The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 (44 page)

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 me 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 can, 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.”

“Lawdy, Miss Kitty, I might give him too much and kill him,” she said fearfully. Kitty motioned her to calm down, and Addie whispered, “I don’t know nothing about putting stuff in folks’ drinks. I might put in too much or too little. He might wake up before you wants him to.”

“I know quite a bit about drugs, remember? I will tell you exactly how much to put in the bottle, and when he’s passed out, you’ll pour out what’s left and replace ordinary brandy so he won’t find out later what happened. Just go and tell Will everything I have told you. Leave everything else up to me and don’t worry. I won’t let you get in trouble, I promise. The risk will be mine.”

They went back inside. Addie’s worried look did not leave her eyes. Kitty finally admonished her by saying, “Quit looking that way. You’ll make someone suspicious. Now, you’ve been in here long enough that Rance will think you were doing something, so go do what I told you to do, then bring me my breakfast tray at the usual time. Tell Will to be extremely careful, but I want him to get the message to Luther as soon as possible.”

Kitty tapped on the door, lightly this time. Rance turned the key, and then Addie was stepping outside, moving by him and down the hall quickly. But he did not close the door and relock it immediately, as he usually did. Instead, he leaned against the side and looked at her with half-closed eyes, smiling.

“You know, the boss did himself proud when he got a pretty little filly like you. I envy him. Me and all the boys. We talk about you a lot, ’bout how you look, how lucky the boss is to have something like you to crawl into bed with at night.”