Love and Glory: The Coltrane Saga, Book 3 (34 page)

Marilee could have told him it already was, but it was not her place to say so. If Travis Coltrane was smitten, that was
his
business. Let them work things out. She had all she could take care of trying to keep up with the Klan—which was, she thought resentfully, what Coltrane should have been doing.

“Will you see if you can get her calmed down?” Jordan said as he moved toward the door. “I must go on downstairs and greet the first guests. Tell her we’ll discuss this tomorrow.”

He opened the door, started out, then paused and said, “Remind her that I do not want her making a spectacle of herself. He will not stay here overnight. In fact, he’d best leave early.”

Marilee sighed once more and turned to begin dressing. She held up the drab olive green dress, then hesitated.
Widow’s weeds,
indeed, she thought. Flinging it aside, she reached to the far recesses of the cedar wardrobe and pulled out a bright yellow satin, forgotten for years. She had not worn it since the night her father had announced her engagement to Donald.

It was still beautiful, and since she was the same size she had been then, it would fit quite well. Feeling particularly daring, she ran to the braided bell cord and gave it a tug. With some help, she would feel pretty.

A little later, Marilee tugged at the bodice. Her breasts were fuller, and they were pushed high by the stays. Her rosy pink nipples showed just a little. “I can’t wear this!” she cried.

“Oh, yes, you can,” Rosa, her maid, spoke up. “It ain’t no worse than what other women is wearing.”

“But I’m a widow!”

“Well, you gonna stay one if you keep dressin’ like you just come from the cemetery. Ain’t no need in you lookin’ like you do all the time. Now, I’ll loosen that stitchin’ under the arms just enough that you can tuck your nipples down good, and then it’ll be just fine.”

Marilee watched apprehensively as Rosa went to work, and, shortly, she looked in the mirror and agreed that, even though her bosom was displayed, there was nothing brazen about her appearance.

“With your hair all shiny brown, it looks just fine with that yellow,” Rosa said, standing back with a satisfied smile on her dark face. “Now we gonna fix your cheeks, paint yo’ lips, and you gonna be the prettiest lady at the party.”

“I can’t believe it’s me!” Marilee cried a little while later.

“Well, it is you,” Rosa beamed. “And you best be on yo’ way, or you gonna be the last one to arrive. Maybe that’s what you should do—make an entrance.”

Marilee cut her off
with a wave. “No. I’ve got to go to Alaina and see that she’s all right.”

“Yes’m. All the help knows about the fightin’. We could hear him shoutin’, and we done been knowin’ fo’ some time when he found out about her and the marshal, he was gonna raise cain.”

“That he did,” Marilee said fearfully. “If only Marshal Coltrane would do his job and stop chasing after Alaina!”

“Oh, I think it’s the other way around, missy.”

Marilee looked at her, puzzled.

“The marshal, he’s a’doin’ his job,” Rosa told her bluntly. “I can’t tell you what I knows, any more than you tells my people evahthin’ you knows. But I can tell you that he’s doin’ somethin’. As for him chasm’ Miz Alaina, if you’d just look, you’d see
she’s
the one a’doin’ the chasin’. I hear all the gossip, and I knows how she makes old Bart take her into town in the middle of the night to get up with him, and old Bart, he say the marshal got mad a couple of times and sent her back home. Miz Alaina had one of her fits.”

“Rosa!” Marilee stared at her, aghast. “That will just be enough of that. I won’t have you repeating gossip about my sister.”

“But it’s so,” Rosa whined defensively.

“I don’t care. I won’t have the servants talking about her. Now, please, go back to doing whatever you were doing when I called you.”

Marilee hurried down the hall, truly worried now. Rosa would not lie. If what she had said was the truth, and if Alaina were chasing after the marshal, then the situation could become embarrassing. She took a deep breath and knocked on Alaina’s door.

There was no answer.

“Alaina,” she called, “I know you’re in there. I want to talk to you.”

“Go away!” The sobbing voice drifted through the closed door.

Marilee turned the knob and walked in to see her lying across the bed in her chemise, the strawberry chiffon gown lying to one side. “Well, are you going to stay up here and pout and leave the marshal to Father’s mercy?”

Alaina pounded the bed with her fists as she sobbed, “It isn’t fair for him to tell me I can’t see him. He can’t break us up. I won’t let him. I’ll run away.”

Marilee sat down, reaching to brush her sister’s hair back from her forehead. Alaina was spoiled and willful and could be quite vexing, but Marilee still loved her fiercely. Damn that Travis Coltrane! Alaina was bewitched, that’s what was wrong.

“Get yourself together,” Marilee coaxed her. “You invited him here as your guest, and you know how Father feels, so it’s up to you to keep him company. Just tell him the situation, and he’ll probably leave early. If he doesn’t, suggest that he does. You and Father can talk about it tomorrow.”

She sighed and got to her feet, reaching for her dress. “I suppose you’re right.” Her eyes widened as she looked at Marilee, really seeing her for the first time. “What have you done to yourself?” She gasped. “I don’t believe it! Your hair! Your face! That dress! Why, I haven’t seen you look like this in years.”

Marilee smiled brightly. “Maybe I’m tired of ‘widow’s weeds,’ little sister. You were right, it’s time I started thinking about fixing myself up.”

“Well, isn’t that nice.” She stopped at the sound of knocking.

Rosa hurried in, looking nervous. “Missy,” she cried, “the marshal, he’s downstairs. He say he can’t stay long. You better get on down there, ’cause yo’ daddy looks like a watermelon what’s laid out in the sun too long. He stomped off with Mastah Mason, and they went in the study, and I just knows Mastah Mason is raisin’ cain about the marshal bein’ here.”

Alaina silenced her with a wave of her hand, turning quickly to Marilee. “You’ve got to go down there and keep him company till I can get dressed. Rosa will help me. I won’t be long.”

Hurrying downstairs, Marilee felt a rush of panic. If Father and Stewart were locked in the study, she needed to know what they were talking about. True, Stewart might just be furious over Marshal Coltrane’s presence, but they might be discussing Klan business. But if she went to the secret passageway, she would not be able to keep the marshal company as she had promised Alaina.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and spotted Travis standing to one side of the foyer, annoyance clouding his gray eyes. He looked at her through half-closed lids, the sudden play of a smile on his lips, and she cursed herself for wondering what it would feel like to be kissed by him.

Walking toward him as gracefully as possible, she knew she really wanted to rush over, make her excuses, and hurry away to the secret passage.

“Marshal Coltrane, good evening,” she greeted him pleasantly. Then, without waiting for him to speak, she said, “Alaina asked me to tell you that she has been detained. She’ll be along shortly. Please have a drink and make yourself at home.”

He caught her hand, raised it to his lips, but did not release her. She stared at him, surprised. “What’s your hurry, pretty lady?” he whispered, eyes moving over her with pleasure. “It
is
you, isn’t it? My, my, the lady has come out of mourning at last.”

His tone was slightly mocking, and she was angry at once. Jerking her hand away she said quietly, “It is none of your concern, Marshal. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to tend to.”

“I think first on your list of priorities should be keeping your sister’s guest company until she arrives. Where are your manners, Marilee?”

“I told you I have things to do!” Her eyes were blazing at his mockery. “Now let me go.”

He laughed softly. “Why are you afraid of me?”

“A—afraid of you?” she stammered, gasping. “Whatever makes you think so? How absurd.”

“You’re trembling.”

“I…am not,” she lied, forcing herself to meet his gaze.

“You have no need to be afraid of me. I won’t bite. At least not here. There’s a time and a place for everything.”

“Sir!” she cried indignantly. Seeing that others were turning to stare, she lowered her voice to say bitingly, “Marshal, you are my sister’s guest. She thinks very highly of you. I hardly think she would appreciate your forcing such a conversation on me. If you don’t let me go, I’m going to scream, and that will bring my father. And while I hate to be the one to tell you this, he was quite upset when he heard Alaina had invited you here tonight. So let’s not make the situation any more unpleasant than it already is.”

She faced him, brown eyes icy with contempt for his blatant arrogance.

Unruffled, he continued to smile in that same infuriating way.

“I find your behavior distasteful, Marshal. Now, if you will excuse me, I will leave you to wait for my sister.”

He stared at her in such a puzzling way that she asked bluntly, “Would you mind telling me just why you are looking at me that way, Marshal?”

He folded his arms across his chest, tilting his head to one side. “I find you an extraordinary woman, Marilee.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, exasperated.

“For now, that will have to do. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll find myself a drink while I wait for your sister.”

She shook her head, puzzled. But there was no time to dawdle. Pausing to exchange pleasantries with a few guests, she hurried as discreetly as possible, breathing a sigh of relief when, at last, she dashed into the sewing room and locked the door. Once inside the passageway, she moved slowly, noiselessly, groping in the darkness.

At last she heard voices.

“Damn it, Jordan, I don’t like him hanging around Alaina.”

Her father sounded annoyed. “I don’t like it a bit better than you do, but that’s not the issue right now. I’ll take care of that. I told you, I’ve already put my foot down to Alaina. Just be glad he’s been so busy running after her that he’s forgotten why he was sent here. Now, look, are you sure you can get the Klan together on such short notice?”

Marilee’s heart quickened. They were going to meet tonight. Something was up…something important.

“Yeah,” came Stewart’s confident reply. “All I got to do is ride up on Turkey Ridge and blow my whistle. Someone will pick it up and it’ll be passed along till everyone rallies. It’ll take maybe a half hour to get everybody together.”

“You’d better get started.”

She heard them leaving the study and turned to make her way back through the passageway. She was trembling. No matter that there was a party going on. She had to go to that rally.

When she entered the foyer again it was necessary to stop and greet newly arrived guests. All the while, she was trying to figure out how to take her leave without arousing suspicion. She caught sight of Willis, one of the Negro house servants. She trusted him absolutely. Signaling to him, she drew him aside, pretending to sample the tray of tiny sandwiches he was passing. Hardly moving her lips, she told him the news and said, “See that a horse is waiting for me at the springhouse in fifteen minutes. I’ll pretend I have a headache and retire for the evening.”

He nodded. She wanted to tell him not to look so frightened, but there was no time for that. “See to it,” she hissed, then turned away.

Halfway up the stairs, she met Alaina making her descent. “Please give my apologies,” Marilee said hurriedly, pressing a hand to her forehead. “I have a terrible headache. I’m going to bed.”

Alaina was concerned. “Is there anything I can do?”

“No, no. I just want to be alone. It will pass.”

She started on by, but Alaina caught her arm. “Where is Travis?”

“Over there.” Marilee stopped, surprised. Travis was gone.

“Perhaps he went to get another drink,” she offered, just as Willis spotted them and began to move through the crowd.

“Miss Alaina,” he said, reaching them, “the marshal asked me to give you his regrets. He say he have unexpected business to tend to, and Miss Marilee can explain.”

“Me?” Marilee asked, surprised. “I know nothing about him having to leave.”

“Oh, Marilee!” Alaina’s eyes glistened with tears. “What did you say to him? You didn’t tell him what Daddy said, did you?”

Silently, she cursed Travis Coltrane for putting her in this position. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I did tell him Father was upset, but he certainly didn’t seem ruffled by that. He said nothing about leaving, only that he was going to have a drink and wait for you.”

“Oh, this is terrible!” Alaina shook her head from side to side. “What am I going to do?”

Marilee patted her shoulder sympathetically. “You’ll go on and have a delightful time. Don’t worry about him.”

“Oh, but I do worry. You don’t understand, Marilee. I…I think I love him.”

Marilee rolled her eyes. “You’ve thought you were in love before.”

“This is different!” She stamped her foot, clenching her fists at her sides.