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

Hospital, and I thought it best that I escort her back there. I feel sure there were Rebel soldiers about, deserters who saw what happened and will spread the story, and when it gets out that Kitty Wright had anything at all to do with the death of Nathan Collins, the townspeople are going to turn on her. She is safer with me.”
    “Safer with you?” General Sherman raised an eyebrow. “And just what do you propose to do with her, Captain? Do you think they will feel any kinder when they see her in the company of a Union officer? And how do you think they will react when we march on, as we shall do quite soon?”
    “I plan to take her with me.” Travis met the steady gaze of his general, his voice firm. “I plan to marry her.”
    There was a murmur of angry voices about them, which Travis silenced with a flashing glare. He looked back at General Sherman, waiting for his reaction. But just then Kitty cried out indignantly.
    “You all just wait a minute! You talk of me as if I were not even present. I’ve told you, Travis Coltrane, I’m staying here and tending my father’s land. What business is it of yours, General Sherman, what I do? Now you either go ahead and kill me, since that is your way with women and children, or ride on and leave me be. I have no intention of traveling with your captain any longer than necessary. And it was his idea to escort me into town, not mine. I can assure you I fear the townspeople no more than I fear your soldiers.”
    Travis waited for the worst. But General Sherman did something that was seldom witnessed by his men. He laughed. He actually threw his head back and laughed at the fiery young woman. “By damn, I think you mean that, Miss Wright. Only John Wright could have sired such a daughter. Ride on with my captain, and do what you will when you reach Goldsboro. I pity Coltrane if he is so foolish as to wed you.”
     
     
    They crossed a covered bridge over the Neuse River, heading into Goldsboro by way of Waynesboro. The men jerked upright in their saddles at the sound of artillery fire, but the word quickly spread through the lines that there was no cause for alarm. General Schofield had ordered a battery of artillery placed on the brow of a hill and was firing salutes to General Sherman as he marched in.
    The townspeople, hearing the gunfire, were gathering to watch the soldiers come in. They stood silently, blank expressions on their faces, which Kitty took to mean defeat and absence of spirit.
    “Where are we going now?” Kitty asked of Travis, not liking her present situation. She knew she was the object of stares and exclamations. They probably took her to be a trollop picked up along the way, a woman of pleasure for all the men.
    Travis asked her where she wished to go.
    “I told you, Travis. I want to return to the hospital for now. Dr. Holt will need all the help he can get.”
    He was silent for a moment, then said in a sardonic tone, “You realize, my sweet, that there will be plenty of Union soldiers there now, wounded and needing treatment.”
    “Oh, Travis, be fair with me, please,” she cried indignantly. “Did I ever show any partiality to the Union soldiers when I worked in your field hospitals? You, of all people, should know I did everything I could to help the wounded, and it never mattered to me on which side a man fought.”
    “All right, all right. I’m sorry,” he acquiesced. “I know that you performed great services to my side.”
    “Take me to the hospital, Travis, please. I know I am needed there.”
    “As you wish,” he sighed, weary of arguing.
    Reining his horse out of the parade line, Travis moved in the direction of the Goldsboro Way Hospital. Suddenly a shrill cry pierced the air. “It’s her! It’s Kitty Wright, the traitorous slut. See her? There, riding with a damned Yankee. He’s probably the one that killed poor Nathan!”
    Kitty’s eyes darted to her left to the hysterical face of Nancy Warren, and she gasped at the