Well Kept Secrets (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 4)

by Liza O'Connor

  She curled onto the thin mattress, wishing for Pete’s blanket. She worried she’d freeze when the wood stove fire died out during the night. Then a smile came to her face as she noted the pile of wood beside the stove. Captain Meyers must have brought her wood. She rose and stuffed the small stove full and then returned to the miserable excuse of a bed. She wondered if this was really the bed Maggie and Pete had shared or if the landlady had switched that out too.

  Hopefully, she had. Vic hated to think of Pete living in such horrible conditions. Amazing how he came to work every day with such a happy smile and so much energy. This place was draining all her vitality and good nature. She needed to solve this crime fast and get the hell out of here.

  ***

  When Vic woke in the morning, her mood was bleaker than ever. A bad night’s sleep, waking to the frigid cold, and an empty stomach had that effect on her.

  After loading the stove with wood, she searched the cabinets, hoping beyond hope Captain Meyers had also brought her food. A large container of oats, a jar of walnuts, and a small container of cinnamon waited in the third cabinet beside a pot and a bowl.

  Her mood cheered. God Bless Captain Meyers!

  ***

  Working at the apothecary was beyond boring. After reading every book beneath the counter, Vic took up dusting.

  Dusting!

  Never had she thought she’d do such a demeaning and pointless occupation. But even knocking about small particles of dirt was better than watching it collect. Not only weren’t half the ladies of London coming to buy their laudanum at Schnell’s apothecary, but evidently no one liked to purchase their medicines here.

  Given Schnell was out of the ‘core ingredient’ of most medications, she couldn’t blame them going elsewhere. But it did make her day long and boring.

  She was in the darkest part of the front room attacking the dust with a mangy feather duster when the front door opened and a constable stormed through the room into the back.

  Pretty certain the fellow was Conrad, she followed him to the storage room. For a moment she had thought he’d traveled on into the parlor, but a clinking of bottles alerted her to his presence. He had yet to notice her, so she moved further back into the dark.

  Upon placing a bottle of chloroform and two bottles of laudanum into his overcoat pockets, he left the way he came.

  Vic couldn’t think of one legitimate reason why a constable required either of those medications. Positive he would lead her to the reason Maggie was killed, she waited until the front door closed then re-entered the storefront. She intended to lock up and follow him when a voice spoke behind her.

  “And where are you headed?”

  Cursing her sorry luck, she turned and faced Schnell. She needed a viable reason why she would risk her job by leaving the store.

  “I thought I saw…someone.”

  His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Who?”

  Gnawing her bottom lip for effect, she reluctantly replied. “Jack. I thought I saw Jack.”

  “Jack who?”

  “The man for whom I gave up everything.”

  Schnell relaxed. “Ah, that Jack. Well, just so you know, I would have docked you a week’s pay had you run out and left this store to be robbed clean through.”

  “I only intended to step out and call his name.”

  “For God sake’s why?” His disgust was clear in both his voice and expression.

  She stared out the window. “He might be looking for me.”

  Schnell approached and touched her fake hair, causing her to flinch. “Even if he was, which I doubt, he wouldn’t want you now. Not without color to your cheeks or real hair. You need to give up on this Jack fellow and open your mind to other possibilities.”

  Dear God, she hoped he didn’t mean himself! “I’m not giving up on Jack. I love him. Something must have happened to make him forget me. Maybe an accident.”

  Schnell rolled his eyes and returned to his fancy parlor.

  She understood his disgust entirely. Why some women clung to men who no longer cared about them had always remained a mystery to her. Before 1882 women had little choice but to make the best out of their marital situation. No matter how terrible their husband might be, they had to stay with him, because he possessed all the property they had brought to the marriage.

  Even after the marriage law of 1882, a woman’s rights remained precarious. For years men found ways around the law. There were instances of wives being locked in their room while their properties were sold off. If family intervened and charges were brought before a judge, the husband need only claim he locked up his wife to ensure his conjugal rights and the case would be dropped and the wife returned to her prison.

  That particular nasty twist of the law had only recently been stopped. She could only hope that was the last battle against a law so clearly needed if women were to ever become anything but victims and slaves.

  But something told her the battle wasn’t over yet.

  Chapter 7

  Jacon Bienora, better known as Jacko, looked up as the ancient butler entered the library. “Yes, Thomas?”

  “A messenger has arrived from London, sir. He says the matter is most important and wishes to wait so you can accompany him back to the city.” Thomas ended his surprising declaration by handing Jacko a letter.

  “How presumptuous.”

  “I thought so, yes,” the old man said.

  Jacko opened the letter and sat up upon recognition of Xavier’s writing.

  Jacko,

  I hope this letter finds you well. I have not forgotten my promise not to entice you into town to do jobs. However, this case is personal. Someone has killed L’il Pete’s mother and I have given the boy my word that we will bring the murderer to justice. His mother was killed outside their room in the docks, so this task will be damn near impossible to complete without your assistance.

  I hope for my small, orphaned employee you will return to London and help. If so, kindly return with the messenger.

  My apologies to Alice in advance. But Pete is as much your responsibility as mine.

  Xavier

  Jacko slipped the letter into his pocket. “Where’s my wife?”

  “She’s in the conservatory with the children…farming I believe.”

  “Children? We only have one so far.”

  Thomas’ brow rose. “And one on the way, but I was referring to the children who come for lessons in farming.”

  “Ah,” Jacko replied. Normally, it would be absurd for a lady of the estate to teach her tenants’ children anything about farming, but Alice had studied botany since she was a young girl with the intention of taking over her father’s estate and making it the finest farmlands in England. Due to her many publications, experts now ask her to review their work and consider implementation of their ideas on her farms.

  He first ran upstairs and packed for the trip. While he hated leaving his beloved wife and little Sebastian, Xavier was right. Li’l Pete was family too, and finding his mother’s murderer would be nearly impossible. People died every day in the docks and while someone might have seen something, they’d never tell. The dead were dead, but talking about how they got that way was a sure ticket to join them.

  Once packed, he returned downstairs and handed his bags to Thomas. “Have James saddle up two fresh horses. And offer the messenger some food and drink while he waits.”

  He rushed to the large glass room extension on the back of the house, and watched from the door as Alice helped the children recognize various forms of fungus and insect signs on the potted plants before them.

  Their one-year-old son seemed more interested in eating the plants than studying them, but the twelve children, age six to sixteen, were actively engaged in their tasks. His heart swelled with love for his wife. There was not a finer woman in all of England and somehow, despite all the obstacles between them, she was his. Jacko, former gypsy and pirate, had married a very fine lady who wished to live the life of an er
udite farmer.

  He had given up his business in London and ceased working for Xavier so he could be Alice’s loving husband and equal partner. Only given he had nothing to do on the estate, he, in truth, felt less than equal at times.

  She glanced up and saw him. Her happy face flushed with love. She set the children to a task and hurried to him. When she arrived, her hand caressed his cheek. “What’s wrong?”

  Alice could read him so well. He pulled out the letter and handed it to her.

  When she finished, her brow furrowed. “I think I met L’il Pete. He and a giant named Tubs delivered a message from Vic. Is he so high with the face of an angel?” She held her hand three feet off the ground.

  “I expect he’s a bit taller now, but that would be him.”

  Her eyes saddened. “And he’s lost his mother. Is his father about?”

  Jacko sobered. “No.”

  “Is there other family?”

  “I don’t know. I’m sure Xavier will.”

  She nodded and gripped Jacko’s hands. “If there is no one to claim him, then perhaps we can…if you want.”

  Her generosity overwhelmed him with love. “You would not mind?”

  “I thought him quite precious and precocious. He’d make a fine elder brother for Sebastian.”

  “I’ll make him the offer, if Xavier hasn’t already settled on something else.”

  His assurance caused Alice’s brow to furrow deeper. “What gives Xavier the right to decide the boy’s future?”

  Jacko kissed her forehead, magically smoothing the furrows. “Because he’s a bossy old fellow. I will write you and let you know how long I expect to be once I learn the particulars.”

  With a light kiss on the lips, she said, “Be careful, but be successful.”

  God, he loved this woman. He pulled her into his arms and expressed his love with a passionate kiss that had the children on the other side of the room giggling.

  When he set her back, her cheeks bore a rosy blush. She took a moment to compose herself and then pressed her hand to his heart. “I will miss you greatly.”

  He nodded, feeling the same.

  ***

  As Jacko and a young fellow named Ben headed to London, he considered Alice’s last heartfelt words. His love for his wife and small son was what had kept him from returning to London. Otherwise, he found winter on the estate dreadfully dull. At least in the summer he could ride his horse about and give the farmers a hand with their work.

  “You look vaguely familiar,” Jacko finally said to the silent young man who eyed the horizon as if expecting a surprise attack any moment. “How long have you worked for Xavier?”

  “Since Vic rescued me from a very unpleasant place.”

  “You wouldn’t by chance mean Dragon’s Cloud?”

  After a long pause, the fellow reluctantly nodded.

  “Are you the secretary?”

  The young man’s shoulders pulled back with pride. “Mr. Thorn is training me to be an investigator.”

  “Since when?”

  His Adam’s apple ran up and down his throat. “Since…”

  The last part of his response was indecipherable.

  “Since when?”

  “Since this morning. This is my first assignment.”

  Jacko didn’t want to belittle the boy’s assignment, but L’il Pete evidently did this mission when he was eight-years-old. Of course, one of the most lethal men in England, perhaps the world, accompanied Pete on his journey.

  “Are you carrying a gun?” Jacko asked.

  “Yes… Do I need to pull it?” he asked anxiously.

  “No,” Jacko said. “I was just testing to see how serious Xavier was about your training.”

  Finally, the boy smiled. “He gave me a lesson yesterday.”

  “How’d you do?”

  “Two cans died at once. Twelve died gruesome and painful deaths. Three were only winged and got away to cause me no end of problems in the future.”

  Jacko chuckled at what were clearly Xavier’s postulations. “Not bad for a first try. How far away from the cans were you?”

  “So far, that to be honest, I could barely see them at all.” Ben pointed to a tree in the far distance. “They were about that far away.”

  Impossible! No one could shoot a can from such a distance. He decided to give the boy a gentle lesson about the ills of exaggeration. “Stop for a moment.”

  The boy did as requested.

  “Shoot the tree from here.”

  “The whole tree?” Ben asked.

  “The tree trunk,” Jacko clarified.

  “That’s a very big target. Wouldn’t you prefer a smaller spot on it? How about the knot about two feet up?”

  Squinting at the tree didn’t help Jacko see any knot, but he wasn’t going to admit his eyes weren’t as sharp as the boy’s. Especially since the kid seemed to have a penchant for lying. “Sure, shoot the center of the knot.”

  The boy aimed and then slowly lifted his rifle almost an inch above the target and fired. He stared for a long while and then smiled. “I think I got it. Can we go see?”

  “Oh yeah, we’re definitely going to see.”

  Two minutes later, Jacko stared in shock at a bullet hole in the center of a one inch knot two feet off the ground.

  Impossible!

  “And you’re claiming yesterday was the first day you shot a gun?”

  Ben grimaced. “I didn’t say that exactly.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I said yesterday Mr. Thorn taught me how to shoot a gun.”

  “But you already knew how to shoot,” Jacko clarified.

  His pained expression told Jacko he had.

  “It’s all right. Your secret’s safe with me.”

  They continued on their way to London.

  Jacko was more impressed now that he believed the shot hadn’t been a fluke. “Who taught you to shoot?”

  “My pa. We lived in the country. To get food for the table he’d sometimes hunt quail in the local woods. He taught me how, saying it was a skill worth learning. Then when I was fifteen, the sheriff arrested him for thievery. All he did was shoot pigeons in woods owned by a rich man who’d never stepped foot in the county.”

  Jacko glanced at the boy, expecting to see anger, but if such emotions flowed, he kept them deep.

  “They sent Pa off to prison where he died a few months later. Then the sheriff took my ma for his wife.”

  “That had to be hard to stomach.”

  Ben nodded. “My ma insisted my pa’s death weren’t the sheriff’s fault. He was just doing his job. The one in the wrong was the man who owned the estate.”

  Jacko nodded. That might be true. Local sheriffs normally turned a blind eye unless the landowners make a fuss about it. But still, if the sheriff wanted the hunter’s wife, this would be an easy way to get rid of his obstacle.

  “So I headed to London, intending to kill the bastard who owned those woods. Only I had barely stepped foot into West End before I was grabbed up and taken to an estate where I was told I’d be a garden boy.” Ben shook his head in disgust. “Damn perverts, that’s what they were. When I resisted, they beat me unconscious. I woke up, chained to a wall, in Dragon’s Cloud. I’d been in that hellhole nine months when Vic rescued me and the others.”

  Jacko had helped in the rescue as well, but he let the boy continue his story uninterrupted.

  “I thought I was being arrested for indecent acts even though I hadn’t any say in the matter. But then Vic assured us Scotland Yard only wanted our statement and then we’d be freed. He then offered anyone who wanted a job to go to Xavier Thorn’s office two blocks down.”

  A smile crossed Ben’s face. “When I arrived, there was already a line out the door. I figured all the jobs would be taken long before me, but I didn’t have any place to go, so I stuck it out. The man I interviewed with was very ill tempered and grumpy, and he had eyes that seemed to see right into your heart. Scared the willi
es out of me. When he told me I’d be working there as the secretary, I thought he must be Mr. Thorn. I was so relieved when I met the real Mr. Thorn.”

  Jacko stared at the boy, amazed that the fellow found Vic’s butler more frightening than Xavier.

  “Been working there ever since,” the boy declared with clear pride. “Mr. Thorn frequently tells me he likes my attitude. I try to do everything he says at once.”

  Xavier would love that.

  “Yesterday, he stormed out of his office and called for Vic. I reminded him Vic was on a mission. So he yelled for Tubs. I mentioned Tubs wasn’t there either. Finally, he declared it’s time I start earning my wage doing real work. We went to a local park where I must have gone through a month’s salary of bullets and cans.”

  Jacko rather liked this kid. “And your plan to kill the landowner?”

  “Oh that…” He shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t even know if the man was behind my father’s arrest. It could be the sheriff just wanted my ma free to marry. She was a looker. But in any case. I like my new life too much to go mucking it up by murdering someone.”

  Jacko patted Ben on the back. “I see why Xavier likes you. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”

  The boy smiled and breathed out in pure pleasure.

  ***

  When they arrived at Thorn’s Private Inquiries, the young man resumed his place at the secretary’s desk and Xavier led Jacko into his private office.

  “Sit.”

  Jacko glared at the uncomfortable chair Xavier pointed to. “All the same, I’ll stand. My body’s been punished enough from riding a horse for hours.”

  Xavier’s right eyebrow rose in challenge. “A four hour horse ride wears you out now? I see you are taking your new life of leisure seriously.”

  Damn it all! Xavier’s observation hit too close to home.

  Pushing Vic’s chair to the other side of the desk, Xavier kicked the short chairs to the corner. “Sit.”

  Jacko sat, although in all truth, he would have preferred standing. His butt really was sore.

  Xavier leaned back and sighed. “Vic is working at the apothecary as a woman. He believes that a policeman named Conrad killed Maggie at the apothecary’s request. I spent last night dressed as a whore, lurking in the alley’s to ensure Vic got home safe after work.”