The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 (39 page)

Kitty was plainly shocked. She had not heard that Nancy and Jerome had married. Nancy rushed on. “Now they blame Jerome for what happened to the widow Glass. Jerome would never do anything like that.”

“
I
haven’t said he did,” Kitty pointed out.

“I think your husband’s men are the ones responsible for what happened to Mattie Glass, and I think they tried to make it look like the night riders did it. Everyone thinks Jerome is their leader.”

“They are no longer called night riders or vigilantes. They are called the Ku Klux Klan now, and I happen to know your husband is the leader. I was there the night his men shot Gideon. I watched his mother die of a heart attack, and then they burned my home, my barn, destroyed everything I had, and left me lying on the frozen ground, about to give birth. Both of us could have died.”

“That’s a lie!” Nancy’s face was turning red, and Nina Rivenbark rushed forward to try to quiet her.

“No, it is not a lie,” Kitty said, quite calmly. “Your husband limps because of a ball I put in his leg. Has he ever told you that? I meant to put it in his heart. So if he gets blamed for things, it’s his own fault. Not mine, nor my husband’s.”

“Corey McRae’s men raped Mattie.”

“You can’t prove that, and it’s a very serious accusation.” Kitty was not defending Corey out of affection. She could not bear the thought of his having any connection with such a horrible thing. Surely even Corey was not fiendish enough to have a defenseless woman ravished.

“It’s true. Jerome told me. Corey wants Mattie’s land. He bought her tax certificate. Jerome knows for a fact that Corey went to see her and asked her to sell out. He didn’t want to mar his image by putting a helpless widow and her children out of her home, and she refused to sell. She told Jerome she’d never sell to him, either, but he went away.
He
did not take men and go back and rape her and beat up her children.”

Nancy was livid as she continued. “The night after it happened, some men came to our door and were about to drag Jerome out and lynch him. If he hadn’t been on guard and had some of his friends watching out for him, ready with guns, he’d be dead now. All this is Corey’s fault. He had his men dressed up like the night riders so Jerome would look responsible.”

Nina Rivenbark tried again. “Please, Nancy, calm yourself. There’s no need for all this.”

“Shut up,” Nancy screeched at her, deliberately sweeping a display of merchandise to the floor. “Just stay out of it. Maybe you have already forgotten that this trollop caused the death of one of our bravest soldiers?”

“I don’t hate you. I pity you,” Kitty cut in before Nancy could continue with the story of Nathan. “Oh, Nancy,” she whispered. “Let’s bury the past. God only knows, it hurts too much to remember. We’ve both suffered enough.”

“Oh!” Both women turned in the direction of Nina Rivenbark, who was looking relieved. She bustled past them toward the front door, where Corey McRae stood.

“Darling, I thought I might find you here.” Corey’s lips touched her cheek, and she did not turn away. Then he stiffened, aware of the tension in the air. Looking from her to Nancy and then to Nina, a frown creased his forehead. “Is anything wrong?”

“No, everything is fine,” Kitty said, perhaps too quickly, for his eyebrows shot up suspiciously. “Nancy and I were just saying that the past should be forgotten. I was about to invite her and her new husband to our party.”

A master at disguising his true reactions, Corey was the perfect gentleman as he smiled and murmured, “I have only this day heard about your marriage to Mr. Danton. I offer you both my congratulations.”

Kitty waited. Was Nancy going to hurl her accusations at Corey?

Suddenly Nancy exuded charm. She curtsied slightly and, smiling, said, “Why, thank you, Corey, that’s very kind of you. Jerome and I will have the pleasure of extending our felicitations when we attend your party.” Turning to Kitty, she held out her hand, which Kitty obligingly touched. “Thank you for your kind invitation, Kitty. We wouldn’t miss it for the world, believe me.”

Her eyes flashed coldly. Her hand felt clammy. Kitty withdrew from the clasp and murmured that she looked forward to seeing her soon. She knew she had not seen the last of Nancy’s attempt at revenge, but at least she had made a gesture toward a truce.

Nancy left, and Corey’s eyes swept over the broken glass and scattered fans that covered the floor. Nina Rivenbark opened her mouth to speak, but Kitty silenced her with a look. “I bumped into the counter. Wasn’t that silly of me? Mrs. Rivenbark and I were about to clean up the mess when Nancy happened by. Here, let’s do it now.”

She started to bend over and pick up some of the fans, but Corey’s hand snaked out and caught her arm, stopping her. “I am sure Mrs. Rivenbark would not like to see one of her most valued customers doing something so laborious, my dear.” His voice was tight, and Kitty realized he was quite upset over something. Then he was turning to Nina, all charm and graciousness once again. “Now that I am here, I would like to see the green silk for my wife’s dress. Did you match the color with the emeralds?”

“Oh, yes, sir, Mr. McRae. You are going to be so pleased. I took a swatch right over to Giddens Jewelers and had them get those jewels out of the safe, and, oh, my, they are beautiful! Truly fit for a queen.”

Corey slipped his arm around Kitty’s waist. “Why, she is a queen, Mrs. Rivenbark, my queen, and I want the whole world to know that.”

Mrs. Rivenbark displayed the material, and Corey gave his approval. Then he bade her good day and led Kitty outside, his fingers wrapped firmly around her elbow. Once outside, he all but yanked her down the sidewalk in the direction of the buggy. “What is wrong with you? You’re hurting me. Let me go.”

“I’ll let you go when I get you inside the buggy,” he said between gritted teeth. “You and I have something to discuss, my dear.”

Hugo was hovering nearby to help Kitty up into the carriage. He would sit beside the driver as he had done on the way into town. Kitty settled back against the soft velvet cushioned seats, hating the buggy’s design. Its half-cocoon shape, wrapping about her on both sides and above, isolated her from the world. And the view was obstructed by Hugo and the driver.

Corey lowered himself beside her. When she tried to move away from him, as she had done on the ride into town, he grabbed her roughly against him. He yelled at Hugo to start moving at once. “Now you listen to me,” he hissed angrily into her face. “Just what did you say to that woman?”

“Nancy?” He was the one who had wanted Nancy at the party, to mock her. She had extended the invitation on the spur of the moment as one last gesture of peacemaking. She started to say as much to Corey, but he cut her off impatiently.

“I’m not talking about her, and you know it. I’m talking about Mattie Glass. She was withering away, defeated, having to be force-fed. Now she’s as spunky as though nothing ever happened. I made her a most generous offer to buy her land so she could move into town and be safe, and she laughed! Said she would find a way to pay the tax lien and whatever interest I charged on my holding certificate. She says she won’t sell out, no matter what.”

“Well, good for her,” Kitty laughed, despite the ominous look on his face. “She needs to stay on that land. You know, Corey, to some people, their land is their God. It’s their hold on life. Take that away from them, and they have nothing. That land is the one hold on sanity that Mattie has left. I made her see that. Now that thought has given her the strength she needed. I’m proud of her. She’s going to make it.”

“You think so? We’ll see about that. I happen to want that property very much, Kitty, and I get what I want.”

“Not
all
the time. This is one time you will fail. Mattie has many friends. They’ll rally together and help her, just as she’s helped them so many times in the past. You’ll see, Corey, that your money won’t buy you everything.”

“It bought
you
, didn’t it?” he sneered.

“You didn’t buy me, Corey,” she snapped, her fingers arching with the burning desire to send her nails raking down his smug face. “You made me vulnerable, helpless, and you beat me down to a point where I had no choice. And if I hadn’t had my son’s welfare to consider, you would never have succeeded in your scheme. I would sooner have starved to death than marry you.”

The muscles in his jaw twitched, and his chest began to heave. His nostrils flared angrily, and his hands began to move from her shoulders, inching their way toward her throat. But she was unafraid. “Where is your pride?” she goaded him. “Look at all the trouble you went to in order to make me marry you. You brag about the women in your life, yet you had to use trickery to get me. With all your money and power, you have no pride.”

His fingers squeezed down upon the delicate flesh, and she began to claw at him, struggling to breathe. “I could kill you right now, my sweet, if I were tired of that body of yours. But I’m not. Watch your step and keep your mouth shut or I will tire of you, much sooner than I anticipate. Remember your bastard son. I could just as easily kill him, too. Know your place, Kitty, and stop fighting me, or you’ll make me do something I really don’t want to do, my sweet. Now you have caused me great inconvenience with Mattie, and you have put me to a lot of extra trouble and expense. But I will own her land, no matter what I have to do to get it. Just stop fighting me, do you hear me? As much as I desire you, there is just so much a man can take.”

With one last squeeze, he released her, smiling triumphantly as she fell back against the seat. He watched her clutch her throat as she gasped for breath. Very slowly, her blue face began turning pink, then ivory.

She stared at him in wonder, heart pounding. What kind of madman was he that he could take her to the brink of death without batting an eye, and speak so easily of murdering a baby?

“Hugo!” Corey cried, eyes not leaving her face. He was smiling that horrid, triumphant smile she hated so. “Hugo, turn down the next path, wherever it is.”

“Yes, Mr. McRae,” Hugo called back, not turning around. He gave the order to the driver.

“What…what are you going to do?” Kitty whispered, still terrified. Had he decided to go ahead and kill her and get it over with?

“I am going to teach you a lesson, my dear. I want what is mine. You excite me so when you flash those eyes in anger.” She felt a wave of revulsion as he reached out and caught her hand and drew it to his crotch. She felt the swollen organ.

He continued to stare at her, chuckling as the driver reined the horses down a bumpy path, finally stopping a good ways from the main road. “Leave us now,” Corey ordered to the two men, and they quickly obeyed.

“Now,” he said, eyes riveted upon hers. “Take off all your clothes.”

“All my clothes? Corey, please, no, not here. I’ll freeze.”

“Do you want to return to the house with your dress hanging in shreds? Do as I say. I want you completely naked. Don’t argue with me any more today, Kitty. You have exhausted my patience. Start undressing and be quick about it.”

It was quite an effort, there in the cramped carriage. He had to help her with the fastenings on the back of her dress. It was pulled over her head. The hoops were unsnapped and tossed outside to the ground. Then off came the pantalets and the chemise.

“Lovely…” He cupped her breasts in his hands, leaning to kiss each hungrily. “Oh, Kitty, if you were not so beautiful, I wouldn’t tolerate you. But you are an exquisite creature.”

Parting her thighs, he gazed hungrily at her most private parts. Her face flamed with humiliation. Fingertips touched, probed, squeezed. Then he was yanking her legs wide apart, pushing her back on the seat. She felt his rough, eager thrust and gritted her teeth, squeezing her hands into tiny fists, praying it would end quickly. In and out he moved, hips thrusting so violently that the carriage rocked. The horses stamped their feet and snorted.

The movements became faster, faster, and his mouth covered hers, tongue plunging inside her mouth as though he wanted to devour her.

Then it happened—that final push and ensuing slump and moan that told her it was over.

“One of these days I will be able to last for hours. I can feel it,” he said casually. “Now put your clothes in order. We’re going home, and then I have to take care of seeing that you learn a very dear lesson.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked fearfully, thinking of the secret locked room on the upper floor.

“You’ll find out. It’s something I’ve decided must be done to make you realize, once and for all, that that spirit of yours is going to have to be controlled. You had no damned business going to see Mattie Glass.”

“Corey, I only told her that her life wasn’t over.”

“And I suppose you didn’t goad her into trying to keep her land?”

Kitty did not meet his gaze, nor did she respond.

“I thought so,” he said with satisfaction. “As soon as she started talking, I knew you had put that idea in her. Well, my dear wife, you’re going to learn to stay out of your husband’s affairs.”

Fear became a tight knot in Kitty’s throat as she tried to speak around it. “Corey, what are you planning to do to me?”

But he did not reply.

He refused to speak the rest of the way home, and Kitty did not dare ask any more questions for fear of angering him further.