His Heart's Revenge (The Marshall Brothers Series, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

her. He pushed the colonel backward until he had Allen pressed against the wall, his head jammed in the corner made by the wall and the mantel. The gilt-edged portrait of some long-dead relative slipped off center as Logan pulled Allen forward and slammed him against the wall again. "What have you told her?" he said with soft menace. "What makes her want to protect you?"
    Still icy under pressure, the colonel chose an alternate strategy. "I'm going to have you court-martialed."
    "I'm not one of your men. This uniform's my own, not army issue. I work for Brady and whomever else I want to. And I damn well don't want to work for you. Now, you can take your threat and do whatever you want with it—except use it on me. When I brought Rose and her daughters to your headquarters, I thought I was putting them in good hands. When I heard you were marrying Mrs. McCleary, I was happy that I'd had a small part in it. What I just witnessed made me realize how wrong I've been. Does Rose know?"
    Mary Catherine jumped to her feet. "No!" She attacked Logan from behind, sending him off balance so that he released the colonel. She pounded on his back. "No! You can't say anything! You'll ruin everything! It's a secret! Our secret! Mama can't know!"
    Twisting around, Logan caught Mary Catherine by the wrists and quieted her while the colonel slipped away. "Shh, Katy. Hush. Your mama wants to know this secret. Trust me."
    But that was the same thing the colonel had said, and he was as much the enemy as Logan Marshall. Mary Catherine did not trust anyone. The tears that flooded her eyes dripped over her cheeks. "Don't tell," she pleaded. "Everything will change. Terrible things will happen. You can't understand about secrets like this."
    Logan hugged Mary Catherine to him. The front of his shirt was damp with her tears. He watched Colonel Allen move toward the door. "Don't bother sending for someone to throw me out," he said, correctly divining Allen's intentions. "I'm leaving, and I'm taking Katy with me. She's not coming back here unless Rose decides that's what she wants."
    It was happening already, Mary Catherine thought. Only it wasn't Colonel Allen who was going to make her leave—it was Logan. "I'm not leaving! I can't! Please don't make me go!"
    "What the hell have you said to her?" Logan said. His jaw was rigid with anger, his eyes steely.
    "Listen to her, Marshall," Allen advised. "She's not supporting whatever crack-brained notion you've taken into your head. I suggest, for your own good, you get the hell out of my home and leave Mary Catherine here. You won't like the consequences otherwise."
    "I'll take my chances." He picked up Mary Catherine, who was struggling and squirming in his grasp, and carried her out of the study, past Allen, and into the bright morning sunshine.
    * * *
    Rose, Megan, and Mary Catherine left Washington later that day. Their destination was the farm homestead of Rose's second cousin just west of Richmond. There was no scandal, nor would there be. With the exception of Logan Marshall, what happened would remain a family secret. The story that circulated as a result of their hasty departure was the convenient sick relative fable. At Rose's insistence they took only a few belongings. Everything the colonel had given them seemed soiled now. Rose blamed herself for not knowing what was happening to her own child. Megan blamed her sister. Mary Catherine blamed Logan.
    That very afternoon, after an uncomfortable farewell with Rose and her daughters, Logan began the journey back to his unit at Chancellorsville. Let Allen handle the dispatch, he thought. He'd done what he was supposed to do. For the first time in recent memory Logan was actually glad to be returning to the field.
    He wasn't particularly surprised when he didn't make it. He had anticipated the colonel would make some kind of move against him, though the swiftness of Allen's actions caught him off guard. He estimated he was ten miles from the road