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Olivia’s father was worried about Jarvis. Her family always treated him like their own, but the more they looked for him, the more frustrated her father had become.
Jarvis wasn’t in his home. He had not visited any of his usual clubs or coffeehouses. Nobody knew where he was. But then, nobody knew his dangerous pastime as a Shadow.
Olivia did not know what that meant exactly either. She had heard whispers and rumors here or there about a masked vigilante who was mucking up businesses and caused trouble in the streets, but she didn’t know the details. Neither had she had time to ask Jarvis about it.
But after the incident during Kensington’s masked ball, more and more rumors surfaced about the Shadows, calling them murderers and criminals.
Olivia knew it wasn’t true. She knew Jarvis enough to know he would not be part of a murderous criminal group. But she also knew that public opinion could not only be cruel but also damaging. Someone could have caught him.
Someone could have hurt him.
She knew that he could stand up for himself in a fight. She had witnessed it firsthand when he saved her family from bandits. But what if the bandits outnumbered him? What if they had a rifle?
He could have been captured, perhaps even injured.
She could not think any further than that because thinking of Jarvis bleeding and alone somewhere was enough to make her dizzy.
If she only knew people who would actually be able to find him, she’d go to them. But she knew nothing. Perhaps someone from her acquaintances could help look for him. Who? Bradshaw?
Olivia grimaced. Olivia hadn’t thought about Bradshaw since the day he’d proposed. She had left him on the fringes of the ball while she had a passionate interlude with Jarvis in another room. How would she ever be able to look him in the eye? Much less ask anything of him.
She paced the carpet in her room, nervously picking at her fingertips. Perhaps Jarvis’s cousin could help. She could go to Helen and convince her husband to help Jarvis.
A light knock on the door startled her as she turned and beheld her maid.
“Miss, your father is requiring your presence in his study.”
“Thank you!” Olivia rushed past the maid, hurrying to hear whatever bit of news her father had finally discovered.
She ran through the corridor, almost falling down the stairs she was in such a rush. She finally halted before the doors of his study, took a deep breath, flipped the stray lock of hair off her face, and opened the door.
“You asked for me, Father? Is there news? I—” Olivia stopped in the middle of the room as she noticed her father was not alone.
A man stood and turned toward Olivia.Bradshaw.
“Miss Olivia,” he said. “I am beyond joyous to see you here.”
The smile on Olivia’s face froze. She turned to her father with a questioning look on her face.
The viscount walked around his desk and came to stand before Olivia. He stretched out both hands toward her. “Come. There’s something we need to talk about.”
Olivia put her hands in his and peeked at Bradshaw behind her father’s shoulder. “Is anything amiss? Is it about Jarvis?” Olivia returned her gaze to her father.
“Yes, dear. Come.”
Olivia frowned, looked at Bradshaw beneath her lashes, and sat in the chair across from her father.
The viscount then rounded the desk and sat in his customary seat.
“Little one,” he started, not quite looking her in the eye. Olivia’s gaze traveled from her panicked father’s face to a confident, smiling Bradshaw. She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Lord Bradshaw is here to negotiate the marriage contract.”
“What?” Olivia shot off her seat. Her chest heaved with every breath.
“Miss Olivia.” Bradshaw stood and placed a hand on her arm. “I understand you must be distressed—”
“You understand nothing.” She shook off his hand and turned to her father. “I thought this was about Jarvis. How can you think of marrying me off to someone else while he is nowhere to be found!”
Viscount Landen cleared his throat. “Please forgive my daughter’s outburst,” he said to Bradshaw. “You know how emotional ladies get sometimes.”
