Justin awoke with a start. He rolled over and into Brian's arms.

"Finally waking up, sleepyhead?" Brian asked with a smirk.

"This air mattress was great. I slept like a baby."

"Yeah, I just got finished wiping the drool off my chest."

"I don't drool," Justin declared.

Brian's eyebrow shot up, but he kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to fight, and even though Justin did drool, it was kind of endearing. He knew he was becoming a fucking lesbian as soon as that thought rolled through his head. "Time to get up," he said abruptly.

"No morning treehouse sex?" Justin asked batting his eyelashes.

"I have to piss."

"Over the railing."

Brian glared at Justin. "I did that for Gus because he couldn't wait."

"I'm surprised you didn't have a latrine installed up here."

"Hmm," Brian replied looking around.

"You're not…"

"No, I'm not," Brian said with a smirk, "but it would be convenient. Get up."

"Why?"

"It's morning."

"I have something under here that might interest you," Justin said suggestively. Brian could see him stroking himself inside the sleeping bag. He watched the hand movement and his eyes began to darken with lust.

"Wait a minute," Brian said stepping outside and emptying his bladder over the railing. "Did you hold that thought?" Brian asked as he reappeared.

"I was holding something else," Justin replied as he threw back the top of the sleeping bag revealing himself in all his naked glory. His hand held his rigid cock upright just waiting for Brian.

Brian let out a growl as he flopped down next to Justin, his tongue licking through the slit of Justin's cock, eliciting a deep moan. Justin held his dick ready for Brian as the man began licking and sucking the head. Justin squirmed and moaned as Brian increased the intensity of his tongue action.

"Ah, shit!" Justin moaned as Brian deep throated him. With Brian bobbing up and down on his dick Justin gave himself over to the feelings that swept through his body. Brian always complimented Justin on his blowjobs, but it was really Brian who was the master. Justin cried out as Brian finished him off. Brian swallowed and looked at his flushed and satisfied partner. He waited for Justin to open his eyes, as he licked his lips. Nobody tasted as good as Justin.

"You look like a cat who just finished a plate of milk."

"I feel like one. You are … deeelicious!" Brian said against his ear. It sent shivers all over Justin's body.

Justin glanced down at Brian's own hard on. "Want to fuck, big guy?" he asked with a grin.

Brian ran his hand down Justin's cheek. "I always want to fuck you. You know that, don't you?"

Justin nodded looking into the eyes he loved. "So what are you waiting for?"

Brian chuckled as he started rubbing against his lover. They were so good together. Rubbing turned to nips and bites and long, sensuous kisses. That was followed by a major rimming session before Brian finally entered his willing partner. They rode out the waves of pleasure that always swirled around them when they made love. Orgasm was the natural outcome, but it was also a by-product of their purest form of communication. Justin knew in those moments that Brian loved him more than anything on earth. And Brian knew that his love and commitment to Justin was the most enduring thing in his life. They had no doubts or regrets or fears in those moments. It was perfect.

They held each other tenderly when it was over. Justin turned his face up and they kissed. One last expression of what had just happened between them.

"Are you ready to get up now?" Brian asked with a smirk. The moment was over and Brian had to put the total emotion meltdown behind him. He could only deal with so much.

Justin knew this would happen. "I guess. Why are you in such a hurry?"

"I want to find out how John and Peter made out last night."

"You really care about what happens to them, don't you?"

Brian made a face but he didn't deny it. He grabbed Justin by the arm and pulled him up. They threw on some clothes and took the slide down to the ground.

After breakfast John, Justin and Brian made their way to the farm using the convenient shortcut. As they entered the yard they could see several boys in the process of feeding the horses, chickens and goats. John was one of them. Peter didn't seem to be anywhere around.

"Hey, John," Justin said looking at the boy who was sprinkling grain for the chickens.

"Did you come to take us home?" John asked hopefully.

"Afraid not," Justin admitted and watched John's face fall. "Don't you like it here?"

"I'm feeding fucking chickens! What's to like?"

"I used to do that when I was a kid," big John said with a grin. "Later I got to ride one of the horses as a reward."

"Bill said we have to be perfect for several days before we get a chance to ride. I'll never make it," young John said with a sigh.

"How be I speed matters up a little?" big John asked.

"You can do that?"

John grinned. "Anything for a relative … or a friend of Brian's."

The boy looked into John's eyes so much like his uncle's, but different. This man could do anything in John's eyes, especially if he could get him a ride on a horse.

"Finish up your chores," big John said as he headed for the farmhouse. "Brian, Justin, come along."

Brian and Justin followed him inside. There they saw Peter scrubbing the floor and he scowled at them, opening his mouth like he was about to curse them out. Then it clamped shut and he continued mopping the floor.

In Steve's office they all sat down.

"How are they doing?" Brian asked.

"John's been fairly cooperative after what I told you about last night. Peter is another story. That's why he's scrubbing the floor. He refused to help with breakfast so he got none. When I assigned him his chores with the other boys he gave me a mouthful. So he scrubs the floor, gets no lunch and no one is allowed to talk to him."

"Do you think you're making any progress with him at all?" Brian asked.

"Not yet, but it often takes a few days."

"We thought we'd go for a ride," John said. "Can John come with us?"

Steve thought for a moment. "Peter's almost finished washing the floor. I'll assign him to help saddle the horses, and then he can watch John get his ride. That might drive home the concept of good behavior being rewarded."

Justin grinned. "You are evil."

"Not evil. I just understand how these young minds work."

In the barn both John and Peter helped the adults saddle the horses. It didn't escape Peter's notice that they were saddling four horses, one more than John, Brian and Justin would need. He wondered if Steve or Bill would take the fourth one.

When everything was ready, big John helped Brian and Justin mount their horses. Neither had much experience with horses, but each had ridden a few times. Big John walked over to his nephew and boosted John up onto the fourth horse. John's grin was wide and excited.

"Hey!" Peter said. "How come he gets to ride?"

"Steve tells me John has been working and cooperating. That's all we ask of either of you."

"I've been working," Peter protested. He glared at his brother.

"Not willingly, and not without foul language," Brian said making eye contact with his nephew.

"Well fuck all of you!" Peter yelled as the riders moved away. "This isn't fair."

"The more you protest, Peter," Steve said coming up behind the boy, "the longer it will be before you get to ride."

"I don't want to fucking ride! I don't want anything from any of you. I hate you all!" With tears welling up in his eyes he ran into the bunkhouse and buried his head in his pillow.

Steve shook his head as he watched John bouncing along on the back of his mount. Peter was going to be a tough nut to crack.

"Uncle John," young John said when they returned from their ride, "thanks for getting Steve to let me do that. It was fun."

"You should thank your Uncle Brian. He was the one who got me to come down here this morning and see you guys."

John looked at his uncle. Grudgingly he said, "Thanks." Then he began unsaddling his horse. He hoped his Uncle Brian went home soon. Then he could have Uncle John all to himself.

Since it was close to lunch, the rule was that if you want to eat, you help prepare the meal. All the boys were assigned a job and they had to serve the adults first before they got to eat. John's job was to get out the loaves of bread and cut them up for sandwiches. Peter was assigned the task of pouring out lemonade for everyone.

At first John was perplexed, unsliced bread was a bit of a mystery to him. He looked around for an adult to ask for help. "Um, Uncle John, I've never cut up bread before, could you help me?"

"Sorry, John, I have to discuss something with Steve and Bill. Why don't you ask your Uncle Brian for help?"

"I don't think he would help me."

"You won't know until you ask." Begrudgingly, little John walked over to Brian who was deep in conversation with Justin. Little John stood near Justin, a little afraid to interrupt them.

"What is it John?" Justin asked the boy.

"I wanted to ask Uncle Brian something," John replied almost too softly to be heard. Brian looked up and readied himself for another insult.

"Uncle Brian, I have to cut up the bread for sandwiches. I didn't know that some bread needed to be cut, um, could you, ah, help me? Please?" Brian looked into the little boy's eyes; he wanted to tell the evil child to fuck off, but he didn't. This was the first time John ever addressed Brian with some sort of civility, Brian decided that his usual snark would be very inappropriate. "Yes John, I would be very happy to help you."

"Brian..." Justin, unsure of what may happen between uncle and nephew, was prepared to volunteer his services.

"Justin, I realize that I have absolutely no skill in a kitchen and that I'm risking one or perhaps two of my fingers but I think I can handle being my nephew's assistant." Both little John and Justin looked up and tried to figure out if this Brian was the real deal or a clone. "Come on, John; let's find a cutting board and a bread basket. Don't want the bread to go sailing all over the place."

"Okay." Brian and John went in search of bread slicing implements.

Big John came back to the kitchen and sat next to Justin. Not quite believing his eyes he asked Justin for verification. "Justin, am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

"Yes, you are. Amazing, isn't it."

"Definitely a Kodak moment. I'm glad we're making some progress with John; Peter is still another matter." John and Justin saw Peter struggling with the large heavy pitchers of lemonade, stubbornly refusing to ask for help. He got most of the glasses filled when he turned suddenly and knocked over a glass. It went crashing to the floor shattering into hundreds of sharp pieces. Brian yelled for Peter to freeze. "Justin, can you come here and help John finish with the bread, I'll help Peter."

Shocked but pleased with Brian, Justin got up to help John.

"Peter, don't move. You're standing in a lot of glass; I don't want you to get hurt." Brian's use of his commanding business voice got through to Peter who remained frozen to the spot. Brian picked up a broom and began to sweep the glass away from Peter. When the floor was clear, Brian lifted Peter out of the surrounding debris. He shook him a little to knock off any remaining shards of glass then gently deposited the boy in the opposite end of the room. Bill, who came running out when he heard the crash, finished cleaning up as Brian examined Peter.

"You're not cut, are you?"

Peter, still shocked at what had happened and that he wasn't being screamed at for doing something stupid, answered in a squeaky tear filled voice. "No, I don't think so."

"Sit here, I'm going to check your legs, okay?" Peter nodded as his eyes grew wide as saucers. As a matter of fact, all of the eyes in the room grew wide as saucers as Brian squatted and carefully checked Peter's jeans for any remaining glass and his legs for any cuts. Satisfied that there wasn't anything amiss with the boy, Brian stood up and exhaled loudly. "Phew, well that was a close one. Thank the gods you're not hurt. Your mother would tan my ass if I brought you back minus something. I'm hungry. You hungry? I think lunch is ready, let's eat."

"But, I'm not allowed to eat until I finish helping."

"I think you did a fine job filling all those glasses. I'll check with Steve first but I think it's all right for you to sit with us. Okay?"

"Okay." With the fixings for sandwiches on the table and the table set for lunch, the whole gang sat at the table ready to eat. "Steve, is it all right that Peter joins us for lunch. He finished his assignment."

"Yes he did. He deserves his lunch." Steve beamed at all his boys and the meal commenced without further ado.

After lunch, Bill had other jobs that needed to be done including milking the cows. Brian and big John decided to hang around and watch. Justin went back to the farmhouse. He was anxious to go back and take at better look in Kinney's trunk. Justin's curiosity into Kinney's life was getting the better of him.

******************************************

"Claire, I'm back! Do you want to go back up to the attic?"

"Are John and Brian with you?"

"No, they decided to hang out at the farm for a while. You should have seen what happened. Amazing. I think this experience may be a good thing for everyone and I don't mean just for Brian's nephews. I'm really proud of Brian. It must be this place; his paternal side is showing."

"I don't think it's just the farm. Brian really cares about his nephews. He wants them to turn out right."

"Maybe. Anyway, are you ready to go back up and take a look at the letters?"

"No need. I went up after you all left. Other than the letters and the sketches, there's nothing really important in the trunk. I took a good look in it and unraveled some of the rolls of canvas. It's just plain canvas, nothing on them. I checked over the trunk, no hidden panels. I brought the letters down here. I have an old shoe box. I can store the letters in it and keep them in my room. As far as John and Brian are concerned, the trunk contained the sketches. Until I'm sure nothing in the letters can harm them, I'd rather we keep the letters to ourselves."

"I agree. How do we start?"

"We put them into chronological order and then we read them."

There were four stacks of letters. Most of the correspondence was between Kinney and his wife. Several were to his lawyer and a few were to his children. Kinney tried to explain to his children his reasons for leaving them, asking for their forgiveness. Kinney's wife, Martha, was hurt by his need to be with Patrick but seemed to have eventually forgiven him. His son, Brian, never forgave the artist and didn't want anything to do with him. When he grew up Brian accepted his role as landlord; he eventually married and led a quiet respectable life on this estate. Martha never remarried and stayed on to help run the household, taking a secondary role to Brian's wife who, when she married Brian, became mistress of the estate. Kinney's daughter, also named Martha, inherited Kinney's artistic free spirit. The letters made mention of her sketches and paintings. Although she was sad that her father was not around, she eventually wrote to her father. A few letters were his responses. She never married, continued to paint and lived with her mother.

"Claire, later I'm going to look at the sketches again. Maybe they're not all Kinney's. Maybe some of them were done by Martha."

"Hmm, I never thought of that. That would be interesting, but they all look alike to me."

"Most artists sign their work. I'll look at them more carefully later. It's sad that Kinney and his family never got back together. I'm happy that our Brian was braver than that."

"So am I Justin, so am I."

They continued to read the letters, sharing their contents. It was slow going, but not because they were faded. The letters were in remarkably good condition. It was the elegant script that made it difficult to read.

"Justin, look, Kinney and Patrick started out in South America but somehow found their way to Mexico. It would be fascinating to find out if there's any record of them anywhere."

"Hmm, I wonder if I can get Brian to fly us down to Mexico for a vacation," Justin said with a very Brian-like tongue in cheek grin. Claire and Justin shared the humorous moment then put the letters away when they heard the boys coming up the path.