Love's First Flames (Banished Saga, 0.5) (5 page)

“Don’t leave,” Gabriel said before he could stop himself. He looked down, not wanting to see the pity in her gaze.

“I’m not going anywhere. But here, take these with you.” She held out another small stack of cookies. Jeremy reached for one, gobbling it up in a few short bites. She smiled with pleasure. “Ah, I can see I will have an appreciative audience for my cooking in you three. Although I’ll have trouble keeping you fed.” She glanced toward the door. “Off with you now.”

They rose, walking soundlessly to their room and shutting the door behind them. “Why aren’t we to have friends here, Gabe?” Richard asked as they sat on their cots and gorged on cookies.

“I don’t know, Rich. But that’s the way Aunt wants it, and no one here seems willing to go against what she says.” Gabriel shook his head at another cookie, letting his brothers finish the pile of cookies.

“Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a glass of milk,” Richard said as he patted his full stomach.

“Those were much better than Mum’s,” Jeremy said, then he bit his lips as they quivered.

Gabriel smiled and reached over to ruffle his hair. “Mum never was a good cook, although she was awful proud at the trying of it.”

“Are they really dead, Gabe?” Richard whispered.

“I think so,” Gabriel said as he met their mournful eyes. “I can’t imagine Aunt would take us in for any other reason. And I know Mum would never let us come here if she were alive.”

“Or Da. He’d want us with him,” Richard said with fierce pride.

“Yeah. So they must be . . .” Gabriel said, unwilling to say the word. He firmed his mouth. “We’ll be fine. There’s still the three of us. And you’re right, Rich. Uncle Aidan’ll come and get us. He’d never let us stay here. He’ll want us.”

Richard’s and Jeremy’s eyes lit with joy at the thought of their uncle coming to take them away.

“He’ll come soon. He has all those Christmas presents for us. He won’t want them to go to anyone other than his nephews.” Gabriel watched as his words soothed Jeremy and Richard, and they settled onto their cots for their first night in their aunt’s home. Gabriel rolled onto his side, dreaming of his uncle’s arrival to take them away from this place.

CHAPTER FOUR

“LOOK WHO’S COMING, NICHOLAS,” Henry said. He walked next to his brother as they cut through the Public Garden on their way home from school. They wore their school’s uniform of starched black pants, crisp white shirt, mustard-yellow waistcoat and burgundy jacket. A straw hat, at a jaunty angle, sat on each of their heads. “It’s the orphans.”

“Ignore them,” Gabriel said as the joy in the singsongy pronouncement of “orphans” caused him to stiffen his shoulders. “We’ve enough to do once we arrive at our aunt’s. You know she expects us to haul in the coal for her before we can do our studies.”

Gabriel jerked, half spinning as Henry grabbed his collar, halting Gabriel’s forward momentum when he attempted to walk past his cousins. “We ignore you, gutter scum. You have no right to ignore us. We’ve taken you in. Given you food from our table. The least you can do is show us respect.”

“Our da said respect was earned,” Richard said, inserting himself between Gabriel and his cousins even though he was at least three inches shorter than any of them. “Not given just because you wear some fancy suit that makes you look uglier than a wart on a baboon’s bottom.”

“Why you little . . .” Henry growled. He jabbed Jeremy in the eye, causing a muffled wail to rend the air and effectively reducing the fight to two-on-two. Gabriel leaned over to check on Jeremy, momentarily giving his cousins a chance to gang up on Richard. Nicholas gripped Richard’s arms while Henry’s fists pummeled Richard in his belly. Richard tried to defend himself with his feet, but with limited success.

Gabriel sprang into the milieu, jumping on Nicholas’s back in an attempt to get him to let Richard go. Gabriel head butted Nicholas, and Gabriel saw stars for a moment before getting his arms around his younger cousin’s neck and holding on for dear life. When Gabriel leaned down and bit Nicholas’s ear, Nicholas’s howl of distress provoked a grim smile of satisfaction from Gabe.

Nicholas didn’t release Richard, and, when Richard again raised his foot to defend himself against Henry, Richard became off balance, tipping into an off-kilter Nicholas. All three stumbled backward and to the side, Richard falling to his knees and Gabriel jumping off Nicholas’s back just as Nicholas fell into the off-season muck in the pond.

“That’s what happens when you pick on a McLeod,” Gabriel said, a triumphant gleam in his bright blue eyes. He smiled when Jeremy giggled as Nicholas extricated himself from the pond, dripping decaying leaves, mud and water.

“My mother will hear of this, and you’ll pay for it,” Henry said, extending his hand to help his brother before backing away as he realized he’d become dirty too.

Gabriel gave Richard a pat on his shoulder for support. Gabriel watched his cousins march toward their home, and the McLeod boys slowed their walk toward the back alley. “Don’t worry about Aunt. I’m sure she understands boys fight.” He gave Richard and Jeremy a weak smile, unable to convince even himself of what he spoke. “Let’s head home, see if we can’t convince one of the new maids into giving us some ice.” He pulled Jeremy up, and they trudged toward the rear entrance to their aunt’s grand house off Commonwealth Avenue.

When they snuck in the back door, they headed down the brick stairs to the basement and their cramped room. “You two clean up and try to rest. See if you can’t sweet-talk Bridget into a piece of ice for your eye, Jeremy.” Gabriel gave him a quick pat on his head. “I’ll take care of hauling the coal.” He removed his school clothes and donned his other set, a too-small pair of pants that resembled short pants and a shirt that had been indigo but was now gray and threadbare.

He ascended the steps, walked to the rear shed in the miniscule back area behind the house, and filled a pair of buckets with coal to haul into the furnace room. He had finished the fourth trip to the rear shed when he heard his aunt’s rat-tat-tat footsteps and her piercing voice.

“Where are you cretins?” she shrieked. She lunged out of the servants’ stairs to see him, a thin film of coal dust on his clothes and face. She strode to him, slapping him across either cheek before he had any indication of her intent. “How dare you treat my sons with such insolence and disrespect? And in the Public Garden, in front of those of good society. I’ll show you, you miserable, worthless boy.” She gripped his arm, causing Gabriel to drop the buckets and spill coal on the walkway as she towed him behind her.

She dragged him down the stairs and barged into the room shared by the McLeod brothers. “When I think of all I have done, sheltering and feeding the three of you. Why, I’ve given you a room in my home!” She paused, her breath heaving from her exertions. “And to have my charity spurned in such a manner, it’s not to be borne.”

She spun to face Gabriel. “If you know what is good for you, you’ll not speak, and you’ll follow me.” She turned and reached forward, grabbing Jeremy and Richard by their arms, nearly wrenching them from their sockets, and hauling them up the stairs toward a waiting carriage. She thrust them inside and then turned for Gabriel. “Get in.” He clambered up the step, sitting between his brothers as their aunt entered the carriage.

“I’m sure you ignorant, unwanted boys can have no doubt about where I would only too willingly take you.” Her glower became more severe at their persistent silence. “Is this why your parents preferred death over the raising of you? Because you are simpletons, unable to answer basic questions, and they couldn’t fathom such a life with children such as you?”

Gabriel stiffened next to his brothers but placed a calming hand on Jeremy’s and Richard’s leg in an attempt to provide some form of solace from her harsh words. “Our parents died in a tragic accident, Aunt, as you know. We were wanted.”

The carriage rattled to a stop, and she peered out the window before leaning her head out to screech up at the driver. “It seems we must walk the rest of the way as he’s afraid it’s too narrow, and he won’t be able to extricate the carriage from such a rabbit warren.” The door was thrust open, and she stumbled out in her haste. “Follow me.”

Jeremy and Richard glanced up at Gabriel, unable to hide the fear and trepidation in their eyes. He gave them a quick nod and motioned for them to follow their aunt from the carriage. He scrambled after them, jostled to and fro as he raced after her as she towed his brothers alongside her.

Men and women walked past him, speaking in a foreign language, gesturing broadly with their hands as they spoke. He stumbled on uneven cobblestones as he looked up, the early evening even darker as they entered the confines of the narrow streets with three- and four-story buildings around them. Exotic scents filled the air; children played in the streets. Men pushed carts by hand down twisty-turny side alleys, too small for horse-drawn wagons. Gabriel raced after his aunt, having been momentarily delayed watching a marbles match between children who appeared to be his age.

He bumped into her from behind when she veered out of the way of a moving cart and continued down a darkened alley as they traversed through the largely unknown and exotic North End. In many ways it reminded Gabriel of his old neighborhood, and he battled nostalgia. She came to a halt in front of a four-story faded redbrick building with an imposing oak door. A brass knocker in the shape of a lion’s head sat in the center of the door.

“Do you know what this place is?” Aunt Masterson shook Jeremy and Richard causing their teeth to rattle as they attempted to answer. “Do you?” Her voice shrieked a near echo down the alley. The young boys at the end of the alley glanced toward them, but then turned their backs and continued their marbles match when they saw Mrs. Masterson.

“Aunt, whatever you imagine we did, we’re sorry,” Gabriel said. He moved toward Jeremy, whose right eye had begun to swell shut, only to be pushed to his aunt’s other side. Gabriel now stood with his aunt between him and his brothers.

“Do you want to know what happens when orphan boys are bad?” She turned to glare at them, her blue eyes sparkling with venom. “Their families throw them out, like unwanted shoes, and they end up in places like this.”

Jeremy, Richard and Gabriel turned to stare at the door. Richard opened his mouth to speak but bit his lip when Gabriel glared at him. “What is this place?” Gabriel asked.

“A home for unwanted children. Like you. For you aren’t, and never have been, wanted.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it,” Gabriel said, his blue eyes lit with anger as he gripped his hands together as though preparing for another fight. “Our parents wanted us. Our Uncle Aidan wants us.”

“You dare to contradict me? You dare to doubt the word of the one person in this world who came to take you in after your miserable parents died? Never forget this. If there is ever another episode like the one I heard about today, with my poor sons subjected to the heathen behavior of you three boys, tormenting them on their peaceful walk home from school, this will be your home.” She pointed to the austere wooden door.

Gabriel nodded, his shoulders relaxing. His aunt watched as her threat didn’t seem to affect her nephews as much as she’d envisioned it would. A calculating smile flirted with her lips. “Your home, Gabriel. Jeremy’s would be on some stop off on an orphan train. Richard’s, somewhere on a crew bound for South America. I will ensure you would never live together again. You would never have your brothers around you again if you act as you did today.” She shook Jeremy again for good measure.

He moved to kick her but missed, causing dust to rise in the air as his foot connected with a pile of day-old horse dung.

Gabriel gripped his hands and nodded. “We understand, Aunt. My brothers and I are sure sad Nicholas fell into the pond in his best clothes.”

Richard muttered, “Like hell I am.”

Gabriel glared at Richard while Aunt Masterson cuffed Richard on the head and pushed him a step in front of her.

“Now that we understand each other, we shall return home where you will finish your duties. As for your penance, you will not receive supper tonight to allow you more time to ponder your actions.”

“Yes, Aunt,” they mumbled.

***

“GABE? YOU AWAKE?” Jeremy asked as he squirmed around on his cot, the wooden slats squeaking with his movement.

“Yeah, don’t wake Rich.” Gabriel whispered only loud enough to be heard over Richard’s gentle snore. He heard Jeremy scoot to the foot of his cot and then the soft tread of his stockinged feet as he approached the foot of his bed. “Climb in then.” Gabriel held up his blanket, attempting to fight back a shiver as the cold leaked in.

He hissed as Jeremy dove in, elbowing him in his stomach.

“Sorry,” Jeremy whispered as he curled up next to Gabriel. He yawned, but Gabriel knew it would be a while before he settled again. “Tell me a story, Gabe.”

Gabriel sighed, holding his youngest brother to him. “One day, in the not-too-distant future, our uncle Aidan is going to walk through our aunt’s door. He’s going to . . .” Gabe wove a tale as wondrous as the ones their mother used to tell them, of knights on noble journeys, finally returning home to their families after years apart. However, this knight, rather than a mythical being, was their uncle Aidan, and he would slay their dragon, in the form of Aunt Masterson.

Gabriel sighed as he felt Jeremy fall to sleep next to him. “I hope our uncle doesn’t take as long as those knights in the story. For whatever I have to do, we will not be separated.” He closed his eyes, weariness overcoming any despair at his current life with his brothers.