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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