Read Online Venture Untamed (The Venture Books) by R.H. Russell - Free Book Online Page B

about.
    “That! Stop that Miss nonsense. It’s ridiculous.”
    “I beg your pardon, Miss.”
    “Why are you being like this?”
    “Jadie, shh!” Her voice was rising, the way it always did when she got all riled up.
    Jade smiled triumphantly. Venture’s shoulders sagged as he realized what he’d just done. He’d called her by her first name only. Worse, her nickname. He’d been trying to do what Justice had told him to do for months. To treat her like his mistress. The very next day after Justice had spoken to him about it, Jade had asked Venture to go riding with her, and he’d crushed her by telling her he didn’t think it was a good idea for them to do those kinds of things anymore.
    “Miss,” he corrected himself, “You’re a young lady, and my mistress.”
    “There’s no one here. You could call me Jadie if you wanted to.”
    “No, I couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right.”
    “It’s not right for you to call me anything else!”
    The afternoon sun sparkled on the sweat droplets that speckled her nose. A few curls had escaped her clip and clung to her sticky forehead. As usual, she was barefoot, even on the carpet of wood chips around the chopping block. Tomorrow, she’d be fourteen. Rose’s long battle with Grant about her upbringing had been settled; at fourteen, she’d have to quit going to Beamer’s and start acting like a young lady. Soon enough she’d be in silk slippers and matching dresses, shut away in her sitting room with embroidery in her lap. Soon enough she wouldn’t be the Jade he knew anyway.
    He buried his head in the towel and massaged the sweat off so he wouldn’t have to look at her and imagine the Jade-who-wasn’t-Jade anymore.
    “Venture! Your hands!” She yanked them from the towel and let it drop into the dust.
    “What?”
    She held one of his hands in each of hers and turned them over, gaping at the enflamed splinters and the nasty, open blisters.  
    “They’re covered with blood!”
    “Nothing is covered with blood. It’s just a few smudges.”
    “You are bleeding!” she reiterated, and the dog joined her, running over and whining anxiously at her side.
    “Miss, it’s all right. It’s just some blisters. They’ll go away.”
    “Sir, it is not! How can he treat you like this? Now that you’re big enough and strong enough to be of more use, he thinks he can treat you like a beast of burden!”
    She was impossible. Grant had provided him with an education, and now with training for a career as a guard, all during the hours a servant ought to have been working for his master. Venture was determined to serve him well whenever he could.
    “Able’s sick. You know that. Herald is in town with your father. Someone has to chop the wood. I don’t have a problem with doing my job, so why should you?”
    Jade’s eyes blazed green fury at him. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. The look threatened him to apologize or else. He’d endured it many times in the past, but this time it elicited a different response.
    “Why don’t you just go back inside where you belong?” He turned his back on her and resumed chopping, harder and louder than before, drowning out the sound of her huffy departure. He’d rather die than complain to his master about his work. He tossed the wood into a wheelbarrow, shaking his head, as though to shake free all thoughts of Jade Fieldstone. But moments later a familiar voice interrupted him.
    “Miss Jade said bring you this before you die of heat,” Bounty announced, holding out a large tin cup of water.
    So much for trying to think about something else. Venture took it grouchily, asking, “She say anything else?”
    Bounty nodded. “She said for me to help you move the wood. She seemed mad. You think I’m in trouble?”
    “No,” Venture sighed after taking a long drink.
    “How do you know?”  
    “Because she’s mad at me.”
    “What’d you do?”
    “Never mind.”
    “Something bad?” The kid