The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 (10 page)

“Oh, she says she’s fine, that she’s not going to let this damn town rip her to shreds…sir,” he added awkwardly. “Would you mind telling me what’s going on?”

“Yes, I would mind,” came the doctor’s curt reply. “It is none of your business.”

He opened the door to his office and slammed it shut behind him. “Well, Miss Wright, the parson who came with the ladies was kind enough to take your attacker away. I regret the incident. I had heard the rumors about you and Captain Coltrane, and the circumstances surrounding the death of one of the local Rebs. It is most unfortunate. I never thought the hostility toward you ran so high.”

“That woman was Nathan Collins’s aunt,” Kitty said dully. “She never was very bright, and she was always given to hysteria. Maybe the fact that I am expecting Captain Coltrane’s child has already leaked out in town. I thought I was still hiding it. It makes no difference now,” she added.

“Uh, I think you kept it hidden,” the doctor said, a bit embarrassed to be discussing such a delicate subject, particularly with an unmarried woman. “At least, no one has mentioned it to me. May I ask what you had planned to do about your, er, condition?”

Kitty blinked at him. “What do you think I planned to do, sir? Have a baby! That’s what a woman usually does when she is carrying one in her body. She goes into labor at the time Nature sets, and she delivers a child. You are a doctor, are you not? Do you need me to tell you about how babies come into the world?”

He colored, stiffened. “I am well aware of
how
a baby comes into the world, Miss Wright. I have delivered quite a few. I am also aware of how a baby gets
inside
a woman’s body. In most instances, her husband puts it there. Were you and Captain Coltrane ever married?” Without waiting for an answer, he rushed on. “I thought not. That is a pity. But you should have thought of that before you—”

“Spare me your lectures, Doctor.” Kitty got to her feet, shaking. “I am not ashamed to be carrying Captain Coltrane’s child, and we will marry as soon as he returns from whatever mission your General Sherman has sent him on. Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do. There are patients out there.”

“Yes, there are patients out there,” he snapped, leaping to his feet as he yanked at his moustache angrily. “Patients who should not be exposed to a woman of questionable morals. I have to ask you to leave this hospital at once. Not only for the sake of my patients, but for the sake of the relationship between the Federal government and the people of this town. Now that your condition is known, there will be much said about you. General Schofield has issued strict orders that our occupying forces are to maintain as good a relationship with the people of Goldsboro and Wayne County as can possibly be accomplished. In view of your situation, your presence at this hospital must be terminated at once.”

She had known that sooner or later the time would come that she would be forced to leave her only shelter, but she had prayed that Travis would return first.

“I will leave as soon as I gather my things,” she said crisply, turning to the door with a swish of her muslin skirt. “That should not take long!”

She was through the door and several steps down the corridor before he hurried after her. “Miss Wright, wait.”

Turning, Kitty appraised him, aware that the guard was listening with interest. Let the whole world know. What difference did it make now?

“On behalf of the Union Army, let me say that your services have been appreciated. I am well aware of how you worked with wounded men with no thought as to which side they had fought for. You worked tirelessly, even on the battlefields.”

She gave him a mocking smile. “Are you giving me a citation, sir? Me? A trollop who would dare to bed with a man before marriage? I suppose if I carried the seed of a Confederate, you would not bother with your flowery words, would you? Well, I’ll see that Captain Coltrane is informed of how ‘polite’ and ‘gentlemanly’ you were to this poor, tainted woman.”

She looked to the guard, then to the doctor, and gave an insolent curtsy. “Good day, gentlemen.”

She disappeared around a corner, and the guard leaned forward and quickly whispered, “Forgive me, sir. I don’t mean to be nosy, but are you really kicking her out of here? She’s more of a doctor than a nurse. I’ve heard all about her work, and if she is carrying Captain Coltrane’s baby, and if the town folks hate her the way I hear they do, she’s going to be in for a rough time out there. At least here she had shelter. How is she going to live?”

Dr. Malpass looked the soldier up and down. “I would suggest that you keep your thoughts to yourself, soldier. We don’t know that she is carrying Captain Coltrane’s baby. We don’t even know that
she
knows
whose
seed she carries. We have to concern ourselves only with carrying out General Schofield’s orders.”

“It’s still a shame, a damned shame,” the guard mumbled.

The doctor sighed. “Soldier, just keep your mouth shut about what you heard here today. Otherwise you will find yourself on report. Is that clear?”

Heels clicked to attention. “Yes sir,” came the snapping reply.

Chapter Eight

Kitty stepped off the hospital porch and turned to gaze one last time at the squat building where she had spent so many months. She wondered if she would ever be able to forget the blood, the stench of decay and dying, and the anguished screams. Men had been in need, and her heart had burned with desire to help.

She walked down the rutted street toward the heart of the small town. Children played and laughed, despite the rags they wore, oblivious to the Yankee soldiers who wandered about. She neared the home of Mrs. Eleanor Parrott. Once, she had sat up with her all night when she was having a difficult labor with her last baby. Memories of placing the red-faced, screaming baby girl in her mother’s arms brought a smile to Kitty’s lips. Several times she had been afraid she would lose both mother and child. “Oh, Kitty, how can I ever repay you?” Mrs. Parrott had cried gratefully, tears of joy streaming down her face as she gazed at her newborn. “If it hadn’t been for you, my precious darling wouldn’t have made it.”

“Just seeing you together is reward for me,” had been Kitty’s fervent answer, overcome by the holy sight of new life.

How could anyone see such a miracle and deny the existence of God?

Mrs. Parrot had showered her tiny daughter’s face with kisses, then, as the infant began to suckle at her breast, she looked up at Kitty and whispered, “Katherine. I’ll name her Katherine, after you, Kitty. And when she grows up, she will know she was named for the woman who brought her into the world and saved her life.”

Suddenly the door to the house banged open, and a little girl came running down the steps. A purple-and-gold butterfly was flitting around the honeysuckle vines, and the child chased after it gleefully. Kitty stopped walking and stared after her. Was that her namesake, she wondered, heart pounding.

The door banged open once again, and Eleanor Parrott came storming down the steps. “Katherine, you come in here at once,” she cried, her voice a mixture of anger and exasperation. “I don’t want you chasing about with these soldiers everywhere.”

She stopped short, catching sight of Kitty standing at the gate. “You!” Eleanor spat. “You keep moving. Don’t you dare stand at my gate.”

Surely, Kitty wasn’t hearing right. Not Eleanor Parrott. She wouldn’t turn against her. Why, she had told everyone in the county how Kitty had saved her life and her baby’s, how she had named her child after Kitty so the deed would never be forgotten. And now she stood glaring, eyes burning with hatred, body trembling with rage.

Kitty cleared her throat, took a step forward, then stopped when she saw the woman’s fists clench. “Why, Mrs. Parrott, don’t you recognize me? It’s Kitty…Kitty Wright. Remember?”

“I remember nothing except that you’re not fit to walk the streets with decent folk. Now you move along. I don’t want people thinking you been to see me, and I sure don’t want you around my child. Now git! Before I get Jed’s gun and shoot you myself.”

“Mrs. Parrott!” Kitty’s heart wrenched. “How can you talk to me that way? I helped you bring Katherine into the world, remember? Whatever have I done to you, of all people, that you turn against me?”

Mrs. Parrott shook both her fists in the air. “You know what you’ve done, you traitor. Sleeping with a Yankee, going to have his baby, if’n you even know
whose
bastard you carry. And a fine, Christian man like Nathan Collins lies in the ground because of the likes of you. Get away from my home.”

The little girl, terrified by her mother’s raging, had run to cling to her skirts. Peering out at Kitty, feeling protected with her mother’s arms about her, little Katherine stuck her tongue out. Turning away, Kitty quickened her steps, heart pounding.

As she walked along, it became obvious that everyone shared Eleanor Parrott’s feelings. Some just turned their backs when she passed. A few openly glared or hissed as she passed by. One old man even spat at her. There were at least a thousand Yankees left in town, maybe more camped around. The townspeople ignored them, but they vented their wrath on Kitty.

Where in all of Wayne County could she go for shelter?

Night came, and she huddled among trash barrels in an alley. Drunken soldiers passed nearby, laughing and singing. She knew if any man attempted to rape her, no one would come to her defense. She would have to hide until daylight, till it was safer. Maybe she would have to accept Dr. Holt’s offer to make her home with him. But what if Travis returned and she was nowhere to be found? There was no way she could leave word for him, and no way she could send him a message. Dear God, what was she going to do? Her stomach was rumbling and twisting with hunger, and she had no money to buy food.

A door opened nearby, and she crouched down even lower in the dirt. Footsteps shuffled in her direction. She cringed fearfully, afraid to breathe lest the slightest sound give her away. Close, so close that his breeches brushed against her arm, the man reached down and lifted the lid of one of the barrels. There was the sound of something being dropped inside the wooden barrel. Then the lid was replaced. Footsteps shuffled away. Kitty let out her breath.

The smell of food touched her nostrils. Garbage! He had put food scraps in the garbage barrel, and, no matter what it was, she had to have something to still the gnawing in her belly. No longer could she turn away from worms. She had to eat, had to keep strong. The baby had to come first now, no matter what.

Rising out of the shadows, Kitty reached out and removed the lid from the barrel. The odor was awful, but she reasoned that whatever had just been placed on top would not be rancid. Grabbing the wad of paper-wrapped food bits, she replaced the lid and sank back to her hiding place in the darkness.

She had no idea what she lifted to her lips with trembling fingertips. It was slimy and cold, and it was in tiny pieces that held together with difficulty. But soon, she knew she was in luck. Rutabagas cooked in fat meat. Hungrily, she wolfed the morsels down. She opened another paper wad to find fish scraps. Her stomach gave a heave, but she fought against it.

Pushing the fish bits away, she clutched her stomach and weaved to and fro, fighting nausea. The greasy rutabagas had not set well on her empty stomach, and the rotten odor of the fish had made things worse. Bile was slipping into her throat, and she held her breath, hearing footsteps approaching once again.

“We can get in this way.” The gruff male voice punctured the solitude of her hideaway. “Ain’t no damn body gonna kick me out the front door of no saloon and tell me I can’t come back in.”

“Me either,” Kitty heard another man answer. He, too, spoke in clipped tones of rage and fury. “That son of a bitch bartender ain’t got no right to kick me out and tell me I’ve had too much to drink. Shit, I’ll go in there and bust every bottle on his goddamn shelf over his pumpkin head.”

They were right alongside her. Kitty held her breath until she was about to pass out. Suddenly, the belch leaped from her throat.

“Who’s there?” a voice cracked. “Tom, I know damn well I heard some drunk belch. Maybe he’s got a bottle. Maybe we won’t have to bust in the back door.”

“Yeah. Shouldn’t be too hard to find in this alley. He’s around here somewhere. Hey, where are you, buddy? All we want is a little drink. Share a drink, will you?”

“Come on, you old fool. If you ain’t nice about it, we’ll steal the whole damn bottle and might bust your head just for the fun of it. Now speak up.”

Kitty began to tremble. Her only hope was to leap from her hiding place and run for the street. Here, she was trapped. Pushing herself upward, she screamed. She had leaped right into the waiting arms of one of the men, and his whiskey-sour breath in her face was overwhelming. “Hey, it’s a woman. I found me a woman, Tom. How about that? I ain’t had me no good lovin’ lately. Ain’t this a find? Better’n a bottle any day of the week.”

“What does she look like?” the other asked dubiously.

Kitty continued to scream. She felt a beefy hand slapped over her mouth as another groped across her breasts. “Feels okay to me. Let’s lay her down and spread her out and see what we got. Don’t matter about the face. Hell, we can throw a Yankee flag over it and fuck it for revenge.”

His sidekick guffawed as both began tugging at her muslin skirt. Kitty tried to fight them, fearing not only for herself but what their assault might do to her baby. But the heavy hand stayed pressed on her face so hard that she was finding it difficult to breathe.