Love and Honor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 7 (24 page)

Despite her rage, Kit loved her father, so she bit back her anger and whispered tremulously, “I’m sorry.”

Shaking his head, Colt walked back into the parlor and poured himself a drink, downing it in one gulp. He was about to speak when the sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs caused them both to look up in alarm.

“Travis, you come back here! Don’t you dare run out when I’m trying to talk to you—” Jade’s hysterical cry echoed through the house.

Bewildered, Colt and Kit rushed into the foyer in time to see Travis reach the bottom of the stairs. He glanced in their direction, red-faced and furious, then turned and headed for the back of the house.

Colt yelled, “Travis, come back here!”

Jade appeared at the landing above, pale and shaken. “He just won’t listen,” she sobbed. “Talk to him, Colt. Tell him that if he sees that girl again, you’ll disown him!”

Travis spun around. “No, talk to her! Tell her she can’t run my life, can’t tell me who I can fall in love with and marry! For God’s sake, she won’t even give me a reason why she hates Valerie so much!”

Colt looked from his son to wife. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest. “Stop it, all of you!” he bellowed. “Have you gone crazy? My mother is dying, and this family has turned into a goddamn circus! I find out that my daughter kept stolen property, my wife has turned into a hysterical shrew, and my son is insolent and disobedient! I’m not going to have it, and—” The pain became worse, a knife of white-hot agony that made him grab at his chest and double over.

Jade screamed and started down the steps; Travis and Kit rushed to his side.

They helped get Colt into the parlor and lie down, and Kit ran to call Dr. Talton.

“I’m all right…” Colt tried to assure Jade as she hovered over him.

Kit and Travis stood to one side in the room until Dr. Talton arrived. After examining Colt, he said that he’d had an anxiety attack. “Let it be a lesson,” he warned, leaving a bottle of sedatives.

Jade stayed beside him, for the moment forgetting her argument with Travis. He slipped out of the house to escape, for the time being, further confrontation, and Kit went upstairs to be with Kitty.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Epiphany had given in to the pleas of her Negro housekeeper, Sara, to try some old family remedies with Kitty. Dr. Talton scoffed at what he called black magic, sarcastically calling her a witch doctor. She had Colt’s dubious approval, however, so she set out to concoct her favorite potions for colds and fevers.

Kit wondered whether it was just her imagination, but Kitty did seem slightly better after Sara’s ministrations. She was breathing more easily and her fever seemed to have gone down.

Carasia had been tirelessly applying cold packs to Kitty’s face, and Kit told her she would take over for a while. “Are you sure?” Carasia asked worriedly, scrutinizing her. “How long since you’ve slept? You look exhausted.”

Kit shrugged and said that it didn’t matter. The truth was, she felt driven to stay busy, afraid that if she did go to sleep, Kurt Tanner would find a way to steal into her dreams. She wanted only to try and forget that he ever existed, but, she acknowledged with a painful twinge in her heart, that was going to be very difficult.

Suddenly Kit felt a tiny sensation of pressure and realized with a start that Kitty was trying to squeeze her hand. Her eyes were open, and although they were glassy, there was a faint glint of lucidity within their soft lavender depths. Kitty tried to lift her head from the pillows, but the effort was too great. Her lips parted as she tried to speak. “Tell me,” Kit urged her anxiously, leaning closer. “What is it? Is there something you want? Can I do anything?”

Her feeble whisper was barely audible. “Go on to Spain. Don’t…don’t let your dream die with me.”

Kit nervously dabbed at her face with a wet cloth. “Stop that,” she scolded gently. “You’re going back with me. You’re not going to die.”

Kitty managed a wan smile. “Everybody dies, child. It’s living they…sometimes get cheated out of. Really living…like the love of a good man…being blessed with children…grandchildren…like you, my darling. I was one of the lucky ones. I had all that… Now I’m tired…so tired.”

“I’m going to go get Daddy.”

“No!” Kitty protested, her voice surprisingly strong. “Not now. My bag… Get it, please…”

Kit looked about the room uncertainly. “What bag are you talking about? Your purse?”

“There…” Kitty pointed weakly to the tapestry bag lying on the floor beneath the window. “There. In the lining. At the bottom. Look, please…”

Kit hurried to do her bidding. Pushing aside the lingerie packed within, she saw that the satin lining had been slit toward the back, then sewn shut with large stitches. She popped the thread, spread the cloth, then cried aloud. With trembling hands, she lifted out a large wad of bills. “What are you doing with so much money? I’ll give it to Daddy, and he can keep it for you until you’re better.” She laid it on the bed.

“No!” With great effort, she grasped Kit’s wrist with clawlike fingers, straining to pull her closer. “No one must know. They’ll stop you, Kit. They’ll never let you go back after I’m gone. Take it. It will tide you over till—” She coughed, unable to continue, then slumped back weakly against the pillows.

Kit shook her head, terror crawling up her spine. “No. I’m going to give it to Daddy to invest for you. You’re going to get well, and we’re going to our place together, and—”

“Take it. Do as I say. We both know I won’t be going with you.” She paused wearily. “I’m tired, child, tired of living without your grandfather. I’m ready to join him. I hate to leave you, but it’s the way it has to be. So go on, live your life to its fullest and savor every moment of every day, because one morning you’ll wake up old, and you’ll realize you’ve got more yesterdays than tomorrows.”

“No, you can’t die!” Kit cried, hot tears spilling down her cheeks.

Kitty seemed not to hear her. Her face suddenly seemed to glow with joy, and she held her arms open wide. “Oh, Travis, hold me…love me…like yesterday…yesterday…”

And with a smile of supreme happiness on her lips, Kitty Wright Coltrane died, joining at last the spirit of the only man she had ever loved.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The day after Kitty’s death, Jade came downstairs to begin receiving visitors Kit could see that she was under great strain. She looked deathly pale, and her lips trembled as she responded mechanically to expressions of condolence.

The hours passed, and soon night fell. Kit wanted to collapse, but she was not about to give in to exhaustion—or the tears that constantly threatened.

Just before dark, Jade wearily called Kit into the kitchen to share tea and sandwiches that neither of them could eat. Staring moodily out the window, Jade said, “I’m really getting upset about Travis running off. He should be here with the rest of the family.

“No doubt he’s with her!” Jade spat out, her green eyes filled with rage.

“Mother, just what do you have against Valerie?” Kit asked impulsively, watching her mother intently. “Why do you dislike her so? Frankly, I’ve never known you to be so…so venomous toward anyone. You don’t even know her!”

“Travis has four hard years of study ahead of him. He has no business getting involved with anyone. Besides, young lady, I don’t have to justify myself to you,” she said frostily.

Kit sighed. “Well, I’m afraid that you’ll have to give Travis a reason. He and Valerie had worked everything out. They’ll wait till he graduates from West Point to get married. He couldn’t see that you’d have any objection to that, and frankly, Mother, neither do I,” she added candidly.

Jade felt sick at heart. No one could ever know why she demanded such a sacrifice of her son. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Suddenly she said, “Marilee told me that Kurt Tanner was here yesterday, and you two quarreled. What happened?”

“It was nothing,” Kit said. “Besides, it doesn’t matter, because he won’t be coming back.”

“Not if he knows what’s good for him,” Colt said ominously, entering the kitchen. He went to the stove and poured himself a cup of coffee. His hair was disheveled and he looked awful.

Kit moved toward the door, but he told her to stay right where she was. “I want a few things settled right now, young lady.”

“Daddy, please…” she protested. “Can’t it wait?”

“Colt, what is going on?” Jade looked from him to Kit. “This isn’t the time for arguing.”

“Right!” he replied sarcastically. “Then why couldn’t you wait to speak to Travis about that Stevens girl? Now he’s run off God-knows-where, and the whole family is falling apart. As for Kit, it just so happens she lied about that horse. She won him in a race all right, but she was racing against a horse thief. The horse just happened to be stolen from Mr. Tanner, and although she knew that, she refused to turn him over.”

Jade stared at Kit in disbelief. “Tell me this isn’t true,” she begged her. “Tell me you wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Kit turned away, knowing there was no point in trying to explain.

“Let’s just get through this, and then we can talk,” Jade suggested wearily. “We’ll be canceling Kit’s debut, of course, because of our mourning period, but I’ve been thinking of other plans.”

“Well, let’s hear them now,” Colt said. “Maybe it’ll get my mind off everything else that’s been happening around here.”

“It’s still a few months until Travis enters the Point,” Jade began hesitantly, “so I think it would be best for us to get away for a while, recover from all of this.”

Kit grew tense with suspicion.

“Go on,” Colt said, looking interested.

“You’re going to take your mother back to France, aren’t you?”

“She wanted to be buried beside my father, and I promised her I’d see that she was.”

“Well, we can all go to Europe together. Travis, Kit, and I can see Marilee to Switzerland, and then go to Russia to spend a little time with my family. You can meet us, and we can return together later, just before Travis enters the Point.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Colt said. “There’s talk of political unrest all over Europe, and—”

“But not in Russia,” Jade pointed out. “This summer is the celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of Romanov rule, and there will be official festivities and ceremonies. It’s a wonderful time for the children to meet their Romanov kin, however distant the blood might be. One of my cousins wrote me about it just before we left Spain, but I gave it no thought. Now, with all that’s happened, I think we should go.”

Colt nodded thoughtfully. “All right. That’s what we’ll do. And it might be best to have Kit go to school with Marilee for a year or so, to learn a few social graces,” he added sarcastically. He ran his fingers through his hair. “God knows, I’d like to just get away and not worry about anything for a while. We’re in no hurry to settle in New York, anyway.”

Jade felt as if the sun had just come out. Maybe there was a chance that they would never return to New York—that they’d settle somewhere far away from Bryan Stevens. Only then would she know true peace. She was suddenly filled with such relief and happiness that she had to hide her emotions. It would be unseemly to appear so joyful at such an unhappy time.

Colt opened his arms, and she moved into his embrace, her head pressed against his chest. She would preserve her marriage and the future happiness of her family at all costs, she vowed.

They did not notice as Kit walked quietly out of the kitchen. Draping an old rain cape about her shoulders, she went outside. A half-moon cast a soft glow, and the bare tree limbs clattered together in the breeze like dry bones. A whippoorwill called mournfully, as though sympathizing with her misery.

She had to return to Spain as soon as possible. She would not go to Europe with her parents, and she certainly had no intention of going to school with Marilee! But if her father ever found out what she was planning, he would do everything in his power to stop her. That meant she had to run away, which would not be easy.

The first thing her parents would do when they discovered she was missing would be to check the passenger lists of every ocean liner. If she booked passage they’d discover her destination, and she did not want anyone coming after her. She would have to stow away. Later, when she was settled, she would write and explain her reasons for leaving, and ask for their forgiveness and understanding. If they refused, well, it was her life. She had the right to live it the way she chose, where she chose.

Kit sighed, shivering with despair and cold. She gathered the cape more tightly around her and put her hands into the pockets of her dress. The money! Slowly, hesitantly, she pulled it out. She had forgotten all about it, absently stuffing it in her pocket when Kitty had taken a turn for the worse. Now she counted it, unable to stifle a gasp as she realized just how much was there. Kitty knew that she would have to go on alone, without her, and had thus provided the necessary funds to help her. Dear God! She stuffed the money back in her pocket.

Even in death, Kitty made her feel that she was not truly alone in life. Maybe, Kit reflected, that’s what love was all about.

“Kit?”

She looked up to see Travis coming through the gate, and she ran to meet him. They embraced for a long moment, then he pulled back. His face looked haggard in the moonlight. “I’m sorry I ran off like I did, but I just had to be alone to try to accept that she’s really gone.”