“Of course I don’t want to,” he said. “And the truth is that I know little of my father. I was away at school from the age of seven. He always had a fiery temper, I know that. But I don’t ever remember him beating me or my brothers. He’d explode in anger, yell a bit, and then it would all be over and forgotten. But that was before he took to drink. Alcohol robs a man of reason, doesn’t it?”

“It also robs a man of balance,” I said. “If he was blind drunk wouldn’t it have been easy to push your father over? To disarm him if he was swinging a club?”

“So you think he could be innocent, do you?” he asked.

“I don’t know him,” I said. “But I think he deserves to have someone on his side. And for selfish reasons of course I want him to be innocent, for your sake. For both our sakes.”

“My darling Georgie,” he said and wrapped me in his arms. “I didn’t want you to have anything to do with this sordid business, but now that you’re here, I’m awfully glad.”

I rested my head against his shoulder, feeling a brief moment of perfect peace.

“I’m sorry I barged in on your father like that,” I said as he released me. “I didn’t realize he’d be there. I thought he’d still be locked away in prison.”

“He was released on bail yesterday,” Darcy said. “At least his useless solicitor managed that much. The family having been a backbone of the community for a thousand years. Not a flight risk. All that sort of stuff. Apparently the judge agreed, although my father can’t leave the immediate area without a police or legal escort. But better than Dublin jail.”

“You’re soaking wet,” I said, as I became conscious of the wet wool against my cheek and the smell of wet sheep. “You’d better go back and change before you catch a cold.”

“I think a cold is the least of my worries right now,” he said, managing a smile. He released me from his arms. “We have to decide what to do with you first. There really is nowhere for you to stay here. Even if my father were not in his current state the lodge is too small. I’ll take you back to the village and the wisest thing would be for you to take a train back to Dublin.” He corrected that. “Actually the wisest thing would be for you to go back to London.”

“Which you know I’m not going to do. I want to be with you here. I want to help. If nobody is working on your father’s behalf then we have to. Two heads are better than one, Darcy.”