Part 11 (2/2)

I was duly introduced to the proprietress of this extraordinary establish towards us, her bloated body surown revealed a surplus of powdered bosom, and broken veins crisscrossed her face like contour lines on the Ordnance Survey Map for this part of North Yorkshi+re

She cackled at me, ”I am Mrs Claus,” and the force of her breath was vile She reeked like a pudding hot with flaainst her at once ”I feel honoured to meet poor Nellie's infamous sister”

”Infamous?” snapped I As you know, Doctor, I do try not to be short with folk But the fatuous remarks of others sometimes make it impossible for me not to snap at them

”Oh, certainly We all knoho you work for, dear, and we're all very ih the scribblings of the good Dr Watson We aren't so re up to the minute on unspeakable cri to your various literary productions, Dr Watson! Suddenly, I felt exposed before this heinous female in this parochial pleasure parlour I felt as if our entire lives had been laid bare In that eared to continuous celebration of the birth of our Saviour, there was an unholy stink of corruption about it and also about the occupant of that steam-driven bath chair

Such was the extent of our discourse last evening, for Nellie swiftly draggeddispensed from a crystal bowl by another pair of waiters decked out as elves We drank, and then we danced Gentlehts to music I had never heard before We made several return visits to the bottomless tureen of that delicious brew We slaked our thirsts after our exertions and I ain at Nellie's fleet-footedness on the floor Never had I seen her less ungainly, with her clubfoot banging the sprung floor in perfect time I think we both iht to have done

Luckily, Nellie's coe isn't far from the Christmas Hotel We tottered easily down a few back alleys when it was ti ourselves away

It had been a farthat I had expected and really, Doctor, I a you about it now in order to prove that I a seriously your exhortations that I should relax during my northern sojourn and dowe are in disarray My head and that ofwith the echoes of queer e pots of tea to help us stir ourselves Upper irotesque hostess, Mrs Claus During our unexpectedly energetic dancing, I caught her watching us once or twice, through the crowd She even had the nerve to waggle her fat fingers at me

Also-and I haven't breathed a word of this to Nellie, of course -I happened to gli that you and Himself have asked me to watch out for

In the ladies' lavatory there was a garish notice for An Extravaganza of Exorcisht, apparently

Yours, Mrs Hudson

Dear Dr Watson, It was evening before Nellie and I ventured out again and, in nostalgic vein, Nellie wanted to reminisce about our distant shared childhood in the Borders I have no interest in looking back at a tilectful parents, and I can't see why she would care to dwell on such times when folk would call out names and throw rocks at her in the street But my sister see off her distorted skeleton and her spirit is out of sorts, and so I indulged her for a portion of the evening, roving stiffly over old times I also made half a dozen discreet enquiries about her health and state of , poor ed of all distressing details, she led athered around a certain whaling vessel at the jetty There was a flurry of excite on as the shi+p docked and naturally we paused to see as occurring Nellie pointed to the cause of all the over-sti, unidentifiable carcass that was being roped into a harness on the deck of the shi+p The sailors had brought so sea Soh each of the observers, none of who bridge over the harbour and, standing doind of its evil, brackish stench, atched as the nasty thing was hauled aloft I stared straight into its htless eyes

And how do I explain this without sounding like a raging loon? Ach, Dr Watson You will think that no more than two days away from Baker Street has turned me into a silly woe as side plates they were, and I felt I could see whole galaxies expand in their swirling depths I saw stars blooness I felt the whole of the future and past were laid out before e in the middle of that toith the turbid North Sea all chilly around me I experienced a small thrill of excitement, I have to say All of that I saw in the queer cephalopod's eyes

Anyhow, then we had a very pleasant fish supper Much, et in London I hope you and Hi a pleasant week, Doctor, and that there have been no untoward investigations thrust upon the two of you You kno I fret To the Extravaganza of Exorcisms, just to see what it is like I will report forthwith

Yours, Mrs Hudson Dear Dr Watson, Oh by jingo

Why on earth did you ask o there? Why not leave a poor woman alone to potter about at the seaside and enjoy old ladyish things? Why make me undertake a one

Nellie is upstairs in her bed It's past one in the h the floorboards I'ed by what she has been through tonight

I'll tell you what it was It was cruel, is what it was It was shameful cruelty on the part of that woman and I blameto the Christ

But hoas I to know?

I s of this sort, you expect the in it, is there? All that table-rapping Spirit-world mumbo jumbo Why, I recall several occasions when you yourself and Himself have been called out on cases cos-on of fakers of psychic pheno on at the jamboree held at the Christmas Hotel and, indeed, e first went in, it did seem like a fairly innocuous affair: a kind of bazaar for the feeble palms in tents and at tables; there were Arabs and Jews and Chinese flogging their exotic wares; there were foreign folk consulting crystals and scrying mirrors and all types of occult artefacts The very air was singing with the s of the fey folk crowded into the hotel's public rooms

It was for the demonstrations of exorcisms that ere there, however, as you well know, Dr Watson I guided my lumpen and somewhat sullen sister in the direction of the ballroom and there itness to a ician on that stage, with his assistant in a glamorous, beruffled frock Denise and Wheatley, they were billed as, and, when they got going with a volunteer from the audience, I saw that it was the fe and exhorting the devil to hie himself out of the volunteer elf Mr Wheatley si verses frolances at the supposedly possessed young e

It was a revolting spectacle, but my sister was enthralled When I turned to tell her that I thought we had seen enough, I was startled to see that Nellie had an avid expression on her face Her whole, twisted body was rigid and on the very point of surging forward through that crowd ”N- Nellie?” I asked

She looked at ht in her eyes that I had never seen before A wicked light, I thought

We were interrupted then by the next act Denise and Wheatley had apparently been successful in de-de elf, and were replaced by a formidably ancient Romany woman with jet-black hair and dressed in hooped satin skirts She was hard-faced and sinister and she appeared to be slipping into a trance

”There are devils ast us,” she intoned, in a curious accent ”Beelzebub walks ast us”

I turned to my sister to make a dry and jocular reone She had slipped neatly through the press of bodies and was hauling herself onto the stage area There was a roar of approval from the crowd

”He is in me!” Nellie declared She held out her arms and faced us, with a beatific s and crumpled face ”The devil is inside me! He has always been inside reilder, as if my unfortunate sister had won the approval of her fellonsfolk; as if she were confir they had always suspected about her

There was a string of words stuck in e, but they wouldn't come I was suspended in horror, jostled in the crowd and helpless

Now the Ro her coarse, dirty hands on e verses indeed I watched as Nellie went stiff as a board and started to froth at the mouth That made me sick to the pit of my stomach I could feel the Seafood Surprise froypsy wo a crescendo I could have sworn I saw Nellie's eyes roll back and turn red

Then there was a round of applause and it was over Nellie was helped down froing the applause She wandered back through the croardsup her ar! He will not leave this woman so easily Nor will he leave any of you All of you must buy” And here she produced a pink jar of some kind of snake oil that she insisted we uineas a pop Well, I was having none of it, and practically draggedand frothy-mouthed sister home

So-thank you, indeed, Dr Watson As if you even needed Nellie and I to investigate those charlatans at the Christmas Hotel Naturally they are fakers We knew that even before attending this htened out of her wits in aid of your pursuit of knowledge I wish you had never read those accounts in the first place, of the miraculous and mysterious events reported here in Whitby I don't knohy a sensible man such as yourself would have been at all bothered in the first place

Yours, Mrs Hudson

Dear Dr Watson, This one a very odd colour indeed Her usual hue isn't all that healthy looking, but this is downright alar I could do for her

”Maude will know,” she said, tremulously ”Fetch Maude”

Well, it turns out her friend Maude Sturgeon lives down by the docks and she is what used to be called a local oman Actually, there is a whole family of omen, as it turns out, and these sisters occupy a tall house not far from the harbour Downstairs it is a kind of herbalist shop-reeking of spices and curious unguents I cast s they had on display But I was there on a mission ”Maude will be able to helpthe foreon herself, in her witchy ely as I described the previous evening's events She see that went on at the Christ with dark forces and things they should know better about,” said Maude gruffly She was rey suit and her steel-grey hair pinned up like so It was reassuring to be in the presence of her stolid good sense She asked me to come and sit in their parlour, where I found three of her rather ed in a very odd task indeed

Maude was fetching her shawl off the hat stand ”Oh, don'tit for the Whitby museum”

I looked harder and realised that the slippery dark thing they were all seasn't soutted remains of the monstrous sea beast that had been landed yesterday Those witchy sisters appraised , and I was very careful not to look into the behelad to get out of the fishy sh the narrow streets towards Nellie's house, pausing on the way to buy her a fancy cake fro have you been friends with my sister?” I asked conversationally

”Ever since she's been here,” said Maude, bea stick as we passed familiar faces ”Your sister has proved quite a reliable helper on a nuations and adventures here in Whitby”