Reclaimed Love: Banished Saga, Book Two by Ramona Flightner Page B

change that.”
    “There are many here who are none too pleased with the Amalgamated takeover of Anaconda. They have ties to Boston. And you can’t help sounding like you do,” Liam said.
    Gabriel rolled his good eye at that comment coming from Liam in his thick Irish accent.
    “Yeah, like you’ve lost your R s every time you speak,” Matthew teased.
    “I do not,” Gabriel said.
    “Say bar, horse, fork,” Ronan taunted. “Please, especially fork.”
    “Ronan!” Amelia admonished him with a tap on his head. “No need to taunt the poor man after he’s already had his head bashed.”
    “Well, you don’t have to be so forthright about where you are from, Gabriel,” Liam said. “Say something vague.”
    “I am proud to be from Boston,” Gabriel protested.
    “That’s all well and good, but I would think you wouldn’t want too many more facers just now,” Matthew said.
    “Here, this is what got them so riled,” Ronan said. He rose and pulled out a copy of The Butte Miner from his jacket pocket. He handed it to Gabriel. “It came out today.”
    Gabriel groaned as he looked at the cartoon of a fat milking cow fed by Montana labor, but being milked by Wall Street with men in suits from Boston and New York walking away with the profits.
    “Damn,” Gabriel whispered. “ Fed in Montana, Milked in the East . Who writes this stuff?”
    “Whether you believe it or not, it’s how most feel out here, Gabe,” Liam said.
    “And I chose the worst day to admit to being from Boston,” Gabriel said.
    “Yes, though we know you aren’t profiting from it,” Matthew said. “Otherwise, you’d never bunk with me.” He made Gabriel laugh.
    “You weren’t at the bar alone, Gabe. Didn’t your work friends stand up for you?” Ronan asked.
    “They helped me up and stood by me once I got myself off the floor, and then ensured I wasn’t further attacked as I left the bar.”
    “At least they helped you a little,” Matthew said.
    “Why didn’t they clobber the man for you?” Ronan demanded from the floor. He had collapsed onto it again to play marbles with Nicholas who had squirmed down from Amelia’s lap as she rose to work in the kitchen.
    “I think they were waiting to see if I were insane enough to fight him.”
    “Big lout, was he?” Liam said with a laugh.
    “Monstrous. I wasn’t that stupid. Niall compared him to Cu Chulainn.”
    “Well, then count yourself lucky to still be with us,” Liam said with a wink.
    “I will. And I think I’ll avoid Daly’s Place from now on.”
    “Could you be any more dense, man?” Ronan moaned. “What in God’s name possessed you to talk about politics in a place like that?”
    “I thought we were having a quiet conversation as I learned more about the ways of Montana politics. I never imagined everyone around us was listening in and ripe for a fight.”
    “Gabriel, you seem intelligent. And I hope for your Clarissa’s sake you are. But don’t go stirring things up on the eve of an election in one of the copper king’s bastions of support.”
    Gabriel nodded. “Believe me, I’ve figured that out.”
    “The last thing you’d want to happen is to hurt your hands so you couldn’t work. You wouldn’t want to end up in the Cabbage Patch,” Liam said. They all grimaced.
    “None of us will ever end up in Butte’s slum,” Matthew vowed. All of them nodded their agreement and pledge to each other.
    Amelia called out from the kitchen where she was placing the finishing touches on dinner. “Did you know Gabriel’s Clarissa bashed his head open? That’s how they met.”
    “So you’re used to this kind of treatment?” Ronan asked with a laugh. “That’s good to know.”
    “Leave off, the lot of you,” Gabriel said, though he could not refrain from joining in their laughter.
    “What news from your letter, Gabriel?” Amelia asked. “You know how we all wish we received mail as regularly as you.”
    “Give me a little time, and I’ll tell you the