Hugo obeyed, and when he opened it, two men stepped inside. The guests were once more gathering around, and Kitty stood on tiptoe, trying to see what was going on. She caught a glimpse of two men, both bearded, and she could see shining gold stars on their suede vests.
And then she felt herself swaying. No. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t.
“We’re federal marshals, and we’re here to see Corey McRae,” the familiar voice rang out loud and crisp, clearly audible over the curious murmurs of the crowd.
Kitty fought the buzzing in her ears. A dark shroud was trying to close down around her, and she fought against it. It was only a dream…like all the others. She would awake in the night to sob hysterically because it was not real. Travis had not come back. She only thought she heard his voice. Her mind was playing tricks on her because she wanted him so desperately. She only thought she saw the steel gray eyes. None of it was really happening.
“I am Corey McRae.”
She was dimly aware of Corey moving toward the door.
“If you have business with me, go around back, to the kitchen. We will discuss it there. As you can see, I have guests.”
More words were exchanged. Kitty could not make them out. Suddenly she knew what she must do. She had to make sure. With a pounding heart, she shoved someone aside and fought her way from the foyer and into the hallway that led to the rear of the house and the outside door that would take her down the porch steps and around to the building that housed the kitchen.
She was almost to the door when someone stepped out of the shadows…someone who had seen her making her way and knew the house well enough to know she could cut her off by going through the library.
Nancy stood there, her face glowing triumphantly in the soft glow of the candles.
She wore a stunning gown of peach-colored satin, and she looked quite poised as she laughed and said, “Yes, Kitty, it’s who you think it is. I have known for over a week now, and so has Corey. Travis Coltrane is one of our new federal marshals.”
“Travis.” Kitty could only whisper his name as her heart leaped. It was real. He had returned. “Travis…I have to see him.”
She tried to push by her, but Nancy shoved her roughly against the wall and cried, “I told you my husband would not take the blame for what happened to Mattie Glass. I happen to know that she gave Travis the evidence he needed to find out who was really responsible. Now he’s here to implicate Corey. Everyone is going to know, at long last, just what a scoundrel he really is.”
“I don’t care,” Kitty laughed, close to hysteria, still struggling to get around her. “Don’t you see, Nancy? I don’t care about Corey. I never did. I must go to Travis.”
“Oh, I don’t think your Yankee lover is going to be very happy to see you.” Her eyes glittered maliciously in the candlelight.
“Of course he’ll be glad. We have a son…we’ll be together at last, the three of us.” Tears were stinging her eyes.
“You and Travis have a son? That’s interesting. No one has told him that.”
“I will tell him.”
“I have already talked to him at length about you, Kitty.”
Kitty stopped struggling and met her foe’s triumphant gaze. “What do you mean?”
“He really wasn’t interested in hearing, but once I started telling him that you were married to the very man he was after, he became quite an avid listener. Now he understands why you never answered his letters. He knows all about how you schemed and connived and plotted to marry the richest and most powerful man in Wayne County, how you got yourself pregnant so Corey would do the honorable thing and give his son a name.”
“His son? Are you crazy? Everyone knows that Travis is John’s father.”
“Do they?” Kitty had stopped struggling so Nancy released her hold and began patting the curls that layered her head. “Who do you think people in Wayne County listen to and believe? You or me? I’ve told them all that Corey is your baby’s father, and that was how you maneuvered him into marrying you instead of me. They know you for the sneaky little trollop you are, just as Travis does.”
“Travis will never believe that.”
“Go to him, Kitty, and find out for yourself. I think…” she paused to smile and take a deep breath, her bosom swelling with victory, “…that I have revenged Nathan’s death once and for all. I think he sleeps peacefully in his grave at last.”
Kitty pushed her aside and ran from the house, the girl’s laughter echoing behind her. Bounding down the steps, she reached the path just as Travis came around from the front. He was only a shadowy blur in the faint moonlight that filtered through silver clouds, but there was no mistaking the dear face. Sam Bucher walked beside him, she noted joyfully, giving thanks that he, too, was alive and well.
Travis saw her and stopped short.
Overcome with emotion, she tried to speak, but the words could not get past the lump in her throat. Finally she was able to choke out his name, then whisper, “Travis, darling, it is you. Oh, thank God, thank God.”
She flung herself at him.
Rough hands clasped her shoulders and threw her to the ground. “Get away from me. Don’t you ever come near me.”
“Travis! You’ll hurt her.” Sam’s voice came through the fog that was settling over her.
“I don’t give a damn.”
He started to move on by, but she reached out and clutched at his booted foot. “Travis, you must listen to me,” she begged. “Please, please hear me out. I love you. I never stopped loving you.”
He tried to yank his foot free of her grasp, but she held tightly. He kept moving, and she was being dragged along behind him in the dirt. Sam was bending over, trying to unwrap her fingers while Travis swore and shoved at her head with rough hands.
“Kitty, let go. Let him go,” Sam was saying gently. “This isn’t the time—”
With an anguished moan, she released Travis’s foot and flung herself on the ground, sobbing wildly, then she lifted her head and screamed after him, “If you don’t love me, so be it. But at least acknowledge your son.”
“That does it!”
Travis turned and stalked back to where she lay. Sam was right beside him, trying to grab him, but he brushed him away. “Travis, don’t do anything you’ll regret. You’re mad right now—”
“Goddamn right, I’m mad. I come back here and find out what the bitch has been up to, and then she has the nerve to try and pin her bastard on me.”
With one powerful scoop, he lifted Kitty to her feet. In the moonlight, she saw the smoky eyes spitting fire. “Just what kind of trick are you trying to play now? Don’t you ever call that bastard’s kid mine, you hear me? I know the truth, Kitty. I know all about you and what you did to hang on to your precious goddamn land. I hope you choke on it. I sent you messages, but now I know why you never answered them. You were after someone with the money to help you keep your land. Well, you’ve got him, and your land, so stay the hell away from me or so help me I’ll kill you.”
“Take your hands off my wife or I’ll shoot you where you stand.”
Corey stood there, gun drawn. Sam, standing back, saw and moved with lightning quickness to knock the weapon from his outstretched hand. “We’ll have none of that,” he said gruffly. “I think you’re in enough trouble already, McRae, without shooting a federal marshal.”
“Then tell him to take his hands off my wife,” Corey sputtered. “And what do you mean, I am in trouble? I have done nothing.”
“We’ll see about that. Travis! Let her go. This is not the time for you two to settle things.”
“Settle what things? That woman is my wife. Tonight is our wedding celebration. How dare you touch her?”
“I don’t want her!” Travis flung her away. She would have fallen if Corey had not caught her and held her upright. “Not now. Not ever. She worked hard enough to land you, mister, so I reckon you deserve each other. Now can we get on with the business at hand? I don’t want to hang around
here any longer than necessary. I have a job to do.”
“Yes, of course.” Corey’s voice was evidence that he once again had control of himself. “Kitty, go into the house. Go to your room.”
“I won’t,” she screamed, not about to give up. The man she loved with all her heart and soul stood there staring at her in the moonlight, hatred pouring from every fiber of his being. He had to know, dear God, he had to know that everything he had heard about her had been lies. She married Corey out of desperation to save their child. And she had never received any messages from him.
“Travis, Travis,” she begged in anguish, unable to keep the tears from streaming down her cheeks. “Please listen.”
Travis pointed his finger at her, his whole body shuddering. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, Kitty. Don’t you have any self-respect left? That man standing there is your husband. Don’t humiliate him by making him look like a fool.”
“Travis, you have to hear me out. I love you! And you loved me when you left here. That’s why I fought so hard to survive, because of your love, because of the baby you left inside me.”
Travis shook his head.
“You can’t say you never loved me!”
“What we had was no different from what bulls and cows do,” he said viciously. “Love you? Hell, no, I could never love something like you.”
“See here, this is my wife,” Corey interrupted.
Travis sighed, passing his hand over his face. “I know. I know she’s your wife. I’m sorry. Take her away. I didn’t come here for this. Let’s take care of the business we have with each other and get it over with.”
Hugo had been standing behind Corey, and now at the snap of his master’s fingers he stepped forward. “Take her to her room,” Corey shouted. “Pick her up and take her to her room. Lock the door. Stand guard outside. Keep her there. She has had too much to drink. I can’t let our guests see her like this. The party is over. Tell everyone to go home.”
Hugo lifted Kitty as she kicked and screamed and beat at him. Corey and Travis both glared at her. Only Sam Bucher showed pity.
And then she saw Mattie coming out of the kitchen, and she called out to her, “Please help me. Please make them see that I’m telling the truth, Mattie.”
“Kitty, I was trying to tell you Travis was one of the marshals.” Mattie ran forward, but Corey grabbed her and held her back. “I wanted to let you know, to prepare you, but there wasn’t time.”
“Tell him,” Kitty screamed from the very depths of her soul. “For the love of God, tell him the truth.”
Travis reached out and took Mattie by the arm and started walking in the direction of the kitchen. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’ve got to get to the business at hand. That woman is drunk.”
“Travis… Travis…” Kitty kept screaming his name over and over as Hugo struggled to get her inside the house. The door banged shut, and she slumped against the big Negro’s chest in defeat, sobbing quietly.
He took her to her room and dumped her roughly on her bed. “You are going to be in for it with the master.” He towered over her, laughing. “When he gets through with those marshals, he’s going to come in here and beat you half to death.”
“I don’t care.” She burrowed her face in the satin pillows. “I just don’t care.”
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 st
rap 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.”
The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 Page 32