Pack of Trouble (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 5)

by Liza O'Connor

  He nodded.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She tried to hug him, but he wouldn’t come close enough to her wheel chair.

  “Gentlemen do not hug,” he softly scolded. “And you are welcome. I realized it was ridiculous for you to be carted about in a rented cab, when your carriage sat unused at the other house.”

  “Won’t Claire need it?” The last thing she wanted was Claire arriving at the door calling her a thief.

  “No, Mr. Brown has bought an automobile, so they no doubt will appreciate the removal of two horses and the second carriage from the stable.”

  “I can’t wait to see David’s car,” Vic said and remembered Claire still didn’t know for certain she was back from Spain. While her sister had run into Xavier, Vic had managed to avoid her thus far. And the reason for the continued secrecy was presently chewing on her ankle cast. She reached down and stroked Cannon’s giant head.

  This gulf between her and Claire couldn’t continue. They were sisters. They’d survived by climbing on debris, while their mother, unable to climb up due to her water soaked skirts, sank into the ocean. For two days, it had just been Claire and Vic, thirsty and hungry, lying on floating rubble.

  If they had survived such a horrific ordeal, surely they could survive the birth of one not-so-little cannonball.

  Tubs and her footman-promoted-to-driver, Samson, had her inside her old familiar carriage in no time at all. Then they were off to meet Julia Enden.

  Without breaking a sweat, Tubs and Samson carried her up five flights to Julia’s room.

  Upon knocking, a slight young girl opened door, looking very much like the latter picture of Julia, only, instead of rage in her eyes, hardness now resided.

  Julia dismissed Vic after one glance and focused on Tubs.

  “What do you want?” she snapped.

  Tubs’ eyes narrowed and his voice roughened. “Vic wishes to speak to you, and I suggest you let him.”

  Julia eyed Vic over then refocused on Tubs. “He can enter, but you need to stay out here.”

  “Sorry,” Vic said. “Tubs is here to protect me. I almost died while rescuing someone a few weeks ago, so right now a small baby could take me out.”

  Julia chuckled. “Well, unfortunately, I have one of those, so don’t try anything with me.” She stepped back, allowing Vic and Tubs inside.

  Having been in several tenements, Vic expected a small dreary grey, unpainted wood walled room with a bowl sink that required water to be ported up the five flights and a small coal stove used for cooking and warming the place.

  Instead, she stared at a large parlor decorated in dark blue and purple wallpaper. Except for the color scheme and a few pieces of furniture, it was a near replica of Lady Abigail’s parlor.

  Julia smirked. “Expecting a hovel?”

  “Sorry, yes, I was. This is nice…and a better color scheme than Lady Abigail’s.”

  The girl’s eyes narrowed with deadly intent. “What’s your connection with that house?”

  Vic wished she wasn’t in a wheelchair, because honestly, this small waif was causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise. Evidently, Tubs didn’t like her attitude either, since he moved beside Vic, so he’d be able to react faster if Julia attacked.

  “I bear a message from your aunt.”

  Her eyes rounded. “My aunt? I figured my uncle sent you.”

  “No, he asked us to find his book.”

  She sighed as she sat upon an identical flowery couch to the one Lady Abigail possessed. “Either you’ve done so or you’re too late. The book is gone.”

  “The book was recovered last night,” Vic replied.

  She glared at Tubs, clearly holding him responsible, and then returned her focus to Vic. “I wouldn’t have taken it, but I couldn’t work once my belly grew. Even drunken fools can figure out a virgin shouldn’t be pregnant. I only asked the bastard for twenty pounds a week to get by. Honestly, if I still lived in his house, my pen money would have been five times that.”

  “You are not in trouble for asking for money. I daresay he owes you far more than you’ve taken.”

  Her eyebrows rose in challenge. “Are you certain about that? He informed me on his second payment that he’d contacted Scotland Yard and I would spend the rest of my life in jail. And I know for a fact Scotland Yard visited him many times after that.”

  “They were called. He’s insisted a spy had stolen something vital from him, but refused to disclose what was taken, when it was taken, and who might want the item.”

  She laughed and covered her face.

  “I believe he’d already incurred a stroke by then, so he was no longer rational,” Vic explained.

  The news sobered the young woman. “I didn’t realize…”

  “It does not lessen the abuse he did to you,” Vic said. “And he had no stroke back then.”

  Julia leaned back on the couch and eyed Tubs. Despite her appearance of youthful innocence, her pose was most provocative. Vic could see how she might mesmerize most men, but if she thought it would work on Tubs, she was in for a letdown.

  “You used to work for Seth Sojourn,” Julia purred.

  Tubs made no reply.

  “I remember you scared the hell out of me back then. Either I’ve gotten braver or you’ve gotten tamer.”

  Vic jumped in, annoyed at Julia’s taunt. “Tubs works for me now, so he’s much happier. But trust me, he can still turn criminals into weeping babies.”

  Julia ignored her and remained focused on Tubs. “Ironic isn’t it. You left the underworld to find your happy place with ‘good people’ and I left the ‘good people’ to find my peace and happiness in the hells.”

  “Then you do not desire rescue.” Vic stated this as a fact, rather than a question. She had already concluded there would be no rescue and no reunion for Lady Abigail. The niece she loved had died years ago.

  With a roll of her eyes, leaving no doubt she though Vic a dunce, she explained. “I’m a skilled actress, better than you’ve ever seen. And until I had to stop performing because of the damn baby, I made a very good living. Right now, I’m barely hanging on. And without the ability to tap my uncle for additional funds, I’ll have to find someone to take this kid off my hands so I can return to my profession.”

  “I am positive your aunt would send you funds. Her message was that she loves you, she has missed you every day you’ve been gone and she doesn’t care what you’ve done to survive. She only cares that you did.”

  Julia stared at the small, tear-dropped crystal chandelier on her ceiling. “You’ve no idea what it’s like to be born out of place. This is where I was meant to be, not in some fancy house where everyone pretends to be something they aren’t.” She ran her hands through her luscious, long, auburn hair. “I still remember that first day of having my likeness taken. Uncle sat me on his lap and read a chapter of a book about a young girl just like me, and then we acted the scene out. The pain was horrible the first time. I cried and begged for him to stop.” A faint smile came to her lips. “I still cry when I’m on stage. I remember the pain, my utter shame, and deep guilt that I had done something to cause my good uncle to hurt me so.”

  Vic listened in a mix of horror and confusion.

  “When we finished chapter one, he pulled me into his arms and told me what a wonderful job I had done, and covered my face with kisses.” Julia met Vic’s eyes. “You have no idea how exquisite kindness can be after pain.”

  Vic had no idea how to respond. “So you do not hate your uncle for what he did?”

  “Hate him? Not at all. He woke the hidden desires within me, the physical enjoyment of pain and pleasure. The only time I felt betrayed by him was when he called in Scotland Yard. However a friend of mine assured me he never gave them my name, but until today I didn’t realize he gave them nothing to go on and even blamed it on spies.”

  For a moment, as she chuckled, she looked like the early innocent happy picture Vic had seen, but then sadnes
s overtook her. “I thought it all a game on my uncle’s part. I never imagined he’d truly lost his mind. I’m sorry for him. He was always so proud of himself and all he accomplished.”

  Without question, Vic felt no pity for the bastard, and while she was glad Julia hadn’t suffered a life of shame and misery, honestly, she could find no satisfaction in the woman Julia had become, nor would Lady Abigail. But Julia liked who she was, so Vic needed to focus on the one innocent still left out in the cold and in need of rescue.

  “Is your child here?”

  With a heavy sigh, Julia jutted her chin at a door. “In the bedroom. Would you like to see her?”

  “I would.”

  They entered a room that hopefully was not fashioned after Lady Abigail’s bedroom. While Vic had never seen an authentic mid-eastern harem, she suspected that was what had inspired the room’s décor. Bright colored transparent fabrics draped from the ceiling. Nearly a hundred pillows, in every color of the rainbow, rested on top of an excessively large soft edged mattress occupying most of the room. Chains with handcuffs hung from the wall and curled like iron snakes on the floor. On the far right, a basket rested at the edge of the mattress.

  Julia pointed to it. “There’s my burden.”

  Vic tried to roll herself to the basket but the pillows stopped the wheelchair cold. Tubs walked to the basket and brought it to her.

  Inside lay a tiny porcelain-white baby with a shocking red tuff of hair. The child woke and stared up at her with bright blue eyes. “She’s beautiful,” Vic whispered.

  “You want her?” Julia taunted.

  “What’s her name?”

  “I don’t know.”

  How the bloody hell couldn’t she know? And then the reason came to Vic. “You don’t plan to keep her.”

  “Have you not listened to a word I’ve said? I am a great actress. My business depends upon my talent. There is no room in my life for a baby.”

  “What do you plan to do with her?” Vic asked.

  Wrapping her arms into the hanging fabrics, Julia swung softly in a slow circle. “There’s a woman, Mrs. Edwards, who takes care of babies for fifteen shillings a month. I thought I’d let her have it.”

  Vic knew of the woman, and in a panic almost suggested Julia should give the child to Lady Abigail, but realized her husband would no doubt hurt this child if he had the chance. Still, Vic couldn’t allow Julia to send the child to its death.

  “Mrs. Edward charges so little because she either sells or kills the babies.”

  Julia continued to swing about her fabrics as if she were a young girl without a care in the world. “You said the baby was pretty, so maybe someone will take it.” She then stopped and faced Vic. “Either way, it’s out of my hands.”

  The girl was damn lucky Vic was stuck in this chair, because honest to God, otherwise, she would have wrung the young woman’s neck. To calm herself, she focused on the incredibly small baby in the basket on her lap. It suckled on a bottle of milk, which to Vic’s nose smelled sour. Remembering Dr. Connors message about baby bottles causing a great deal of deaths, she gently removed the rubber stopper from its mouth.

  “I’ll save you the fifteen shillings a week and take the child,” Vic offered.

  Julia ceased to swing. “No. You’ll give it to my aunt and frankly, I’d rather it die.”

  “I’ll give it to a couple who have desperately tried to have a child, but cannot.” Surely, even Claire at her worse would be better for this little girl than staying here with a mother damaged beyond help.

  “Give me their name and address,” she said.

  Vic glared at her. “So you can blackmail them as well? Not a chance. Either give the child to me so I can ensure she has a good life with loving parents or pay Mrs. Edwards to kill the baby and guarantee your place in hell.” There was no way she’d allow the latter to happen, but she needed Julia to give the child up willingly.

  The girl’s eyes narrowed as she locked onto Vic’s and they had a stare down that seemed to last a solid half-hour. Finally, the young woman sighed. “Take it. Saves me the fifteen shillings and I can return to acting tonight.”

  Vic pulled out her note pad and pencil. “Given your proclivity to blackmail, please write down that you are giving this child to me to find it a good home.”

  “And if I refuse?”

  “Then I leave and you’ll still have your daughter.” What it really meant was that she and Tubs would have to spend the entire day watching the building to ensure Julia did not cart the child off to Mrs. Edwards before Tubs could steal the child away later tonight.

  When Julia made no indication she would sign, Vic threw up her hands and placed the basket with the tiny girl on the floor. “Tubs, let’s go.”

  They were at the front door of the parlor when Julia spoke. “Hold on. I’ll sign the damn thing.” Once the letter was written and signed, Tubs reached down for the basket.

  “Hey! You get the child, not my basket,” Julia snapped.

  ***

  Three minutes later, Vic sat in the hall with the tiny baby surrounded by her cast arms. Tubs whistled for Samson and less than a minute later the muscular young fellow arrived, barely out of breath.

  Once they picked up her wheel chair and Samson took the first step down. Vic’s butt slid downward off the seat of the wheelchair. With both cast arms surrounding the baby, she had no way to stop the disaster in progress. “Help!” she cried.

  Seeing the problem, Tubs gripped the back of her muslin shirt and pulled her and the chair back to the platform.

  “Sorry, I should have foreseen that,” Tubs said. “I’ll carry you and the babe, Samson can get the wheelchair.”

  Vic did not really wish to be carried down five flights like a baby. What if, later in her career, she had to deal with someone who saw her while being carried?

  “Why don’t we just turn the chair around so I can’t slide out?”

  Tubs smiled. “That’ll work.”

  Chapter 21

  On the ride to Dr. Connors, the baby’s tuff of red hair made Vic think of her Aunt Maddy, who had taken her and Claire in after their parents drowned and allowed Vic to grow up as a boy when the idea of wearing long skirts terrified her.

  Vic decided to give this child her aunt’s name. It would bring her strength and love through her life. The baby girl would be called Madeline, Maddy for short.

  When they arrived at Connors, his lobby was stuffed with patients. Vic declared her visit an emergency and thankfully, not a single person challenged her claim. Being covered in plaster had finally proven to be useful.

  Tubs rolled her into the exam room, where they waited for ten minutes. When Connors entered, he rolled his eyes as he released a sigh of exasperation. “Tubs, you should have put her on the exam table. I am terribly behind today. Every minute counts.”

  “Sorry,” Tubs said and took the baby from Vic and sat the tiny thing upon the table.

  When Connors turned, after washing his hands in the sink, his eyes rounded in shock. “What the hell is that?”

  “It’s a baby Vic just rescued,” Tubs said.

  Connors’ brow furrowed and it remained so throughout the entire exam. “This child is less than a week old and already showing signs of severe malnutrition. In my opinion, the mother should be arrested.”

  “The young woman was punished long ago, and that moment in her life has destroyed her ability to love anything.”

  Connors stepped back and stared at Vic. “I guarantee you, this child will not live another week if you return it to her mother.”

  Dear God, why would he even think such a thing? “I’m not returning her. I’m going to find Maddy a new home.”

  “Well, take her to your nursemaid first. Otherwise, she could die before her new parents locate their own.”

  With that warning Vic had Samson drive full speed home where Gina was located and given the baby to feed.

  “No, this isn’t my baby,” she said and stepped away from i
t.

  Vic raised her voice in outrage. “This baby is starving. You will feed it or I will knock you unconscious so the baby can feed on its own.”

  Gina’s eyes rounded with fear, then she flew down the hall. “Mr. Thorn! Save me! Mr. Thorn.”

  Tubs rolled Vic, with Maddy in her lap, after the nursemaid. Gina had a head start, because Tubs had not been inside Gina’s room when this nonsense began.

  Xavier stormed out of the library. “For the love of God. What is the matter?”

  “He wants to steal your baby’s milk,” Gina cried.

  Vic explained her side as Tubs rolled her to Xavier. “This baby is starving. I need Gina to feed it. Connors says she won’t live if she isn’t fed now.”

  His eyes rounded in shock, he turned to the nursemaid. “Gina, it’s an innocent baby. Feed it.”

  “But then Cannon will not have enough.”

  Losing all patience, he snapped, “Cannon could go a week without food. Now feed this child at once!” He turned, planning to escape to the peace of the library.

  “No. I won’t.”

  Xavier turned and stared at her. “Then consider yourself fired.” Glancing at Vic, he added, “There is milk still in the fridge and it has not spoiled. I know this because I mistakenly used it in my tea this morning.” He then yelled loud enough to be heard three blocks away. “Gregory!”

  “I am standing right beside you, sir,” Gregory calmly stated. “I understand you wish to fire the nursemaid.”

  Gina’s chin pushed up defiantly. “You cannot do that. Your son will die. He no drink from anyone but me.”

  Xavier ignored her as he replied to Gregory. “Find another nursemaid, as soon as possible.”

  “I already have located a suitable nursemaid. She can be here within the hour.”

  Gina glared at Gregory. “You lie!”

  Never, had Vic heard anyone dare yell at Gregory, nevertheless call him a liar. The only hint of fury was the narrowing of his eyes. Otherwise, he remained calm. “No, Miss Gina, I have been looking for your replacement since the day you arrived. I find your attitude of entitlement and your disrespect to authority intolerable. However, for your willingness to kill an innocent child by refusing to give it sustenance, you are fired without references.” He turned to a footman. “Clark, see the woman out.”