Kitty moaned. It was hopeless. She would never be able to slip out and find Travis and try to make him listen. If only Jacob were here, or Dulcie. She could trust them, she knew. Jacob would tell Travis that he had known she was going to have a baby before she even met Corey McRae, that her condition was the reason she was discharged from the hospital. Dulcie would tell him that she had been forced to give Kitty’s letters to Corey, who had destroyed them. There was no telling what happened to the ones Jacob took to town. Corey probably had someone there who made sure they were not mailed.
Mattie would help her, too, she thought wildly. But no one would let Mattie in. Kitty was a prisoner. She also knew that Corey was too devious to allow Travis to remain around for very long. He would be afraid she would find a way to get to him. Corey would arrange to have him killed. Travis had to be warned.
“Addie, do you know where in South Carolina Jacob and his grandsons were sent?” Kitty lowered her voice, should the guard outside be listening.
“No ma’am, I sho don’t. Fact is, I didn’t even know he was gone till after he done took those boys and left. Me and my man, Will, was talking about it. Mistah McRae sho got rid of him quick.”
She rubbed in the salve as gently as possible, but Kitty still winced with pain.
“Is there anyone else who would know? Can you ask around for me? You have to help me, Addie. There’s no one else I can turn to,” she said desperately, reaching out to clutch the old woman’s arm. “Jacob is gone. Dulcie took my baby to Raleigh. I have no one left I can trust. And I’m sure you heard Captain Coltrane is back. He’s a federal marshal here, and he believes the worst of me. I have to get to him, Addie. I have to talk to him.”
Addie had stopped smoothing the salve on the torn flesh and backed away from the bed, eyes wide with fright as she shook her head from side to side. “No, ma’am. I ain’t gonna get myself in trouble. Mistah McRae would kill me and my man, too, if either of us did anything to help you. Hugo watches all of us, just like a vulture waits on sump’n dyin’. I ain’t gonna get myself kilt. No, ma’am. I feels sorry fo’ you, and I pray fo’ you, but I ain’t gettin’ kilt.”
Addie left. Kitty lay there and cried, then hated herself for giving in to weakness. She would find a way.
Corey came in late that afternoon, gloating again over the Mattie Glass incident. He was still left with his best gunman, Rance Kincaid.
He taunted Kitty. “Your lover came back, and he all but spit in your face,” he laughed down at her. “Now, perhaps you will have the good sense to give up your foolish dreams and realize you are mine. And don’t get any dangerous notions about finding a way to see him. I have guards posted all around, my dear. There is no way out for you.”
He lit a cigar and positioned himself in front of her, grinning, black eyes glittering with delight. “I regret that you’re feeling so poorly, Kitty. I really do. It grieves me to see that lovely flesh bruised. I also miss our lovemaking. A few more days of rest, however, is all I’m going to allow you. I know how long it takes to get over a beating such as the one I gave you. I’ve inflicted enough upon my servants to know just how long it keeps them out of service. So you can lie there and pretend all you want, but I will know when to come to your bed.”
He reached down and scratched at his crotch. Kitty closed her eyes, not wanting to see the swelling there. He talked of letting her recuperate, but she knew him well enough to realize that his lust might get the best of him. Then he would take her.
To get his mind on something else, even at the risk of angering him, she said quietly, “Travis loves me. Sooner or later he will get over his anger and want to find out the truth. He’ll talk to other people in town. He’ll find out I was discharged from the hospital because of the baby I was carrying. He’ll find out when my son was born. He’ll start counting the months. And he will come to me.”
“I thought of that possibility, my love. I sent two of my best men to kill him.”
Ignoring the pain, she pulled herself up from the bed and screamed, “You bastard! I’ll tell! So help me, no matter how you beat me, I’ll tell that you were responsible.”
He gave her a rough shove that sent her sprawling back on the bed.
“I’m not talking about now, you little fool. I sent two men to kill him some time ago, right after I decided it was you I wanted for my wife. I had your messages to him destroyed, just as I had someone take care of the ones he sent you. But my men weren’t smart enough to get the job done. I have since found out that they did track Coltrane down, and there was a shootout. My men were killed, and Travis was only wounded. I understand he was laid up for quite awhile. Now I have to carefully plot a way to get rid of him. The situation is a bit more difficult now since he is a federal marshal, but there are ways. It will work out. I want things to calm down a bit, first. It might look suspicious if he were suddenly killed right after I was the central figure in his first investigation.
“All in good time, my dear.” He smiled. “All in good time. But what do you care? He’s made it obvious that he wants no part of you. I have Nancy to thank for that. She did her job well. As much as she hates me, she did me a great service.”
Kitty could only lie there, mind whirling. There had to be a way out of all this.
“I tried the gentle approach with you, Kitty.” His voice was suddenly soft, coaxing, and she opened her eyes to stare suspiciously. “I tried to make you love me. I really did. You know the money you supposedly got from your father’s pay as a Union soldier? There was no money from him. I put up that generous sum out of my own pocket. It was all arranged with that sergeant working under General Schofield. I wanted to see you have the money to try to make it on your own, to show you that you couldn’t, that you needed me. But you were doing a good job, so I was forced to use other means to make you bend. I hired your negroes away from you. I took advantage of your maternal state. I tried every way possible to make you need me, but no, you had to continue being obstinate. But you see, Kitty, sweet, I always get what I want. So it didn’t bother me in the least to break you. It didn’t bother me to give you the thrashing you deserved last night. I intend to keep you for the rest of your life. The sooner you realize that, the better it will be for all of us. Now, if you cooperate, I’ll bring little John back after Travis Coltrane is taken care of. I can’t risk his seeing the brat. I’m not blind. I know he looks like his father.”
Kitty shut his words out. Travis had to be warned.
And one puzzling thought remained. Why had he come back? Why hadn’t he gone back to his beloved bayou country? Why did he return to Wayne County, where she was? Because he did love her? Only now, that feeling may have been destroyed by Nancy’s lies.
It had been five days since the beating when Kitty once again begged Addie to help her. “You are my only hope, Addie. You are the only person who comes in here besides Corey. You are my only contact with the outside world.”
“Miss Kitty, you know I likes you and always have,” the old Negro said gently, as though speaking to a child. “But I can’t do nothing fo’ you. I gots my own hide to think about. Mistah McRae would either kick me out or kill me. And he sho would have me beaten worse’n what he beat you before he did either one. Lord knows, I wish I could help you, ’cause you were good to me when I was a’starvin’.”
“Yes, I was,” Kitty snapped, suddenly furious. She had never been one to throw up past favors, but she was desperate. “I did help you,” she reminded her woman. “I shared what little I had, but when that was gone, when everyone on my land was suffering, you and your husband walked out on me. Corey has admitted to me he deliberately took my friends from me, so I would become weaker and weaker. Have I hated you? No. Even now, if you came to me and asked me for something, if I had it in my power, I’d do whatever you asked. Look what that man has done to me! You see my body, how he beat me. You see how he keeps me a prisoner. He even took away the one thing on this Earth that gave me a reason for living, my baby. Now he’s told m
e he plans to have Travis murdered. Oh, my God, Addie, I appeal to your Christian goodness. Help me, please.” Her voice broke.
“Oh, Miss Kitty.” Addie’s eyes were filled with tears. “When you talk like that, what can I say? You make me feel so guilty. But I got my own hide to think about, too.”
Kitty reached out and clutched at her desperately. “Listen to me and do as I say and you won’t be in any danger. You can send word to Luther, can’t you? He’s Jacob’s son, and he’ll help me. I know you and your people keep up with each other. Luther is bound to be somewhere around the countryside. Send word to him that I need his help. I’ve known him all his life. He’ll help me. I know he will. Tell him everything that has happened, and he’ll protect you. And Luther is smart. He’ll know how to help me escape from here and get to town and find Travis. You two are the only hope I have left.”
Addie sucked in her breath, rolled her eyes upward as her whole body trembled. Finally she lowered her gaze to meet Kitty’s anxious face. “All right,” she whispered, “I’ll do it. I’ll get word to Luther. But if he don’t help, then there’s nothing else I can do. I’m sorry. I hope the Lord will forgive me if I’m doing wrong. But Miss Kitty, I is scared of Mistah McRae. All us niggers is scared to death of him.”
“And you have reason to be. I would sooner face the devil. He has to be stopped. Now, please, get word to Luther, somehow, as soon as possible.”
Addie left, shaken. Kitty hoped that the guard stationed at the door would not notice and become suspicious. She did not know the woman all that well, and she could only pray that she would follow through on her promise without looking guilty.
Toward morning, as dawn filtered around the edges of the heavy velvet drapes, she opened heavy lids to see Corey’s shadowy figure standing at the side of her bed. Dear God, don’t let him want me now, she prayed. Not now, please.
“Sorry to awaken you,” he murmured, “especially at such an early hour, but I have made a decision I thought might brighten your day.”
Apprehensively, she sat up in bed, careful to keep the covers up about her chin.
He sat down and she cringed, shrinking away from him. “Now, is that any way for a loving, dutiful wife to treat her husband?” It was hard to make out his face in the shadows, but she knew he was smirking. “You should never move away from me, my darling. You should want to be close, very close.”
His fingertips brushed her cheeks. She fought the impulse to shudder.
“I am leaving this morning for Raleigh to take care of some business. I probably won’t be back for several days. Hugo is going with me, but the guards will still be posted outside your door. Addie will bring you your trays and see to your personal needs, but I’m sure you understand I have to be certain that you don’t leave this room. By the way, your friend Mattie Glass has called to see you twice. Hugo told her you were ill and not up to receiving guests. She’s a stubborn one, especially since you helped her. Oh, Kitty, Kitty,” he sighed. “You and that defiant spirit. You’ve caused so many people so much grief.”
“If you came here to tell me that you will be away for a few days, then it is indeed good news,” she snapped. “I may have to stay in this room, but at least I won’t be bothered by your coming around to gloat over me.”
“I like to think I’m protecting you from yourself, from making an even bigger fool of yourself than you already have. I’ve told people you really weren’t over the fever, that the party was too much for you and you suffered a relapse. If I let you go wandering around, chasing after your old lover, people will only gossip. He’s made it plain he doesn’t want you.” Corey took a deep breath.
“I do have one last thing to say. I have decided to bring your baby back, Kitty.”
Her body stiffened. This was another cruel joke.
“Well, aren’t you going to bounce up and down with joy?” he laughed.
“If I could believe you, I would,” she said quietly.
“Well, I have thought it over and decided that I may have been a bit rough with you, Kitty. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the beating. You deserved that, and if you give me cause, it will happen again, and again, until you learn to be the obedient wife I intend you to be. Taking your son away might make Coltrane curious. If the baby isn’t here, he might become suspicious. So I will bring our son home from Raleigh, and you and I will appear to the world as a happily married, loving couple. You will play the role to the hilt because I don’t have to tell you what will happen if you don’t.”
Her mind was whirling.
“Didn’t you hear a word I said, Kitty?” He was brushing his hand down her cheek again.
“Yes, yes, I heard you.”
“Then I shall be on my way. In a very few days you’ll have your son back, and we’ll go on with our lives. You’ll have everything a woman could want, wealth, position, a child and a husband who—despite what you might think—loves you very deeply. Now, give me a kiss of gratitude. Show me some affection.”
He lowered his lips, pressing her close to him by placing his hand on the back of her head. His lips mashed down, and she fought the impulse to gag as he thrust his tongue inside her mouth. She would not allow her body to stiffen. She must not make him angry now.
At last the kiss was over. “Ahh, I knew you would see things my way, Kitty.” He squeezed her breast possessively. “I wish I had the time,” he whispered huskily. “I’d like to strip you naked and kiss every inch of that beautiful body, feel myself inside you, knowing all that loveliness belongs only to me.”
She held back the sigh of relief as he reluctantly got to his feet. “There isn’t time, but I promise I will make it up to you later. You can show me how grateful you are when I return. Until then, my darling, just rest your body for the lovemaking to come.”
After he’d gone, Kitty sprang from the bed, shaking with excitement. She waited for perhaps a half hour, until she could be sure Corey and Hugo had left the plantation, then she went to the door and pounded on it impatiently.
“Yeah, what do you want?” A sleepy, irritated voice wafted through the thick pine. She recognized Rance.
It figured that Corey would leave his most-trusted man on guard duty during the night hours.
“Have Addie come to me at once,” she called to him.
“Miz McRae, it’s too early. She’ll be asleep,” he protested. “The cook ain’t even started up the fire in the kitchen yet.”
“Have her come to me,” Kitty all but screamed. “I…I have personal problems.”
She heard the snicker, the shuffle of a tilted chair being thumped to the floor, boots scraping. “All right. All right. I’ll get her.”
Pressing her ear to the door, she heard him walking away, clunking down the steps. Knowing in advance it was useless, she turned the knob. Of course it would be locked. There was nothing to do but wait. She did not want to leave, anyway, until John was back. But she had to make sure that all plans were made so she could get away as soon as she had him.
After what seemed an eternity, she heard movement in the hall, a key turning in the lock. The door opened, Addie was shoved inside, then the key clanked once again. “What on earth is wrong, Miss Kitty?” Addie looked at her, eyes drooping sleepily.
She grabbed the Negro woman’s arm and pulled her as far from the door as possible. Despite the chilly spring morning, Kitty opened the door to the veranda, and the two stepped outside. In the shadows below, she could see the other guard. He was asleep.
“Now, listen to me.” She turned to Addie, whispering so low the servant had to bend her ear to almost touch her lips. “Corey has gone to Raleigh for several days, but he’ll be bringing John back with him when he returns. That is when I want to escape, the first night he’s back. Will must find Luther and make the arrangements.”
“He found Luther,” Addie said quickly, and Kitty’s heart pounded with hope. “He says Luther’s got to lay low, too. The law and that Klan is after him. He says he’ll help what he c
an, though, ’cause of the way you and your pa always treated him and his daddy. He told Will for me to find out what you wanted him to do, and he’d see if he can do it. He says he ain’t sure where his daddy is, though, and it’d take a long time for him to find out. How big a hurry you in, Miss Kitty, and what you want Luther to do?”
Kitty told her. Luther would have to find a way to get her and the baby out of the house the night Corey returned from Raleigh. He would need to find out where Travis would be so that she could go straight to him. They could not waste a moment.
“Miss Kitty, you done tol’ me how that man don’t believe that young’un of yours is his,” Addie said worriedly. “If Luther does get you out of here and gets you into town, and that man of yours turns his back on you the way he did the night of the ball, you gonna be in one heap o’ trouble. Mistah McRae, he liable to take that boy away from you fo’ good. He’s liable to beat you to death, he gonna be so mad.”
Kitty took a deep breath, shivering. “It’s the chance I must take, Addie. It’s the only hope I have. Corey is going to have Travis killed. I have to warn him. I also have to let him see his son. He’ll look at him and know he’s his.”
“Well, you can’t look at a baby that young and tell nothin’ about who the daddy is,” the old Negro scoffed. “I knows lots of women who got babies by other men, and they passes ’em off as belongin’ to the one they happens to be married to. He ain’t gonna be able to tell just by looking.”
Kitty felt tears of frustration stinging her eyes. “But I have to try, Addie. Don’t you see? I can’t just give up. And if Travis won’t believe me, at least I’ll be out of this house. I’ll have a chance to run. I’ll take John and leave North Carolina and go north, anywhere to escape Corey. Now you stay with me long enough for Rance to believe you are helping me with my ‘personal problems’, and then go back to your cabin and tell Will exactly what I’ve told you. Have him find Luther again and explain what I want him to do. Tell him where the guards are posted. The day Corey returns with John, Will can have a prearranged signal with Luther to let him know that as soon as it’s dark we’re going to make our move. Corey always has his brandy and cigars after dinner. We’ll move quickly. You’ll make sure his brandy bottle is laced with enough opium to make him fall asleep and stay asleep until morning.”
The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 Page 33
