take a flag into battle. It’s important. And when our company leaves for the war, Father says we’ll have a big ceremony in Goldsboro, with bands and speeches, and everything. And you can present us with the flag.

  “That’s a good idea,” he went on, more to himself than to her. “It will be the perfect way to let everyone know about us. You present the flag to me, because I’ve been chosen as our company sergeant. Of course, when we join up with the army to be established, I’m hoping to move right on up in rank.”

  He sounded proud, and Kitty felt it was justified. She always thrilled to his quiet, commanding good looks—the firm line of his jaw. But he was a man whose every fiber bowed to the dominance of his father, although every young man about was raised to be similarly obedient and respectful.

  “I’ll make your battle flag, Nathan,” she murmured, trembling with the love she felt for him and his nearness. She could feel the heat of his body against her skin, rising in unison with her own. “I love you, Nathan…”

  “And will you marry me before I go away?” He looked deep into her eyes, as though trying to reach the inner depths of her soul. “Will you be my wife?”

  Marriage. The thought overwhelmed her. What would she do while he was gone? Only last week she had gone with Doc Musgrave to make his rounds, and they had stopped his carriage beneath a pecan grove to talk about the War. He had told her that he planned to work with Dr. Charles E. Johnson, who was expected to be named Surgeon General of the North Carolina troops. Johnson planned to locate a hospital in Goldsboro. Doc wanted her to help him as a nurse.

  She told this to Nathan, who reacted as she feared he would. “A nurse? Oh, Kitty, I’d much rather you stay home with the other womenfolk. There will be plenty for you to do, I’m sure. The war shouldn’t last long, but I don’t want my wife going off to work in a hospital. That’s not for ladies.”

  “Not for ladies,” she echoed with bitterness. “How I hate those words, Nathan. Why should the fact that I’m a woman keep me from doing something I want to do? Doc has taught me so much about medicine. If I can help our men, I want to.”

  “We’ll talk about that later, Kitty. If we get married, I’ll want you to stay at home with the other women. It wouldn’t be proper for you to do otherwise. And besides, once we are married, knowing my family, they’ll try to make the best of the situation and accept you—if you’ll let them.”

  He kissed her again, then said he had to go home. There was work to be done. He left her after they set a meeting date for the next afternoon.

  And after he had gone, she sat there sorting out her thoughts. Doc Musgrave would need her. The Southern soldiers would need her. Nathan would have to understand this. When war came she would do her share…her part. If he couldn’t understand that, then it would be best if they did not marry until after the war was over.

  But she would make the battle flag for the Wayne Volunteers. She would do it secretly, and when the presentation was made at the ceremonies in Goldsboro, everyone would know that Nathan had spoken for her—that they were betrothed.

  It was getting late, and Kitty bro
ught herself out of her daydreaming to mount her horse and head back to the farm. It was chilly, and she was glad she’d slipped on an old woolen jacket of her father’s. Smiling, she thought of the way Nathan had looked at her as he surveyed her clothing—the jacket, an old faded shirt, and a pair of her father’s trousers with a rope belt to take up the slack. With her hair in long braids she did not make a very feminine picture, she knew, but Nathan must still find her attractive. He had just asked her to marry him, hadn’t he?

  As she rode out of the woods and into the rutted clearing of the field that led up to the farmhouse, Kitty could see several men on horses standing behind the barn. They formed a semicircle around her father. Digging her heels into the horse’s flanks, she galloped across the field. If Nathan’s father had discovered their meeting and was arguing with John about it, she needed to be there to tell them he had known nothing about it.

  As she rode closer, she spotted the white stallion of Nathan’s father, Aaron Collins. Orville Shaw was with him, and David Stoner, and two other men she recognized—William Brundy and Paul Creech.

  They looked at her critically as she approached, except for David. David always warmed at the sight of Kitty, and now he smiled and nodded politely. Her father gave her a look that plainly said he’d rather she keep moving, but she ignored him, reining up her horse a few feet behind the others but close enough that she could hear the conversation.

  “I’m stayin’ out of the war if it comes,” John Wright was saying, leaning on a pitchfork. “So you’re wasting your time asking me to join up.”

  Aaron Collins had been staring contemptuously at Kitty, who easily returned his gaze. He turned back to John. “We’ll consider any man who doesn’t join us a traitor.”

  “Oh, be reasonable, Aaron,” John snorted. “Everyone knows that North Carolina is divided on the war issue. There’s just as many folks that don’t want war as there are those who do. Just because you’re a big landowner and you’ve got a lot of money, you think you can bully people into thinkin’ like you do. You oughta know by now that you can’t bully me.”