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

The walls were covered in pictures of exotic lands in the orient.
    Richard nudged Gabriel. “I bet Uncle’s been to those places.” He shared a smile with Gabriel as they moved into the room.
    “Don’t come any farther, you wretched, dirty boys.” Their aunt vibrated with anger as she sat in a chair near a roaring fire with mosaic emerald glass detailing around its edges. “I have no desire to force my maids to work any more than they do, cleaning up after the likes of you have invaded my private sanctuary.”
    “Of course, Aunt,” Gabriel said. “Where would you like us to go?”
    “You will stand there until you are dismissed.” After a long moment’s pause, she snapped, “We are waiting for my boys to finish their dinner. They will come to meet you. Although there can be nothing gained by an association with you on their part, you will benefit from your relationship with them.”
    “As you say, Aunt,” Gabriel said. He nudged his brothers, and they nodded their agreement.
    “I expect you to show me the deference I am due, Gabriel. None of this insolence in the future. Do you understand me?” She rose and moved toward them.
    Jeremy whimpered and burrowed into Gabriel’s side.
    “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t scare my brothers, Aunt.” Gabriel glared at her as he patted Jeremy.
    “They’ll have much more to be afraid of if you don’t learn to control your tongue or temper.” Her impassioned, disapproving countenance cleared as she heard light footsteps approaching. “Ah, here are my boys.”
    The McLeod boys turned to face their cousins for the first time. Gabriel elbowed Richard in the side as he snickered, causing Richard to grunt and be quiet. Both cousins wore crisp light-green shirts with a darker green waistcoat, a striped bow tie and fawn-colored pants that bunched at the knee. Tan socks and polished coffee-colored shoes covered the lower half of their legs and feet.
    “Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” Gabriel said.
    “I don’t know why we should be expected to make your acquaintance,” the taller of the two boys said, his dishwater-brown bangs falling into his pale brown eyes, smirking at the McLeod brothers as he looked them up and down. “Who are these people, Mother?” He sidled past his cousins, not touching them and standing beside his mother’s chair. His younger brother followed suit, a scornful sneer on his face.
    “They are your cousins, Henry.” Mrs. Masterson reached up to grasp her son’s hand, patting it once.
    Gabriel stiffened at the derision in her tone, standing with perfect posture in his tattered clothes. He curled his toes in his socks, keenly aware of how out of place he was in this fine home.
    “We have no cousins,” the younger one said. “Besides, if we did, we’d have the good sense to at least have ones that came with better clothes.”
    “My sister had the misfortune to marry a worthless man, and these are her children. A cautionary tale,” she said as she rose. “Now that you’ve met my sons, it is time to have you settled and for you to see to your duties.”
    “Duties, Aunt?” Gabriel asked.
    “You didn’t believe you’d come here and have free room and board?” She smiled as Nicholas and Henry laughed. “You will earn your keep as anyone who is not one of us does.”
    “I had hoped we would be granted a reprieve for what we’ve suffered,” Gabriel said.
    “My, they taught you fancy words at that backwater public school, didn’t they? No, you will receive no reprieve. Not from me. You will learn the importance of hard work. It will build your character. None of this laying-about, do-nothing idleness propagated by your father and those you associated with in that wretched West End. Here you will learn to work.”
    “Our father worked hard,” Richard snapped.
    “Our mother believed our work was to study and to find success through education,” Gabriel argued.
    “You will continue to attend school.” She held up a hand as