Read Online A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey - Free Book Online Page B

“Still, we should look in on him on the way up. And we should decide if you are dining with Mary and me, ladies.”
    Nan answered for both of them. “I wouldn’t impose on Mrs. Hudson’s good nature without advance warning. Tomorrow night, however, we would be delighted.”
    On arrival at 221, the quartet headed straight up the stairs to B, opening the door to the strains of, “Watson! Bring the young ladies in! I need the feminine perspective!”
    Watson’s eyebrows rose, but he waved the women in ahead of them, and they all fitted themselves into the somewhat chaotic sitting room. Holmes was deep in perusal of what looked to be a thick packet of papers, his brows furrowed, as he waved them all to seats. “This case is . . . very interesting, Watson. On the face of it, it would be a simple elopement. However, there is nothing
simple
about it, once one gets past the surface. Take these letters, for instance. Here, take them indeed!” He divided the packet into three, and handed one third each to Nan, Sarah, and Mary. “These are not the originals, of course; these are translations. Read those over, and tell me what you think. You, in particular, Mary.”
    â€œTranslated by whom?” Mary asked, accepting her packet. “You know what they say about translations . . . they can range from incomplete to inaccurate.”
    â€œBy me, of course,” Holmes replied. “These are part of my case notes. I promise you, I have been careful to reproduce the least nuance.”
    Nan read her letters . . . and at first, they seemed very commonplace. Addressed to the missing girl’s parents, there was nothing inthem to excite any sort of suspicion. In fact, they were utterly dull recitations of where the girl had gone and what she had done.
    . . . perhaps, a little
too
dull.
    No, a great deal too dull.
    â€œHad this young lady ever been anywhere away from home before?” Nan asked, more sharply than she intended.
    â€œHa!” exclaimed Holmes. “I believe you have seen what I have! No, despite her sister’s profession, Johanna had never been away from home for as much as a night. She had never traveled beyond the borders of her city.”
    â€œIt’s more what I
haven’t
seen, Mister Holmes,” Nan pointed. “There’s no excitement here. She’s never been outside of her home city you say, never been to a strange country at all, and yet, these . . . descriptions, if you could call them that, are like a particularly stodgy guidebook. She doesn’t exclaim about things that surely must seem odd to a German. She doesn’t go into raptures over a beautiful building, or a stained glass window, or even, for heaven’s sake, the interior of St. Paul’s. There’s nothing of the personal in any of the letters you have given me.
Nothing
about fashions, and the first thing most young women would talk about would be fashion, because there are always differences in things we women notice between countries. Surely she should have been on the lookout for the Professional Beauties, and yet . . . there is nothing.
Nothing
about the new food she has been trying. Nothing about the opera other than the description of the opera house! And absolutely no sense of excitement in any of it.” She frowned. “In fact, these are letters that are devoid of
people
as well. Didn’t she meet anyone besides her sister?”
    Sarah nodded agreement. “Wasn’t she introduced to
anyone?
Surely, with her sister performing her London debut, there must have been all manner of nobility and notables swarming about, but you’d never know it from these letters. Nothing about the opera house dandies. Nothing about the artistic set. Nothing about musicians. She mentions no one, least of all this mysterious Canadian. He should have appeared somewhere in these letters at the