Free Love and War: The Coltrane Saga, Book 1 by Patricia Hagan

the house. “Please, Kitty,” he whispered anxiously. “It’s just not proper for women to get involved in political discussions.”
    “I’m not talking about politics.” She jerked out of his grasp and faced him defiantly, not caring who heard. “I’m talking about war—death, bloodshed! And it’s my right to be concerned, too. Being a woman has nothing to do with it. I can get killed by the Yankees as quickly as a man.”
    “You aren’t going to get killed. The war won’t last over a few months, and we’ll never let them get this far. Now please, Kitty, people are staring…”
    She allowed him to steer her into the entrance foyer, and for the moment, she was so impressed with the opulence of the house that she forgot about the talk of war.
    The floors gleamed—the mahogany hand-polished to a high sheen. The walls were covered in soft gold velvet, and high above, a crystal chandelier danced in its cluster of diamond-studded prisms. On either side of the foyer, the carpeted stairway curved upward to the next floor, its railings and banisters entwined with early branches of holly for decoration. Several vases of bright yellow marigolds filled the room with fragrance.
    No one was about, and Nathan pressed his lips to her forehead as his fingertips caressed her bare shoulders. “Now you go upstairs to freshen, and I’ll get a plate of barbecue for you. We’ll eat on the back lawn, away from the others.”
    “Are you trying to keep me away from everyone because I’m so awful?” she snapped.
    “Oh, Kitty, don’t be this way.” He frowned, sighing with exasperation. “I just don’t want any trouble. I want the two of us to be happy and enjoy ourselves, not get into heated debates about war. Isn’t it enough that everyone is whispering about the fact that you shot my father’s overseer?”
    “Then why didn’t you just leave me at home if you’re so ashamed of me, Nathan? It isn’t my fault that you hire an overseer who wanders about half the time drunk and sparking for a fight. I…I wish I’d killed him,” she spat out the words furiously, “and I wish I’d stayed home and not come to your party!”
    “Kitty…”
    She hoisted her skirts and ran up the steps, taking them two at a time, not caring how unladylike it might look.
    “Kitty, won’t you please listen?” Nathan pleaded from below. “I didn’t mean to make you mad…”
    She didn’t know which direction to turn. Somewhere, she knew, a room would have been designated for female guests to freshen themselves. But which one?
    “Are you looking for something, Kitty?”
    At the sound of the voice, she whipped her head about to see Nancy Warren standing in the doorway of a nearby room. She was wearing a powdery blue hoop dress, the bodice low but filled in with delicate lace. The sleeves were puffed, and she wore a velvet ribbon around her neck. Her dark brown hair was curled in ringlets about her face.
    Nancy would be pretty, Kitty thought fleetingly, if she did not have such a pinched, disapproving, and superior look to her face. Her lips curved upward, brown eyes flashing with malice. “Well, don’t just stand there gawking. You must hurry and get back downstairs before someone snatches Nathan away from you.” She laughed—an ugly sound. “Wouldn’t that be terrible, after the way you threw yourself at him to get him to bring you here today? But why should you worry? As coarse and rough as you are, Kitty, dear, all you have to do is shoot the girl who dares, right?”
    Kitty started to reply. All the angry words were dancing on her tongue, waiting to be unleashed. Instead, she laughed. Nancy blinked, bewildered by Kitty’s reaction.
    “Oh, Nancy, why don’t you give up?” She shook her head from side to side, still laughing. “You really aren’t worth me worrying about, you know. I’ll admit that you used to really get under my skin. I’d run home from school and throw myself across my bed and cry for hours, because of