She didn’t follow or reply as they walked away, and he tried not to think it was because her eyes had filled with tears or that her throat had swelled with sadness.
“That lady,” said Chance cautiously, as he trotted after him, “she from your boss family?”
“Yes. That was Jade Fieldstone, Grant Fieldstone’s daughter.”
“I not say nothing, Mr. Delving. You trust me.”
Venture stopped, pivoted around, and looked at the kid. “What?”
“Nothing.” Chance’s countenance quickly shifted from worried to near ashen.
Was Chance that perceptive, or was he that obvious? It would be best for Chance to know nothing, to have no secret to keep, so he said nothing else about it, just gave Chance’s hair a reassuring tousle.
“Come on. We’ve got to get you back to Grace and I’ve got to get to work.”
That evening, after finishing his work at the Big House, Venture opened the same old wooden servants’ door, worn smooth under the handle, as much from his own hands as any. He took off his sweaty shirt in the washroom and scrubbed up, habitually, mindlessly. His mind was full of Jade Fieldstone—too full. Who was this girl he’d thought had changed, but maybe not in the way he’d imagined? His recent opinion of her had allowed him the luxury of disliking her. But what if she hadn’t become a snob, but a girl who labored, sweating, learning how to fight with weapons, of all things?
He hated to think of the humiliation Grant was enduring at the hands of Society gossips. Still, could Venture, of all people, really blame Jade? And, apart from one foolish thing she’d said about him, one ridiculous thing, to keep him out of the clutches of her cousin, hadn’t she treated him with kindness and respect? Hadn’t the very comment that hurt him been proof that she still cared for him?
He should apologize. Tell her he understood about the swordplay. Stop being a coward and be, once again, the friend who supported her, who understood her when no one else did. The friend she’d always been for him.
He plucked his clean shirt from its hook. Hanging behind it was a bundle of cloth, oblong, carefully tied, and bearing a scrap of a note, in Jade’s handwriting:
Earnest’s knives
. Behind that, tied to his hook with a piece of twine, was a folded piece of paper, sealed with white wax. His stomach in knots, Venture dared to open it right then, right there. Though penned carefully, it was brief and to the point.
Venture,
You’ve probably heard that I’m seeing Hunter Longlake. I’ve found him to be a compassionate and pleasant companion, nothing at all like his father. He has changed considerably. I am pleased with him and do not wish you to concern yourself about it.
I hear you did well at the Championship. There have been more than a few interesting reports about you in the papers. I wish you success as a fighter. It seems you’ve found the career that suits you, lifestyle and all.
Jade
Hunter Longlake? Hunter Longlake, who’d helped his father, High Judge Prowess Longlake, try to keep Venture out of Beamer’s Center, out of the world of fighting altogether? Venture swore up a storm. Why hadn’t anyone told him? He crumpled the note in his fist and stuffed it into his coat pocket, then kicked a pile of empty wash tubs over.
Later that night, when everyone else was sleeping, he stood before the fire and threw the note in and watched it light up red and yellow and turn black at the edges. It curled up before it broke apart in floating bits and sinking crumbles. He watched it burn until he couldn’t distinguish the tiniest gray-white wisp of it from the rest of the ashes.
The next morning, on the path he and Earnest and Dasher had beaten along the hillside above Twin Rivers, Venture’s feet pounded next to Lightning’s bounding paws. That note yesterday should have been something of a resolution for Venture; he knew it, but instead, it had him fired up.
“So,” Dasher said, “What do you think about the news?”
“About Will Fisher retiring?” Venture said distractedly. “I think I have you to thank for that. His arm has to have something to do with it.”
“I heard it healed just fine,” Earnest said. “He only pulled out when he heard Dasher was out.”
“Well, I guess I still have Dash to thank. But now I don’t get a crack at him.”
Dasher and Earnest kept talking awhile about what Venture might have done if he met up with Fisher, but Venture just ran. They grew quiet, too, and Earnest gave him a questioning look. Venture let himself fall behind Dasher.
“Hey.” Earnest nudged him. “Pick it up.”
Venture shook his head. “Hang back with me.”
“What is it?” Earnest slowed his pace.
Venture swallowed over the lump in his throat. “Don’t say anything, but . . .”
“Is this about a girl?” Earnest’s eyes widened with an eager knowingness.
Venture flushed deeper and nodded.
“It’s about time. How’d you manage to start seeing a girl without us knowing? It isn’t that Marina girl, is it?”
Venture grimaced at the thought of any involvement with Marina, one of the Fieldstones’ servant girls, who’d been trying to get her hands on him for years. “No. And I’m not seeing her, exactly. It’s . . . Jade.”
“Jade Fieldstone?” Earnest’s feet stopped moving. “By the gods! You’re not actually messing around with her are you?”
“Don’t start.”
“Have you completely lost your mind?”
Venture glared at him and clamped his mouth shut and picked up his pace again.
“Vent!” Earnest caught up with him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you two were that close anymore. And I didn’t think .
. . just tell me you’re not—”
“I’m not,” he cut him off sharply, not wanting to hear the rest of the question, not wanting Earnest even thinking such things of Jade.
“So, what do you want me to say? You want me to pretend this couldn’t ruin everything for you? She’s a beautiful girl, a great girl, but she’s your master’s daughter.”
“She’s seeing Hunter Longlake.”
“Hunter Longlake?” Earnest let out a stream of curses.
“I have to do something about it.”
“How?”
“Win her back.”
Earnest took a big step over a puddle full of mildewy brown leaves. “Back?”
Venture gave him another hard look. Earnest’s expectant look faded as it became obvious Venture wasn’t going to explain.
“Vent, do you even know how she feels about you now? Even if she has feelings for you, you don’t know how far she’s willing to go for you, what she’s willing to give up for you. Don’t do this to yourself.”
Venture wiped a drip of sweat from his brow. “I have to try. I can’t
not
know. Besides, she thinks I’ve changed more than I really have, thanks to the
Crier
.”
“This whole thing is crazy. At least leave her alone until you’re done serving her father.”
“It’ll be too late then. I have to do something before it’s too late.”
“What if she really loves Hunter now?”
Venture stopped and leaned against a boulder on the side of the path. His side ached. He squinted into the sharp autumn sun. “No matter what happens between her and me, I can’t let him have her. You know how he is. Beautiful women are all the same to him—his playthings.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
That afternoon, when Jade headed for the stable, Venture followed. She stopped in the doorway and stared at him, hands on her hips. An old cloak hung lopsidedly over her faded dress and riding boots, and her hair, flowing loose down her back, while hardly neat and tidy, had been brushed to a silken shine. A few streaks of sunlight pierced the clouds outside and shone through the doorway, glinting green in her eyes.
“Jade,” he said.
She strode away from him, across the straw-strewn floor, into the tack room, and started taking tack down from the wall.
He stepped inside, into the corner beside her. “I have something to tell you. Look at me.” She didn’t look, but he said it anyway. “Don’t do this. This thing with Hunter Longlake—”
“Is that all you have to tell me? I already know how you feel about Hunter. You’ve been gone a long time and things have changed. His father can’t send him to do his dirty work anymore.”
Venture flinched at her defense of Hunter Longlake, but he hadn’t come here to argue. “No. That’s not all I have to say.” He hesitated. He lifted his hand slightly, then let it drop again. He wanted to put it on her shoulder and pull her around, into his arms. Make her look at him like she used to, like he was everything she ever wanted. “I’m in love with you.” His voice was far more tender, far less cool than he’d meant it to be.
She turned around and clutched the saddle tight against her and just looked at him with complete dismay. She shook her head. Finally, in a small voice, she said, “Father’s been waiting for you. He wants to talk to you.”
“That’s it?”
She turned her back to him before he could search her eyes, and he stood there, waves of anger and wounded pride alternating with rushes of wanting nothing more than to have her. Wanting to hold her, wanting to shake her.
“Yes, Vent,” she said. “That’s it.”
Venture paused in the doorway to the den, still reeling, still trying to figure out exactly how much of an idiot he’d been to tell Jade how he felt. To believe that telling her the truth would change anything.
“Sir, you wanted to see me?”
“Yes, please. Have a seat. I won’t keep you long.”
“I can stay as long as you like, sir.” Venture settled himself on a cushion, knees bent up to his chest, leaning forward, ready to listen. Grant looked almost as troubled as Venture felt.
“I’ll get straight to it.” Grant took a deep breath and massaged his temple with the tips of his long fingers. “I need you to take Jade out this Sixth-Day with a young man she’s seeing.” His frown deepened. “It’s Hunter Longlake.”
Venture was speechless.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Oh, no, you don’t.
“She’s convinced he’s a good man, and never willingly had anything to do with his father’s schemes. But I have my doubts about his trustworthiness, and not just in that area.” Grant flushed a little, then pressed on. “I want to make sure nothing’s going on. Herald took them out before, and was very tightlipped about how things went. He had that look he gets when he’s holding something back from me. Do you know that look?”
“I think I’ve seen it, yes.”
“I know the Longlakes have caused you trouble, but I’d appreciate it if you would go along. Look out for her. See what you think. Set me straight if need be. I trust you, and I trust your judgment.”
Venture got up and put his hands in his pockets so he couldn’t clench them into fists.
“Venture?”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry. Of course I’ll do it.”
“But?”
“Miss Fieldstone might not be pleased to have me there. Or Mr. Longlake.”
“No, they won’t. But I know you can handle it.”
He would handle Longlake all right, if it came to that. Or die trying.
Usually the walk down into the valley, in the pleasantly cool Autumn air, cleared Venture’s head long before he arrived at Beamer’s. This morning a fierce, chill wind billowed through town, and the fog of restless sleep clung to him no matter how the wind tore at his coat and nipped at his fingers.
Chance stole a sympathetic glance at him. Then the kid tugged on his green cap, knitted, along with matching gloves, by Grace. He looked, as he often did, like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it. Venture was in such a mood, he could do little more than glower at him. Chance was no doubt thinking of the warm new gloves and hat Venture had left hanging on a peg at home by the fire. Venture muttered ruefully to himself for forgetting them. His hostile silence this morning had probably discouraged Chance from reminding him to grab them.
This was just the thing, this weather. Just what he needed to cheer him up today. Longlake. Blasted Longlake. He’d lost sleep thinking of him kissing his Jade, and assuring himself Jade wouldn’t have let him do more.
He hurried along the side of the main building, bound for the red painted front doors. But at the corner, a young woman approached him. A pretty face framed by honey-colored hair regarded him from inside her flapping woolen hood. The wind wrapped her pale blue cloak tight around the gentle curves of her figure.
“Venture Delving?”
The look on her face, the concentration in her eyes, told him she wanted something other than what girls who lurked around the center usually wanted from him. Her movements were just as attractive as her figure, but as a matter of her natural way of carrying herself, not as an attempt to show herself off.
“Yes?”
She turned so that the wind was at her back before speaking again. Now, in order to face her, he must face the wind. It held her hood in place, while it filled his uncovered ears with a piercing, aching cold.
“You’re planning to compete in the Championship this year, right?” she asked in a manner much more businesslike than complimentary.
“Of course.”
“You may be new to the absolute fighting scene, but certain people have been keeping track of you.”
“Certain people?”
“You’re young. Inexperienced. You didn’t make it through the first day last year.”
“Thanks,” Venture said sarcastically.
He’d made it further than a lot of those other guys. And he’d progressed faster than ever since then. Beaten fighters like Calling Fox in practice. With Will Fisher retired, Calling would be his toughest opponent. But practice was just practice, and he was certain Calling would be spending the months leading up to the Championship training specifically to handle him. He’d been working too long for a Championship title to just give it up. Venture was a long-shot, and he knew it without her reminding him.
“There are people who know better than to dismiss you based on that. Everyone knows Starson is retiring. And there are some who understand that he’d come back himself if he doubted you could place. They take Starson’s belief in you very seriously.”