Love and Glory: The Coltrane Saga, Book 3 (28 page)

“Is that right?” Travis pretended awe. “Then I guess I do seem awfully ignorant.”

His informant smiled obligingly, “I’m glad to be able to help you out.”

He nodded and walked away. Travis turned to look at Alaina Barbeau, marveling once again at her breathtaking beauty. She had been watching him but glanced quickly away when he turned toward her.

Sam snorted, “She looks like a rich little snob. I know the type.”

Travis did not respond. Something told him he had not yet met the likes of Alaina Barbeau. Beneath the cool appearance, he could sense, even from across the room, something intriguing, something he could not name.

He caught her looking at him from the corner of his eye and jerked around so quickly that they were facing each other. She remained unruffled. Their eyes met and held. Suddenly she pushed back her chair, stood, and walked over to Travis.

“What’s she coming over here for?” Sam growled under his breath. “That’s all we need—some woman chasing after you when we got more trouble than we can handle already.”

“Who says she’s chasing me, Sam?” Travis chuckled in quiet amusement.

She approached, a smile on her lips, looking Travis up and down. In a voice so soft he could feel the hairs rising along the backs of his arms, she said, “I assume, sir, from that badge, that you are the new marshal.”

Travis politely stood and Sam reluctantly followed suit. “Yes, ma’am. I’m Marshal Coltrane. This is Marshal Bucher. I must confess to having taken the liberty to inquire about you, Miss Barbeau.” He pulled out the chair next to him. “Would you care to join us?”

“I shouldn’t,” she said thoughtfully, glancing toward the window. “I’m waiting for someone. Oh, very well. I might as well take the opportunity to welcome you all to Kentucky.”

Travis watched her bright green eyes sparkle with what he decided was sheer mischief. She took her seat and coyly smiled, “I must confess to having taken the liberty to inquire about you as well, Marshal, but my sources gave me much more information, I’m sure, than the waiter gave you about me.”

He laughed. “What makes you think I asked the waiter?”

“Come now.” She placed her hand against her throat. “Do give me credit for knowing when a man asks about me.”

Sam had not sat down again. He cleared his throat pointedly, and Travis looked up. “If you two will excuse me, I think I’ll go make some inquiries of my own. For
business
reasons,” he added stonily.

Travis murmured absently, “See you back at the office,” and turned his full attention to Alaina. “Let me also give you credit for knowing when a man finds you quite lovely, Miss Barbeau, as I obviously do.”

With candor he found refreshing, she told him, “Yes, I must admit I do have that perception. Oh, and please call me Alaina. I intend to call you Travis. It’s much less formal.” She leaned forward to prop her chin on folded, white-gloved hands. “Now that we have the social proprieties out of the way, we can chat. I hear you came all the way from Nevada just to help the poor Negroes.”

“To
try
to help,” he corrected her.

“I also hear you had quite an impressive record as a cavalry officer for the Union during the war. My father was loyal to the South. Since you will be meeting him in the future, you might bear that in mind.”

“The war is over, Miss Barbeau…Alaina,” he said pointedly. “It doesn’t matter to me on which side your father placed his loyalties.”

She laughed, a soft, silvery sound that was pleasing to his ear. “If you knew my father, you would know that it matters very much.” Nodding her head she said, brightly, “We will just have to see that you do meet Daddy. Would you like to come to our home this Friday night? It’s my birthday, and Daddy is giving me a party. I’d love for you to come.”

She reached out and covered his large hand with her tiny gloved one and squeezed. Instinct told him to be wary. Her touch alone caused gentle quivers. of emotion to move through him. Damn, she was beautiful, but it was not merely her loveliness that he found so appealing. There was a freshness, a delightful candor, as well.

“Come now, Travis”—she squeezed his hand once more—“I don’t take you for the shy kind. I imagine you love going to parties and meeting people. And you’ll love my home. It’s a big house with a sprawling yard at the base of a mountain. If you come early enough, we can go riding, and I’ll see that you have one of Daddy’s prize Thoroughbreds. He’s terribly proud of his horses.”

Travis raised an eyebrow. “Your daddy might not want me riding one of his prize horses, Alaina.”

She pretended to pout. “Daddy will do whatever I want him to do, especially on my birthday.” Then she laughed happily. “Oh, do say you will come, Travis. Already the young ladies here are talking about what a handsome devil you are, and I will be the envy of all of them if you come to my birthday party.”

He did not blush. It was not one of his weaknesses. “All right, then. I’ll be happy to come, Alaina.”

“More than that,” she lowered her lashes over the twinkling emerald eyes, instantly changing from ebullient child to seductive lady. “I think I should like to have you as my weekend guest. Come prepared to stay until Sunday. Then I will have a chance to really show you around. We can have a picnic on Saturday. Just the two of us.”

“I don’t think I can take the time off from my work, Alaina. Not now.”

“But if you’re needed, Marshal Bucher can ride out to get you. Besides, I hear you sleep in the back of that horrid little office you insisted on moving to, and it will do you a world of good to have a change. Do say you will come,” she coaxed.

Travis did not have to ask himself if he wanted to accept her invitation. He damn well knew he did. Alaina was looking at him in a way that said she wanted him, and it had been a long time since he had known a woman’s body. Still, something was telling him to stay away.

“I’m afraid I will have to decline, Alaina. Perhaps I can visit later, when I’ve got a better hold on things here.”

“Oh, you’re terrible!” She stomped her foot beneath the table. “At least say you will come to the party.”

He was about to tell her that he was not even sure that was a good idea, when a tall, muscular man appeared in the doorway. His eyes fastened on Alaina, swept over Travis, then narrowed. The man strode purposefully toward the table.

“I think the friend you were waiting for has arrived.” Travis inclined his head slightly in the direction of the man approaching.

Alaina looked around and flashed an innocent grin. “Stewart! Where have you been, darling? You’re late.”

“I see you found a way to occupy yourself,” he said tightly, looking down at her, ignoring Travis.

Travis sized him up quickly. Big. Probably wealthy, judging by his clothes. Not bad looking but a bit rough around the edges. Probably fell into his fortune rather than being born into it. He was probably quick to anger. This, coupled with his size, no doubt made him bullish.

“Of course I occupied myself,” Alaina said quickly, obviously not intimidated. “This is our new marshal, Travis Coltrane. He’s a very nice man, and we’ve been getting acquainted.”

The man glanced at Travis coldly, then looked back to Alaina. “We need to be on our way. I have business to discuss with your father.”

She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “Poor Stewart. He’s always so busy. He’s Daddy’s foreman, you see. He looks after everything and sees that everything gets done. Daddy looks after business matters.”

“Alaina, we must be going,” he persisted.

She sighed, reaching for her small beaded white bag. “Oh for goodness’ sake, Stewart, all right. Really, sometimes you can be so trying. I think I liked you better before Daddy made you his foreman. You weren’t so stodgy.” He moved to pull her chair back as she rose.

“At least,” she said, clearly irritated, “allow me to introduce you to the marshal.”

Travis had stood as Alaina did, and he obligingly held out his hand to the glowering stranger. It was taken reluctantly and released at once.

“This is Stewart Mason, Travis,” Alaina was saying. “He isn’t always like this, believe me, or I could not put up with him.”

Travis hid his reaction to the name. “I believe I have you mixed up with someone else,” he said, on guard then. “I had heard of a gentleman named Mason, but he was a landowner, not an overseer.”

Mason stiffened. Clearly a sore spot had been touched. “I do own land. Any law that says a man can’t own land and work another man’s land as well?”

Travis stifled the impulse to smirk. “Of course not. It appears I have offended you. I’m sorry.”

Alaina laughed. “He’s not offended. He’s just jealous because we were sitting here talking, so he’s trying to see how nasty he can be. Pay no attention.”

“Alaina, you do go on,” Mason snapped. “Let’s be on our way.”

She held out her hand to Travis, and he lifted it to his lips for a gentle kiss, silently pleased with the angry look this provoked from Mason. “I will see you Friday,” he murmured, giving Alaina a warm smile.

“What about Friday?” Mason quickly reacted. “Friday is your birthday, Alaina.”

“Well, I know that,” she said with feigned exasperation. “I have invited the marshal to my party. I invited him to come stay with us for the whole weekend, as my guest, but he declined.”

“On second thought,” Travis spoke up quickly, “I have thought it over a bit more carefully and I will be able to accept your gracious invitation after all, Alaina. I’ll be delighted.”

“Oh, that’s marvelous!” She squeezed his arm in her enthusiasm. “I’ll be expecting you around four. You’ll have a wonderful time. I promise.”

Mason looked him straight in the eye then for the first time, and Travis met him full force, not glancing away. They were of equal height and nearly equal build. The glare Stewart gave Travis plainly mirrored not only his malice but also his intention to do something about it.

“I am sure I will see you there, Mason,” Travis said evenly.

“Yes,” was the clipped response. “You can be sure of that, Marshal.”

Stewart Mason took Alaina’s arm and they walked toward the door, but just before disappearing through it, Alaina turned ever so slightly to give Travis a very special smile.

He knew the meaning behind that smile. Women had given him that smile before. Most he had ignored. Others he had not ignored.

This was one he would not ignore.

Chapter Fifteen

Travis rode his horse up onto a knoll just off
the main road in order to survey the land around him without being observed by others on their way to Alaina’s birthday party.

He shook his head as he stared at Jordan Barbeau’s mansion. Of gray fieldstone, it stood four stories high, a turret at all four corners. The windows were long, narrow, and arched at the tops, each composed of many small panes of glass. A low wall wrapped around the edge of the roof, probably a walkway.

The front doors were large and arched like the windows. A winding terrace joined the house to a narrow stairway rising from the cobblestone driveway. Neatly trimmed shrubs hugged the base of the stone house.

There were six separate gardens, laid out in various patterns. Regal oaks and maples stretched to the sky, bordering the property for as far as he could see.

It was all too showy for Travis’ tastes. Barbeau, he surmised, wanted everyone to be aware of his vast wealth and had no hesitancy about being ostentatious if that was what it took. He was powerful, no doubt about that. Travis’ inquiries over the past few days had revealed that in this part of the state, whatever Barbeau did not own, he managed to control.

Local gossips had also provided the information that Stewart Mason and Alaina Barbeau were unofficially engaged, and that it was Alaina who refused to make definite plans for marriage.

What about Mason? Israel had spoken his name in terror. People questioned about him seemed reluctant, almost afraid, to talk about him. But why? He was not rich. He owned land, true, but it had not taken long to find out that his property was heavily mortgaged…by Jordan Barbeau. Maybe Sam was right in his theory that the rich hired ruffians to do their dirty work. It just might be, Travis thought with ever-growing suspicion, that Mason was behind much, if not all, of what was happening to the Negroes around there, and that Barbeau was paying the bills and giving the orders.

Twilight turned the sky to a dusty purple blush against the hazy green mountains. The first twinkling stars appeared as a gentle night wind blew down across the valley. Nudging his horse back to the road, Travis headed for the Gothic mansion, noting the large number of carriages in the driveway.

In his saddlebags was a fresh change of clothing. Sam had told him he was crazy to be spending the weekend in the home of the man who just might be in charge of all the Klan’s activities.

“All the more reason to stay there,” Travis had grinned.

To which Sam had replied, “That ain’t the reason you’re going, and you know it. It’s that girl.” He hastened to add, “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not condemning you for having a yen. You’re only human. But hell, man, look at who she is. You don’t want to go getting mixed up with that family. If what we suspect is true, it could be dangerous.”

Travis did not like to admit that Sam spoke the truth. But life had to go on. Travis thought Fate had decreed whatever would happen between him and Alaina Barbeau.