Love and Dreams: The Coltrane Saga, Book 6 (7 page)

“That happens to be the way it is when families love each other, Jade,” Travis said a bit gruffly.

“But needlessly? When you can’t do anything about it?” He stared at her thoughtfully for a moment; then, with his usual astuteness that never failed to astound those around him, he quietly pronounced, without accusation or condemnation, “You’re afraid Colt is going to want to postpone leaving for America.”

“That’s true,” Jade replied softly. “Quite frankly, I don’t know how I’m going to react if he suggests it.”

“You’re going to be honest with him.”

She gave him a wry smile. “I am? And what, sir, is my honest feeling on the matter?”

“Don’t play games with me, Jade,” Travis said almost sharply. “One of the reasons I respect you is your honesty. You want to leave as planned, and deep down, you don’t really think that’s being selfish. You and Colt are married now, and you feel your marriage should come before family. I agree.”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“If I thought you were wrong, I’d say so,” he went on. “If the family really needed Colt, and he could help out in some way, and you still resisted postponing things, then I’d say you were a selfish little brat. But we both know there’s nothing he can do. If and when the time comes, be the strong woman I know you are, and be true to yourself.”

He reached for her hand and held it to his lips. Then he sat back, steepled his fingers, and stared beneath the cathedral he’d built at Kitty and Colt walking and talking in the distance. “I’m like any man reaching the sunset of his life, Jade,” he quietly said. “It’s hard to look over my shoulder and remember many rainbows. They seem to be obscured by the storm clouds of sad memories. But I am going to die one day, and I don’t want to have my son hovering around till my life ends to begin his. It might make me die quicker to get out of his way.”

Jade thought how much she loved this man, as if he were the father she’d never really known. True, their relationship had been growing for only a short time, but Travis was the kind who either became a friend to someone or disregarded him, and when the decision was one of friendship, nothing was held back.

She stood up, then leaned forward to place a gentle hand on each side of his handsome face. In a tremulous whisper, she declared, “I love you, Travis Coltrane.”

For one fleeting second, like the whisper of a butterfly’s wing, his gray eyes veiled with emotion. Then the melancholy time passed. With a smile from his heart, he said, “Hearing that, princess, makes me see the rainbows.”

Colt spent the remainder of the afternoon with his father, and Jade enjoyed a quiet time with Kitty. After dinner, when she and Colt retired to the privacy of their suite, he became moody once more. For a while she allowed him to be alone with his thoughts; then she decided it was time for everything to be brought into the open.

She went to where he sat on the divan before a cold and empty fireplace. “Talk to me, Colt. Tell me how you think it best if we don’t leave just yet.”

He turned to stare at her incredulously.

She did not give him time to speak, but went on firmly. “I think it would be wrong. I want to go ahead with our plans, and your family doesn’t really need you. You think they do, but they don’t. They’ve got their own lives and their own future, good or bad, just as we do. I need you. Please, don’t think me selfish, Colt,” she implored him with beseeching eyes.

Colt stared at her for long moments, and she tried in vain to guess his thoughts. She could not see anger or disappointment, only love.

Finally, when she thought she could stand the torment no longer, he drew her into his arms. “I love you,” he said tersely, his lips melting against hers in a long, soul- scorching kiss that left both of them shaken. Then he gazed at her with so much adoration that she felt a shuddering deep within.

“I love you,” he repeated, then added with a soft laugh and a gleam-in his eye, “but you aren’t as sharp as you think you are—Pa and I had a long talk this afternoon.”

It was Jade’s turn to be astonished. “I don’t understand.”

He kissed the tip of her nose, then informed her matter-of-factly, “I never thought about postponing our leaving.”

“But you’ve been so preoccupied and worried,” she argued.

Again he laughed. “But I wasn’t thinking about postponing the trip. I was wondering why I didn’t feel guilty when I thought I should. Then I realized my family doesn’t expect me to set aside my future for their problems, not when there’s nothing I can do other than give them moral support.”

Jade was at last able to smile with relief. Colt stood up, took her hand, and led her into the bedroom, where he began to undress her with nimble, eager fingers. All the while, as Jade also unfastened his shirt, helped him to disrobe, their gaze was locked together in a silent message of desire.

When they were naked, Colt began to trail warm lips down her neck, shoulders, then kissed her breasts, each nipple in turn, finally trailing a path of fire down her belly with his tongue. He dropped to his knees, hands cupping her buttocks as he burrowed his face hungrily against the furry blossom of her womanhood. Her fingers laced about the back of his head, and she arched her neck and moaned out loud.

And when at last he laid her on the bed and entered her and once more they became one, Jade knew there had never been a greater passion, a greater love.

Chapter Six

Jade and Colt arrived by train at the tip of Normandy’s Cotentin peninsula, one day before their ship was scheduled to sail from the cross-channel port of Cherbourg.

Kitty and Travis had seen them off in Paris, and the goodbyes had been emotional, for not one of them could say whether they would ever meet again.

Jade found the harbor at Cherbourg delightful, with its preponderance of steamers and ships of all description. There were tugs and small boats, and yachts and pleasure boats riding at anchor. Seagulls darted and sang in their endless search for food, and a sharp yet sweet wind howled from across the channel.

The port city, however, was dirty and depressing, its dark and dingy streets crowded by poorer than poor. Men, haggard and drunk, stumbled in alleyways or slept in doorways. Women, babies suckling at their breasts, sat on slimy street corners with a hand outstretched, begging passersby for money. Dirty, sick children roamed about, also begging. There were taverns and greasy cafes, and the whole area seemed to be bordered and walled by signs advertising the shipping lines—Cunard, Brunel, White Star, Great Eastern.

Colt took Jade to the nicest hotel he could find, where they remained safely ensconced till sailing time.

Their ship was the
Le Paris
, not as grand as some of Cunard’s fleets or the vessels of the White Star Line, for it was owned by a smaller company being slowly squeezed out by the magnates. Still, it was comfortable, as Jade discovered once they were on board, and she and Colt took a grand tour.

They knew that the dangers of an Atlantic crossing had receded as better technology was developed. More liners offered all the comforts of a first-class hotel. Oil lamps had been abolished at last, and the brilliance of electric lighting shone out, the power coming from generators. There was even an ice room with a capacity for forty tons of frozen water that would take at least two weeks to melt, making it possible to preserve all kinds of previously unavailable delicacies for a crossing that would last nearly three weeks.

Jade and Colt passed through the attractive and comfortable public rooms, with sofas and chairs in brocade and plush upholstery. Vases of fresh flowers had been placed on the marble-topped tables that seemed to occupy every space where there was not a chair or sofa. Ornate mirrors, stunning tapestries, and quality paintings adorned the walls.

They nodded in greeting to other couples walking the rooms and decks, inspecting their home for the next few weeks. There were men in top hats and tails, and ladies in ostrich-feathered hats and velvet dresses, tailored or rib-boned bustles, flouncing side to side as they walked regally.

Colt remarked, “Seeing all this, it’s hard to imagine that just a few decks below there are people crowded in like rats, sleeping on raw hardwood floors, eating leftovers from the first-class dining room, drinking water out of buckets…men, women, children, all packed together with no privacy.”

Jade empathized and asked, “Does it make you feel guilty that we have so much, that we travel in style, while they travel in squalor?”

Colt thought a moment, then said, “On one hand, yes, because I don’t like to think of any human suffering, but on the other hand, I have to remind myself that no one makes enough money to make everybody rich. There are always going to be classes of people, and fortunately, we’re a member of the richer class. When we get to America, where there’s a financial crisis going on, I think we’re going to be reminded of that fact a lot.”

Jade agreed. “I’m grateful for what we have. Sadly, it’s true we can’t make it possible for everyone to have what we have, but at least we aren’t snobs.

“I suppose,” she went on to confide, “that’s why being titled a princess didn’t really impress me. The Czar was being kind, but quite frankly, I’ve never cared for the status of royalty versus commoner.”

Colt laughed softly, gazed down at her adoringly. “Well, my dear Mrs. Coltrane, I’m afraid that’s the position you’re going to find yourself in when we reach New York—royalty among commoners.”

They found their quarters, on the prestigious promenade deck, to be comfortable in size. There was a parlor, bedroom, dressing room, private bath—and Jade thought the decor was beautiful.

The ship sailed at sunset, and Jade and Colt stood at the railing, arms about each other, watching in silence as the shoreline of France slipped farther and farther into the distance. Finally, they were wrapped by the sea, the sky fading to blend amidst the deep greenish blue of the ocean.

The journey to America had begun.

The sound of bells gently chimed, giving signal that dinner was being served in the first-class dining room. Both admitted being famished after having no more to eat all day than the dainty finger foods offered in abundance, along with endless-flowing champagne, by the ship’s uniformed stewards.

Returning to their suite, Colt grumbled as he changed for dinner. He did not mind the new false shirt cuffs, fitted into the sleeve of his coat like a wristband, nor did he mind the semi-cutaway coat, which ended at his waist in front but slanted to semi-tails in back. It was the shoes he despised, bending to use the little silver hook to fasten the buttons that went all the way up to the ankle. “I feel like an old lady.”

Jade could not help teasing, “But it’s the latest fashion, darling, and remember, you’re the one who said we’re royalty among commoners, and that means we have to dress the part.

“And just think,” she continued to goad him as he made a face at her, “tonight isn’t even formal, because it’s our first night out. Tomorrow night, you can really dress up.”

Colt snapped that he had a good notion to just eat in the cabin, much preferring casual clothes, but knew she was right. No more Western boots and denims, not that he’d dressed in Paris the way he’d dressed back in Nevada, but it seemed those days of leisure wear were in the past. They were moving into high-society New York, with all its glitter and glamour, and they had to dress the part, like it or not.

Jade preened in front of a mirror. She was wearing a gown of French satin in a luscious shade of gold that made her eyes look even greener against the sheen. The modestly plunging neckline accentuated her slender neck, and she wore her long red hair swept up, with waves on the side.

“Conformity was never my forte,” he stated grimly, then stepped up behind her to slip his arms about her tiny waist and huskily whisper in her ear, “But beauty, my lovely wife, is certainly yours.”

She whirled about in his arms, coquettishly murmuring, “Flattery, my handsome husband, will get you anywhere, as I’ll show you later tonight…in bed.”

“Hussy!” He patted her bottom, pointed to the door. “Out, or I’ll drag you to bed, and you’ll go to sleep hungry.”

She winked at him. “Only for food. You satisfy every other need.”

He made as if to grab her, and she squealed in mock terror and jerked open the door to rush into the narrow hallway, only to crash into a woman passing by, knocking her against the opposite wall.

“Watch where you’re going, you idiot!” the woman snapped furiously, struggling to regain her balance. “You could have knocked me down. As it is, you’ve mussed my dress,” she added waspishly, hands moving to smooth her gown.

Jade stepped back, at once apologetic and embarrassed. “I’m sorry, truly I am.”

“Oh, get out of my way!” The woman lifted her chin, gave an indignant sniff.

She was, Jade surmised, in her forties but looked much older due to her unpleasant air. She was dressed in an expensive gown of navy blue with a high lace collar, her waist nipped in tightly to give her that fashionable hourglass look. She wore a tiny beaded hat with pink feathers atop her severely bunned graying hair, and Jade had to swallow a giggle at such a ridiculous creation.

There was another woman with her, Jade now noticed, who seemed hardly more than a child to look at her. The outfit she wore, a pale pink taffeta dress with long puffy sleeves and a wide, ribboned cummerbund, made her appear quite young; that, plus the obvious fact that she seemed unusually shy. She had glanced only briefly at Jade, then turned away, staring down at her feet as if uncomfortable and embarrassed by the scene.