Connie reappeared in the doorway, this time with Mrs. Bright. Jade waited for Mrs. Bright to try to console and cajole her into eating, but instead she pulled a chair up to the bed, grabbed Jade’s hands in hers, and wept over Dasher’s letter with her and Felicity. The words replayed in Jade’s head. My request for Venture’s pardon has been denied. I am so sorry. So very sorry.
“Come on, Auntie.” Sniffling her own tears back, Connie put a hand on Mrs. Bright’s back. “We’d better get back to work.”
Mrs. Bright took Jade’s napkin and blew her nose, then gave Jade’s hand one more squeeze. “He’s strong,” she said.
“I know.” But what if it’s not enough? How strong can one man be, all alone? He’s never been all alone. Not like this.
“Miss Jade . . .” Do you need anything? Isn’t there anything I can do, Connie’s tone said. But Connie couldn’t finish the question anymore than Jade could answer it. There was nothing any of them could do.
Jade just shook her head, feeling the anger rise again, a powerful tide pushing back the grief.
“Maybe some time alone?” Felicity said.
“Please.”
The women left, shutting the door behind them, leaving Jade alone with her thoughts—increasingly dangerous thoughts. It wasn’t fair, what she’d wanted from Venture—a friend, a confidant, a protector, a lover. Things she should’ve known he could never be.
But that wasn’t true. Venture had been brought here, as though by the mysterious hand of providence, just when she needed a friend. He’d confided in her almost as much as she’d confided in him. Protected her, even when she’d been too blind to know she needed it. As for love, maybe she’d let herself feel it before he had, but there was no mistaking that he’d felt it, too. Sure, she’d been the bold one. The one who asked him for a kiss under the willow tree. A kiss he’d refused. And when she’d finally just gone and done it, kissed him first—what if she’d tricked him that night, in the darkness by the creek?
No. No woman could trick Venture Delving into love. He was his own man in more ways than most.
She’d vowed to show the world just who Venture Delving was, what he was to her. And he was in the lockup, trying to keep his promise to her, to survive. There’ll always be a chance for us, Jadie, as long as you want it. She was going to live her life like she wanted it more than anything.
There was another knock on the door. Jade resisted the urge to throw a pillow at it. She threw herself back on the pillows instead. The door opened in answer to her silence. It was Grandmother, carrying a fresh cup of hot coffee. Jade bolted upright. She stiffened inside and out at her grandmother’s presence.
Rose offered the coffee to Jade, but she just looked away. She slid the hot cup onto the beside table next to the cold one, and eased onto the bed next to Jade.
“You were right,” Jade snapped before her grandmother could say whatever nonsense she’d come to say. “It didn’t do any good. It didn’t matter what Dasher said, just as it didn’t matter what I said in that hearing room.”
Jade would never forget what her grandmother had told her before Venture’s hearing. She’d urged Jade not to reveal anything that might damage her reputation. Her attempts to spare Venture would be in vain, she’d warned. His fate had already been decided. Furious at the very idea of caring about her reputation when Venture’s life was on the line, Jade had told the judge everything about Hunter, even though Venture shook his head at her, begging her with his eyes not to go on. She’d even gone so far as to speculate on what might have happened had Hunter been allowed to take her into The Gilded.
But Grandmother didn’t say I told you so. She slipped her arm around Jade’s back. “You are a brave girl, Jade. I know it doesn’t always seem so, but I am proud of that.”
Aching for the closeness she’d once had with her grandmother, Jade whispered recklessly, “I have to do something.”
“Perhaps it’s best to keep quiet now. Let Mr. Glen work on things behind the scenes, and—”
“And if it doesn’t work out for Vent, maybe my reputation can still be salvaged?”
“Jade—”
Jade pulled away. “I don’t care about my reputation. There isn’t going to be anyone else, no matter what happens to Vent. Don’t you understand? There will never be anyone else.”
“I know. I know how you love him. We all love him. But you still have hope for a future. He wouldn’t want you to throw that away.”
Jade recalled the look on Venture’s face just before they took him away, the glimpse of hopelessness for himself, the silent urging for her to move on.
“Venture’s in that cell because I did what Society expected. I pursued a courtship with a Crested man, who now holds a grudge against him. I was a fool—not to love Venture, but to believe him when he told me he wanted me to leave him alone, because we couldn’t change who we were supposed to be. He was right; we can’t change who we’re meant to be, but Society doesn’t get to decide who we’re meant to be. Our maker does. He wants more for Vent, more for me, more for all Richland!”
Her grandmother stared at her in stunned silence for a moment. Then she reached for Jade with a trembling hand. “You agreed to stay home. You agreed it wasn’t safe.”
Jade turned her back and stripped off her nightdress. She reached for the worn, comfortable dress, then changed her mind and threw open the wardrobe instead. She pulled out a more suitable, more persuasive choice. She didn’t care about safe anymore. Nothing she cared about was safe right now. Nothing would be if she stayed home, hiding from danger, from the world.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to town.”
“Then I’m afraid I’ll have to send word to Earnest.”
Only one letter from Venture had made it out of the lockup. A mere fragment, torn from the page. A scrap of who knew how many painstakingly written lines. Venture had begged Earnest to stay in Twin Rivers to look after Jade while Dasher was traveling to meet with powerful men who might work to get him freed. Venture wasn’t just concerned for her safety, he was convinced she was in danger. But there was no way of knowing whether he had good reason to believe that. No reason to think his fears were any more than the results of his condition, or of lies he was being told in there. Jade had agreed to stay home whenever possible—anything to ease Venture’s mind until his release.
But she had never believed that day wouldn’t come for another eight years.
“No need to tell Earnest,” Jade said. “He’s the man I’m going to see.”
“What on earth for?”
Jade swallowed past the dryness in her throat. If she said it out loud, she couldn’t back out of it. “To ask him to take me to Dasher, so I can campaign by his side. That’s what I should’ve been doing all along.”
#
Jade tethered Sunrise to the post outside the Smithy and began unclasping her cloak even before she opened the heavy oak door. The heat of the forge warmed her wind-chapped cheeks.
“Jade!” Flora lay a red-hot blade on the anvil, motioned for her younger brother to take care of it, and pulled off her heavy gloves. “You have news?”
The tears welled up in Jade’s eyes again. Frustrated, she brushed them away. Flora hastened to her side.
“Oh, Jade. How bad is it?”
Jade showed Flora Dasher’s letter, then told her of her plans.
Flora wiped a tear from her own eyes. “I’ll help you.” Her hands, her voice, were steady as she handed the tear-stained letter back. “Let’s go talk to Earnest. He’s a reasonable man . . . when he wants to be.”
Jade laughed along with Flora. Earnest could be just as stubborn as Venture. But he was smart, and he, more than Dasher, would go against Venture’s wishes if he thought it was the most sensible thing to do.
“Thank you.” Jade squeezed her friend’s hand. Maybe she was right. Earnest was less inclined to think the hardworking, reliable bladesmith’s daughter had lost her mind in love and grief. With Flora
’s help, he just might listen.
Chapter Ten
Spring’s First Month, 660 After the Founding
It wasn’t until Spring’s First Month, when the new year began, and he was still locked up, still alone, that Venture lost the battle of wills. That New Year’s night, while the rest of Twin Rivers, the rest of the country, celebrated the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, he roared at the ceiling until he was hoarse. Then he sat up with his head on his knees and didn’t even try to stop his tears.
Reed went and got Hardy so he could watch the show. Venture didn’t care anymore. He had nothing left, not his career, not Jade, not family or friends, not his good name. After over seven months in the lockup, he finally let himself get lost in the real horror of what had become of his life. I’m not who I used to be. I will never be again.
Nothing seemed real anymore—not his achievements, not his friends, not Jade’s love for him, not the plans he once believed his maker had for him. He recalled his mother, on her knees, praying for his father’s safety the very night he died. Was that God’s plan? Was what had happened to his father, what was happening to him, some sort of judgment? Had he been wrong about his maker all along? How many unanswered prayers had he uttered, day after day in this stink-hole?
Venture vaguely noticed that Hardy and Reed seemed to be enjoying his collapse less than he’d expected.
Reed gave Hardy an uneasy look. “Should I go get the boss? I think he’s lost his mind.”
“No need to wake him up for this. He’s not gotten violent or anything.”
“Maybe he’ll shape up by morning.”
“Maybe.”
Venture didn’t shape up. He didn’t get up. He didn’t eat or drink or talk, even when the guards decided to try to solve the problem themselves—and have a little fun—by roughing him up. They told him to get up, but he just lay there. They slapped him and punched him a little, adding another layer to his cuts and bruises. It hurt, but he didn’t care anymore. He was done. Done with it all.
#
Jade left Sunrise in front of the smithy. It was a short walk to the townhouse Earnest and Dasher shared. Now that Venture was locked up, Chance lived with Justice and Grace, but he was often at the townhouse during the day.
When Jade saw Dasher’s carriage parked under the little carriage port outside, she grabbed Flora’s hand and broke into a run. She stopped short just before the front steps.
Chance popped up from the stoop. He folded his arms and shook his head. “They fight.”
Jade frowned and ducked around Chance’s attempts to block her path. “Miss!” he kept saying. “Please!”
But someone had taught him not to put his hands on a lady. Probably Vent. Flora joined Jade at the door.
“Hush!” Flora told Chance.
He shut up and they pressed their ears to the door, just in time to catch a wave of especially inventive curses from Earnest. Dasher even threw a few back. It was the first time Jade had heard such language from him. Chance turned red and gave the girls a resentful look.
“I need to be able to tell him something, Dasher!” Earnest said. “If I lie to him, he’ll see right through it.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to bring him bad news.”
“If you’d stop trying to persuade the public to demand change and just do what you have to do to get this done—”
Dasher said something back about principles, about winning the bigger battle, and Earnest cursed Dasher’s principles.
“Just bend over or kiss up or bribe whoever you have to and get Vent out of there!”
“This is bigger than money. Bigger than favors! The Cresteds know this won’t go away if Champ gets out. You think they’re going to believe me if I promise it will? Come on!”
“Then go after the Uncresteds like I told you. You know they can be bought. Haven’t they proven that already?”
“That’s what I’m trying to do. There’ll be no buying them unless they can be convinced the Cresteds won’t always be so powerful. Don’t you understand? It takes time.”
“Vent doesn’t have time!”
“I know that! Blast it, I know it! Some of my sources are telling me they haven’t just locked him up to try to keep him out of the way for a few years, hoping all Richland will forget about him. They’re trying to make him into everything they’ve accused him of being. When they think they’ve succeeded, when they’ve broken him, then they’ll let him out.”
Earnest, for once, was silent.
Jade sagged against the door. Her plans to join Dasher seemed so pathetic now, so pointless.
“Miss,” Chance said tentatively. She let him take her hand and pull her away from the door.
“Jade,” Flora said, with her usual steady bearing. “Come on. We’re not giving up. Let’s go in there and set those guys straight.”
Jade nodded. Chance took a startled step backward as Jade threw the door open, without even bothering to knock.
“Dasher Starson,” Jade said, “what are you doing back here? Aren’t you supposed to be leading a march around the governor’s mansion?”
Dasher recovered from his surprise and gave her a subdued laugh. Dasher’s approach to drumming up support for Venture and Uncrested rights in general was much smarter, more refined than that. He was well known for his speeches condemning riots and encouraging the populace to convince the Cresteds, through their civilized letters and petitions, that they weren’t unruly masses in need of the rule of a superior class.
Dasher embraced her, but Earnest just grunted and gave Chance a little shove of annoyance as he slunk inside.
“How have you been, Jade?” Even after all the time that had passed since she’d found out he was more than Dauntless of the Glen, the formal, Crested manner of speech still tended to creep in when Dasher spoke to her.
Jade released him and bit her lip. “I’ve been thinking, Dasher. Since I got your letter.” She hesitated, and Flora nudged her on. “I want to go back to Lightward with you. I can appeal to the women. They’re half the vote, and Earnest can come with me and—”
“What!” Earnest said.
“I’ll come along, of course,” Flora put in. Jade barely managed to hide her surprise. “Obviously,” Flora told the men, “a lady can’t go running around the country alone with the two of you.”
Obviously. Why hadn’t Jade thought of that? She hadn’t realized what she was really asking of Flora when she’d gone to the smithy to see her this afternoon.
Dasher sank onto the couch, too exhausted by his argument with Earnest to put up a gentlemanly fight either for or against the ladies’ plans.
“I promised him I’d protect you,” Earnest said. “I can’t do that if you’re out there campaigning with Dasher, surrounded by strangers.”
“Dasher can—”
“Dasher has enough to handle, looking out for himself.”
Dasher just sat there on the couch, rubbing his temples. Jade glared at him, but he didn’t take any notice.
Jade turned the look on Earnest instead. “I know how to handle a blade.”
“Not well enough. Even Flora knows it.”
“She trained whenever she could,” Flora protested.
“Exactly. Whenever she could sneak over to the center. That’s how it’s been for the last three years. And since Vent’s been locked up, she hasn’t trained at all.”
“Who’s fault is that?” Jade burst out.
“This isn’t about who’s fault it is. It’s—”
“Then train me. Flora will be my partner. We can do it right here. No one has to know. I’ll practice all day. Chance can help me out when Flora’s busy at the smithy.”
“Huh?” Chance said as Jade sized him up. He was getting taller, though over the past few months he’d lost too much of the fat Venture had managed to put on him.
“I’ll wait until you think I’m ready,” she offered. As soon as those last words were out of her mouth, she knew she was going to
regret them. Oh, well. She’d have to worry about that later. If she could just get Earnest to agree to something . . .
Earnest’s heavy brows shadowed his dark eyes even more than usual. “I am not going to train you.”
“Because we’re girls?” Flora straightened up to her full height, which nearly matched Earnest’s.
“Because you,” he said, poking a finger at Jade, “Are Vent’s girl. And I’m not going to do something that’s only going to get you killed. You think that’s what he wants? Dasher’s working on it. Just wait, and . . .”
Dasher rose from the couch. Slowly, he shook his head at Earnest. Did he know the girls had heard their argument?
Dasher turned to Jade. “As soon as I sent that letter, I knew I should have told you in person. I should have been here . . .”
With you, his eyes said.
Jade looked away. Dasher’s concern stirred up a troubling mixture of comfort and alarm in her heart. That was silly. Of course Dasher cared. What sort of person, what sort of friend of Vent’s wouldn’t?
She mustered a smile for Dasher. “You did the right thing. And if I’d been there—”
“It would not have made a difference. Jade, you can not come with me.”
Jade blinked at Dasher. Before she could speak, Flora took her hand. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find these boys something to drink. Mr. Starson’s had a long drive, and hasn’t even had a chance to take his boots off yet.”
“I try,” Chance muttered, “but they fight. Send me outside.”
Flora pulled Jade into the kitchen and shut the door behind them. “By the gods, Jade, what was that?”
“What?”
“Jade, I’d do anything to help you, but there is no way on earth that Dasher Starson is going to take you with him.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Flora lowered her whisper, “He doesn’t trust himself with you.”
“Venture is one of his best friends!”
“Exactly!”
Jade grabbed the edge of the table, willing her shoulders not to shake. What had she done? What was going on?
Venture Unbroken Page 9
