The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XXXIII by David Marcum

Author:David Marcum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Stepping Stones School, Undershaw, authentic adventures, Canonical, short story collection, traditional stories, Sherlockian, historical, pastiche, Victorian London, Holmesian, murder, skull, Edinburgh, Silk Scarf, burglar, monster, impostor, onion soup, skating, medium, painter, opium, Welsh, Siege of Sidney Street, The Battle of Stepney, art, forgery, Edith Wharton, supernatural
ISBN: 9781804240151
Publisher: Andrews UK
Published: 2022-05-18T00:00:00+00:00

The Adventure of the Spinster’s Courtship

by Tracy J. Revels

“Let me be perfectly clear, Mr. Holmes – I do not approve of this consultation, although I will indulge my wife by covering whatever fee you may charge for your advice. Mine was offered for free but rejected as being insensitive. I counter that my dearest Corinna is the one being insensitive to the future happiness of her friend. This sudden concern for Miss Emily’s welfare is misplaced. For Heaven’s sake, the woman has little enough joy in her life. Why spoil things for her now? But I have been overruled. I shall putter around Regent’s Park for exactly an hour, and then I will return. Let us hope, Corinna, that your mission is completed by that time.”

This speech, delivered in the coolest and most patronizing of tones, was punctuated with sharp cane taps from the deliverer, a tall, thin, raven-haired man in an Albert coat, with a golden pince-nez highlighting the blueness his eyes. His card proclaimed him Lord Chester Winthrop, and surely readers of these chronicles will recall him as one of the great esthetes of the age, a man whose trendsetting was the talk of three continents. But on this morning in Baker Street, he was no more than a greatly aggrieved husband who had learned, as most husbands eventually do, that his opinion mattered little when it clashed with the ideas held by wife. His spouse, Lady Corinna, a mesmerizingly beautiful blonde woman in a fashionable mauve dress, merely nodded a dismissal at him. He departed our suite with a mocking bow. Holmes’s amusement tugged at the corner of his lips.

“Dear me, I suspect he also disapproved of the draperies. Or was it the rug?”

Lady Corinna offered a thin smile. “He disapproves of most everything, sir, though usually not of me. It is uncomfortable for us to quarrel – and undignified to do it before strangers – but I couldn’t sleep another night without putting my problem before you, especially as it concerns the life and future happiness of one so dear to me, who lacks any family to advise her or – let me be frank – any decent gentlemen to defend her.”

Holmes chuckled as he settled into his armchair. “Never let it be said that Dr. Watson is anything less than a true chevalier. I am merely his meager squire. But as your husband seems the impatient type, please give us a succinct statement of the case. What crime has been committed against your friend?”

“None, yet. However, I fear – oh, Mr. Holmes, that is the worst of it! To have a sense of doubt and dread, to be so sure that something is amiss and to not know why. But enough! You have asked me for a statement, and I will seek to give it to you clearly.

“Before I was Lady Corinna Winthrop, I was merely Corrina Bray, of Brayford Castle,” she began. Holmes interrupted her.

“Then yours is a heritage much older and richer than your husband’s,” he said.

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