Renegade Heart Read Online Free Page A

Master saw it also. He pushed past Valistra and threw the empty bed to one side. Enola and Wolf blinked sleepily at the adults from their nest of blankets on the floor.
    “What scandal is this?” the Orphan Master roared as the bewildered children tried to untangle themselves. “You shame yourself, girl, by taking this boy into your bed.”
    “They’re children,” Valistra broke in. “I’m sure they’ve never …”
    “I’m not interested in what you’re sure of!” the Orphan Master raged, mortified that a fellow Master was on hand to witness such embarrassment. He hauled Wolf to his feet and thrust him towards the Cadet Master. “Take this brat away. And if you have sense you’ll beat him thoroughly on a regular basis.”
    Wolf began to fight, trying to reach Enola who was hiding behind Valistra, eyes wide with fright. Alganoor, bigger and stronger by far, subdued him with ease. With a curt nod at the Orphan Master he dragged the struggling boy away.
    The other girls sat up in their beds, watching the furore with open mouths. Most of them knew Wolf slept beneath Enola’s bed and none objected, but they were afraid to speak up in case they were included in the Orphan Master’s wrath.
    “Let this be a lesson to you all,” the Orphan Master warned the remaining girls. “If you act like a whore you will be treated like one.”
    “Orphan Master?” Valistra held Enola against her, feeling the tremors that shook the girl’s slender body.
    “She lay with the boy,” the Orphan Master spat. “She can forget becoming a seamstress. From this moment on she will be a whore.”

Enola had never seen anything like the luxury of the whore house. Her fingers itched to stroke the heavy, plush drapes hanging at the windows and she gasped with surprise when she sat on a chair and sank into a soft eiderdown cushion.
    Even the Madame, who had given the Orphan Master short shrift and sent him on his way, was a sight to behold. Madame Magnosa was tall and lean with rouge on her sculptured cheekbones and painted red lips. The colour and finery of her robes were enchanting to a child who had not known until that point that clothes came in anything other than brown or grey.
    In turn, Madame Magnosa regarded the unexpected new arrival with equal curiosity. Many girls had passed through her doors over the turns, some of whom had been real beauties, but it was rare to find one with such an angelic quality about her. Despite the story the Orphan Master had told her, Magnosa found it hard to match what she had heard with the forlorn little figure sat in her parlour.
    “Tell me about the boy,” Magnosa probed gently. “How long have you been laying with him?”
    At the mention of Wolf, the girl’s face brightened immediately. Enola instinctively liked and trusted Magnosa, and if she were to give her a home it was important the woman should understand her friendship with Wolf.
    “For our whole lives,” she answered eagerly. “Or at least, since we were five turns. That’s when we were both taken to the orphanage. Sometimes we lay together and sometimes Wolf lays on the floor and I lay on my bed.”
    Magnosa’s frown deepened as she realised she was right in her assumption that the girl was incredibly naïve and innocent. “Child, do you know the difference between men and women?”
    Enola blushed furiously and lowered her gaze. “I heard the older girls talking once,” she said shyly. “They said boys have a …thing. But I’ve never seen one.”
    “And this boy of yours, has he ever put his thing between your legs?”
    “No!” Enola cried. “Wolf would never do a horrible thing like that. Why would he?”
    There were plenty of men in the city, Magnosa knew, who would pay good coin to lay their hands on an innocent child like Enola. And in doing so they would destroy all that it was they desired about her. Feeling unusually soft hearted, Magnosa was determined she would not allow that to happen. She would keep the