Love and Glory: The Coltrane Saga, Book 3 (20 page)

Orville Babcock sagged in his chair, feeling absolutely drained. Lord, he was glad that man was leaving. It had been a terrible, exhausting experience.

He stared at the closed door thoughtfully. Yes, he was glad to see him go. But there was one thing he would never forget. Travis Coltrane was a man.

He wished he were more like him, and, though he would never dare admit it aloud, Babcock was proud of what that man had had the courage to do.

Chapter Ten

Travis reacted to Sam’s story with incredulous shock and with fury.

Kitty had deliberately plotted to get him out of North Carolina because she thought he was miserable. Plotted! Sam had kept from Travis the news about his having been chosen to be a part of the committee. Sam had not wanted to be a party to his leaving, but Kitty had convinced him it was for the best.

“God damn!” Travis had exploded. “Can’t I make decisions for myself?”

“Travis, she did it because she loved you,” Sam had told him, hoping he would understand. “And I didn’t tell you about the committee invitation because I was afraid you would want to go, and she wouldn’t want you to, and it would cause a problem. But when she asked me to get you on it, I went ahead and told her about the original invitation.”

“Both of you were scheming behind my back! Did you ever stop to think that I am capable of making my own decisions?” He had stared at his lifelong friend with blazing eyes.

“Would you have left if she hadn’t driven you away?” Sam asked carefully, “or would you have chained yourself to that plow and gone on being miserable?”

Travis had thrown up his hands in disgust. “How the hell do I know? All I’m saying is that it should have been
my
damn decision, and I’m pretty well pissed off that you and Kitty treated me like a child!”

Sam apologized, repeating that he wished he had been able to keep his promise to Kitty to tell Travis the truth during the trip to Washington, D.C. Hearing that only made Travis feel worse. Had he known that Kitty had schemed for his benefit, would he have succumbed to Molina’s charms? Hell, all he wanted now was to get home as fast as possible. Lord, did he ever have a few things to say to that woman.

By the time the ship reached Norfolk, Virginia, Travis had forgiven Sam. After all, Travis reasoned, Kitty could be very beguiling when she wanted her way, and he was well aware that Sam loved her like a daughter and could be wrapped around her little finger.

Kitty, herself, was another matter. While he missed her fiercely and longed to wrap his arms around her, he was furious at being reacquainted with her conniving ways. Damn, he had had his fill of that during the war!

During the sea voyage, Travis spent much time considering his life in North Carolina. He had to admit that he did hate it, that it could not continue. He and Kitty would sit down and discuss it, and, together, they would plan a new life. Thinking about it filled him with new zest.

But underlying the longing for Kitty, the desire to have the trip behind him, there was also a strange urgency to get home as quickly as possible.

“I just feel it,” he confided to Sam their last night on board ship. “Like during the war, when I had this gut feeling that Rebs were all around us, about to attack. I just have this gnawing inside that says I need to get home fast.”

Sam patted him on the back, hiding his own feelings of concern. “We’ll be there soon enough, boy. Don’t worry. Kitty will be waiting for you with open arms, them purple eyes of hers just a’shinin’. And think how much little John will have grown. Yeah, I imagine you are anxious to get back there.”

“Five months and it seems more like five years,” Travis muttered, his stomach churning with that mysterious need to get back to his wife and son as quickly as possible. Something was wrong. By damn, he’d had too many feelings like this in the past for it to be anything else except a premonition that he was needed.

Upon reaching Norfolk, Sam urged Travis to go with him to the capital in Washington. “We need to make reports, and we can also check on new jobs. There’s bound to be openings for federal marshals somewhere, and you know you and Kitty will be wanting to leave North Carolina.”

Travis refused. “I can worry about a job later. Right now, I just want to get back to Kitty.”

Sam said he would catch up to him later. Travis went directly to the train station, bought a ticket, and spent several hours pacing up and down anxiously beside the tracks.

When he reached Goldsboro, Travis went directly to a livery stable to rent a horse. “And don’t give me an old nag, either,” he said impatiently to the old man who stared up at him curiously. “I’m in a hurry, and I want a horse that can run a full gallop for about ten miles.”

The man continued to look up at him, eyes slowly widening. He made no move.

Travis sighed impatiently, forcing his temper to remain under control. “Did you hear me? I want a horse. I’m in a hurry.”

The old man lifted a gnarled finger to point at him. He whispered, “You’re Coltrane, ain’t you?”

“Yes, yes, I’m Travis Coltrane,” he answered hurriedly. “Now will you get the damn horse or do I have to get him myself?”

“You just now comin’ home? Heard you was away.”

“Yes, I just got off the train.” Travis took a deep breath, looked down at the ground, then tossed his head to stare at the rafters, finally facing the old man again as he fought for control. “Get my horse, will you, please?” He spoke through gritted teeth.

He sighed with relief as the man turned and shuffled toward one of the stalls.

When he returned, leading a saddled gelding, Travis inspected the horse quickly and commented, “He looks strong. How much? I’ll have him back tomorrow evening.”

“Uh…two dollars,” he stammered nervously. “You goin’ home now? Out to your place?”

Travis handed him the money, eyeing him suspiciously. “Why are you acting so strangely?” he asked in his usual direct way. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…nothing at all.” The old man stuffed the money in the pocket of his bib overalls and backed away, doffing his straw hat slightly. Then he turned and fled to the shadows of the stable.

Travis stared after him, puzzled. Swinging up into the saddle, he guided the horse out into the street, nudging him to a trot until they reached the edge of town, then moving him to a full gallop.

Familiar sights were just barely visible in the moonlight. Stars shone overhead. It was a beautiful evening, and Travis welcomed the hours that lay before him. First he would have it all out with Kitty, her deceit and lies. Then, when John was asleep, they would make up in the way they always had. It was going to be one of the best nights of lovemaking they had ever shared.

Travis’ heart was pounding furiously as he and the horse approached the last bend in the road. Around that curve, the little cabin would be in sight, windows aglow with lights. Kitty would be inside, and John.

He reined the horse to such an abrupt halt that the animal reared up on his back legs, forelegs wildly pawing the air.

The cabin was dark. He could make out the lines in the moonlight. Not only was it dark, but also there was something deserted about it.

Moving forward, he rode the horse onward, turning onto the dirt path to gallop across the yard and around to the back door. Reining to a stop, he swung down, taking all four of the porch steps in one great leap and shoving the back door open as he called out Kitty’s name.

Only silence and a musty odor lay before him in the darkness. Stepping inside, he fumbled for a match and lit it. Glancing around in alarm, he saw layers of dust on the furniture. Where was Kitty?

The match burned his fingers and he swore and dropped it to the floor and stomped on it. Lighting another, he moved to the other room, the one they had used for sleeping and as a sitting room as well. The cobwebs and dirt and the stripped bed told him it had been quite a while since anyone had been there.

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. There were all kinds of explanations, he knew, but that feeling in his gut was eating at him again. He supposed there was nothing to do but return to town and look for her. Someone at the hospital could surely tell him where she was. He mounted the horse again and began to make his way back to the road, pausing to take in the air of neglect over the entire farm. Kitty had said some of the Negroes were going to work the land as sharecroppers, but in the silver glow of the moon, Travis could see that nothing was growing in the fields except weeds. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly he remembered that the Widow Mattie Glass was to keep John for her while she worked at the hospital. She lived only a few miles up the road. He turned the horse south and put him to a full gallop.

A lantern still burned in the window of Mattie’s small cottage. Travis called out to her as he rode into the yard, not having forgotten the unwritten code of country folk—don’t go around anyone’s house after dark without yelling out your presence, not unless you want to get your head blown off.

When Mattie did not appear right away, Travis slid from the horse and walked to the steps. “Mrs. Glass? It’s me, Travis Coltrane. I’d like to speak to you, please.”

The door squeaked open, and Mattie Glass peered out, holding her robe clutched at her throat with one hand. Her other hand held up a lantern. She squinted in the faint light, brows furrowed tightly as she strained to see. Suddenly she recognized him, and flung the door all the way open. She ran to him, sobbing wildly.

Travis was stunned but opened his arms to her, taking the lantern from her quickly as she flung herself against him.

“Mrs. Glass, what’s wrong?” he asked. “If I came at a bad time, I’m sorry. It’s just that I can’t find Kitty.”

She began to sob hysterically, and his puzzlement grew. Shaking her gently, he urged her to tell him what was wrong but she continued to cry.

Suddenly, a small figure appeared in the doorway. It was a little boy wearing pajamas, thumb stuck in his mouth as he stared at the two of them, eyes wide with fright. John!

Travis pushed Mattie gently away from him and set the lantern down on the ground. He ran up onto the porch and gathered his son in his arms, holding him close. Turning, he saw Mattie watching, misery etched in every line of her face. “For the love of God, woman,” he whispered, hurting and not knowing why, “what is wrong? Where is Kitty? Why is John here with you at this time of night?”

She lifted the bottom of her long robe and hurried by him to the inside of the cabin. Travis followed, holding John. “Now, I don’t want to frighten the boy,” he said sternly. “I can see he’s already upset, but damn it, I’ve got to know what’s going on. The house looks as though nobody has been in it in months, and you break down and cry at the sight of me. I want to know what the hell is going on, and I want to know where my wife is!”

His voice had risen angrily, and John whimpered and squirmed in his arms. Mattie held her finger in front of her lips in a plea to Travis to be quiet. Tears still streaming down her cheeks, she padded across the room to take John from him. “I’ll put him to bed. He was asleep but woke up when you yelled. Then we can talk.” Her voice cracked as she disappeared through a doorway to the side of the parlor.

Travis paced impatiently. Soon he heard the door close and she entered the little parlor again. She began to cry again, and suddenly Travis could stand no more. “Mattie Glass, will you stop that infernal blubbering and tell me what is going on around here before I lose my mind? Enough is enough!”

“I don’t know where Kitty is,” she said in a squeaky voice as she sank down on the faded black horsehair sofa.

Travis blinked. “What do you mean?”

Her tone rose, and her crying stopped as she stared up at him, lips quivering. “I have not seen Kitty for almost five months and neither has anyone else. Lord forgive me for being the one to tell you this, but no one knows what happened to her. She just disappeared.”

Travis stood rigid, fighting the weakness that had suddenly taken over his body. “Mattie,” he said slowly, evenly, “you better explain all this to me and tell me everything you know.”

She shrugged helplessly, tilting her head to one side. “I just did, Travis. That’s all I know…all anybody knows. The marshal did what he could about searching, but she just disappeared without a trace. The last anybody saw of her was when she left the hospital that night, and it was storming something fierce. When she didn’t come for John that night, I assumed she had stayed in town because of the storm. But when she didn’t show up the next evening either, I got one of my boys to ride into town. He was told at the hospital that she hadn’t shown up that morning, so he went to the marshal. The marshal got a bunch together to search for her. But they couldn’t find a trace. She just disappeared, Travis.”

It couldn’t be happening, but it was. Kitty was gone. The words whirled around in his head until he became dizzy and struggled to lower himself onto the sofa beside Mattie.

“Oh, Travis, I’m sorry. I know this is terrible for you. I’ve got some homemade wine.” She hurried from the room and returned with a bottle and a glass, but Travis pushed the glass aside and snatched the bottle, tilting it. He took a long gulp.

“I’ll find her,” he said in a tight, strained voice, staring straight ahead. “So help me God, I’ll find her.”

Suddenly he leaped to his feet and whirled around to stare at her. “Why in hell wasn’t I notified? Why wasn’t a message sent to me in Haiti?”