The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 (43 page)

He walked out. She heard the click of a key and knew she was locked in.

There had to be a way. There had to be. Mattie would help her!

She sat up in bed and dabbed at her eyes. Now was not the time to be hysterical. She must be strong, gather all her wits about her. Mattie would talk to Travis and make him see that she was telling the truth.

She kept hearing the sounds of carriages leaving, knew the party had broken up. Corey was going to be in a rage. She hoped Travis had taken him back to town and locked him up. Coot would not take all the blame for what had happened.

Her head jerked up at the sound of the key turning. The door opened. Corey seemed to fill the room as he entered, and her eyes went to the leather strap he held in his right hand, slapping it rhythmically against the open palm of his left, all the while riveting his gaze on her, his lids narrowed to slits.

Hugo stood behind him, grinning.

“Is everyone gone now, Hugo?” Corey asked, not taking his eyes off Kitty.

“Yes, sir. The orchestra just packed up and left. I sent all the house servants out to sleep in other quarters. No one is in the house now but the three of us.”

“Very good. Now you go downstairs and keep an eye out. Make sure no one comes nosing around. I’ve posted Rance and some of the men outside, as well.”

“Yes, sir.” He grinned, and, with one final look of triumph in Kitty’s direction, stepped outside and closed the door.

“You might be interested in knowing that I am not implicated in any way in the attack upon Mattie Glass,” Corey said evenly, still popping the leather strap in a steady rhythm against his open palm. “It seems that Coot and some of my men got drunk and decided to rape the widow, and they have all confessed and will take their punishment. I could not afford to lose one of my most prized men, one who was actually involved, so another took his place and gave a false confession. But, there was no hesitancy. They had been instructed for quite some time as to what they were to do if the truth came out. They were willing to do as I said, for they knew my wrath would be much greater than the law’s. They all denied that I had any prior knowledge of their actions.”

“Oh, you are clever, aren’t you?” Kitty snarled. “You can buy men’s souls with your damned money, can’t you? You can frighten them into doing anything! Yet you can’t intimidate me—a helpless woman—and that just tears you apart. Doesn’t it, Corey?”

His eyebrows shot up, and for a moment he could only stand there and look at her in wonder. Then the anger returned. “Kitty, you have tried my patience for the last time. Everyone will gossip for weeks about what happened tonight. I know some of our guests are bound to have heard you groveling at Coltrane’s feet. Have you no pride? Can’t you see that he wants no part of you? You are mine now, and it makes no difference that he has returned because it’s obvious that Coltrane doesn’t want you.”

“He will when he learns the truth. I’ll see to it that he hears my side.”

He laughed, black eyes glittering. “And when do you propose to talk to him, my dear? You are going to be a prisoner here for quite some time. I will see to it that you talk to no one. Your precious baby will not be brought back for a long, long time. Maybe never. I am going to break that spirit of yours, once and for all. After I am through with you tonight, you won’t dare speak the name of Travis Coltrane in my presence ever again.”

He came toward her menacingly, but she did not move. She was terrified but determined not to show it. Holding the strap in one hand, his other snaked out to lock his fingers in the bodice of her dress, ripping it to the waist in one quick movement. Her breasts were bared before him.

A glassy look came over his eyes as he continued to tear at the delicate green silk until she was naked.

“Lie down on the bed,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t want to mar that beautiful face, no matter how angry you have made me.”

She did not move. She prayed that all the hatred she felt for him was mirrored in her eyes.

He twisted her around, flung her across the bed, and she felt the first stinging slap of the leather across her tender buttocks. Sucking a mouthful of the satin coverlet between her teeth, Kitty bit down, determined that she would not scream, would not let him have the pleasure of hearing her cry out.

The blows became harder, faster. She felt her own blood running, the flesh split and torn across her back and thighs. Her tongue got in the way of the fabric in her mouth, and her teeth clamped down and she tasted blood. But she would not cry out.

“Scream, goddamn you,” he commanded, his breath coming in short, quick gasps. There was no other sound except for the constant
slap-slap-slap
of the leather strap above his own grunts of pleasure. Through the sea of pain that engulfed her, she knew he was enjoying inflicting the agony upon her, but she did not realize to what depths his ecstasy went until he fell across her bloodied back, parting her buttocks with rough, eager hands. Thrusting his swollen member into her, he screamed with joy.

His sound mingled with the only cry she gave—for the pain of him tearing inside her was more agonizing than the slicing blows of the strap.

“Mine,” he grunted, pushing into her. “Mine…mine…mine…”

Mercifully, it was over. He stood up, towering above her, commanding her to turn and look at him. He walked around the bed, knelt in front of her so that her dazed eyes were upon his face.

“Your spirit is broken, Kitty. I have conquered your soul.” And with a smile of complete satisfaction and triumph, he went to his own room.

Kitty lay motionless, body throbbing inside and out.

“No,” she whispered. “No, you haven’t.”

Then she gave way to the force that lifted her to oblivion.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Kitty would not move from her bed. For several days her body was only pain, pain from head to toe, back and buttocks raw from the welts left by the leather strap. It was only with great effort that she was able to move from where she lay on her belly to the chamber pot.

The morning after, she was grateful to see a familiar face. Addie, one of the Negroes who had left her to work for Corey, took one look at her and could not suppress the cry of outrage. “Oh, dear God. That man, he did this to you? Oh, Miss Kitty, Miss Kitty,” she moaned. “I knowed he was the devil hisself, but I thought he loved you.”

Kitty did not speak. It did not matter about the pain. It would go away. The bruises would fade, on the surface, at least. The wounds would heal in the same manner. She could only lie there and think about Travis, the way he had scorned her. Kitty knew her heart was broken forever.

Addie brought salve to rub into the wounds. “Hugo say Mistah McRae won’t call the doctor ’cause he don’t want nobody to know what he had to do to his wife to make her behave. Hugo say Mistah McRae is just furious over the way that party turned out. He had to ride into town first thing this morning to try and straighten out that mess about what some of his men did to the widow Glass. She come by to see you, by the way, but Hugo wouldn’t let her in. He say you ain’t allowed to have no visitors. You can’t even leave yo’ room. He got a man right outside the door what’s goin’ to see you don’t leave.”

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.”