Love and War: The Coltrane Saga, Book 1 Read Online Free Page A

allowed his overseer, Luke Tate, to treat them mercilessly. She feared that he was not going to approve, and he would be completely opposed to her being in the company of a man like Weldon Edwards who was fighting for the secession of North Carolina.
    John was halfway across the field when Jacob came out of the barn, waving excitedly. He turned in that direction, and Kitty ached to join them, but apprehension over the discussion that was to come held her back. He wouldn’t forbid her to go. That was not his way. He would tell her the decision was hers. But, loving him as she did, respecting him as she did—all it would take for her to abandon thoughts of the party would be to see a flash of anger, or hurt, in his eyes. The question of Nathan was another matter, and this made her feel a bit guilty, for the way she felt about Nathan…well, that was something altogether different. New emotions were rippling though her body now.
    Lena had gone into the bedroom and returned to dip a cloth once more into the bucket of water that sat on the table. Wringing it, she pressed it to her forehead, sighing, “If I could only get rid of this wretched headache. I’ve had it ever since that horribly embarrassing scene in the barn. You and that cow!” She shuddered.
    “Have you seen your father? I intend to talk to him about the way you acted in front of Nathan this afternoon.” She stared at Kitty scornfully. “The very idea! I hope he gives you the sound thrashing you deserve, young lady.”
    Sinking down on the bench that ran alongside the long, wooden table, Lena continued her angry glare. Kitty’s thoughts drifted as she tried to blot out the sounds of the nagging. Her father had made that table when he was but a young man, filled with visions of one day seating his many children along each side, himself at the head.
    Her eyes moved about the room. A crude wooden box sat beside the fireplace, where a pot boiled with the night’s stew of fish and potatoes and fresh eggs. The kitchen floor was clay. John never got around to putting in planks. With a chopping block to one side, a few wooden shelves, the room was dismal and bleak.
    Suddenly Lena pounded both her fists on the table. Kitty jumped, startled.
    “Are you going to tell me why Nathan came here? When you ignore me, Katherine, you make this pain in my head worse. Why won’t you tell me? You’re acting very strangely…”
    Kitty continued to stare out the window in the direction of the barn, where her father had disappeared with Jacob.
    “Katherine!” the voice rose hysterically. “Why do you treat me this way? Why do you hate me so? Why do you try to shut me out of your life? I love you. You’re my only child. I only want you to be happy. Dear God, what have I ever done to deserve such scorn and disrespect from my own flesh and blood? Will you just tell me what I ever did to you for you to treat me this way?”
    Kitty knew only too well what was coming if she didn’t tell her mother what she wanted to know. She would start to cry, and then she might have one of her screaming tantrums, and all of them would be in for a miserable evening. It could go on for days.
    Sighing, she turned and looked at the red-faced woman. “He invited me to a party next Sunday afternoon, Mother,” she said quietly, feeling disgust, mingled with pity, over the way her mother instantly calmed herself.
    Lena’s face spread into one huge grin. Her face was thin and gaunt, made even more so by her hair being pulled back from her face and wrapped in a bun at her neck. Her eyes were sharp—narrow, but she was not an unattractive woman. If she didn’t cry so much, Kitty thought suddenly, perhaps there would not be so many wrinkles. Like now, when she was smiling, Kitty mused, she was almost pretty, and the wrinkles did not matter so much.
    “Oh, Katherine, this is wonderful. Nathan comes from a fine family. Aaron Collins is one of the richest men in the state. This must mean he wants to