Venture Unleashed (The Venture Books) by R.H. Russell

had changed everything? And what about now? Would they think he was becoming who he was supposed to be? Who he was made to be?   One thing he was sure of now, more than he’d ever been before. He was not just a simple servant boy. No one could keep him from being more than that.

CHAPTER NINE

    Venture tugged at his sleeve as he picked his way through the crowd on Calling’s back patio. Calling’s new place was just outside the city, perfectly suited for a bachelor to entertain a couple dozen guests outdoors on a warm spring night. Venture gave up on his shirt and took it off, leaving just his short-sleeved undershirt. Grant had outfitted him with all new clothes, with plenty of room to grow, before he left Twin Rivers, but already everything had grown tight across the shoulders, short at the ankles and wrists. He had some money of his own put aside, the modest prizes from a point tournament he managed to hit here and there, minus the portion he insisted Earnest take. But he didn’t want to spend it on clothes if he didn’t have to.
    He thought of his comfortable workout clothes, of how much more comfortable he felt on the mat, regardless of the clothes, than he did here. After all this time tagging along with Dasher and Earnest, Venture still didn’t know what to do with himself at these kinds of parties. He knew how to serve guests at a formal party and could probably fake his way through being a guest at one, but that sort of know-how was useless here.
    It didn’t help that every party only reminded him of the last one he’d attended in Twin Rivers, nearly a year ago—for Jade’s sixteenth birthday. He’d done his job then, though it tore him apart, watching her dance with other men. Being there when they came seeking her courtship in the days that followed. He’d heard that her courtship with Dell Rippley had ended just a few months after he’d left town to train, but the fact that she’d accepted it at all still ate at Venture. Rippley was a handsome young man of good repute. Though not Crested, he was wealthy and considered a good match. If the two of them didn’t end up back together, there would be another like him. It was only a matter of time.
    Dasher caught him as he passed by. “There you are. Am I scary? Earnest says I’m scary.”
    “He is. He’s scaring away all the girls tonight.”
    “Maybe it’s the ears,” Venture said.
    Earnest spat his drink back into his cup and Dasher faked a jab at Venture’s ear. “Be nice, or I’ll give you a set to match.”
    “I saw Lacy was over there talking to Dash, and by the time I got there, she’d already taken off, all in a hurry,” Earnest said.
    “She was in a hurry to find Champ. I thought he was still inside.”
    “Him? How’s that fair?” Earnest grinned and slapped Venture on the back. “Better go in and find her then. Just don’t blow it this time, all right?”
    Venture shrugged and wandered off into the grass, away from the house, leaving the laughing silhouettes of the others behind. Usually, no one was much interested in the kid who tagged along with Dasher Starson, and that was the way he liked it.  
    Earnest, with his knack for being able to respond to a person, even a person he’d just met, in just the way that would make him—or in this case, her—more comfortable, was in his element. Parties almost always yielded him some late-night, one-on-one female entertainment. And Dasher loved a crowd, on the mat or off. He was always well-mannered and well-spoken, and he could be downright eloquent after a few drinks. Earnest played off him beautifully with his crude sense of humor.
    But Venture didn’t trust himself to drink much. That was one part of Earnest’s job that he’d always made easy. He didn’t have to worry about keeping his fighter sober. Venture had worked too hard to try to gain some kind of control over himself; he was working hard for control over his future still. He’d seen enough fighters drown their