Love and War: The Coltrane Saga, Book 1 (50 page)

“See my linen curtains?” Bonnie asked proudly, holding one out for him to view. “I made them from flax I broke myself, and I dyed them myself, too, from blue dye I boiled out of alder bark. I even made that quilt that’s covering you from cotton my daddy grew. And that blanket? My daddy’s got some sheep if you Yankees ain’t butchered them all by now, and me and my momma carded and spun that wool from those sheep and made that blanket. And those sheets you’re lying on? I made them, too. Even stuffed that mattress with feathers I pulled from many an angry goose!”

Travis suddenly wondered if he should be so thankful for his plight after all. “How come you’re telling me all this?” he asked curiously.

“Well, I’m a widow-woman now,” she said with the frank honesty of a child. “And I’ve got to get me a husband quick, Poppa says. Poppa says it ain’t proper for me to be keeping men here when I ain’t married to ‘em, even if I am doctoring. I figure maybe some lonesome Yankee will come through here and be right proud to marry up with a widow-woman who can fix up a cabin the way I have this one.”

“Maybe one will one day.” He closed his eyes and prayed for quick recovery.

He felt her sitting down beside him on the bed and his eyes flashed open. “I have to check that wound of yours,” she said, as she reached and pulled the bandage away from his side, making a face. “I’ve got to make some salve to go on that. And you’re going to need to rest so’s you won’t start bleeding again.”

She went and got a jar and spread some foul-smelling paste onto his wound. He winced beneath her painful touch. Then she got some clean linen and made a new bandage.

“Now then. I’m going to fix you something good to eat. How would you like some chicken stew? I’ve some in the pot cooking, but when those soldiers outside start smelling it, they’re going to be in here.”

He nodded. She was probably a good cook.

He was right. The stew was delicious, and it was the best meal he’d had in quite a while. She even brought him fresh milk that was cooling in a nearby mountain stream. He felt stronger already. Maybe it wouldn’t take so long to heal after all.

She sat on the side of the bed and stared at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked, a bit annoyed. She wasn’t really unattractive, but when she grinned it was more of a grimace.

“I know how to make a man happy,” she said meaningfully, running her fingertips down the side of his bearded face.

Then she laughed. “You know, you’re about the handsomest fellow that’s come through here. You got the prettiest eyes. Not really blue, not really gray. And you got a nice body, too.”

Travis squirmed uncomfortably. “Will you ask Sam Bucher to come in, please? I need to see him.” He knew he had to get her out of there.

“But I’ll be right outside if you need me,” she said, smiling.

When she’d gone, Travis looked up at the roof of the log cabin and cursed. He had to get out of here—and soon. What were the orders? Sam would have to find out from Colonel Grierson. He was anxious to get back into the fighting as soon as possible. And maybe he was even anxious to ask questions and find out what he could about Kitty. But that was ridiculous to even think about, he thought, admonishing himself. They would probably never meet again—and maybe it was just as well. He couldn’t be sure of what he would do if they
did
meet!

The door to the cabin was kicked open and Sam Bucher walked in, grinning broadly.

“If I were able, I’d wipe that grin off your ugly face,” Travis snapped.

“But you ain’t able,” Sam laughed, straddling a chair and leaning his chin on the back of it. “You been fixed up yet? I hear Bonnie knows how to nurse a man back to health.” He laughed again.

“Sam, you listen to me.” Travis tried to sit up but couldn’t. “You talk to Colonel Grierson and tell him to get me out of here. I’ll sleep on the damn ground, anything, but if I stay here and he doesn’t run that trollop out of town, the whole camp’s going to have the pox.”

Sam allowed as to how this was possible. “I’ll see what I can do. He’s probably had time to hear as much about her as the rest of us by now. We thought she was some kind of nurse, but when I started hearing from the others how she is, me and the rest of the boys laughed our heads off thinking about you here at her mercy.”

Travis reached out for the tin cup of water left on the stool by his bed and sent it sailing across the cabin toward Sam, but Sam ducked, still chuckling. “Now don’t be mad at me, old friend. It’s not my fault you’re here, and I’ll do what I can to get you out. Now, is that all you wanted with me? We’re fixing to get a hot keno game going. Some of the boys found some ‘red-eye’ and we’re going to have ourselves a time tonight.”

“You can find out what’s happening in the war. I’d like to know where we go from here.”

“Well, with Lee getting his tail beat at Gettysburg and Pemberton surrendering Vicksburg, I’d say things are looking up for us and down for the Rebs. Lee’s retreated to Virginia and our armies are both holding strong positions on the opposite banks of a river called the Rapidan, waiting for the other side to make the first move. From what I hear, it’s going to be one skirmish after another as we run into Reb patrols.”

“I just want to get out of here.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do…”

“I just want the damned war to end.”

“And then what will you do? Go look for Kitty?”

Travis glared at him. “You know, Sam, you’re my best friend, but you’ve got a way of griping my ass at times.”

“I’ve got a way of hitting at the truth, old boy, and you know it. You love that girl, and she loves you.”

“Yeah, well then why did she run away? For all she knows, she left me behind to die. She didn’t know who got shot—me or that other bastard.”

Travis pursed his lips and waited for an answer to that one. Sam was not long in firing one back at him. “I can’t blame her for escaping when she got the chance. After all, did you ever admit you loved her? Did you two ever do anything besides fence with each other about your real feelings? And don’t forget, she’s a Rebel at heart and she’s a stubborn gal, too. She’s also been through hell, and she was confused and didn’t know what she wanted. Don’t fault her too much. War does strange things to people.”

Travis scowled. “Just why do you keep insisting I’m in love with her?”

Sam got to his feet, pushed the chair aside, hooked his thumbs in his belt, and smiled. “Well, if you don’t love her, you sure do think about her a lot.”

“And just what in hell makes you think that? You so damned smart you see inside other people’s minds?”

“No.” He walked toward the door. “But I sure hear folks when they talk in their sleep, ‘specially when they’re calling names.”

And he walked out, closing the door behind him.

Chapter Thirty

Kitty was reluctant to take a furlough from her work at the hospital. There were so many hundreds of wounded soldiers who needed care, and doctors and nurses were in short number. Nathan kept urging her to go away for a while, so they could get to know each other all over again and regain some of the closeness they had lost. He also pointed out how weary she looked, how he feared for her health and well-being. When she repeatedly resisted, he went to one of the doctors in her unit and insisted that he grant Kitty the furlough that she did not want.

“I wish you hadn’t done that, Nathan,” she said when he came for her in the carriage. “I don’t like you meddling in my business this way.”

He shrugged. “Katherine, you always were a stubborn young woman. You just can’t see how you’re wearing yourself out. Have you looked in the mirror lately? You’re showing signs of age all because of the long hours you work in that hospital. And you know I don’t feel that a woman belongs in such a place.”

“You’re still bossy,” she pointed out. “You refuse to believe that a woman might have some other purpose in this life besides pleasing a man, having his babies, and sitting at home sewing and cooking.”

“You’re forgetting that I love you.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek as the carriage bounced along the rutted road.

“And if I’m selfish, then so be it. I want you all to myself—as my wife.”

She frowned. In the past weeks ever since their reunion, they had talked about marriage, but something deep within told her that the time was not right. Not now. Not in the middle of the war. Still, she reminded herself that Nathan was her true love and they were pledged to each other. Maybe he was right. Going home—as Nathan’s wife—to wait for his return seemed more and more appealing to her: had she not seen too much suffering and dying, and endured such nightmares herself?

He told her that he had been able to find a room for her at the hotel in Richmond where he was staying during his furlough. “Prices are so high and the hotels are so crowded, what with families flocking in either to seek shelter from the foraging Yankees or to visit kin at the Chimborazo. I hear coffee is selling for a dollar fifty a pound now and tea for fifteen dollars. Writing paper is even selling for fifteen cents a sheet. Some of the men are even writing home on shreds of wallpaper or wrapping paper—anything they can find. And tobacco! If you can find it, it’s too high for an ordinary soldier.”

“I wonder if things are any better at home.”

“I don’t know, Katherine.” He sounded worried. “I want us to go there as soon as possible and find out. We can read the papers, but we won’t know the whole story until we go there ourselves.”

Kitty had only one other muslin dress besides the one she wore and both were hopelessly bloodstained. Nathan insisted that he take her shopping right away. “There’s a ball in the hotel tonight and I intend to have the most beautiful girl in all of Richmond on my arm.”

“I can’t let you buy a dress for me, Nathan. It seems like old times, though, doesn’t it?” she remembered sadly. “The first time you ever came calling, you invited me to a party and I didn’t have a dress to wear.”

He patted her knee, smiling. “One day, my love, you shall be the best-dressed woman in all of Wayne County. Your clothes will come from the finest fashion houses in Europe, designed just for you. Every woman around will look up to you—your style, your position, your beauty. For now, I want to buy a dress for you to wear tonight, a special night for both of us. I plan to present you to all my friends in Richmond and announce that soon we’ll be married. Soon we can put the past behind us.”

She glanced at him curiously. There were times when Nathan would stare at her moodily, lapsing into a deep silence, and she would wonder if he was remembering Luke Tate and Travis Coltrane, perhaps conjuring up an image of her in their arms. Was this the reason he talked of marriage as though it was something that had to take place quickly? Did he, perhaps, think that once they were legally wed, her body would belong to him and him alone and he could forget about the other men in her life? If so, then it would be a mistake. Nathan was a proud man, and it would take much for him ever to forget. She doubted that he ever would.

He was different somehow. He stood in his uniform with military straightness, his pistol in its holster, his scabbard smartly slapping his polished high boots, the spurs gleaming brightly. Major Nathan Collins, C.S.A.—proud and, in a way, arrogant. She had seen the way he barked orders to soldiers when they were around and the way some of them snarled at him behind his back. He was obviously disliked by those under his command. And once she did ask him about it.

And he laughed.

“Everyone is out to get an officer, Katherine. Especially the Yankees. Just like we tell our soldiers: officers don’t live in heaven. Shoot them first. Aim to wound and not to kill because a wounded man is more of a problem to an army than a dead one—especially a wounded officer. No one is going to leave him behind.”

“But why do your men dislike you?” she persisted.

He frowned, obviously annoyed that she was pursuing the subject further. “Katherine, I have to command my men, not coddle them. They have to learn to do what I tell them to do,
when
I tell them to do it. If it means a whipping, putting them in stocks, tying them to a caisson—whatever—I will do it and they know it and they dislike me. But they respect me and that is more important.”

And she wondered.

When they arrived at the hotel, Kitty felt extremely tired. “Please, just send up the dress you’d like for me to wear. If I’m to attend a party tonight, then I must rest.” She could not remember when she had last slept, although she did recall that a young soldier, of perhaps only fifteen or sixteen, had been dying. In his delirium, he had thought Kitty was his mother and begged her not to leave him. And she hadn’t. He had lingered for two nights, and she had sat wearily by his bed, holding his hand, comforting him when he screamed out in agony. When Nathan had found her slumped over the dead boy’s bed, exhausted, he had gone to the officer in charge to demand that she be given a furlough.

“Very well,” Nathan agreed. “I’ll send up a bath and a servant to help you dress later.”

The moment she was alone, Kitty fell across the bed and was instantly asleep. Several hours later—though it seemed to her that she had slept only a few moments—she awoke to the sound of rapping at the door.

A black woman was outside the door; behind her were two more servants carrying a large tub. The procession began once again as buckets of hot water were brought in for her bath. Kitty insisted she could bathe herself, but the woman was firm. “Major Collins told me I got to bathe you myself, ‘cause you is too tired, and he wants you to feel good tonight. Ever’body talking about that party. He got you a fine dress, and I gonna fix you up pretty. You just leave it all to Maybelle.”

So for the first time in her life Kitty allowed herself to be bathed. She was washed and then powdered with something that had a delicate, subtle fragrance, like the magnolias back home when they bloomed in the summertime.

Maybelle brought in the clothes Nathan had purchased. There were silk drawers, a silk chemise, silk stockings, and shoes. The fit was perfect. Nathan knew her size just by looking at her—and holding her in his arms, she thought with a smile.