Sherlock Holmes--The Spider's Web by Philip Purser-Hallard

Author:Philip Purser-Hallard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

CHAPTER TEN

LORD ILLINGWORTH’S SECRET

I did get a good night’s sleep, but not at once. I saw Holmes off on his errand – which is to say, I saw off a tanned and weather-beaten itinerant labourer, carrying a stout ashplant and a knapsack, in whom only one who knew Holmes as well as I could have detected any degree of resemblance to my friend – then bathed and readied myself for bed.

It was past midnight and I was enjoying a final tot of whisky with a novel before turning in. Following Holmes’s comments about Mr H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, which I remembered enjoying, I had settled down with his latest book, The Invisible Man, when I heard a knocking from the hallway. Mrs Hudson having long since retired, I wrapped my dressing gown about myself and went downstairs.

I had not expected Holmes to return so early, but perhaps he had already discovered whatever information he sought in London’s less salubrious taverns. He had a key, of course, but it was not unknown for him to leave it behind in his own clothes when he left on such incognito outings. In areas outside those problems wherewith his mind was fully engaged, he could be surprisingly absent-minded.

When I answered the door, however, the insistent knocker was not Holmes. It was a woman, wearing a hooded cloak against the chill of the night. She stepped inside at once and removed it, surrendering it to my astonished hands.

‘Lady Goring!’ I hissed, wary of waking Mrs Hudson. ‘What are you doing here, alone and so late? It is most improper.’

‘Oh, please don’t be dreary, Dr Watson!’ Mabel Goring smiled. ‘Your reputation is perfectly safe. You are too honourable, and I too unadventurous, for any impropriety whatsoever.’ Beneath the cloak she wore a jacket and sturdy boots, and a light dress that could have afforded little protection against the chilly night air.

I said, ‘But if my landlady should find you here…’

‘Then we shall tell her that I came to consult with Mr Holmes, and in his absence am speaking to you instead, which is thoroughly respectable and has the merit of being the truth.’ Though her tone was cheerful, her pretty face was marred by lines of worry and she looked terribly tired. ‘Mr Holmes is absent, I suppose?’

‘You’d better come up,’ was all I could think to say. Before closing the door I cast a nervous glance around the street outside, but saw nothing of note except the coach in which Lady Goring had presumably arrived, waiting a little further along Baker Street.

I settled her in front of the fire and offered her a warming brandy, which she declined.

‘Does Lord Goring know you’re here?’ I asked, thinking again of the irregularity of the situation. While I had no doubt that her motives in appearing here were as innocent as she had told me, her presence in my rooms, unchaperoned, so late at night, made it easier to believe that in the past she could have behaved in an indiscreet way that might have interested a blackmailer.

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