Read Love's First Flames (Banished Saga, 0.5) for Free Online Page B

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