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The Consequences of Flight (6346 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 6/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

**The Murdoch Diary, part 1:

Sault-au-Récollet and SS Columbia,

15 and 16 March 1900**

15th March, Thursday.

We stopped at Southampton during the night. The vessel is half empty. Most of the remaining passengers are either Germans or Frenchmen. All are eager to make landfall.

The stewart [sic.] tells us we will be arriving at Cherbourg tomorrow. I am uncertain why we are taking all this time. We made good time despite the choppy seas (his words) earlier in the crossing.

James is trying to keep his spirits up today. His smiles are ever present but they are tight. He has our transit to Paris planned and agrees with me that we will need to find employment in occupations that will support our new identities, inconspicuous ones, but that we’ll need to find them quickly. He is feigning enthusiasm, most likely in response to my prodding yesterday, but he is trying. I wish I knew what it was exactly that made our flight more difficult than his – our – previous difficulties. I am no stranger to starting over myself, to loss. I am mourning as much as he is. I ache to know the fate of our friends, but somehow it is not as difficult for me than it is for my beautiful James. Did I have less to lose? No, that cannot be, since we lost equally. We lost the life we had built together.

I do regret leaving the Sault-au-Récollet like we did. We arranged for a coach to fetch us in the middle of the night on February 26th and we left the house with the gray door without a note or a goodbye. F in particular was an immeasurable ally to us; he never knew the truth or the depth of our lies to him, while he asked for nothing from us in return.

Perhaps, a few years from now, when all is settled and no more risk can come to us or our friends, I will be able to let him know. This is unlikely. Perhaps it is the finality of our situation that hurts James the most.

16th March. Friday.

We dock around noon. The coast is visible from our porthole and we are required to leave our cabin in a few minutes. We have a hotel room at Cherbourg from tonight, though I would not have minded taking the train to Paris directly. James plans for us to stay here at least for a day, so he may make arrangements for us in Paris. I am uncertain what he means exactly. He was responsible for the entire escape plan in the first place and intentionally did not share most of it with me. He asks me to trust him again, which is self evident. Of course I trust him. I have not talent for barely legal schemes. I am grateful every day that he has chosen an honest life. A keen intellect such as his would have created a formidable villain if he had been so inclined. No wonder I once thought him a criminal mastermind. He has a talent for such schemes. Ironically, we are fugitives from the law, after a fashion.

By tomorrow, I will know the form of James’s plan. Once we are established in Paris, I will have a better ability to lead, if only because my French is superior to his. He knows science and engineering in the language of course; I am simply fluent. I am also more liable to find employment, and more quickly so. I have adaptable skills in a way that my inventing engineer has not.

I must stop here, the steward is announcing we must vacate the deck.

I hope to continue this journal upon our arrival. In the meantime, God look upon us.