Read Boyett-Compo Charlotte - Wind Tales 01 for Free Online Page B

Nick asked.
    Brownie lifted her massive head and shook the golden-brown fur as though she were answering. She
    turned her face toward her master, studied him for a moment, then lowered her head to her paws once
    more, her cinnamony eyes flicked from side to side, reconnoitering the chamber, then closed.
    Nick chuckled to himself. A good friend to have, he thought as he spooned a large helping of the stew
    into his mouth. Probably your only friend, eh, Prince Kaelan? he thought. As he ate, he thought back to
    the autumn equinox nine years earlier when he and his family had Journeyed to Virago and been
    presented at the court of the Hesars.
    It had not been a particularly happy occasion, for none of the Crees had wanted to leave their native
    Chale for the wilds of the stormy north country. But their father, Duke Dakin Cree, had been posted as
    Chale's ambassador to the windswept cliffs of that cold land and his family had reluctantly accompanied
    him.
    On the very day of his presentation at court, the long-widowed Duke of Warthenham had met the
    Countess Elga Junstrom and, after only one month in Virago, had taken her to wife. Their father's
    marriage to the gold-digging Countess had added more fuel to the fires of contempt in which the five
    Cree siblings held Virago and the barren coldness that was Tempest Keep. The cold weather was
    another deterrent.
    That had been when Prince Landis, Prince Kaelan's father, was Jarl. The elder Hesar was a stern man
    who never smiled and who seemed to bear the Crees a particular dislike. Barely civil to the Duke, openly
    contemptuous of the ‘brats’ the Ambassador had brought with him from Chale, Landis had made life at
    the Keep most unpleasant. Perhaps having to hand over his favorite mistress into the keeping of a minor
    Chale nobleman had been reason enough to find disfavor with the Duke, but the Prince's dislike of the
    Cree children puzzled even the most jaded among the court's hangers-on.
    Why? Nick thought as he set aside his bowl. Why had the old man hated them so? He supposed no one
    would ever know, for Landis was long since in his grave and Duncan, Kaelan's older brother, was now
    Jarl at Tempest Keep.
    Things had changed drastically for the Cree family when Landis and his youngest son, Anson, had both
    succumbed to the lung fever eight winters past. The twenty-six year old Duncan had not shared his
    father's contempt for the Duke and his offspring, though he was not as warm to them as he was to some
    others assigned as emissaries to the Court of the Storm. He had shown the Crees a better time of it than
    his father had and had even made good matches for the two eldest Cree daughters: Adele and Adair. He
    also found a most enchanting wife for the eldest son, Ruan.
    The marriages had elevated the Cree siblings to a much higher rank within the court and had, fortunately,
    brought much happiness to those involved.
    But unhappiness for me and Gillian, Nick remembered with a bitter frown.
    Duncan had found a bride for the sixteen year old youngest son of Dakin Cree. Ruan's wife, Brigid, had
    a younger sister of marriageable age and it was to Nicholas, that Prince Duncan engaged her.
    Without Nick's knowledge or consent. When Nick discovered himself engaged to a girl he thought
    flighty and perhaps more than a little stupid, the young man balked and refused to allow the marriage to
    take place.
    “I'll join a monastery before I'll shackle myself to that empty-headed chit!” he'd ranted at his father.
    “You just might have to!” the Duke had shouted back. “How can I tell His Grace you find this betrothal
    not to your liking? He's done well with your sisters and brother! He has only your best interests in mind!"
    “My brother and sisters,” Nick had seethed with disdain, “can be led like cattle to the market. I can
    not!” He had flung out his hand. “I WILL not!"
    “Nor will I!” a thirteen year old Gillian had vowed before being sent from the room by her irate