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“I do not mean to pry,” Bradshaw said. “But you seem quiet today.”
Oh, so you did notice?Olivia turned to look at him and took a whiff of his scent again. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was foreign. If she added a hazelnut scent to her perfume, that would be a sweet addition to an otherwise tangy scent. Not citrus fruits. That would absolutely not work. When she’d made previous batches of perfume for him, she’d assumed citrus would suit him well, but she’d been wrong.
“I have been talking your ear off, so I understand. But perhaps you’d like to share your thoughts with me?” Bradshaw tried again.
Olivia frowned up at him. “I thought you’d smell differently.”
Bradshaw blinked and then laughed uproariously.
Olivia frowned in confusion.What did I say?
“You have the most unique sense of humor,” Bradshaw finally said.
“I do?”
“Yes, you are quite an unusual lady, Miss Olivia, aren’t you?”
Olivia bit on her lip nervously. Should she deny it?No, I am not at all unusual.But he didn’t seem put out by it. Perhaps he did notice and even understood her better than she gave him credit for. “I suppose—”
“I quite like it,” he said with a smile.
Olivia expelled a breath of relief. He liked it. He likedher.
“Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the theater tomorrow night?” he asked with a light smile.
Olivia swallowed. “I would enjoy that very much.”
Jarvis paced the floor of Viscount Landen’s study. He was agitated and on edge. Last night’s escapades hadn’t soothed his raw nerves. On the contrary, there were too many things that bothered him about the attack.
There were too many bandits. He doubted they were all there for one child. And once the scuffle started, nobody seemed to pay any heed to the boy. No one, that was, except for the thief-taker. It was as if the bandits had lain in wait for Jarvis to appear.
And perhaps they had.
That led Jarvis to another thought. There were no other Shadows about. So either they truly didn’t care for the orphan house, or they all—not just him—were on lockdown. All because one of them was compromised.
If that were true, that’d mean that the orphan house stood unprotected because of him.
Jarvis couldn’t let it stand. He needed to find the parties responsible for stealing children and then find the thugs who were after him. Unless, of course, both of those factions were one and the same.
Jarvis frowned in thought. It didn’t make sense. He’d been assigned the Lykai orphan house a few weeks ago, but the thugs had been after him for over a year, according to Payne. Jarvis had somehow managed to escape their attempts at catching him without even knowing it.
Jarvis turned and looked at the clock. He had been waiting for over twenty minutes.
As if his agitation wasn’t enough, having to wait for so long in Landen’s house grated on his nerves. Jarvis wasn’t exactly a guest in this house. He was never treated like one, either. And usually, the moment he stepped into the hall, Olivia would run down the stairs to greet him. Not today.
She was the main reason he’d even come here. Now, he paced her father’s study, waiting for the viscount to show up. Was Olive still angry with him for exiting the house party early? Was she even in the house?
The door to the study opened, and Jarvis turned, his heart in his throat. He quickly composed himself as he saw Lord Landen at the door. The man smiled broadly and walked toward Jarvis, his arm outstretched.
“Jarvis, good to see you, my boy!” He shook Jarvis’s hand and showed him to sit by the hearth. “You left the house party so early, I was worried something was amiss.”
“Nothing to worry about, I assure you. I just had to escort my cousin as his wife was ailing.”
The old man nodded. “Everything is well with the estates?”
“Yes, all is as it should be.”
The viscount gave a crooked smile. “You are a talented young man, Jarvis. And you’ve been running your estates without my help for a while now. I was waiting for you to realize that you do not need my council anymore.”
