The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 (14 page)

He had led her to a cool, mossy bank beneath a spreading pecan tree. She sat down, weary in mind and body. “I was almost attacked twice last night,” she said drily. “The second time, Corey McRae saved me. But once he got me inside that old feed store, he wouldn’t let me leave. Says he wants to marry me, of all things. Oh, Jacob, Jacob, whatever am I going to do? I can go to Dr. Holt in Raleigh, and stay with his family till the baby is born, but what if Travis comes back? Oh, I’ve said it again.” She shook her head.

“Said what again, Miss Kitty?”

“I said ‘if’ instead of ‘when’. I’ve got to stop letting myself think of the possibility that Travis won’t come back. He must be hurt, Jacob. I know he would come to me if he could. He loves me.”

“Yes’m.” He lowered his eyes. It wasn’t his place to voice an opinion. It was no concern of his. All he wanted was to help the daughter of the man he had loved and respected. “You know you’re welcome to stay here, Miss Kitty. Mr. McRae won’t find you here. Nobody knows these swamps like we do. He won’t even suspect you of comin’ to live with us nigras.”

She took his hand and squeezed it. “Then I will stay here, Jacob, and I’ll be mighty obliged to you for letting me. Your sons and your people can keep their ears open when they go into town, and when Travis comes looking for me, they’ll hear about it and let me know. The baby is due around Christmas as best I can figure. Surely we’ll hear something before then. Travis won’t desert me.”

“Yes’m.” Again he lowered his eyes. He doubted that the Yankee soldier would ever return, but he sure wasn’t going to tell her that. She had to have hope to see her through the long months of struggle that lay ahead.

A plump black woman appeared. She wore a faded but clean gingham dress, a white apron tied about her waist. A bright bandanna covered her head, and she smiled to show sparkling white teeth. She handed Kitty a tin of cool water. “I’m Nolie,” she introduced herself. “You don’t remember me. I used to be a cook for Mr. Aaron. I was at the barbecue the day you poured that pitcher of water on Miss Nancy’s head.” She laughed, her large belly jiggling.

“I was also there when you took that whip away from Luke Tate. I didn’t actually see it, mind you, but I heard the commotion and went a’running from the house like all the other help. I seen him yank that whip out of your hand and take you into that house. Then I seen Mr. Nathan come a’running…”

Kitty had closed her eyes, body swaying to and fro in painful remembrance. It all flashed before her as though it were happening again. She had become angry at the party, incensed over Nancy Warren’s constant needling. Finally she lost the temper she found so hard to control and dumped a pitcher of water on the girl’s head. Then she had started for home, preparing to walk. Hearing the sound of leather slashing into flesh and a woman’s anguished screams, Kitty stumbled through the brush to the slave quarters to find the Collins’ overseer, Luke Tate, beating a pregnant slave girl.

Kitty ran forward, yanked the whip out of the astonished man’s hand and let him have a taste of his own torture, but she was no match for his strength. When he recovered the whip, he had picked her up and dragged her into one of the slave houses, ripping her dress, exposing her breasts. Nathan charged in and took the whip from Luke and gave him a sound beating before ordering him off the property.

Then Nathan had turned on Kitty, admonishing her for interfering. It hadn’t mattered that the slave girl was pregnant. Nathan was a strong believer in social “appearances”, and he was embarrassed that Kitty had intervened on behalf of a lowly slave.

All of that had led up to her father’s brutal beating by the vigilantes. She shook her head from side to side, trying to blot out the memories.

“You got a big mouth, Nolie,” Jacob was scolding the woman. “See? You done got her all upset, making her remember them bad times. They’s over and done with now. We can’t help what’s happened in the past. We got to look to the future, so you hush up making Miss Kitty think about them bad times.”

“Oh, Miss Kitty, I am sorry.” Nolie’s big hand flew to her mouth, her eyes growing big. “I does go on too much.”

“Nolie, it’s all right, really. But Jacob is wise to say we shouldn’t look back. We have to think about the future. Just think, Nolie, you’re free now.” Kitty looked at all the black faces now surrounding her. “You’re all free.”

“What good does it do if we gonna starve to death?” Jacob asked grimly.

“We had to run when we heard the Yankees was comin’,” Nolie spoke up. “Miss Nancy and Miss Sue, they took off for town, but they left us to look after ourselves. We’s scared of Yankees. We heered how they took slaves and made ’em march with ’em and fight. We didn’t want to fight, so we ran away.”

“Now the white folks hate us ’cause we’re free,” Luther said, teeth clenched in bitterness. “They call us ‘uppity niggers’ and say now that we free, we can look after ourselves. And how we gonna do that when nobody gonna give us a job? What we gonna do? Live here in the swamp and eat roots and drink muddy water for the rest of our lives?”

The angry desperation in the young man’s eyes frightened Kitty. She knew that many of the Negroes who surrounded her probably felt the same way. The older ones had been conditioned to bending to the white man’s will. The younger ones, like Luther, had not had the rebellion beaten out of them.

She motioned to Luther to sit down. Eyes wary, he did so, crossing his legs. His pants were ragged and hung just below his knees. He was barefoot and wore no shirt. They were probably the only clothes he had. What would happen when winter came? “I’ll do what I can to help you,” Kitty said, taking all of them in with a sweep of her eyes. “You know I now own Poppa’s land. I don’t know about the taxes. I’m going to have to look into that. Somehow, I’m going to find a way to work that land and make it prosper. I know it’s good land and I can make a living there. Those of you who want to help me, I’ll see that you are rewarded. But I can’t pay you anything now.”

“You saying you wants us to go to work for you for nothin’?” Luther asked incredulously. “We ain’t got nothin’ now, and we ain’t workin’. So how we gonna be any better off breaking our backs for you?”

A few of the younger Negroes snickered, and Jacob stepped forward and shouted, “Shut up. All of you. You show some respect for Miss Kitty and hear her out. She’s a fine lady. Her poppa was a fine man. We’d do well to help her out if there’s a chance we might get paid somethin’ later on. It’s better than no chance at all. And it’s sho better than you sneakin’ around town, Luther, stealin’ things.”

“Other white people will have to hire you later on,” Kitty continued. “Those that keep their land are going to have to have field hands to work. You aren’t slaves any longer, so they’re going to have to pay you. Those of you that can get jobs, do so. I can’t pay you anything. I haven’t a cent to my name. It’s going to be a very hard winter for me unless Captain Coltrane returns.”

“Miss Kitty gonna have a baby,” Jacob interrupted, a happy ring to his voice. “She gonna have Captain Coltrane’s baby.”

“I don’t know no Captain Coltrane,” Nolie mused. “He from around here?”

“He’s a Yankee,” Luther spoke up, a proud gleam in his eye because he knew something the others didn’t. “I heard about him from time to time just listenin’ to the white soldiers in town. He’s one of the bravest men in the Yankee army. You gonna marry him, Miss Kitty?”

She nodded, smiling. “Yes, I am. I love him very much, Luther. And every time you go into town, I want you to listen for any word of him. He’ll be coming back soon, and he’s going to be looking for me. Until then, I’m going to have to stay with you till I can build a little place on Poppa’s land.”

“First of all, you better find out if that Mistah McRae done bought yo’ land,” Jacob pointed out. “And how you gonna do that? He gonna be looking for you.”

“Yes, I’ve been thinking about that,” she said, more to herself than to those around her. “He had me at a disadvantage, but not anymore. Captain Coltrane and Sam Bucher buried Poppa’s pistol in a gunnysack near his grave. I’m going to go there and dig it up. They thought I might want it for a keepsake one day, but I need it now for protection. I believe his rifle is there, too. I’m not going to hide from Corey McRae. I’m not going to hide from any man.”

“You sure that’s wise, girl? In your condition?” Jacob cried, leaping up from his crouched position. “He’s got lots of men—”

“He can’t go around kidnapping women and forcing them to marry him,” Kitty snapped, angry with herself for having been frightened of the man in the first place. “Poppa may even have some pay coming to him from the Federal army. I’ll go into town and see General Schofield and find out. Even if it isn’t much, it might be enough for me to buy some seeds and get some food growing.”

The Negroes whispered among themselves. Most of them knew Kitty Wright, or knew her reputation for spirit, but to hear her talk about facing up to a powerful man like Corey McRae was astonishing.

Kitty leaned back against the rough bark of the tree and closed her eyes. It was not going to be easy. For the past four years everything had been difficult. But she would find a way. After all, she was John Wright’s daughter.

Chapter Ten

The next day, Jacob took Kitty into town, and she went directly to General Schofield’s headquarters, ignoring the curious stares of the soldiers and townspeople. The guard stationed outside stepped forward, rifle in hand, but she pushed him aside, leaving him with an astonished look on his young face.

Several other soldiers milled about in the outer room, their attention turned to the young woman in the tattered, dirty muslin dress, obviously in the family way, who glared back at them with defiance. “Hey, lady, you can’t go in there,” one of the men said, stomping toward her as she headed for the closed door at the rear. “The general is busy—”

“My name is Kitty Wright,” she snapped, her chin jutting upward, violet eyes flashing fire. “You tell General Schofield I have to see him. He knows who I am.”

The soldier swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing. “He does?”

“Just tell him the trollop he had dismissed from the hospital is here.”

He glanced at his fellow soldiers.

One of them shrugged, the other shook his head as though he didn’t know what to advise. Finally, he knocked on the general’s door, and instantly a voice boomed, “Yes, what is it?”

The soldier looked extremely uncomfortable. Looking warily at Kitty, he called out, “Sir, there’s a…” and then he hesitated.

“I asked what you wanted!” the voice thundered.

Clearing his throat, the soldier called out, “Sir, there’s a…
lady
here to see you. Says you know who she is. She’s very persistent.”

“I have no time for visitors at the moment. Take her name and have her come back later.”

Elbowing the astonished soldier aside, Kitty opened the door and stepped into the room, muslin skirt swishing around her ankles. Major General McAllister Schofield leaped up from his chair and glared at her indignantly. “Just what in thunderation is the meaning of this, young woman? How dare you barge into my office this way?”

Kitty pursed her lips, folding her arms across her chest as she narrowed her eyes. Short, heavyset—it was obvious he hadn’t lacked for food during the war while others starved. His eyes were dark and piercing, and his nose was huge. He was almost completely bald, but thick, bushy white hair, grew down the sides to form a long beard on each side of his clean-shaven chin. A thin moustache edged the top of feminine lips. Here was a man quite used to having people wilt before his command, but she was not the wilting kind.

“My name is Kitty Wright, General, and you know who I am.” She walked over and sat down in a chair opposite his desk.

He continued to stand, leaning forward, knuckles turning white as they pressed into the wood. “I can’t say as I recall your name, Miss Wright.” He took a deep breath as though trying desperately to hold his temper in check. “Now, my good woman, everyone knows that I do everything in my power to maintain a good relationship between my soldiers and the citizens of this town and county. However, I do demand respect. Will you leave my office peacefully, or shall I summon my soldiers to throw you out?” There was the play of a smile on his lips, but it quickly faded with Kitty’s next words.

“Oh, I know all about how you strive to maintain good relations with the civilians,” she laughed bitterly. “I’m the ‘trollop’ you wanted dismissed from working at the hospital, remember? You wanted to appease the good Christian ladies of this town. They blame me for the death of their local hero, Nathan Collins, who was actually a black-hearted snake and a coward. He deserted General Johnston’s command and shot my father in the back.”

She paused to take a breath, then rushed on. “But I did not come here to talk about that. I came here to demand that you pay me, as my father’s only heir, whatever back pay the Union Army owes him for his service. Thanks to you and your ‘good relations’ policy, I no longer have a roof over my head. I was never paid for my services at the hospital, but I did have a place to sleep and a little food.

“And”—she forced a bright smile—“I also happen to be carrying the child of one of your cavalry officers. But of course you must have heard by now that the town trollop is pregnant.”

His huge nose turned redder than his cheeks. “Miss Wright, I do not wish to hear about your personal problems.”

She went on as though he had not spoken. “The father of my baby is Captain Travis Coltrane. He happens to be one of the bravest soldiers you Yankees had, with the exception of my father. There was never a man better than he. Now, back to my situation. Now that I no longer have a home, thanks to you, I must demand that you turn my father’s back pay over to me at once.”