Chapter 2
In Ireland, things were happening quickly. The charges against Joshua Kingston had since been made public. The would-be Parliamentarian was now up to his neck in hot water with the Crown for his abuses of power and his attempts to buy into Parliament with stolen tax funds. Those charges appeared to be sticking. Crown authorities were also making noises about connecting him to the site of the O'Donnell massacre. It was no secret that O'Donnell had been complaining against Kingston. So, no one considered it unlikely that Kingston had been part of the attack to silence him. Under the weight of both allegations, Kingston's political aspirations were at an end. Even his local position had been stripped from him as prosecution efforts went forward.
The attack on the O'Donnell estate was being condemned universally, but no direct blame could be pinpointed. The bodies of any attackers killed had been removed before the investigation could start. Martin O'Donnell could have identified some of them from memory, had those bodies been available, but he had died, and Irene O'Donnell had not been seen since the attack.
In the ruins of the once fine old manor house, a few valuables had since been found, which had been set aside for Irene. The estate and everything left had been expected to become Irene's, as the only living family member.
At great surprise to all, a distant relative, Harry O'Donnell, had come upon the sad scene within days of the burials to petition for the land and what had been left of the estate. As the closest living male relative, he had the right by law to claim it. He had also requested that the authorities find his orphaned cousin so he could bring her back under his protection.
How to deal with that took time. Irene was told of the claim on her estate. She knew she could never return home again, so agreed to endorse his rights to the estate, asking only for the funds that had been set aside for her dowry.
With her endorsement, Chatsworth order that he be told of the matter in part. Strictly in confidence, Irene's situation was briefly explained by a solicitor. The solicitor told Harry O'Donnell that if he valued his cousin's life, he would drop all efforts to find her. She had escaped the massacre with a fiancé and was planning to marry.
Under those circumstances, Harry relented. He gratefully accepted and offered her articles found in the ruins. The end of the manor where her rooms had been located had been badly damaged, but not all had been lost. Articles that had been packed in trunks for the trip to Scotland had survived with only minor damage. Harry O'Donnell generously turned those trunks over to the solicitor who would have them sent to her.
Irene tried to set her grief to rest and her mind on the future. It was hard, even after a month. Together in France, she and David agreed to set aside a long mourning period for practicality. She fell to weeping sometimes. All it took was a memory. She was alone in the world. Their quick wedding would be good, but also hard to bear. They couldn't live in Scotland, at least not yet. They would live quietly as tenants in a cottage on Phillip Gideon's estate. When the situation in Ireland was fully settled, and time had passed, they would try again to have a home in Scotland.
"Maybe, in time, I will travel to London to reacquaint myself with father's family," David told Phileas as they all sat in the parlor one evening.
"You will be more than welcome," Phileas assured him.
"But how will we live?" Irene said, sipping her tea. It was poor timing to bring that up with his relatives. She glanced at Rebecca. She didn't seem to consider it out of place.
"Always the practical one," David teased.
"Please David. My dowry won't last us forever."
"Don't worry," he assured her. "David Fogg is not a vagabond. I'm not as wealthy as my cousin seems to be," he said, grinning at Phileas, "but we won't want for anything."
To prove it, he sent Irene off with Rebecca on a shopping expedition for the trousseau she had intended to buy in Scotland. The stated budget nearly equaled her dowry. Irene couldn't help but see it as an untold treat for the daughter of a land-poor family. With clothing that fit and of a quality she had seldom owned, Irene's spirits rose with her confidence in the future.
Phillip Gideon opened his home wide for guests and put his wife at Irene's disposal in the planning of her wedding. It would to be a simple affair as there would be little direct family in attendance; but the guest list would include many of the Irish making their homes near Paris. Several distinguished French families of Mr. Gideon's acquaintance would also attend, as well as the Fogg cousins and David's grandparents from Scotland.
