Vic gasped when she realized that Fredericks was in their home, presently mesmerizing Xavier.
She stepped between the two men and smiled at Fredericks. “So, you are a mesmerist,” she stated softly as she met his eyes.
His eyes narrowed. “I want to end this now. Get out of my way. You are nothing.”
Vic stuffed her hands into her pockets and grinned at him. “I am far more than nothing.”
He focused on her eyes. “You will leave this house and take your sister with you.”
“Why?” Vic asked. “This is my house.”
“Because you no longer wish to live here,” he stated softly.
“I really like this house,” she assured him.
“No, you do not. You wish to live in the street.”
Vic laughed at his absurd statement, then shot him in the stomach. She removed the gun that Fredricks had been trying to retrieve from his pants. Once she ensured he had no more weapons and to all appearances was dead, she turned to her mesmerized husband.
Recalling a method that seemed to pull Xavier out of a trance, she yanked him to her and kissed him hungrily. For a moment she feared it wasn’t going to work, but finally he broke free of his trance and kissed her back.
“What the bloody hell happened?” Xavier demanded.
“Fredericks mesmerized you.”
“Damn it all!”
She soothed her angry beloved. “No worries. I was here to bring you back. But presently, I need to make a few calls. Think you can remain un-mesmerized for the next quarter of an hour?”
“This is not a laughing matter, but yes, I believe I can remain sane. Also, I am accompanying you to our butler’s room since I wish to know why he is nowhere to be found.”
“Bloody hell! They had better not have hurt any of my people!” Vic growled.
When they entered, they found an unconscious Tubs lying on top of an aggravated butler.
“For God’s sake, get Tubs off of me!”
“What happened?” Vic asked as she and Xavier rolled Tubs so Gregory could free himself. Vic noticed a large bump on Tubs’ head. Wasting no time, she ran to the telephone and called Dr. Connors. “Tubs is unconscious!” She then called Scotland Yard and shared with Barns what had happened. He promised to come at once.
Exhausted, she sat down beside Tubs and pressed her ear to his chest. She smiled as she heard his heart thumping beneath.
Xavier glared at her. “Vic, why are you napping on Tubs?”
“I wasn’t napping. I was determining if he was alive.”
“And is he?”
“Yes, and Dr. Connors will arrive soon.” She then glanced at her butler. “You might want to stand before the door, so you’ll be there when Dr. Connors arrives.”
Gregory straightened his tie and stormed from the room.
“You are in a bossy mood,” Xavier observed.
Vic huffed. “Well, I seem to be the only rational, cognizant person around.”
Xavier stood and offered her a hand up.
Vic kissed Tubs’ forehead, then with Xavier’s assistance, stood up. “Let’s determine what else has gone wrong.”
When they returned to the hall, Xavier assessed matters. “One dead mesmerist, check! One missing demented sister of Vic’s, that’s not good.”
“I don’t want to deal with my sister just now, so I am glad she’s missing.” Vic then paused. “But let us make sure the children are safe.” Vic ran up the stairs, leaving Xavier to take the stairs slowly. When she ran to David’s room and pulled on the door, it was locked. “Danny, are you inside?”
“Yes,” the boy replied.
“Is there anyone else in the room with you?”
“No.”
“Excellent! Stay there,” Vic ordered.
She then headed back downstairs to ensure the other children were fine and almost knocked Xavier off his feet when she crashed into him. She took a moment to steady her beloved and then continued to her task.
Naturally, Xavier followed her.
When they entered Tubs’ rooms, they found nothing at first glance. Vic called out, “Sara, are you and Ham in your hidey? If so, it is safe to come out now.”
“Thank goodness,” Sara stated and climbed out, then helped Ham get out. “Pretty soon we’ll have to find a larger hidey for Ham.”
The only child left was Maddy. Instead of visiting her, Vic called on the telephone. After a minute, a woman answered. Only it wasn’t either of the two voices she expected. Her heart pounded in her chest. “Claire, please do not hurt anyone.”
“Why shouldn’t I? You killed my husband.”
“He was a mesmerist, Claire. I’m sorry that I sent you to him. He made you worse, not better.”
Silence screamed across the line.
“Why did you kill my husband?”
“I had no choice. He was hurting you. Telling you lies to make you hate us.”
As she continued to speak to Claire, Xavier and Jacko headed over to Vivian’s home.
Suddenly she heard a scream then a gunshot.
Vic collapsed on the floor next to Tubs. She did not have the energy to rescue anyone. Instead, she rested her head upon Tubs’ chest and fainted.
Soon Dr. Connors arrived. He checked to ensure both Vic and Tubs had strong heartbeats. He then tended to Vic. However, he had to move her to a room in the back of the suite so he could remove her clothes to be sure she was not injured. Finding no injuries, he replaced her clothes and allowed her to continue to sleep. He marveled at how important this one woman was to the safety of England.
Assessing her problem to be exhaustion, he returned to Tubs and fretted over the large bump on his head. If an artery had burst inside his brain, then Tubs was in serious trouble. What gave him hope was the steady and healthy thumping of his heart. Still, he had treated cases where the body ran fine, but the brain had died.
Given Tubs massive weight, moving him to a bed was not feasible. However, he did place a pillow beneath his head and straightened him out to a more comfortable position.
Dr. Connors then returned to the dining room where most of the staff sat. “Is anyone else injured? Speak up now, if you are.”
No one spoke. “We all got sent to hiding places,” Ham explained. “How’s my father?”
“His heart is strong. He’s just sleeping right now.”
Xavier and Jacko returned with Claire just as Barns entered the house.
“Thank God!” Claire screeched. “Tell these baboons to release me and to give me back my child.”
Barns glared at Claire. “We are not having this conversation again. Your ex-husband has every right to keep Maddy.”
“But Maddy is not living here. She’s living with two old women who are incapable of raising a child. So, I’m taking her back.”
Xavier spoke at once. “The two women in the house directly behind mine are my great grandmother and my mother. Maddy requested to stay with the ladies. She still has moments of anger and jealousy from the time she lived with Claire. So, for the time being, Daniel is staying in this house, and Maddy is having great fun with the two ladies.”
“Liar!” Claire screamed.
“And just for the record, Claire pulled a gun and threatened to kill the two women for having the audacity to love Maddy. Fortunately, both my mother and grandmother countered her gun with their own, just as Jacko and I arrived. While I tried to talk Claire down, Jacko removed her gun. She retaliated by attacking Jacko, but we quickly secured her.”
Claire hissed like an angry snake.
Xavier shook his head. “I believe we have everything under control. However, Claire does need to return to a quality asylum far away from here.”
“What’s wrong with the institution she was in?” Barns asked.
“We could try it, since Fredericks is dead and can no longer worsen her, but she still might have bad memories of the place. I believe there is a very fine asylum in Switzerland. The peacefulness of the mountains might soothe
her.”
“Sounds like a great choice,” Barns stated. “I just need to get your statement before I leave.”
“What about my statement?” Claire demanded and kicked the table leg.
Barns huffed. “Mental patients do not get to make statements.”
Xavier provided a rather long account of Claire’s misdeeds.
Claire objected, of course., “He’s lying! Fredericks declared me sane!”
Barns rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. “Well, Fredericks is both dead and a proven loon. Which means, his opinion no longer counts. So, you’ll start anew, in a new facility, with sane doctors.” Barns stood and focused on Xavier. “Give me a call when Tubs awakens.”
Gregory slowly made his way to the door and let Barns out.
Connors spoke up. “I’ll remain here until Tubs wakes up.”
“Excellent,” Xavier replied. “While I don’t believe any of us got anything done today, I am utterly exhausted.”
“Same here,” Vic added.
“It was truly a terrible day!” Jacko observed.
“I’ll be aching for weeks,” Gregory admitted.
Just as the clock sounded eight chimes, David entered through the kitchen. “What a fabulous day!” he declared.
Before anyone could disagree, Tubs entered, looking fit as a fiddle. He turned to Gregory and smiled. “Thanks for the pillow.” He then focused on David. “You look happy.”
David laughed. “I am! I broke my record on the number of people served in a single day.”
“How many patients did you have?” Tubs asked.
“Twenty-three! However, I could not have done it had Stone not sent me Pete to assist,” David admitted.
“Where’s Pete?” Jacko asked.
“I dropped him off at your townhouse. I had no idea you’d be here.”
“Not a problem,” Jacko replied. “Pete likes his room there. I prefer mine here. My bedroom in the townhouse just makes me lonely when Alice isn’t around.”
“Well, you may stay here for as long as you want,” Xavier assured him and stood up. “It appears that the world has once again righted itself. Let us all enjoy the moment before the next catastrophe arrives.”
“Here, here!” Gregory declared.
“Hold on!” Vic warned. “We still need to know how Claire and Fredericks were able to enter this house when we had it on lockdown!”
“Crap!” Jacko muttered. “Vic is right. Otherwise, we’ll be up all night, certain that Clair and some hired thugs plan to return later and kill us all.
“And who hit Tubs on the head?” Casey asked. “It couldn’t have been Claire. She lacks the strength.”
“More to the point, Claire couldn’t reach his head,” Vic replied.
“It was Block,” Tubs admitted. “He first tried to convince me to tie up Xavier. When I ignored him, he grabbed the concrete bristle hog that stands before the front door and hit me on the head with it. Sorry to say, it knocked me out cold. But on the good side, the bristle hog didn’t break.”
Vic huffed. “While that explains how you got knocked unconscious, it still doesn’t explain how they got into the house in the first place.” Determined to find out how they got in, Vic stormed to the front door and studied it for pic markings. Nothing! Next, she moved to the carriage door. Again, she found nothing. Going to the back door, she discovered pick markings.”
She looked at the mob that had followed her.
“This implies that we have someone working for Claire in Vivian and Charlotte’s house.” “My money is on Maddy,” Xavier grumbled.
“First, we should explain our evidence to Charlotte and Vivian.
David spoke up. “I would prefer to speak to Maddy in private first.”
Xavier sighed. “We will talk to the ladies, and you talk to Maddy.”
Since the ladies had already gone to sleep, Xavier and Vic had to wait in the hallway for them to dress.
Suddenly a screech of anger came from further down the hall. Maddy burst from her room and ran directly into Vic and Xavier.
David soon joined the angry girl in the hallway. “She’s insisting she’s not to blame for anything. It had to be Danny setting her up.”
Vic left David and Xavier to deal with the girl while she checked out Maddy’s room. If Maddy had picked the back door of their house and let the mesmerist Block and Claire inside, there would probably be picks hidden in her room. She closed her eyes and let the room speak to her. She felt a pull from the bottom drawer. She pulled it partially out and searched for the picks but found nothing. Still the drawer called to her, so she pulled the drawer completely out. She spied a blue bag on the wooden floor beneath the drawer. She lifted it out and studied the picks inside. Once she put the drawer back, she entered the hall with her newly found bag of picks.
“Where’s Xavier?” she asked.
Jacko sighed. “He’s gone downstairs to wake Jonas so he can get a key to the lady’s rooms. They have not come out, and we are worried Maddy has hurt them.”
“I haven’t done anything!” Maddy declared. Her eyes narrowed when she noticed the blue velvet bag in Vic’s hand. “Those aren’t my picks! You must have done this!”
Jonas and Xavier return with keys. Vic requested that Xavier, Jonas, and Jacko keep Maddy secure, while she spoke to Charlotte and Vivian.
When Vic entered Vivian’s bedroom, the old girl was lying on her bedcover, gagged and tied.
Within a few minutes, Vivian was freed, and her first words were harsh. “I want that little monster out of my house!”
“We will definitely remove her from your house,” Vic assured her. She then gave Vivian a hug. “I need to check on Charlotte now.”
Vic rushed to Charlotte’s room, only Charlotte wasn’t there. She was about to terrorize Maddy into telling what she had done with Charlotte. Then Vic recalled Charlotte’s beloved fellow slept in the bedroom on the first floor. Rushing downstairs, she ran to Pike’s room and knocked loudly. She then heard Charlotte’s reply, “Wait a minute.”
Vic sighed with relief and smiled when Charlotte opened the door. “Vic, is something wrong?”
“Yes, I’m sorry to say, but Maddy tied Vivian up. She would have no doubt tied you up as well, only you weren’t in your room.”
“Thank God for that,” Pike responded and opened the door wider. “Where is the girl now?”
“Upstairs, being guarded by Jacko, Jonas, and Xavier, and possibly getting her last scolding from Vivian.”
“Well, let us all go upstairs, for I wish to hear why she did this and what is to be done with her,” Charlotte admitted.
Once they arrived, Charlotte wasted no niceties upon her. “Maddy, I thought we were gaining a rapport, but I now see you were just playing me.”
Maddy shook her head. “That’s not true! I like you more than anyone I’ve ever known. But I have to obey my mother. She said if I didn’t obey her, she would hurt me.”
Vivian responded at once. “First of all, Claire is not your mother. She’s just a strange woman who made you wear itchy evening gowns for much of your life.”
“That’s not true!” Maddy screamed.
“If you don’t believe me, then ask Vic, David, or Xavier. They are all reliable sources of the truth.”
Maddy turned to Vic. “Is it true?”
“I saved you from being killed when you were just a wee baby. Then I gave you to my sister because she so desperately wanted a baby. But then she started to go crazy, so, by your request, you moved into our house with lots of children. While you didn’t seem to like any of them, your dislike to Danny was especially worrisome to me. Not to mention, your abuse to Arroo. Then, when you met Charlotte, you asked to live with her, and given your dislike of Danny, David agreed. But now you have tossed all this away, and for what? Claire will be going to an asylum in Switzerland.” Vic knelt beside the young girl. “I only see two choices going forward. You can apologize sincerely to Vivian for tying her up, and then ask her to let
you stay in her house so Charlotte could be your mother. The other choice is to return to your real mother. She is not a good woman, nor do I think you’ll like her, but those are your only two choices remaining. You have burned a great many bridges. I know you are still very young, but it is time to think about others as well as yourself.”
Maddy turned to Vivian. “I am very sorry for tying you up. My mom...the person I thought was my mom, told me I must do what she commanded, or she’d toss me in the streets to starve. I should not have done it, but I feared she would do it.”
“I forgive you,” Vivian replied. “I didn’t realize the whole of your predicament. You were in a difficult situation. I am glad it has been resolved without serious harm to anyone. If Charlotte wishes to help you grow into a fabulous young woman, I will be most pleased.”
Maddy bounced with happiness as she turned to Charlotte. “Will you be my mother, please?” Maddy asked.
Charlotte knelt and pulled the young girl to her, hugging her with true affection. “I would be honored to have you as my daughter. However, you should be aware, that I plan to have Mr. Pike as my husband once he heals a bit more. Once we marry, we’ll be a family, and he’ll be your father and I’ll be your mother, and you’ll have nothing to do with Claire in the future.”
“I won’t ever speak to Claire again, and I promise to be as good as gold,” Maddy assured her
Chapter 13
HAVING BEEN UP MOST of the prior night, Gregory allowed the staff to sleep a few more hours. Thus, Gregory was the only one awake, enjoying a cup of tea, when someone pounded on the front door at six o’clock. Since Gregory was dressed for the day, he opened the door. Upon recognizing the gentleman to be the head of Scotland Yard, he even managed to politely ask his purpose in pounding on the door at such an early hour.
“I need to speak to Xavier and Vic at once!”
“Sir, we have had a very trying night and my masters are asleep. Can you not return during proper hours?”
“No, I cannot. I must speak to Xavier and Vic at once. This is a matter of importance!” To prove it so, Barns pushed his way in and yelled for Xavier and Vic at the top of his lungs.
The Future of Scotland Yard Page 8
