A Trail of Treasure - Sherlock Holmes

Chapter Eight - Debt and Secrets

"We all have secrets, Miss Westin. Even you..." 

To this, Caroline said nothing.

Cosma continued to study her. She wan't sure how she felt about this now.  "Miss Caroline Westin. Miss, not Mrs."

"Yes, that's right."

"You are unmarried now, but you would like to be."

Caroline tried not to squirm in her seat. "Yes, someday."

"But you must first find the right person."

"Yes. Marriage is a big commitment. I don't want it to be with just anyone."

She heard Holmes snort with laughter at this. "Oh, Watson could tell you all  about that."

John just rolled his eyes.

"Unlike your parents," Cosma continued.

Caroline turned back to the fortune teller and away from Holmes, who she was looking angrily at. "Well, their marriage was certainly no great love story."

"No.  You fear you will end up like them."

"Well I'm certainly hoping I don't." She cleared her throat, now uncomfortable. "Thank you, but could we please focus on something else?"

"As you wish - in a moment." Cosma smirked and Caroline suppressed a sigh. "Your first kiss - you thought that was it. But it wasn't, didn't turn out to be."

Caroline shook her head sadly. "No." It had been a long time since she had thought about that, reminisced about him. 

This caught Holmes's attention - she saw his head snap up at mention of the kiss from out of the corner of her eye.  He thought Madam Cosma was referring to he and Caroline's kiss, the night of his horrible violin practice. This made Caroline chuckle. Not everything is about you, Mr. Holmes.

"You thought love was over for you. But fear not, for it is only beginning." Cosma winked. 

Caroline got the feeling this was supposed to make her feel more reassured than it did. "If you say so."

Cosma smirked again. "Oh, I do. I know  so."

"All right, if you know so."

This comment of hers made Cosma chuckle.

Caroline withdrew the debt tarot card from her bag, eager to move the conversation along and away from herself, and to the point they had come here for in the first place in hope of finding some answers. "Thank you, but I'm not actually here to have my fortune told. We're here because we're doing some investigating on my father, and we found this card in a hotel room he supposedly stayed in. It belongs to you, doesn't it?"

Cosma took the card. "Ah yes, I remember this.  And yes, it does, belong to me. It will be nice to have it back, thank you. A complete set once again." She grinned.

"By the sounds of it, you've been doing this a long time, so you may not remember my father - that is, if he even came to see you. However, that's how I'm assuming he got the card."

"Yes. I remember him. Harold Westin." She smiled with a certain warmth. But in the constant flickering of the firelight it was difficult to tell or see clearly. "Owner of a country estate and a vast collection of valuable artifacts."

"Yes, yes that's him!"

"You look like him. You remind me of him."

"People always said I took after him."