Loving a Holmes

The Abominable Bride, pt.1

The second Afghan War brought honors and promotion to many. But to some, it meant nothing but misfortune and disaster. Which was the case for a young man by the name of Dr. John Watson. However, it did put him in contact with two of his closest friends; Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his young companion, Madison Moriarty. The two were a rather odd couple, both being extremely intelligent and observant. The only reason the two of them did not live together was because it would be inappropriate for a young woman to live with a man she isn't married to. However, the two still spend nights on end with each other when Sherlock isn't working a case. John had married Mary Morstan, now Mary Watson, in the spring of 1885. However, even after marriage, the two men had been able to work on murder cases together. But in all their many adventures together, no case had pushed the two to such mental and physical extremes as that of the Abominable Bride.

After being out one day the two men arrive back at the flat to find two women standing in Holmes' sitting room. One woman dressed head to toe in black, with a lace hat, and gloves, with the lace veil on the hat covering her face. The second woman is dressed in a deep red, also with a small hat and gloves, with her lace veil covering her face as well. The two men are surprised by the two woman. "Good Lord!" Watson exclaimed.

Holmes turns back to the hall, loudly shouting down the stairs. "Mrs. Hudson, There are two women in my sitting room! Is this intentional?"

Mrs. Hudson calls up from the lower level of the flat. "They're clients! Said you were out; insisted on waiting." Holmes grimaces.

Watson picks up two chairs near the table and turns to put them down in front of the women. "Would you two, er, care to sit down?"

The women don't move or respond to him. Holmes is still shouting down the stairs to his land lady, "Didn't you ask them what they wanted?"

"You ask them!" Mrs Hudson yells back.

"Well, why didn't you ask them?"

"How could I, what with me not talking and everything."

Holmes rolls his eyes and sighs. He turns and walks back into the sitting room. "Oh, for God's sake." Holmes walks towards the women and smiles to them."Good afternoon. I'm Sherlock Holmes. This is my friend and colleague, Doctor Watson. You may speak freely in front of him, as he rarely understands a word. However, before you do, allow me to make some trifling observations." He walks closer to the woman in black, circling around her while she continues to stand there impassively. "You have an impish sense of humor which currently you're deploying to ease a degree of personal anguish. You have recently married a man of a seemingly kindly disposition who has now abandoned you for an unsavory companion of dubious morals. You have come to this agency as a last resort in the hope that reconciliation may still be possible." Holmes stops and turns to the woman in red, who is also standing impassively. "You, my dear, are in love with a man of dubious morals. You have a scorching sense of humor, but you are not promised to the man you love, as such you have been together for a few years, it would be odd to say you weren't, if not for the fact the two of you have not married."

Watson listens in astonishment. "Good Lord, Holmes."

"All of this is, of course, perfectly evident from your perfumes."

"Their perfumes?"

"Yes, their perfumes, which brings insight to me and disaster to you."

"How so?"

"Because I recognized them and you did not." Holmes steps back to the woman in black and undoing the woman's veil and pulls it clear of her face.

As he walks away from her, Watson instantly recognizes her."Mary!"