“Are these really the Wynchesters?” Quentin whispered without letting go of her.
She nodded.
“Quick,” he hissed frantically. “Shave me. I have to look my best!”
She lifted her disbelieving face from his chest to stare at his patchy, shaggy chin. “Quentin, I am not going to search this house for soap and a razor.”
He glared at her with such adolescentwhat-good-are-yououtrage that Viv knew right then and there her cousin was going to be all right.
“This reunion is sickeningly sweet,” said Elizabeth, “but we should take it on the road.”
Right.
Viv grabbed Quentin’s hand. She hurried him out of the pantry and through the house to the waiting carriages. Or at least, tried to hurry him. Although he hadn’t been tied to a chair, he’d spent several weeks in a space not much larger than a water closet, and his legs were no longer used to making large strides.
Tommy pulled the door to Miss Yates’s residence shut, then launched herself into Viv’s carriage just as the horses began to move.
Quentin’s eyes bulged at Tommy. “Shouldn’t you have made an arrest?”
“I’m not really the Horse Patrol,” she replied, and peeled off her whiskers.
Quentin squealed in delight.Squealed. Like a happy pig.
“Tommy Wynchester?” he blurted out, slack-jawed.
“Here.” She handed him the whiskers. “You need these more than I do.”
“Yes, that’s Tommy,” Viv confirmed. “And next to me is Jacob.”
Quentin leaned forward, elbows on knees and eyes bright with stars. “Do you really have a kangaroo?”
“I do not,” Jacob said with a chuckle.
Quentin looked like he was going to cry.
“I do have dozens of trained raptors, scores of venomous snakes, several wildcats, and an antbear my brother and I stole from the Tower of London,” Jacob added.
“I knew you would!” Quentin beamed at him, then whispered, “What’s an antbear?”
“I’ll show you,” Jacob promised.
Quentin turned to Viv with his mouth hanging open, as if seeking confirmation that she’d just heard the same three words he had heard.
“He’ll really show you,” she confirmed. “You’ll love it.”
Quentin threw his arms around her and squeezed so tight the air whooshed from her lungs. “I loveyou, Viv. I knew if anyone could bring the Wynchesters to my aid, it would be my cousin.”
She hugged him back as hard as she could. It was good to have him home—and even better to know that he’d never doubted her. “I missed you so much.”
He released her and grinned into her face. “I bet it killed you to need anyone’s help. Especially the Wynchesters.”
“Vivian helped us, actually,” Jacob corrected him.
Quentin’s eyes widened. “Helped… you?”
“She’s been assisting with clients for weeks,” Tommy confirmed. “We’ve resolved dozens of cases thanks to your cousin’s creative contingency plans.”
Viv had to catch Quentin before he tumbled to the carriage floor. He gazed up at her, slack-jawed and starry-eyed.
