by David Ruffle
“I think your single-minded devotion to your profession derives from an incident or incidents in your youth. I have not often heard you speak of your family life, but when you have, you have rarely spoken with such vehemence. You can claim all you like that old Mr Trevor pointed out to you which profession you should follow, but I believe your mind was already firmly made up.”
“I feel even more keenly now, Watson that I underestimated your intelligence on far too many occasions. You have many remarkable characteristics which perhaps I should have placed more reliance on.”
“I had no great objection to being called a conductor of light if that is truly how you saw me, but I did have my own moments of luminosity.”
“Perhaps you should have heightened those instead of exaggerating my own modest skills.”
“Come now, Holmes. Modesty does not sit well on you and I know full well that you do not rank modesty among the virtues.”
“Underestimating one’s own worth is as bad in its way of exaggerating one’s powers. I think any imbalance in our relationship as perceived by others was due to your own modesty in putting me foremost in your accounts.”
“But, they were accounts of your investigations, your triumphs. I could hardly have not put you first. I was by way of being your biographer, your Boswell. It was not my place to elevate my own meagre accomplishments, it was always my intention to publicise your merits, not mine.”
“A worthy answer and one I would have expected from you. Your innate honesty and goodness has always shone through.”
“My upbringing instilled certain character traits in me which have never been diluted. I deplore the lack of common courtesy and plain, simple good manners which appear to have inflicted the modern generation.”
“Perhaps you really are the one fixed point in a changing age, more eminently suitable to represent a British jury than any man I have ever known.”
“I don’t claim to be better than anyone else, I have a very good reason for so thinking, but I seek to maintain a certain standard of civility in all my dealings and throughout my life I believe I have managed that in spite of a few lapses which can happen to anyone.”
“You had the advantage over me in that you lived your life on an even keel. Life bowled along quite merrily for you on the whole in spite of tragedy rearing its ugly head on occasion. My life has been one of extreme highs and depressive lows. My mood swings were unpredictable and my well-being must have been a matter of grave concern for you.”
“As both your friend and your physician, I was at times extremely concerned for you. Your habit of going without food and sleep for long periods during cases was a source of great worry for me and irritation too I must add. The damage you may have done to your body could have been irreparable.”
“Oh and I rather thought I thrived on it.”
“Probably because you paid the matter of your health no heed. It amazed me that you appeared not to have the faintest interest in your body’s needs.”
“The rest of me was a mere appendix compared with my brain.”
“Poppycock! What good could it have possibly have done you without the means to investigate, the wherewithal to test your theories. Far from thriving on your exertions, you occasionally buckled under them. I have never forgotten the sight of you lying on your sick bed in the Hotel Dulong in Lyons. Your body having given up completely on you and you cannot possibly deny it.”
“There were times admittedly when even my iron constitution failed me, but my recovery on those rare occasions was swift, aided in the time you speak of by you fortuitously taking me off to your old friend, Colonel Hayter. I assure you, Watson, my recuperation was all the quicker for having the trifling problem of the Reigate Squires to cast my eye over. I emerged from that little problem totally refreshed in mind and body.”
“Would that my constitution could be as strong as to prolong this conversation without the recourse to several naps. Forgive me, Holmes, I will close my eyes once more.”
Interlude
“Lovely cup of tea, Nurse Harrison. Perhaps catering is really your forte”
“Thank you, Matron. My catering skills stop with the making of tea so you are stuck with me.”
“Nurse Pollett, I have a bone to pick with you.”
“Here we go...”
“I beg your pardon, Nurse!”
“Sorry, Matron.”
“I looked in earlier on Dr Watson and found the chair pulled up to his bedside. I do not agree with such familiarity; if you need to speak with the patient, please do so from a standing position.”
“I only touched the crummy chair once and that was to put it back under the window. I thought Mrs Drew had been in the room. She’s a nice old stick, unlike some here; I thought she might have been chatting with the doctor.”
“What nonsense you come up with, girl. Mrs Drew has not been on duty tonight. I’m watching you, Nurse Pollett, I’m watching you.”
“I’ve got my ticket; I’m not some silly probationer.”
“Then why do you act like one? Come on, don’t sulk... I say what I say to encourage you, you have the makings of a fine nurse.”
“I do?”
“Yes, Nurse Pollett, you do.”
“Thank you, Matron. Was Dr Watson still talking in his sleep when you looked in on him?”
“Yes, non-stop. Reliving his past while he can, I think. One more biscuit each then back to work, girls.”
“That last custard cream for me... Lucy Pollett!! That was mine!”
“Too slow, Polly... too slow.”
Chapter 4
“Still here, Holmes?”
“Yes, my friend for as long as I am needed. Have they been treating you well here?”
“The whole staff has been most attentive. I have been feeling so isolated, I seem to know nothing of what goes on in the outside world. I have not got the energy to read, so the newspapers that are brought to me lie unread until they are collected. Mrs Drew, the ward maid, is kind enough to read to me sometimes, often she will do so when she is not even on duty. I believe she has a soft spot for me.”
“Well, the fair sex was always your department, Watson. Women appear to fall for that natural charm, cultivated so artfully over the years.”
“Not Irene Adler, Holmes. She only had eyes for you, much to my chagrin.”
“Really, Watson, I consider it bad form to perpetuate that myth. Thanks to your insistence on calling her the woman, I fear I will be forever romantically linked to Mrs Irene Norton nee Adler.”
“I don’t believe I am to blame at all. I made it abundantly clear that you had no interest in her other than as a client, that you did not feel any emotion akin to love towards her. You can have no cause for complaint that I addressed her as the woman, it was after all how you described her yourself.”
“A sign of respect for her intellect, no more than that.”
“You also stated that she was the ‘daintiest thing under a bonnet’.”
“That was the view of the horsey men of Serpentine Mews, where all the men within the area had fallen under her spell.”
“May I also remind you that you described her as being a lovely woman with a face men would die for?”
“I cannot deny that they were my words, but I can see and recognise beauty without being moved to grandiose declarations of love. I noticed her beauty just as the King of Bohemia did, the difference was that he felt compelled to act and I did not.”
“The King was certainly a pompous fellow, I am not sure that we ever encountered anyone quite as vainglorious as he.”
“Yes he was, Watson. Miss Adler had a lucky escape. Be she his mistress or Queen, her life would have been constrained, claustrophobic and unrewarding.”
“Surely her life with Godfrey Norton would have been rath
er less exciting.”
“It was true love, it conquers all I am told... by you, chiefly!”
“Because it is true!”
“As ever, I will take your word on the subject. As to the world outside, Watson, for the most part it is depressing news all round; China and the Soviets engaged in hostilities, Palestinians and Jews at each other’s throats in Jerusalem and in Safed and the world heading for a depression like no other.”
“I am glad, then, that I have my memories instead. The world has never been the same for me since the Great War. At least, after hostilities on that scale no one would ever be mad enough to plunge the world back into the carnage and human wastage we saw then.”
“I would not be too sure, Watson. Mankind’s propensity for warring and destroying each other seems to know no bounds.”
“The destruction I saw first-hand during the Afghan campaign was more than enough for me. Is it naive of an old man to cling to the hope that all nations may yet learn to live in peace and harmony?”
“I fear it is, but it is a desire expressed by so many that perhaps one day it will come about.”
“Amen to that, Holmes. Tell me, do you have any contact with Scotland Yard these days?”
“I have outlived my usefulness to them. New techniques used in the detection of crime and for the processing of clues have rendered the days of the consulting detective redundant, particularly where major crime is concerned. Were I still to be in harness at the present time, than I really would be reduced to recovering lost lead pencils and locating missing cats named Tiddles.”
“Did many of the inspectors that we worked with continue to consult you in a private capacity? I know that some certainly did.”
“For a while, yes, but the visits dried up as they either claimed higher office or retired, or even worse of course in Lestrade’s case.”
“Such a shocking event. I never saw fit to lay the details before the public; it would have seemed somewhat prurient and intrusive to do so. Just imagine, one week from retirement and then ends up being knifed during a street brawl. The man wasn’t even on official duty, but when he saw trouble, he stepped in and was rewarded with a blade to the heart.”
“A sad end to a good man. He was the best of the Scotland Yarders in spite of his faults and I actually enjoyed the man’s company. Do you remember those evenings we three often spent together, smoking our pipes and discussing the news of the day and of course any cases which Lestrade may have been having difficulties with?”
“Yes I remember those evenings well, fine times indeed. I always had an image of Lestrade as a family man, a picture the man himself did nothing to dispel and yet there was no sign of any family at his funeral. The turnout of his colleagues was very impressive, but apart from those fellow officers there was nobody. He must have been a lonely man, no wonder he enjoyed the times in spent with us in our Baker Street sitting-room.”
“There had been a wife I found out some time afterwards. She had died in childbirth along with the child.”
“The poor man, Holmes.”
“Yes indeed, Watson.”
“Was there anyone’s career that you took the trouble to follow?”
“None especially, Watson. I picked up the odd pieces of news from the papers about the advancement of certain officers from time to time. I was gratified to see the rise of Tobias Gregson to Commissioner, a position he richly deserved... in the end.”
“I recall that Inspector Baynes was passed over for the position of Chief Constable of Surrey.”
“The bright-eyed, astute inspector. He was perhaps too wayward, too off-beat to even be considered chief constable material. And I could never see Baynes as being part of the hunting and golfing set, twin pastimes which appear to be compulsory for those in any form of high office. We are a nation which rewards, not on merit, but where you went to school or university and who you know. Social skills count for more than actual skills in this world.”
“Times may change, Holmes.”
“Undoubtedly so, but for the better or worse? That is the question.”
“A question we can never see answered.”
“Quite so.”
“I did once have high hopes for Athelney Jones. He acquitted himself quite reasonably regarding the problem of the Sholto’s which you invested with the title, The Sign of Four. I am sorry, my dear fellow, is this painful for you?”
“Not at all. I spend a great deal of time in reflecting on my first happy marriage and the circumstances that brought Mary into my life. I muse on her smile, her voice and the mystery which hung over her life. I lose myself in a reverie deliberating on the sequence of events which brought us closer together. She was... no... is the love of my life.”
“I know, my friend, I know. I always found her the most delightful of women, always accommodating when I made my frequent requests for your company and assistance.”
“In that regard, she was most long-suffering. Content to see me go off at a moment’s notice with barely any chastisement. She was the most popular of women and a true helpmeet to all who sought aid from her. Folks suffering from any form of grief came to Mary like birds to a lighthouse or moths to a flame. She was goodness personified and was taken from me all too soon.”
“Yes, but never forgotten by anyone who met her I am sure.”
“Love is as much a mystery to me as it is unfathomable for you. My love for Mary did not prevent me from marrying again. Did I take into my second marriage feelings of guilt that I had somehow betrayed Mary? Is that why I failed as a husband?”
“Do you think you failed?”
“It did not last, did it? There is no one to blame but me. My wife would hardly have taken solace in the arms of another if I had been treating her well. I should not have married again, it was selfish of me.”
“And yet the motives of women are inscrutable at the best of times and almost without exception, even the best of them are not to be trusted.”
“A somewhat narrow view, Holmes.”
“I stand by it nevertheless.”
“Would you maintain that stance if we were talking about your mother?”
“I place my mother above all others, she was truly the woman for me. She stands supreme in my memory as the embodiment of the female species.”
“And yet you have rarely spoken of her to me.”
“The subject is a most painful one for me.”
“How so, if as you say she stands supreme in your memory? Why do you not want to talk about her further? Are you determined to stay secretive to the end?”
“You do not know what you ask of me, you really don’t. I have no intention of hiding my past from you, but I must be allowed to reveal certain truths to you in my own time.”
“Very well, Holmes. I am not even sure how we came to broach the subject.”
“Athelney Jones, Watson, was the starting point. He was an able officer, but not quite to the forefront of Yard men.”
“You did have your favourites aside from Lestrade; Stanley Hopkins and Alec Macdonald received praise from you, casual, even grudging though it may have been.”
“Good old Mac! I always found most Aberdonians to be as dour and as granite-like as their home city, but Mac was the exception. He was optimistic, cheerful and possessed a willingness to learn that was to become the making of him. It came as no surprise to me that he rose to the front rank of his profession. Young Hopkins, apart from occasional lapses which seemed to be inbuilt among the detective class at Scotland Yard, was a most able officer and yet again, his promotion was well-earned.”
“I am pleased to see that you continued to keep an eye on their careers, it’s certainly more than you did with our clients.”
“Other than those of our clients who lived their life in the public eye, whose doings were thrust at us d
aily from the broadsheets, then no, Watson. The client was no more than a factor in the case; the problem itself was where I concentrated my energies and once a case was complete then other clients would come forth to replace those earlier ones, with their own puzzles and mysteries. I have no doubt, my dear fellow that you compiled copious scrapbooks on the triumphs and failures, rises and falls of anyone who darkened our door.”
“Nothing of the kind, Holmes. I stayed in touch with a few, admittedly.”
“Possibly just those of the female variety, perhaps?”
“Such a comment is unworthy of you and unfair.”
“Oh, do you think so? I hardly need to mention the missives from Grace Dunbar or the sprightly and perfumed, on her part, correspondence between yourself and Laura Lyons at the turn of the century!”
“How typical of you, Holmes, that you fail to mention any letters between myself and male clients.”
“Because... there were none. Admit it, Watson.”
“Well, you may have scored a point off me there. But I see no need to make it sound so tawdry.”
“Apologies, my friend that was not my intention.”
“Thank you, but I believe you did not notice my smile!”
“Good old Watson. I never did get your limits. But at one time you thought you had mine I recall.”
“I thought you may bring that up. It was in the early days of our friendship when I drew up the list you are no doubt referring to. On the whole I still feel I was fairly accurate with my reasoning.”
“Anyone reading that list would have assumed me to have far more by way of limits than possibilities or expectations. If you were to compile such a list now I wager it would be much changed.”
“You would lose your wager, Holmes. Apart from one or two minor alterations I would change nothing.”
“I have seen that look of triumph on your face before when you think you have bested me in something.”
“Which I have!”
“Hmm.”
“You know it is so... your ‘hmm’ counts for nothing.”