Part 5 (1/2)
(MR)@lklinger No need to worry, Mr Klinger, it will be several more years.
(LK)@mary_russell Right. So Dr W was upset, but not Holmes?
(MR)@lklinger Holmes learned long ago to leave the shouting to Dr Watson. He finds it best to stay aloof of the literary world.
(LK)@mary_russell Some stories in this collection are less about Holmes than about people affected by Dr W's stories. Do you approve?
(MR)@lklinger One might as well approve of breathing air, as of people falling under the spell of Sherlock Holmes, even secondhand.
(LK)@mary_russell So you do understand the appeal of the Sherlock Holmes stories over the ages?
(MR)@lklinger My dear young man, of course I understand their pull. I was captivated by the stories long before I met the man.
(LK)@mary_russell Speaking of captivation, may I ask about your relations.h.i.+p with Mr Holmes?
(MR)@lklinger No. Oh dear, Mr Klinger, ominous noises from the laboratory require my immediate attention. Good luck with your book.
(LK)@mary_russell Just another couple of questions, Miss Russell. May I ask, what is Mr Holmes doing these days?
(LK)@mary_russell Miss Russell?
(LK)@mary_russell Thank you, Miss Russell.
Read on for an excerpt from Laurie R. King's.
Pirate King.
CHAPTER ONE.
RUTH: I did not catch the word aright, through being hard of hearing ... I took and bound this promising boy apprentice to a pirate.
”HONESTLY, HOLMES? PIRATES?”
”That is what I said.”
”You want me to go and work for pirates.”
O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, our thoughts as aboundless, and our souls as free ...
”My dear Russell, someone your age should not be having trouble with her hearing.” Sherlock Holmes solicitous was Sherlock Holmes sarcastic.
”My dear Holmes, someone your age should not be overlooking incipient dementia. Why do you wish me to go and work for pirates?”
”Think of it as an adventure, Russell.”
”May I point out that this past year has been nothing but adventure? Ten back-to-back cases between us in the past fifteen months, stretched over, what, eight countries? Ten, if one acknowledges the independence of Scotland and Wales. What I need is a few weeks with nothing more demanding than my books.”
”You should, of course, feel welcome to remain here.”
The words seemed to contain a weight beyond their surface meaning. A dark and inauspicious weight. A Mariner's albatross sort of a weight. I replied with caution. ”This being my home, I generally do feel welcome.”
”Ah. Did I not mention that Mycroft is coming to stay?”
”Mycroft? Why on earth would Mycroft come here? In all the years I've lived in Suss.e.x, he's visited only once.”
”Twice, although the other occasion was before your arrival. However, he's about to have the builders in, and he needs a quiet retreat.”
”He can afford an hotel room.”
”This is my brother, Russell,” he chided.
Yes, exactly: my husband's brother, Mycroft Holmes. Whom I had thwarted-blatantly, with malice aforethought, and with what promised to be heavy consequences-scant weeks earlier. Whose history, I now knew, held events that soured my att.i.tude towards him. Who wielded enormous if invisible power within the British government. And who was capable of making life uncomfortable for me until he had tamped me back down into my position of sister-in-law.
”How long?” I asked.
”He thought two weeks.”
Fourteen days: 336 hours: 20,160 minutes, of first-hand opportunity to revenge himself on me verbally, psychologically, or (surely not?) physically. Mycroft was a master of the subtlest of poisons-I speak metaphorically, of course-and fourteen days would be plenty to work his vengeance and drive me to the edge of madness.
And only the previous afternoon, I had learnt that my alternate lodgings in Oxford had been flooded by a broken pipe. Information that now crept forward in my mind, bringing a note of dour suspicion.
No, Holmes was right: best to be away if I could.
Which circled the discussion around to its beginnings.
”Why should I wish to go work with pirates?” I repeated.
”You would, of course, be undercover.”
”Naturally. With a cutla.s.s between my teeth.”
”I should think you would be more likely to wear a night-dress.”
”A night-dress.” Oh, this was getting better and better.
”As I remember, there are few parts for females among the pirates. Although they may decide to place you among the support staff.”
”Pirates have support staff?” I set my tea-cup back into its saucer, that I might lean forward and examine my husband's face. I could see no overt indications of lunacy. No more than usual.
He ignored me, turning over a page of the letter he had been reading, keeping it on his knee beneath the level of the table. I could not see the writing-which was, I thought, no accident.
”I should imagine they have a considerable number of personnel behind the scenes,” he replied.