Venture Unleashed (The Venture Books) (22 page)

“Mr. Glen, surely we can work this out. Perhaps after she adjusts to the idea. . .”

“With all respect, she shouldn’t have to adjust. And I am sure there’s something much better in her future.”
 

Venture’s heart did a strange flop at that last statement, and he quickly reminded himself that he would never share in her future, not the way Dasher implied. Still, it was good of Dasher to say it. But what if Grant was right? What if Dasher was the best match for Jade now?

Grant, who’d been standing there, looking as though he were searching himself, searching Jade, for a way to string his plans back together, finally cleared his throat. He visibly steeled himself against his disappointment. “Well, Mr. Glen, it was a pleasure getting to know you, all the same.”

Grant glanced unhappily at Jade, and Venture instantly felt the urge to defend her. Her mouth was shut so tight, he could only imagine the avalanche of words wanting to spill out. He dared to wonder if she was holding back for him, if she was afraid of what she’d say about him if she spoke.

Then her eyes locked with his and he felt a pang of alarm that Grant would notice something between them. But Dasher intervened, drawing Grant’s attention away.

“Good night, Jade, Mr. Fieldstone,” he said, kissing her hand and shaking Grant’s.

It was Venture’s duty to see the guest out, but Dasher didn’t wait until they’d entirely left the company of the Fieldstones to clap his hand on his shoulder and tell him, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Champ.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Venture sipped his coffee too fast.
Ouch
. Still too hot. Too early, too, though it wouldn’t seem so if he’d gotten any sleep at all. How could he, after Dasher’s visit last night?

Venture was half sitting on the kitchen table while Able and Frank, the new man hired to take Herald’s place, discussed the chores that needed to be done, and who was to do what.

He switched his coffee to his left hand. That right elbow was bothering him again. The damage he’d done to it while dealing with that masked Crested man had healed months before, but he’d tweaked it again working out with some of the boys at Beamer’s while Earnest and Dasher were gone.

He tried to listen to the other men, to stay awake.
Oh, God, there she is.
Now more awake than ever, he set his cup down before he could drop it. Jade lingered in the doorway, looking shaken, pale, just as deprived of sleep as he was.

“Venture, could you help me with something, please?” She rubbed the fingers of one hand with the other. “There’s something I can’t reach . . .”

His stomach lurched. He reminded himself about Hunter, reminded himself that she wasn’t the innocent girl he’d fallen in love with so long ago. Since she was bold enough to call him out in front of the others, he had no choice but to say, “Yes, Miss.” To the men he added, “I’ll meet you outside when I’m done,” and he quickly followed her out.

“Just come with me, okay, Vent? I promise I’m not up to anything,” she said, and he was furious to find that a part of him still wished that she was.

Without a word, he followed her down the hall, to the library, where their conversation was unlikely to be heard or interrupted.

Jade left the door conspicuously open, and he stepped in after her and leaned against the bookshelves, arms crossed. She moved nearer, and he knew that he ought to leave town at once. She looked so unavoidably determined, and, as always, undeniably, achingly beautiful. She might be a greater risk to him than his armed enemies.
 

He may not be able to leave town, but now that there was no one watching, no one for him to defy her in front of, there was no need for him to stay in this room with her, either.

“Vent, please stay,” she said, anticipating his escape. “Listen to me for just a minute.”
 

He moved to walk by anyway, but she cut him off, stepped right in front of the doorway, and held onto his arm. “I won’t get out of your way. You’ll have to move me or else stand there and listen.”

He could just pick her up and set her out of his way—if he could trust himself to touch her.

“All I want to do is to thank you for doing your job so well,” Jade said in a rush. She still held onto him, trying to catch his eye. “I know about Hunter.” At the last word, her voice trembled.

Venture cringed to hear that man’s name in her voice, but now he couldn’t resist meeting her eyes.

“I couldn’t believe it at first. He always acted like such a gentleman to me. But I see now that it’s true. That I was just another . . .” she stopped, blinking hard. “You were looking out for me, even when I was being foolish and awful. I don’t know why you did it—whether it was because it was your job or because of your feelings for me, but I know it was to protect me. I’m sorry for what I did to you, and for what I said, about you hurting him. Whatever’s gone wrong between us, I don’t want you to think I hate you for what happened with Hunter. I understand now.”

“Thank you,” Venture murmured.

“I can’t believe I hit you like that. I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

“It’s no big deal. I get hit every day.”

“Not by me.” Her face threatened to crumple, but she composed it again. “How did this happen to us, Vent?”

He just shook his head, the ache of loss and desire growing in him such that he thought it might swallow him up from the inside out.
 

“I made that promise to Grace because I loved you, and it was your dream. I never meant to hurt you by it.”

She loved him? Just back then, or now, too? Another question escaped his lips before he could stop it—“Do you love Dasher?”

“Dauntless? He’s a good man. He makes me laugh. He’s successful, more so than I thought, now that I know who he is. It was a brave and a bold thing he did, leaving home to test himself among Uncresteds. I admire that about him. He wants to change the world, I think, but he’s not quite sure how to go about it. I like him. But, love? Neither of us felt that.”
 

“He’s been a good friend to me.”

“Better than I have lately, it seems.”

“I pushed you away. You don’t know how much I regret that. I really loved you. I would have fought for you, done anything for you, if I thought—” His voice caught and she regarded him, wide-eyed. “If I’d told you that sooner, maybe things would’ve been different. I’ll always regret it, because that’s probably why you ended up with Hunter. Why things went as far as they did.”

Jade’s cheeks reddened. “Just how far do you think things went with him?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s none of my business.”

“It matters to me. Vent, you don’t think I . . .”

He gave her a look that said that was exactly what he thought.

“Venture! How could you think that?”

“Because he told me—you didn’t?”

“Of course not!” Her tears let loose in streams.

She was telling the truth and he knew it, knew the awful joy and guilt of it. “I’m sorry, Jadie,” He could hardly keep himself from reaching out for her. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too, for what I did do.” She took his hands in hers, doing what he hadn’t dared to do.
 

He gave her hands a gentle squeeze back.

“I kissed him. I never told him I loved him, but I tried. I wanted to love him. I wanted to love someone else, after you told me to leave you alone. You don’t know how I waited for you to come back. It was impossible being here without you, and wanting you all the time, and hearing all the talk. Reading the papers. It was like something in me died, Vent.”

“Jadie, Jadie, shh.” He stroked the back of her hands soothingly with his thumbs. It wasn’t enough. Her heart was broken. He pulled her close, to his chest. “I still love you,” he whispered into her hair.

She nodded against him.

“Can you love me again?” he asked, so softly he wasn’t sure she’d heard him, so softly he wasn’t even sure he’d spoken aloud.

“I never stopped. I tried, but I couldn’t.”

He picked her up, clear off the ground, ignoring the pain in his elbow. He pushed the door shut with his back, and carried her the few steps to the nearest couch and held her there.

“I’m not who the gossips say I am. I’m still me.”
 

“But you meet girls all the time who wouldn’t give you half the trouble I would. And you’re so . . . everything.”

“Not everybody finds me as charming as you do.”

“They will when you’re Champion. How can I have a chance?”
 

“They never had a chance. They never will. You’re the one who knows me. You’re the one who promised to be my friend, always.”

Jade laughed softly through her tears, remembering. “The first day we met. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”

“I’m no less trouble now. I’m—”

“You’re what I want, Vent.” The tenderness in her gaze turned to a determined gleam. She’d never been as reckless as he was, but she’d always been just as stubborn. “Tell me there’s a chance for us, and I’ll take it.”

“There will always be a chance for us, as long as you want it.” He cradled her face in his hands and wiped at the tears under her eyes with his thumbs. “Are you sure you want it, Jadie?”

Her reply was a kiss, deep and loving, and long. He returned it with equal passion, unwilling, despite his better judgment, to resist any longer. Her hands rubbed the bare skin of his neck, then drifted down, onto his chest; he kept his still, on her face, not trusting himself to move them.
I need you, Jade, I need you
, his heart said, and his lips wanted to say it too, but they would not stop kissing her.

Jade opened her eyes with a start. The doorknob was turning. Too late, she released him. There stood Marina, and behind her, Mrs. Bright. Venture saw the look of near panic in Mrs. Bright’s eyes, then the disappointment. She brought her hand to her mouth and hurried away without a word. He dropped his head into his hands. Was it going to end, like this, as soon as it had begun?

“Oh, my!” Marina’s voice called him to attention.

He looked up at her smirking face. Her shock had already been overwhelmed by her enjoyment at stumbling on the situation, at the position of power it put her in. Venture pulled himself together and stood up beside Jade. Now, in front of Marina, was not the time or place to feel sorry for himself.

“There you are, Vent. I couldn’t find you to help me move the couches I need to sweep under, so I had to fetch Mrs. Bright. But I see the mistress has you busy. I beg your pardon, Miss.” With a wink, she added, “If you don’t mind, send him my way when you’re done with him.”

“Get out, Marina! You think I’m in no position now to punish you as a lady of the house to a servant, but nothing’s stopping me from delivering you this from one woman to another.”
 

Jade lifted her hand, but Venture caught her intended slap mid-swing, grasping her wrist swiftly but carefully.

“Jade.” He wrapped his arms around her, then turned her toward him. He whispered in her ear, his face pressed against her hot cheek. “I want to slap her too, but it’s not right. She can’t strike you back. That’s not you.” He told her just loud enough for Marina to hear, “I love you, Jadie,” then made a point of kissing her full on the lips.
 

“I don’t want this to be over already,” she whispered back, too low for Marina’s ears.

“It’s not. I won’t give up on you.”

Marina just stood there and gaped at the scandal of love in a way she never did at the bawdiest of displays.
 

“Get out,” Venture said. “And shut the door behind you.”

Marina clamped her mouth shut around a gulp of air and did just that.

“What if she tells my father? Even if she doesn’t, she’ll blab to all the other servants.”

“She won’t tell your father directly. She’s got enough sense to know he won’t be happy with whoever he hears something like that from, and she knows he doesn’t like her already. But you’re right. She’ll tell everybody else. Your father will catch wind of it. If he hears Mrs. Bright saw, and he asks her about it, she won’t be able to lie to him.”

“That can’t happen. We can’t put Mrs. Bright in that position.”

“I’m going to tell Justice about us, today.”

“You can’t.”

“Yes, I can. I have to, before it gets back to him. And then, tomorrow, we’ll tell your family too.”

“Vent, no!”

“Yes.”

“I want to stand up to them. To stand up for you, but you know what could happen to you.”

“I’ll handle it. Whatever happens, I’ll handle it.”

He kissed her again, and then Jade retreated upstairs, while Venture went to find Marina. She was in the dining room.

“I’ll help you move that couch now,” he said, showing, he hoped, complete unconcern for what had just happened.

“Good. Hey, Vent, maybe I can finish what she started for you,” Marina teased. But he could tell her sense of fun was forced.

She’d enjoyed it when she thought he was what she had always wished he’d be—a reckless and aimless lover. But knowing there was something different going on unsettled her.

“Leave him alone.” Mrs. Bright emerged from the kitchen to come to his defense. Venture wanted to disappear again.

Marina noticed and seized the moment with swift delight. “Why? Even you must know he’s not your perfect little boy now.”

“That’s enough from you,” Mrs. Bright said.

Venture turned his back on both of them. “Get your broom, Marina. I’m going to move those couches out now.”

He had one couch pulled out and his hands around the arm and back of another when Marina appeared, leaning on the broom.

“Does she love you back, then, Vent?”

He hefted the furniture out. “Yes, she does.” Then he rested his hands at his waist and gave an impatient nod at the dusty floor.

“Poor Vent, you’re just her plaything, and you don’t even know it.”

He snatched the broom from her and gave the floor a swift sweep himself. “Go find something else to do. I’ve got better things to do than wait all day to move these back.”

“I suppose you think you’ve found true love. Too bad you’ll never be able to have her, whether she loves you or not.”