The proprietor laughed harshly.
“Did you listen to anything I just told you? I just said I don’t know their names. Keep them from me on purpose. Can’t say that I blame them. After the dark things they get up to, I don’t think I would want my name going about.”
“Then what did he look like?”
The proprietor hesitated. He might have been frowning but it was very difficult to tell, given that he always wore a rather sullen expression.
“I don’t remember.”
“I don’t believe you.”
The man sighed.
“There was two of them.”
“Two?” Henry shared a glance with Lord Stoneleigh. “I thought you said –”
“I’ve remembered now.” Interrupting him, the man swung back towards him. “The second lad, he was determined to buy you brandy in place of the one the other man had bought.”
Silence spread between Henry and Lord Stoneleigh for a moment.
“Wait.” Taking a breath, Lord Stoneleigh looked back at Henry, then to the proprietor. “So someone bought Lord Thornbridge brandy. And then another man bought a second brandy to replace the first?”
“Yes. It happened a few times. Until the second fellow must have gone somewhere, ‘cause I didn’t see him again.”
“Then tell me the description ofthatfellow.”
The proprietor sighed again, as though Henry was asking him something incredibly wearying.
“Not tall. Small, wiry and… a bit shifty.”
“Suspicious?”
“Yes.” The man rubbed his chin with one dirty finger and doubts immediately began to climb into Henry’s mind. Was this fellow making everything up? What if he was pretending to be honest but in truth, was lying, solely to have Henry and Lord Stoneleigh gone from the premises as quickly as possible?
“I couldn’t understand it,” the man continued. “Why would someone swap your brandy before you even had a chance to drink the first one?”
Sighing, Henry passed one hand over his eyes. The story was sounding more preposterous with every sentence that was spoken and Henry grimaced, throwing a glance towards Lord Stoneleigh. His friend was frowning heavily, perhaps as uncertain of whether or not this man spoke the truth as Henry was.
“Go on.”
Silently acknowledging that there was a little more the man might need to say to help Henry understand, he gestured to him.
“As I said, it was a bit strange. You were given plenty of whisky and brandy - stuff I never have in my club, but the men who come here, they bring it to me. I gave it to them both, but one after the other kept coming back for more. It wasn’t as if you didn’t have a drink already, so why this second fellow felt the need to keep changing them, I didn’t know.”
“So…” A little confused, Henry closed his eyes briefly. “You are saying that I had a good deal of brandy already, but someone else kept replacing my glass with another?”
The proprietor sniffed.
“Like I said, some small, wiry fellow. His eyes kept shifting all over the place. Thought he was a bit of a strange sort.”
He laughed as though he had made some sort of joke.
“Then who was giving Lord Thornbridge the brandy in the first place?”
“Oh, just some fellow who…” The man slowly tailed off, then looked away. A shadow passed over his face, his eyes darkening and his eyebrows dropping even lower over his eyes. “Matter of fact, I don’t remember.” Grunting, the man turned away. “Got him mixed up.”
“No, you didn’t.” Leaning over the counter, Henry caught the man’s arm, pulling him back. “Youdoremember. It is only since my friend asked you that question that you realized that you had spoken a little too freely. You remember exactly, but you do not want to furnish me with those details for some reason.”
