“Not exactly a celebration, dear Aunt,” Darcy’s father said. “I’m still out on bail with a charge of murder hanging over me. But I thought I should make peace if I’m about to meet my maker.”

“Don’t say that,” Oona said. “You’ve got a good team on your side now. And you have the truth too.”

With that we went into a splendid luncheon. Queenie helped to serve and didn’t spill anything. All in all, a day of miracles.

Chapter 34

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, AND LATER THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND

After so much frantic activity we sit and wait. This is hard.

By the next morning the snow had turned to rain and the last traces of snow were rapidly being washed away. A gloomy dark day when a roaring fire and a hot cup of tea seemed like the best idea. Darcy came over after breakfast, saying that he had been into the village to telephone Sir Grenville and suggested that no meeting with my father should be arranged until we had more information from America. Zou Zou acknowledged that this was a smart move, giving us time to make him see sense. Nobody apart from her felt like scouring the countryside looking for Professor Peabody, but she made us agree that it was something we could do while we waited. I suggested that we might try Trinity College itself to see if he had presented his credentials there, which any visiting academic would surely do. That way we’d know if he was a fake.

So we bundled into the car and drove through the rain. We ascertained that nobody of that name had visited the history or archeology departments. In fact we ran into our two graduate students who had been kept from their dig by the weather. From them we got a little more detailed description with which we then tackled the Dublin train station. A ticket collector did remember a large American gentleman asking for the train to Kilhenny, but then he added that the destination seemed popular with Americans these days. So not a definitive identification.

We were tempted to go to the embassy but realized that it was still too early in the day for any results from Chicago. We’d just have to wait and be patient. We went back to Kildare and asked at the local pubs to see if Professor Peabody had stayed there, but drew a blank. So we returned to Mountjoy. It was hard to be patient and do nothing, but everything now hinged on the results from America.

“I don’t suppose anything will happen over the weekend,” Darcy said.

Aunt Oona frowned at him. “What a horrid Americanism, Darcy. Where did you learn such a word?”

Darcy was amused. “You mean ‘weekend’?”

“Absolutely.”

“Well, it does nicely define the two days when not much is going to happen and we’ll be stuck here.”