The Darkest Days (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 6)

by Liza O'Connor

  Xavier rubbed her back. “Vic’s correct. Tubs will be out of commission for many months. If Casey is going to assist me in keeping the pup safe, then we need someone, perhaps a driver-in-training, to stay with the horses.”

  “Then we should promote Casey to a protector, and I’ll hire another driver,” Gregory said.

  Vic didn't like that at all. “Hold on! I have three issues with your plan. First of all, Casey is a superb driver and he clearly loves racing through the streets during emergencies, and he does it very well. Secondly, Tubs would not appreciate someone else being promoted to his job. It is one thing for Casey to step in while he’s hurt, but no one but Tubs should officially have the job.”

  “And the third?”

  “Third what?”

  Xavier cuffed her on the head. “Third issue. You said you had three issues.”

  “Oh…I think I combined two into one. Casey likes to drive and I’d never get a driver half as good as he is when it comes to driving fast. Do you know he got us to Connors in ten minutes, and not a single scream or curse along the way?”

  Xavier chuckled and smiled at her with pure love, before returning his attention to Gregory. “Let’s keep the job titles unchanged. Davy’s getting long in the tooth, but he’ll never train his own replacement, so gather me up some young men who wish to train under Casey. I will select the one I feel fits me the best and he can watch the horses, so Casey can be of use. Then one day, when Davy allows himself to retire, the boy can become my driver.”

  Vic rewarded him with a kiss.

  Gregory cleared his throat, gaining their attention. “I will see to the matter at once. Might I suggest you both attempt a few more hours sleep before the next crisis breaks out?”

  Once Gregory left, Xavier stretched out across his side of the bed. “We have incurred the most unruly and trying line of cases this last month.”

  She wiggled up against his side. “Starting with Jacko’s arrest. Think we picked up some gypsy curse?”

  His right eyebrow rose in challenge.

  “I’m serious. Criminals have been tripping over each other, muddying up the waters so bad, it’s been impossible to figure out who is doing what and why. Maybe I should teach a class for budding young criminals on how to stay out of each other’s way.”

  “What else do you plan to teach them?”

  “Not to kill innocents.”

  “Anything else?”

  “No, I’m not teaching them anything that will make our job harder. I just don’t like all this muddling. The missing Renoir would have been a perfectly delightful crime to solve had two additional crimes not gotten tangled in it. It just became a big mess,” she grumbled. “And Jacko’s arrest…don’t get me started on that.”

  Xavier pulled her on top of him. “Should I let Seth know we wish to train his criminals?”

  She grimaced. “He’d probably find that insulting. Let’s start with Samson’s criminals.”

  Xavier lost his smile. “Let’s not.”

  She studied his furrowed brow and general look of annoyance. “Has Samson done or said something to annoy you? I’ve found him to be most receptive to my suggestions.”

  Xavier breathed in deep and released it slowly. “We are either sleeping or making love…your choice.”

  Vic chuckled. “Gregory will be so annoyed if he discovers we ignored his order to sleep.”

  Chapter 32

  Vic, wearing the most expensive suit she’d ever possessed, stood by Sara, wearing the most fashionable and costly dress she’d ever owned, holding Ham, wearing the only suit he’d ever worn, which also happened to be ridiculously expensive. All this absurd finery was acquired to meet the Queen and to accept the honor due to Tubs.

  Vic had failed to grasp the pomp and circumstance of the day. Not only was the Queen seated in a chair, waiting to receive them, but the entire parliament sat on each side of the aisle.

  Had it been Cannon stuffed in a suit, he would have been ripping it off by now, but Ham stayed alert but still, as they slowly approached the Queen.

  “I wish Ham was old enough to remember this,” Sara whispered.

  “We will tell him the story so often, it will become his memory,” Vic promised.

  The special guests to the Commendation Ceremony included her family and Xavier’s family, which was everyone who worked for him, so even Jacko, Alice, and their boys were there.

  Claire, dressed in the latest fashion, holding Maddy, dressed in a miniature version of Claire’s gown, and David, clearly uncomfortable in his overly expensive tuxedo, were in Vic’s family section. Gregory and all of the servants chose to stand in Tubs’ section for the family. Given her butler-parent’s love for Sara’s aunt, it made perfect sense to Vic. This way he could support the woman he loved and at the same time ensure none of the servants embarrassed him.

  Leslie and Lady Haughton were seated in the royal box. Richard chose to stay home.

  Inspector Stone, Captain Meyers, and Dr. Connors all stood in a special section for those invited by the Queen.

  When Vic and Sara arrived at the steps before the Queen’s podium, Vic bowed deeply at the waist while Sara curtsied, all the while, holding Ham. She held the boy so he faced the Queen. Without a word from Sara, he did an adorable attempt at a bow.

  The Queen was charmed and reached forward and patted his head.

  Then the dull formalities began, and Vic stopped listening. Xavier had come through on his promise that Tubs would finally be given his due. He had assembled an impressive list of good deeds, which he promised would be read aloud today. However, right now, they were going through Vic’s tedious list of accomplishments.

  She resisted her desire to sigh, which would embarrass Gregory. Her butler–parent had been floating about with pride all morning and no doubt currently as well, if she were to look. However, if she turned her back on the Queen to do so, he would be utterly mortified, along with every other person …except for Xavier. Her beloved partner would understand and forgive her.

  On the mention of Lady Haughton’s name, she refocused on the Queen, hopeful they would get to Tubs soon. Ham had been well-behaved thus far, but he was only five months old. An outburst could happen any moment.

  The Queen rose. “Victor Hamilton, please kneel to accept your knighthood.”

  Knighthood? Bloody Hell!

  She had been under the impression she was here to get a little metal with a ribbon on it. This was a thousand times worse. Too late to argue about it now. Nothing to do but go through with it.

  She knelt and the Queen lightly tapped on each shoulder. “Sir Victor Hamilton, you are now a Knight Bachelor.”

  She hadn’t a clue what to do. Shouldn’t there be some annoying person who prepares people for knighthood? A faint memory of some little fellow yapping at her yesterday, while she stood for her final fitting of her suit, came to mind.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said, rose, and stepped back.

  Since none of the parliament ministers looked horrified at her response, she breathed out in relief.

  “Next, we honor a man of common birth, who began his life as a criminal, but turned himself around. I have never met Mr. Sonny Tubs, although, by his long list of accomplishments, I am certain I would have, had I ever been told of his great deeds before. I understand he is very large, both in size and spirit. He has risked his life for this country numerous times, and I have it on good authority, that in certain situations, he is the only man who could have ensured the mission was successful, and his missions always were. In his last effort, he risked his life to save members of the royal family and Sir Hamilton. Despite being shot in the heart, he saw everyone to safety. Only upon ensuring his mission complete, did he succumb to his own, near-mortal wounds.”

  She then motioned Sara forward. “I have been advised Mr. Tubs has requested his son to stand in proxy and receive his medal of honor.” She handed the medal to Victor. “Will you please do the honor while I speak?”

&n
bsp; “Hamilton Victor Tubs, in honor of your father, a very good man, excellent husband, loving father, I bestow upon you Sonny Tubs’ accommodation for serving this country to the best of his ability. May you grow tall in his footprints.”

  Realizing the Queen was done, Vic quickly stepped forward and pinned the medal to Ham’s suit. The boy looked at the medal and then beamed his adorable smile at the old lady.

  The Queen patted his head again while speaking to Sara. “May your son bring you joy and prove as valuable to his country as your husband.”

  “Thank you, your Majesty,” Sara whispered and curtsied again.

  They had to remain a bit longer for a prayer and the departure of the Queen. Once she was gone, the mood relaxed considerably and soon someone was thumping Vic on her back.

  It was Captain Meyers. “Sir Hamilton!”

  Vic leaned in and whispered, “She makes me a knight, but didn’t even give me the paper sword she wields.”

  Meyers laughed heartedly.

  “Well done, Victor,” another familiar voice stated.

  “Barns,” Vic said, shocked he had come.

  Barns turned to Sara standing close by. “Your husband is a man of tremendous skill. I am quite pleased he was recognized.”

  Sara thanked him and excused herself, rushing to the safety of her family, who all wanted to admire Tubs’ metal.

  Barns refocused on Vic. “Knighted at the age of five and twenty. I’m going to have to work very hard to keep up with you.”

  “Just don’t take foolish chances that put others in dangers.” Connors had told Xavier last night that Tubs might not ever recover to his former self. The idea she had diminished Tubs broke her heart and brought tears to her eyes.

  “Let’s get a breath of air,” Barns said, placing his arm around her shoulder and moving her from the room. Once in the side garden, he released her. “Sorry, but you looked as if you were about to lose it. Didn’t want your greatest day to become your greatest embarrassment.”

  “Thanks,” she said as she overrode her emotions by focusing on the plants.

  “I caught the Renoir thief.”

  “It was Hendrickson, right?”

  “One of them.”

  “Powers the other?”

  He laughed. “You are amazing. Yes, they were both in on it, pretending to hate each other so no one would suspect them of working together.”

  “So why’d Powers help the hard-core thieves.”

  “Well, they didn’t give him an option. The guy you nicknamed ‘Dull’ was their inside man. However, when we declared we’d be protecting the painting, Dull warned Powers his wife and child would die unless he got rid of us.” He chuckled. “Only when Powers attempted to fire us, Thorn threw him in a broom closet and locked him in.”

  Vic almost objected to his use of the word ‘us’ but she had invited Barns onto the case, and he was with them when all this happened, so trying to push him out now was simply childish.

  Barns stepped between her and the plant she’d been staring at. “I hope I can work with you more. I learned a great deal, which includes the fact that I need to learn a great deal more.”

  She finally met his eyes. “Only on one condition.”

  “What?”

  “You don’t take any bullets for me. If you can safely save me from taking a bullet, that is fine. But you will never jump in front of me and take my bullet!”

  He grinned. “I’m a conceited, self-centered bastard. You don’t have to worry about me taking anyone’s bullets.” His hand touched her arm. “However, rest assured. If I can save you without dying for it, I will do so without hesitation.”

  Vic breathed in and turned around. “All right then. I need someone to lead a raid on a potpie shop that is using cats as their meat. Do you need Dr. Connors to explain why that is a health hazard, not to mention it’s fraudulent to sell a cat as a cow?”

  “No, I understand the health and legal issues very well. I will ask Inspector Stone for a few men tonight.” He then smiled. “My star is finally rising at Scotland Yard. Stone and Captain Meyers say I show great promise.”

  Vic patted his back and together they returned to the main room where Gregory scolded Vic for disappearing.

  “You cannot leave your own celebration.”

  “Barns and I were discussing new crimes to stop.”

  A man Vic had never met came up and put his arm around Barns. “I am pleased to see the future of England getting along and pairing up to fight crime. Carry on you two. Carry on.”

  He then left, heading straight to Stone and Xavier.

  “Who was that?” Vic asked Barns.

  He rolled his eyes. “My father…I think. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen him.” He searched the crowd, settling on his father. “Oh great, he’s with Stone…probably sinking my star as we speak.”

  Vic patted his back. “If he does, we’ll just raise it even higher. He can only sink your star if he sinks your spirit.”

  Barns smiled. “That’s true. I’m a man now. Greatness is my decision, not his.”

  Vic noticed whatever Stone and Xavier were saying had surprised his father. The man turned and smiled at his son.

  “That can’t be good,” Barns muttered.

  “Actually, my intuition says they are saying nice things about you and your father is beaming with pride.”

  “Your intuition is really saying that?”

  “It is. I don’t actually pull facts out of thin air. Look at their relaxed stances. They are discussing good things. Stone tightens up and his hands clench when he’s discussing problems. Notice Xavier’s smugness. Whatever they are discussing, he feels he helped bring it about. Did you by chance talk to Stone about the fingerprints?”

  “I did and I followed Mr. Thorn’s advice in my approach. It was a good thing too. Turns out Inspector Stone was fully aware of the publications and has only been holding up the implementation until Sir Henry can finesse his sorting process. Then we’ll be able to catalog all criminals’ fingerprints, making it easier to match a crime to a criminal.”

  Barns grew an inch taller. “I am to be in charge of the implementation when it occurs. However, until then, I need to close more cases so the other officers come to respect me. Then they’ll listen to me when I instruct them how to collect fingerprints and compare them to the prints on file. It’s not as easy as it sounds.”

  Vic sighed. “It never is.” Their ghost case had seemed the easiest task in the world—on paper.

  “There you are!” a familiar irate female voice said.

  Now it was Vic’s turn to groan. “You are about to meet my sister,” Vic warned.

  “Is she married?” he asked with considerable interest.

  “Yes, and happily so. Also, that doll in her arms is a living child.”

  He laughed. “It does look like a china doll dressed as her.”

  “Victor!” Claire hissed in a loud whisper when she arrived. “You never told me you almost died. Where was Xavier?”

  “Claire, Barns, Barns, Claire. Since I am alive I must wander about and greet other people.”

  Vic headed straight to David. “Barns seemed very interested in Claire. He’s the Foreign Minister’s son and a Scotland Yard officer, so you must carefully extract your wife without hitting him.” Vic patted David on the back and moved on to Jacko’s family.

  “You look like I feel,” she said to a very bored Pete who pulled at the collar of his suit.

  “Victor,” Alice said, giving her a firm hug. “I am so proud of you. A knight! Madeline must be laughing in heaven.”

  Vic hadn’t considered how Aunt Maddy would take her knighthood. She’d no doubt be proud and amused in equal shares. As a great supporter of women’s rights, seeing Vic knighted had to prove her point that women could do anything if given the opportunity, even if in this case Vic did her grand deeds disguised as a man.

  Hearing a heavy sigh from Pete, she knelt to his level. “I’m so glad you came. Sorry, you had
to dress up for it.”

  He huffed. “This suit is terrible, but to see you knighted was worth it.” Then he frowned. “You’ll be careful, won’t you? I’m not up to losing anyone else.”

  Jacko’s hand pressed on the boy’s shoulder. “No tears allowed in the Parliament,” he warned.

  Vic decided to distract him. “Did you hear all the nice things the Queen said about Tubs?”

  Pete nodded. “Yeah, but she left out a lot.”

  Vic leaned in and whispered, “She was getting tired, I think.”

  Pete nodded. “I ‘spect so. She’s quite ancient.”

  Vic stood up and focused on Alice. “Isn’t this planting time?”

  “Yes, it is, but since I had advanced notice, I got everything done early.”

  Jacko cleared his throat so Vic would look at him glaring at her. “Alice does not personally plow the fields. She has farmers for that.”

  Vic rounded her eyes in fake surprise. “Really? I had no idea how an estate worked.” While Jacko didn’t laugh, Alice did. Vic refocused on her childhood friend. “And have your farmers settled down since we set Jacko free, found their murderers, and removed the wolfman?”

  “Yes, thank you. How is Richard?”

  “Doing well, I hope.” She leaned in and whispered to Alice. “He now lives with royalty.”

  Jacko choked, thus proving his excellent hearing. Vic ignored him and told Alice which royalty he lived with.

  “How did he even meet them?” Alice asked.

  “I hid Leslie out in my house where they evidently became friends. After I had David fixed his teeth and build him an electric razor so he could painlessly shave his entire body daily, he is most presentable, albeit very shy. Thus, when Leslie invited him to live with him and his aunt, Richard agreed. He said my place was too lively.”

  “He probably does crave solitude.” She gripped Vic’s hand. “Please be careful. A great many people love you.” Something across the room caught Alice’s attention. “What has David so upset?”

  Vic turned and studied the situation. “Oh…Barns is about to get punched for flirting with Claire. I’d better intervene. I’m quite fond of David.”