Read Ava’s Revenge (An Unbounded Novella) for Free Online Page B

a square jaw, and a bold, confident manner. So confident that if my ability hadn’t included being able to instantly identify Unbounded, I might have mistaken him for one of my kind.
    He’d also noticed me, and the interest I’d sensed from him earlier was stronger now at close proximity. He handed me the letter, and our eyes held. It was difficult to tell his interest from my own, though I refrained from delving into his more private thoughts.
    It’s been too long. Too long since I’d let myself care for a man. Here I was acting like a young girl simply because a gentleman had been mannerly.
    A really fine gentleman.
    I blinked the thoughts away and accepted the letter. “Thank you. I very much appreciate it. It would have been a great loss to me.”
    His smile was disarming. “I’m glad then. Though I daresay, I’m jealous of the man.”
    “Oh, really?” I couldn’t stop amusement from seeping into my voice. “How do you know it’s from a man?”
    “The intentness in your gaze.” He inclined his head, his grin still wide. “But he is far away, and I am here. I think it might be important to point this out.”
    That made me laugh. “Maybe so. I’ll think on it.”
    “It would be my great fortune. I will be here a day or two.” He gave a full bow that somehow seemed both to mock and to flatter me. “I won’t keep you. I saw your girl wave to you. She looked . . . upset.”
    His concern for a mere slave intrigued me. “Yes, you are correct. Please, excuse me.”
    He bowed again, and I forced my curiosity about him to the back of my mind as I hurried out of the room and up the front staircase.
    Betsy was waiting in my sitting room, terror for her sister and her family etched across her face. “I saw ’em! Looks like they only jest come t’ town. Got ’em in the pen, out in the open, not inside. Like there’s too many to fit. They be on the block t’morrow, if’n I guess right.”
    “Then we’ll act tonight. Locke and I will get them out. And Ritter, of course. You must stay here. You’ve risked enough by traveling here on your own.”
    Betsy nodded. “I cain’t see how sumpin’ like this can happen. They was free and happy up North. We all was.”
    “You will be again.” I set my reticule on the narrow wall table next to the door. “If you will, please go inform Locke and Ritter that we need to be ready to go before nightfall.”
    Betsy took two steps toward the door before she halted and turned around, flinging herself into my arms. “There was nowhere else t’ go. I knew you’d help Frances. But don’t go gettin’ yo’self hurt. You’s the only white angel I know.”
    I returned her exuberant hug. Betsy was my own physical age, and she’d grown up on my plantation in Savannah. She didn’t seemed to notice that I hadn’t aged while we’d lived together or in the five years since I sent her and her sister, a former slave from a neighboring plantation, north with their families.
    “Don’t you worry. It’ll be all right.” My drawl hid my real emotion. Inside I was furious. This wasn’t the first time my former slaves had contacted me for help, but it was the first time an entire free family had been stolen from the North and brought back to be sold into slavery.
    Since my recent return from England with Locke and Ritter, I’d been hearing more and more about such illegal events happening, and there was no way I was going to sit by and watch as my friends’ lives were stolen. If I had my way, this particular slaver, Lucias Johansson, was going out of business—permanently.
    Just that fast, Betsy curtsied and was gone. I began removing my skirt to prepare for the evening’s adventures. I normally loved the gowns of the south, but my combat training had also taught me how impractical they were. I couldn’t be encumbered by skirts tonight. The clock on the fireplace mantel told me I had plenty of time for my disguise.
    Excitement rippled through me—my Unbounded genes