Love and War: The Coltrane Saga, Book 1 (72 page)

“All the way to Richmond where she’ll be safe.”

John looked past Nathan to Kitty. “You want to go with him, Kitty? Is this what you want?”

“Poppa, I don’t know,” she sobbed. Damn, what could she say? If she told him she didn’t want to go, he would try to rescue her and there might be a fight. Perhaps it was best to continue, escape later, avoid anyone getting killed. She took a deep breath. “Yes, I…think it is. Poppa, the war will be over soon. We’ll meet again. I know we will. I love you, Poppa.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.

He scratched at his beard thoughtfully. Killer nuzzled his legs, anxious to be on his way. Kitty stared at the faithful old dog who had been through the whole war with his master. “I reckon,” he said finally, “you have to make your own way, girl, like I always taught you. I ain’t going to try to think for you. Never have. Never will. One day, maybe we’ll meet again. If not in this world, then in the better world.”

He put his rifle up against his shoulders, which were slumped in defeat, turned and began walking into the thick swamps, the gray mist rising up around him to waist-level. Killer trotted along obediently beside him. Kitty stared with a lump in her throat and a pounding in her ears. Everything within her screamed, “Go with him.” She did not want to go to Richmond with Nathan. She wanted to stay here with her poppa—and, yes, search for Travis, too. She had been in love with a dream, because she had been ashamed to admit that what she felt for Travis could be real love. She had disguised her emotions and now she was destroying herself.

But she could not cry out. She had to let him walk away, about to disappear into the gray mist…

Her gaze had been locked on her father. She had not seen Nathan move. The shot rang out, and she stared in horror, first at her father toppling forward in the denseness of the undergrowth, and then at Nathan who smiled triumphantly, the smoking rifle in his hands.

And then Killer gave a snarl as he turned and raced for Nathan, about to leap straight for his throat, and the rifle lowered again. Kitty screamed as the dog exploded into blood and flesh before her horrified eyes.

She was down off the horse, racing through the swamp, with Nathan right behind her, yelling at her to come back. She fell to her knees, gathered her father’s head in her arms and held him close, screaming, “Poppa, Poppa, don’t die…please, don’t die…I need you, Poppa!”

“Katherine, come with me. He had to die…” Nathan was holding out his hand to her.

“You son of a bitch,” she spat at him. “Goddamn you for the cowardly bastard you are, Nathan. Goddamn you, I hate you! I’ll kill you!”

And then there was a crashing sound and they both looked about to see Travis Coltrane stepping out of the mist; before Nathan could aim his gun, Travis had kicked it out of his hands and was hurtling him to the ground, pounding into him with his fists, smashing flesh against flesh. And Nathan was no match for a man with the strength or size of Travis. He screamed for mercy.

Travis stood up, mashed his booted foot against his throat, holding him helplessly there in the muck and mire of the swampland. “You son of a bitch, I’ll give you the same kind of mercy you gave John Wright when you shot him in the back…the same kind you and your bastard Vigilantes gave him when you beat him till you blinded him in one eye.”

Kitty cried in horror. “Oh, God, no, Nathan. That was
you?
Why didn’t I realize?”

In her arms, John Wright moaned, opened his one eye, which was rapidly glazing over. “Kitty, I love you, girl,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Poppa, don’t die,” she begged, her body convulsing with great, gulping sobs. “Please, Poppa, I need you so…”

His smile was twisted, red rivulets of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth. “Man has to die…has to be born…can’t control nothin’ ‘cept what’s in-between…”

“Poppa!”

“Travis…” John’s eye rolled about as he tried to focus on his friend.

“I’m right here, John,” Travis said, voice husky, his foot still planted firmly on Nathan’s neck.

“Look after my girl.”

“You know you can count on me…” His voice cracked. He looked away.

The world around Kitty was flashing with reds, blues, yellows, with a shadow of black lurking in the background ready to take her under and out of the horror of the present. But she fought to hang on to the present, to her sanity. Her poppa was dying. Every second was precious. Oh, God, she prayed, let him live.

“Pull with him, girl.” His voice rasped out the words. “Two mules can’t go nowhere pulling opposite one another.”

“Poppa, don’t talk anymore, please…”

He coughed, a great ball of blood gushing forth. “Love you…” he said in one final gurgle, and then his head slumped sideways, the eye glassed over.

Kitty held him and wept, rocking back and forth.

Travis stared down at the writhing man. Cold, raging fury he never knew he possessed took over. Dimly, he was aware of Sam Bucher catching up with them, heard his exclamation of grief over finding their comrade dead in Kitty’s arms. Sam was taking John up in his arms, Kitty stumbling along beside him, sobbing brokenly.

And then everything within him exploded, all the fury and frustrations of the war climaxed by a gun exploding into the back of a man he’d grown to love as a father. It was too much, goddamn it, too much for a man to take. And it was this coward, this squirming, screaming coward—he had killed that man, broken that girl’s heart. He deserved to be crushed like the creeping, squirming bug that he was!

“Travis, damnit!” Sam pushed him away, but it was too late.

Travis’s body heaved in exhaustion as he stared down at the lifeless body of Nathan Collins, his throat mashed into the ground, blood and flesh hanging from his gaping mouth, eyes bulging out upon his cheeks.

“Travis! Get hold of yourself!” Sam slung his arms around his comrade’s shoulder, led him back to where Kitty waited, sobbing in her grief. “She needs you, Travis. You’re all she’s got.”

Sam quickly put John’s body across the back of one of the horses, then mounted the other after lifting what was left of the old hound dog in his arms. Turning into the swamps, he called out to Travis, “You know where to meet me, Coltrane? You know where I’ll be?”

Travis did not answer and Sam kept on riding. Travis was staring at Kitty, holding his arms out to her. The war was another world. This was here and this was now, and as she stepped into the circle of his arms and he closed them tightly about her trembling body, that other world and all its grief and heartache and sorrow and sadness disappeared into the gray mist of the shadows.

And out of the shadows a great light swelled and shone and lit the air all about them as a new world was born—the realization of what had always existed between two hearts that would survive the crumbling ashes of a proud Southland.

Together, they walked away—from the past, into the future.

About the Author

Patricia Hagan might be the
New York Times
bestselling author of 38 novels and 2500 short stories, but she can also lay claim to being among the vanguard of women writers covering NASCAR stock-car racing. The first woman granted garage passes to major speedways, she has awards in TV commentary, newspaper and magazine articles, and for several years wrote and produced a twice-weekly racing program heard on 42 radio stations in the south.

Patricia’s books have been translated into many languages, and she has made promotional trips to Europe, including England, France, Italy, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Spain and Ireland.

Hagan’s exciting eight-book Coltrane saga, which spans from the Civil War to the Russian Revolution, has appeared on every major bestseller list and is one of the most popular series published in France, never having been out-of-print in that country in nearly 30 years.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Patricia grew up all across the United States due to her father’s position as a federal attorney, finally settling in Alabama where she graduated from the University of Alabama with a major in English. She now resides with her husband in south Florida where she volunteers as a Court-appointed Guardian Ad Litem for abused children.

But of all her accolades and accomplishments, Patricia most of all loves to boast of being the proud mom of a Navy SEAL.

Look for these titles by Patricia Hagan

Coming Soon:

The Raging Hearts

Love and Glory

Love and Fury

Love and Splendor

Love and Dreams

Love and War

Patricia Hagan

A tale of sizzling passion in a world consumed by the Civil War.

Beautiful and spirited Southerner Kitty Wright is torn between Rebel Nathan Collins and Yankee Travis Coltrane, the dashing Cavalry officer who can melt her heart with desire while sending fury coursing through her veins.

As war erupts, Kitty is abducted and ravished by a war-crazed Rebel. Rescued by Yankees, she is held captive and thrust into the battlefields to help tend the wounded. But from the first moment Travis Coltrane ignites—and satiates—the wild, raw desire in her that she never knew existed, she realizes her heart is imprisoned as well as her body.

Hating Travis for his Yankee loyalty, while loving him despite their different worlds, Kitty struggles with her guilt over Nathan, the Rebel to whom she is promised…all while struggling to survive as the world explodes around them all.

Warning: This sweeping Civil War saga features accurate and graphic descriptions of battlefield wounds, nursing, and the brutality of war.

eBooks are
not
transferable.

They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

Cincinnati OH 45249

Love and War

Copyright © 2011 by Patricia Hagan

ISBN: 978-1-60928-908-9

Edited by Heather Osborn

Cover by Valerie Tibbs

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Original Copyright: 1978

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: December 2011

www.samhainpublishing.com