The Raging Hearts: The Coltrane Saga, Book 2 by Patricia Hagan Read Free Book Online Page B

lover’.”
    He sighed. “I suppose you do have the right to know what has already spread like wildfire. I don’t have to tell you that Major Collins was revered by the people around here. The word came back from two Confederate soldiers who slipped into town rather than retreat with Johnston, and who had witnessed the whole incident from behind scrub brush. They said that Major Collins killed your father in self-defense in an argument over you, and then a Yankee came along and murdered Collins in cold blood. They gathered that you condoned the killing, that you knew the Yankee soldier well, that the two of you were apparently—”
    “Lovers,” she finished. “The truth is, Dr. Holt, that Nathan Collins was deserting. My father happened along, and to divert an argument between him and Nathan, I lied to my father and said I wanted to go with Nathan. I could tell by the anguish in that one eye those bastards had left him that he believed me when I said I wanted to go with Nathan. He turned his back to walk away, and that’s when Nathan shot him…in the back. Travis Coltrane came along, and his temper got the best of him. He stomped Nathan to death. That is how it happened.”
    She brushed at tears with the back of her hand, and Dr. Holt patted her gently. “I believe you, Kitty, but you must understand that the townspeople will believe the other story because it is what they want to believe. I am afraid you have much grief ahead, for they won’t forget soon.”
    She jutted her chin up, angry and defiant. “You said you needed help, and that’s why I’m here. I don’t intend to let lies make me turn tail and run.”
    “Good girl,” he said with a smile, clapping her on the back like a comrade. “Now, here is the situation. General Schofield just marched right into town with no opposition at all. Every available soldier in eastern Carolina was ordered to Bentonville. In no time at all, the Yankees covered the entire town with a circle of breast-works, and they camped inside because Schofield knew General Johnston was close by. Well, things calmed down a bit. Schofield moved into the Borden house and made it his headquarters. Then we heard about Bentonville and Johnston retreating, and how Sherman was heading this way. Folks panicked.”
    “Justifiably so,” Kitty said bitterly. “General Sherman allows his men to do as they please, burning and stealing.”
    “There is quite a contrast between the two armies. General Schofield has his men under complete military control and allows no disobedience. He knew folks would get upset when they heard Sherman was marching into town with his army of cutthroats, so he issued an order that anyone who wanted a guard to protect their homes could have one by applying to the provost marshal’s office, which they set up in Dr. John Davis’s home. Provost marshal’s name is Glavis, I think. He came by here yesterday to see if we needed anything. I tell you, girl, we can thank our heavenly Father that Schofield got here first. That saved our town from being plundered and burned by Sherman.”
    “And what about the hospital? I suppose the Yankees have taken over.”
    “Oh, yes, of course. General Schofield’s medical officer has taken over the command, and the first thing he did was to order that Union soldiers be given preference over Confederates. ‘Treat our men first,’ he said. And you know what I told him? That he might as well go ahead and shoot me because I was treating a man according to the seriousness of his wounds, that it didn’t matter a tinker’s damn to me what color uniform he wore. The other doctors told him the same thing, so he didn’t have much choice. There aren’t that many doctors, you know. What galls the hell out of me, though, is those Yankee doctors. They’ll step right over a dying Confederate to treat a whining Yankee with a minor wound. The damn bastards.”
    “Dr. Holt!” They whirled about to see a bearded, heavyset man in a