Chapter 2
Phileas received Jule's warning but kept up his prowling about the countryside. With the warning, he saw his hunters before they saw him and kept out of their sight.
No need to overdo it.
Rebecca arranged for a room of her own. She had made a show of being a visitor in town, seeing Jules occasionally and sharing tea or an afternoon meal with him. At their next meal, she outlined their plan. Jules nodded in agreement.
Verne would not be revisiting the Kingston estate until the trial date. He wondered if his new friends would ask for his company at all before then. Today, he sat in on a minor case at the courthouse. Mr. Harris had been handling the prosecution. The lawyer had nodded a greeting to him but had not joined him for lunch later, nor did Mr. Marshall give him more than a nod when he saw him in the hall. With no company, Jules filled his time studying a book on English common law loaned to him by Mr. Harris.
The book wasn't uninteresting. Jules settled in the hotel men's lounge. The clock on the mantle struck five. Jules looked up to acknowledge it, but continued reading. Sometime later, a voice and a hand on his shoulder startled Jules.
"Such studiousness between classes is commendable," the voice said, "but are you not supposed to be on vacation?" The voice was Mr. Harris's and the face Verne looked up to see was friendly and in good humor.
"Just scanning for procedures," Verne said. "If I am to sit in on Drummond's trial, whenever it happens, I want to follow what happens."
The lawyer took a seat in the chair beside Verne's. "The trial, when it happens, will be short and to the point. I'm sorry I had to abandon you today. Work can be brisk. I had a full schedule. I just dropped in, hoping to exchange a few words."
"Thank you," Jules said.
"The trial may not happen for a while," Mr. Harris said. "The prisoner will be kept on the Kingston estate incognito until this imposter can be run to ground. I must reiterate to you the need to keep the man's presence in confidence. No one outside the inner circle can know anything. Rumors are already flying about Drummond having some a special reason for returning to this district."
Mr. Harris looked uncomfortable and shifted in his seat as he made a sketchy whitewashed accounting of the O'Donnell attack. "Francis O'Donnell may have been one of Drummond's informants. What was likely intended as a warning turned ugly. The incident has been decried publicly. An investigation is still going on. This look-a-like could be a highwayman borrowing Drummond's fame, but I'm worried he could also be an investigator. I don't know. I hope not. Feelings are running high. Killing a crown agent will just make things worse."
"I am concerned some of my colleagues have not thought through all the possibilities," Harris said in a lower voice. "I am telling you this only, so you understand if things escalate beyond the trial of a highwayman. Personally, I had no knowledge or warning of the O'Donnell attack. I have picked up bits and pieces since it happened. That part is getting scary enough, but now I think Drummond is being linked to it. Maybe he was taking information from Francis O'Donnell. I can't say."
Harris sat forward. "Jules, When I offered you the seat at his trial, I didn't think about consequences. I would caution you, getting connected to the attack is dangerous. Claim disinterest and go on with your tour of Ireland, my friend. As a foreigner, you should not let yourself get involved in an investigation of things you know nothing about."
Verne nodded his acceptance of the warning but insisted there could be no issue with his presence and convinced Harris to join him for dinner and lighter conversation. Dinner flowed into another long night of drinking. Harris said nothing further, but Jules could see he was nervous about his suspicions.
His advice was deliberately vague and full of factual holes. Is Harris warning me off because he thinks the O'Donnell massacre is going to be blamed on Drummond being there? I suppose anything connected with the massacre will only increase trouble. Is he lying about not knowing what happened? Might he be one of David's Irish sponsors? Is he someone who could help us?
The answers to those thoughts gave him another, more hopeful thought.
I'm a stranger in town, and yet, he's been very friendly to me. Does he think I'm one of the investigators? Maybe Mr. Kingston has told him to put me off. Having an outsider witness what they are up to may have looked like a bad risk.
Jules wondered what Fogg would think of all this and went to find out.
Going back and forth to the Boar and Lion required a bit of stealth on his part. Jules walked past the inn and then back tracked behind the stables. He entered the back door where Phileas's room was situated.
Fogg thought the conversation very intriguing. "This lawyer has some reason not to want you around anymore. The idea I, a Drummond look-a-like, is an investigator into the O'Donnell massacre is an interesting notion. What might the man say under more direct questioning?"
Fogg talked to Rebecca after Jules left.
"Yes, I know what you want to do," Rebecca said. "I'll give you the pleasure. You make a fiercer shadowy figure than I do, anyway."
Phileas grinned. "You have your moments."
