Read The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 for Free Online Page A

General Sherman’s army riding with a woman behind him singing the anthem of the Confederacy! But he knew better than to try to make her stop. It was much better to just let her go on and finish, despite the scowls that were being cast in his direction.
    Just as her voice rose to sing out the last few words, he heard thundering hooves and looked up to see the great general himself riding toward him, his greatcoat flapping in the wind. His approach did not silence Kitty. She kept right on till she finished her song, even adding an extra chorus after Travis reined to a halt to salute the glowering General Sherman.
    “What is the meaning of this, Captain?” the general’s voice boomed. “What are you doing with a woman riding behind you—a woman who dares to sing the infernal song of the Rebels?”
    “ Our song is not sacrilegious,” Kitty snapped as Travis fought the impulse to cringe. “ We do not march into battle singing of God while we murder and rape and plunder. Everyone knows how you have let your men run amuck through the Southland, burning, robbing, killing. And you sing of God?”
    For an instant, Travis feared she would spit in contempt, but she didn’t.
    “If I am so terrible, why don’t I have you killed this very moment?” General Sherman was asking. His lips were curved in a sardonic smile, but his eyes looked menacing.
    “Why don’t you?” Kitty cried. “You allow other evils.”
    “Kitty, for God’s sake.” Travis twisted in the saddle, glaring at her, trying to decide whether to slap her to silence.
    “Well?” Kitty’s nostrils flared, her violet eyes sparkling with purple and red fires. “Aren’t you the famous general who declared that a crow would starve to death flying over your trail? That war is hell? That you meant to punish the South? Go ahead and punish me. If it will make you feel like more of a man, go ahead and kill me! You will have to kill me to silence me, because I’ll go to my grave singing ‘Dixie’.”
    General Sherman looked at Travis, his voice a harsh whisper as he asked, his body trembling with rage, “Captain Coltrane, who is this woman? I believe I have seen you with her before. Who is she, and how is it that she happens to be in your company?”
    “Sir,” Travis took a deep breath and wiped a hand across his brow, “this is Miss Katherine Wright, the daughter of John Wright…”
    General Sherman’s expression changed immediately. “I see.” He cleared his throat, then asked, “What is she doing with you?”
    “Well, sir, John Wright was killed at Bentonville.”
    The general blinked, shocked, his grief evident. “Oh, no.” The words came out in a whisper. “I didn’t know. I had not heard.” Then, his bitterness put aside, General Sherman looked at Kitty. “I am sorry, Miss Wright. I had the utmost respect and admiration for your father. He was a man of deep moral and religious convictions, a brave and courageous soldier…”
    “A pity you aren’t more like him,” Kitty snapped, and Travis cringed.
    General Sherman jerked his head back as if she had slapped him. “I could say the same for you, young lady. I know that John Wright was from the South, but his convictions were with the North. A pity you did not share those convictions. But I am not at all surprised that John Wright would have such a high-spirited daughter.”
    He turned his gaze upon Travis once more. “You still have not explained to me why this woman rides with you, Captain Coltrane.”
    As briefly as possible, Travis told General Sherman about Kitty’s work with General Johnston’s field hospital at Bentonville, and her kidnap by a deserting Confederate officer. Then he told of the officer killing John Wright and of his own intervention and subsequent killing of Nathan Collins. “Collins is from around here,” Travis went on. “So is Miss Wright. Their neighbors felt very bitter toward John Wright. They burned his farm. Kitty had been working in the Goldsboro Way