Free Love and Fury: The Coltrane Saga, Book 4 by Patricia Hagan

We’ll say that’s what you were doing last night, planning your wedding. We’ll say you were chaperoned, that servants were there the whole time. There will be talk, of course, but then, after your wedding, things will die down. A few months from now, no one will remember—”
    “No.” Charlene shook her head, unable to meet her mother’s eyes. “No. No wedding. Colt doesn’t want to marry me.”
    In the stunned silence that followed, no one was able to look at anyone else. Then Carleton exploded. “He’ll marry you, by God, or he’ll be pushing up daisies on Boot Hill! No man shames my daughter and gets away with it. I’ll kill the son of a bitch with my bare hands. I’m going to see him right now and get this thing settled.” He whirled around and stomped toward the door. Charlene ran to clutch his arm, begging, “No, Daddy, don’t, please. I’m sorry. I truly am. I never meant to hurt you or Momma. I just love Colt so much. But he doesn’t love me, and I don’t want him to be forced into marrying me if he doesn’t want to.”
    Carleton looked, from her desperate, tear-streaked face to his wife. He shook his head. “What am I supposed to do?” he asked of no one in particular. “My daughter spends the night with a man, and he doesn’t want to make a decent woman of her. Half the town is in my front yard speculating about all this, and—just what in hell am I supposed to do?”
    Juliette, regaining some of her composure, led him from the room, saying they would talk later, that it was time for him to open the bank. Charlene was distraught and needed to calm down. Later, they would discuss what was to be done about the scandal.
    An hour later, Juliette had summoned Charlene to the parlor, making an attempt once again to understand what had possessed her daughter.
    “Why, Charlene?” she cried. “You were raised in a decent home. How could you behave like—like a whore?”
    Wearily, utterly defeated, Charlene whispered feebly, “I’m not a whore, Momma. I love Colt. I did not mean to stay out there all night. I never meant for you and Daddy to find out. I was going to be home before the two of you got back, but I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was too late.”
    “You think that would have made it all right?” Juliette gasped. “Just so we didn’t find out? How long has this been going on? How long have you been coupling with him like…like an animal? How do you know you aren’t in the family way? What then? Who does he think he is? You’re no saloon girl. You come from a good family and he can’t treat you like this.
    “I wish Kitty Coltrane were in town,” she went on, wringing her hands. “I can’t believe she’d allow her son to get by with this. She’d see to it that he did the honorable thing.”
    Charlene shook her head. “I don’t want to marry him if he doesn’t want me. What kind of life would I have?”
    “What kind of life will you have now?” Juliette asked, incredulous. “If Colt doesn’t marry you, this will be gossiped about the rest of your life. You won’t be able to look anyone in this town in the eye. No decent man will have you. You’ll die alone, a shameful spinster. Think about it.”
    At that moment Charlene just wanted to be left alone. She felt sick with an emptiness too miserable to have any end. When her father came home from the bank, he would start all over again. Damn you, John Travis Coltrane, she silently cursed him, why do you have to be so stubborn?
    “Just before your father left, he said he thought it would be best if we sent you to Philadelphia to stay with your Aunt Portia for a while. I agree. It might even be best if you went there to live. No one there will know about any of this, and you’d have a chance to meet someone, get married.”
    “No!” Charlene sat upright, every nerve in her body tense with rebellion. “I don’t want to go to Philadelphia. And I certainly don’t want to live with prune-faced Aunt Portia.