A few weeks later, to Venture’s relief, Dasher arrived in town and offered to take him and Earnest out to Seven Coins to catch up. Seven Coins was plain, cramped, dim, and warm—like a sturdy stone version of the nook he used to sleep in. He was glad to have Dasher back and eager to be wrapped in the dark smells of smoke and beer and grease.
The pub maid expertly slid two frothing mugs of beer onto the table—one to Venture, one to Dasher—without so much as a dribble. She pushed another to Earnest with a great slosh, and didn’t give the spill the slightest swipe with her apron.
“Good to see you again, Venture,” she said shyly. “And you, too, Mr. Starson. Though I’ve seen enough of
you
, lately, Mr. Goodview.”
“Good to see you, too, Ivy.” Venture gave her a smile and Earnest a curious look.
She was sweet, cute, if a little mousy, but not Earnest’s type at all. They placed their order. Ivy avoided Earnest’s eyes as she said, “I’ll have that right out for you boys.”
She stopped to scoop up the empty mugs from the nearest table before disappearing behind the counter. Venture raised his eyebrows at Earnest.
“I was lonely without you guys. Dasher was gone, you were working . . .” Earnest mumbled into his beer.
Venture sighed and let it drop. He didn’t want to know what Earnest had done to entice and then spurn poor Ivy, so he steered the conversation toward Dasher. “How’s your sister? How was your visit home?”
“Heather’s fine. Apparently she really had a close call. A raging fever and a hacking cough, but she was well enough by the time I got there.” He paused, tapping his fingers on his mug. “I heard some bad news, though, about that legislation our friend Longlake has Wisecarver and the rest of his crew of Uncrested representatives working on.”
“It’s happening?” Venture said.
“All I know is that they feel confident enough that they’re actually going to move to have it put up for vote next autumn. That doesn’t mean it will pass.”
“It won’t pass,” Earnest said, banging his mug down.
Venture frowned at his mug.
“Aside from that, though?” Earnest prompted, trying to change the subject for Venture’s sake.
“It was a good visit, surprisingly good,” Dasher said with a shy grin.
“What, Dash?” Earnest tipped back in his chair.
“I met a girl. An Uncrested girl my father wants me to marry.”
“You look entirely too happy about that, Dasher Starson,” Venture said.
“I told them I’m inclined to agree to it.”
“To the engagement?” Earnest’s chair snapped back upright.
“My father had met with hers a few times, and they’d discussed it. I haven’t had a chance to meet him face to face yet. He’s been away on business. But she was in town the same time I was. I met her to humor them, and I guess out of curiosity, too. I still don’t like the idea of my parents getting their way in this, but . . . that girl, that girl I think I could even settle down for. She’s a beauty, and I don’t just mean her looks. She’s different.”
“How do you mean?” Earnest said skeptically.
“She didn’t seem intimidated at all by me being Crested—afraid of breaking our rules, worried about impressing my parents. But that’s not all. She’s poised and refined and confident and all young lady, but just as soon as we had a moment alone, do you know what she asked me? She asked me who was the toughest fighter in my family, and when I said I couldn’t really say, she said, ‘Well, I was right, then, it must be you.’”
“Why’d she think that?” Earnest said.
“That’s what I asked her, and she said that I was the only one with a fighter’s ears. Then she asked me whether I preferred to fight hand-to-hand or by the sword and which champions I thought had been the greatest and all sorts of things you wouldn’t expect from a young lady. Things nobody who knows me as Dauntless Glen ever asks me. She even asked me what I thought of the up-and-coming Venture Delving.”
Venture couldn’t help a smile. “And what did you say?”
“I told her I know nothing of prize fighters. I am, after all, a Crested man, and above such things. Too many brutes and men of ill repute and all sorts of bad habits among them,” he said with a grin.
“So you let her think you’ve been training in the traditional training rooms of the ancient Crested families all these years, and not traipsing all over the country sweating over and beating on mere ordinary men? Not a good start for a good, honest relationship, Dash,” Venture said, only half teasing.
Dasher laughed. “You know what’s really funny, though? What she said to me next. She said, ‘You really ought to meet Venture Delving. He may change your mind. He’s not at all like what you think prize fighters are. I suppose you think you’d be above talking to him, though, since he’s a bonded servant in my father’s house.’”
“Her father’s house?” Earnest repeated.
Venture couldn’t speak. In his lap, he clenched his napkin in his fist.
“Yes, I’m supposed to marry Jade Fieldstone. Will it be too strange for you, having your friend marry your master’s daughter?”
“No, it’s not that,” Venture managed.
“What, then? Is there something about her? Something I should know?”
“She’s a wonderful girl,” Venture said, staring into his empty glass, feeling just as empty.
“You’d marry a girl against her wishes, Dasher?” Earnest blurted. “A girl whose family doesn’t even know who you really are? Grant Fieldstone has seen you fight. It might be hard to match you with a face he saw in the arena years ago, but what do you think is going to happen when his friends recognize you as the Champion of All Richland, the one who’s been training right here in Twin Rivers?”
“Just because her family arranged for us to meet with hopes of an engagement, that doesn’t mean it’s against her wishes! And of course they’ll find out who I am. I plan on telling them right away. But don’t you see, that’s why it’s so perfect. If anyone would understand, they would. She and her father both love fighters.”
Venture sucked in his breath. “That’s right. Why wouldn’t she want to marry Dauntless of the Glen, son of Star?”
“Stop it, Vent.”
“Look at him! What isn’t there to want to marry? Wealth, status, looks, intelligence, and when she finds out the true extent of his prowess as a fighter, come on, four-time Champion of All Richland on top of that!”
“That’s right, and of course I’ll give her some time to get to know me better,” agreed Dasher, misunderstanding the intensity behind Venture’s words.
“And I’m sure the more she gets to know him—well, we all know Dasher knows how to please a lady. After all, he’s had plenty of practice!” Venture threw down his napkin and headed for the door.
“What’s the matter with him?” Venture heard Dasher say as he opened the door to the mud-room.
“Let me talk to him.” Earnest hurried to follow Venture out.
The door shut behind them and they stood in the coolness of the crooked wooden add-on the owner referred to as the foyer, and everyone else called the mud-room.
“Venture Delving, what the blazes was all that? You go right back in there and clear this whole thing up, or I’ll do it for you.”
“Don’t do it, Earnest! Don’t tell him!”
“
You
tell him. Just tell him.”
Venture leaned his forehead against the plank wall. He slapped it with his hand. He wanted to beat himself right through it. “No. She only said those things about me because he made a classist remark. She told me that I was ruining her life. She isn’t mine to have, and I wouldn’t have her anyway.”
“You wouldn’t? Really?”
Venture shook his head, as though he could shake away the truth.
“You’re still in love with her, whether you want to be or not.”
“I have no business telling him to stay away from her. Besides, she must want him.”
“Are you kidding me? She was talking about you the whole time she was with him.”
Venture turned around and rubbed his hands over his face. He spoke quietly, soberly. “I know Jade, and I know how she would’ve treated a man her father wanted her to marry—if she still loved me. If she ever did.”
“She has her manners, Vent.”
“She would have done nothing to encourage him. Dasher isn’t so foolish or full of himself to miss the kind of message she would’ve sent him. Why isn’t she doing something to try to stop it, to discourage him?”
“Venture Delving, you’re losing your mind! Dasher loves you. If he knew—” Earnest shook his head. “Look, you know I think it’s a bad idea, you and Jade Fieldstone. But even if the two of you are done, even if she isn’t willing to risk being with you, Dasher deserves better than to be left in the dark on this. It would kill him to know what he’s doing to you.”
“That’s why we’re not going to tell him.”
“Then, either he falls for Jade and she rejects him, and he doesn’t know why, and he gets his heart broken, or she marries him and he tears your life apart!”
“That part of my life is already torn. It’s been torn out. Just leave it, Earnest, just leave it!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Venture gripped the kitchen table. He breathed deeply, in and out, trying to calm himself. He knew he’d have to go back in there soon; Grant was waiting for more wine. But he couldn’t take it anymore, watching Jade with Dasher. He recalled what Grant had said to him when he asked him to work tonight: “Venture, we’ll be having a guest tonight. Star of the Glen’s son, Dauntless.”
Dauntless Dasher Starson, of the Glen
, Venture had corrected in his head.
“He’s a Crested man, and if things continue to go as well as they have so far—this is just the sort of opportunity we’d hoped for. Everything must be just right.”
Yes, sir, yes sir
, Venture repeated to himself now. He willed himself to let go of the table and pick up the bottle of wine. To do his job. Dasher had tried to talk to him about this yesterday. He was concerned about Venture feeling uncomfortable serving him. “I have no problem serving my friends,” he’d said, as though saying it could make it true.
“Champ?”
Dasher.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Venture said.
“You’re my friend. I want to make sure you’re okay.”
Venture shook his head. “You shouldn’t be here—at all. Dash, I know this isn’t going to make any sense to you, and it’s not your fault, but—if you marry that girl, I’ll kill you! You understand me, Dasher Starson? I don’t care who you are, this isn’t right!”
There was no surprise, no anger from Dasher. “No, it’s not right. You love her, and she ought to be yours.” Dasher moved his hand slowly, almost warily to Venture’s shoulder, making clear his gesture of peace and affection.
“You know?”
“I figured it out. I was stupid not to before. I saw the way she looked at you tonight. Every time I got close to her, her eyes went straight to you. I saw her pull away for you. And I saw you looking like you wanted to die. Looking at me like you wanted to kill me.”
Venture rubbed his hand over his face. “I’m sorry, Dash.”
“For threatening to kill me?” He grinned.
“And for keeping it from you.”
“The threats I understand. The other we’ll talk about later. I’m going to go back out there and tell them who I am and make my excuses why I can’t marry Jade Fieldstone. Grant’s been looking at me funny all evening, trying to place my face. Time to solve the mystery for him. Why don’t you come on out with me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hey, you look fine. And I won’t give anything away. Just come and let her see that you can handle this.”
Venture nodded, adjusting his clothes and his countenance. “I’ll come out right after you.”
Dasher had taken but half a step when Venture called him back. He owed Dasher the whole truth. “We loved each other once, her and me, but now . . . things are different. It’s over.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“She doesn’t just do whatever her father wants. She wouldn’t have been willing to go along with this if—”
“Oh, for goodness sake, the girl must not know.”
“Must not know what?”
“That plans for a marriage are in the works. I’ve never actually talked to her about it. If anything, she thinks her family hopes she’ll like me. If she knew there was an arrangement in progress, she wouldn’t be so nice to me.”
“Unless—”
“Enough! I’ve already told you you’re going to end up being a better fighter than me. Now I’m telling you that you’re much more likable and much better looking than me. Stay here or come with me, but either way I’ve got to get out there and say what I need to say.”
There was no stopping him now, so Venture followed close behind.
“Everything all right, Mr. Glen?” Grant said as Dasher entered the den, just steps before Venture.
“Actually, there is something I would like to talk to you both about.” Dasher turned to Jade. “Miss Fieldstone, the last time we met, I don’t think I properly introduced myself. Let’s start over again. I am Dauntless Dasher, of the Glen. You might know of me as Dasher Starson the fighter.”
Jade’s eyes lit up with realization, and Venture caught his breath and thought, for the millionth time,
They’re so beautiful. She’s so beautiful.
“Dasher Starson!” She took him in as if seeing him for the first time.
“Dasher Starson?” Grant repeated belatedly, haltingly. “The Champion? Venture’s training partner? His coach?”
“Yes, Mr. Fieldstone, and one of his closest friends.”
“Well, then, I suppose we have even more in common than I thought,” Grant said, adjusting to the news and apparently liking the idea of Jade becoming a Glen even more.
“Sir,” Dasher said, “I am sorry for keeping this from you for so long. I am also sorry,” he said to Jade, “for not being as forthcoming with you as I should have about my intentions.”
“Your intentions?”
“Jade, I—that is we—” Grant tried to intervene.
“You’ve been discussing my future with Mr. Glen? Before you discussed it with me, Father?”
“Jade,” Grant said sternly—as though that would quiet her.
“It’s all right,” Dasher said, before the two of them could really get into it and thoroughly embarrass themselves. “I understand that Jade is not interested. It will be an honor for the man who has the privilege of Miss Jade Fieldstone’s hand, but it seems I am not meant to be that man.”