Page 6 of Secrets of the Wicked Viscount (The Shadows 2)

“Was there more communication from Erebus?” Jarvis asked.

“No, my lord,” Elkins said from behind.

“So, no news about the Lykai?”

“Not yet, my lord.”

“Perhaps I should check on it then.” Jarvis darted his eyes to the side, wishing he could see his servant’s face.

A few weeks before the incident with Lord Payne, Jarvis had been assigned an important task: to look after the Lykai orphan house.

The house was located near the rookeries, and the children residing there weren’t exactly upper or even middle class. The orphans in Lykai were children rescued from child labor, brothels, and criminal circles. Lykai was exactly the kind of place that Shadows took under their protection; those nobody else cared about.

Jarvis knew the Lykai house firsthand. He had the honor of rescuing a few of the children himself and bringing them to their new sanctuary. A few years back, he had worked on the chain of child brothels. He hadn’t found the culprits behind it, but they eventually disappeared, or at least went quiet and he’d thought the children were no longer in danger.

But recently, tragedy had befallen Lykai. Every few weeks, a child went missing, never to be seen again.

Jarvis had been given the task of finding the children and punishing the people who snatched them. He was determined to find the miscreants this time, but so far he had been unsuccessful. Nor had he found the missing children.

He had wondered if the same people responsible for the child brothels were again reopening their business, but there was no way to confirm or deny his suspicions until he completed his mission.

“Perhaps when you heal fully, my lord,” Elkins answered.

Elkins did not appreciate Jarvis’s hotheadedness and never failed to tell him so. And perhaps Elkins was right. Jarvis knew he had people looking for him, but didn’t he always?

For weeks, Jarvis had had thief-takers on his tail while he tried to complete his mission. And now he had the criminals after him, too. But he couldn’t abandon the mission. Especially since Erebus declined to report on its status.

Was anyone reassigned to it? Jarvis hoped that they had.

Never mind all the nights he’d spent risking his neck and tracking down the children and their captors; he wasn’t close to finding the culprits. He looked forward to catching the bastards and seeing them hang by the neck. But the children were the ones who suffered. So he didn’t mind if another Shadow was taking care of the business while he was under lock and key in his own home.

Jarvis descended to a cellar—or at least what used to be a cellar—that Jarvis had redecorated into an exercise room. The floors were bare; the walls were adorned with different weaponry, metal hooks and ropes hanging off the ceiling to climb on, and a lone, leather-bound straw man in the corner waiting to be whipped or beaten. One side of Jarvis’s mouth kicked up in a self-satisfied smile upon seeing the stuffed doll. That wasn’t exactly what he needed, but he could pretend the straw man was Bradshaw, could he not?

Elkins came over with a strip of cloth and bound Jarvis’s knuckles and wrists. Jarvis made a few steps toward the stuffed man before stopping in front of it.

A deep breath. A punch. A breath. Another punch.

The impact of Jarvis’s fists connecting with the straw man sent a smacking sound around the room. The dust came flying out of the poor stuffed exercise doll.

Another deep breath. Another punch. A breath, repeat.

Faster and faster until Jarvis was panting and breathing heavily, sweat streaking down his face and body. He stepped back several minutes later and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve.

“Good.” He turned to Elkins. “Now that I am warmed up, I suppose we can try the swords.”

Elkins smiled faintly and walked toward the opposite wall, the one that held the weapons.

Jarvis’s shoulder still ached as he tried to wield the sword, slowly but relentlessly slashing it through the air. His hands shook, and sweat streaked down his face and body, but he didn’t relent. He was in much better shape than he thought. Perhaps he could even go out on a hunt tonight.

Erebus would not like that, but he didn’t have to know, did he?

“My lord,” Elkins called from behind him.

“I am busy.”

“You have a visitor.”

Jarvis dropped his sword and turned with a frown.Damn. “A visitor? Who is it?”

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