Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose: Enola Holmes 9 by Nancy Springer
Author:Nancy Springer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A&U Children’s
Published: 2022-07-16T00:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER
THE
TENTH
Early the next day, Wednesday, the maid brought in, along with matutinal hot water, a replying telegram from Sherlock:
NO JOY STOP NO POLICE REPORTS OF CANINE
INSANITY STOP MOST PERPLEXING
âNo joyâ? I wondered if Sherlock had ever, even once in his life actually ridden with a fox hunt. I also considered that it was high time for âtally ho.â It had been almost a week since Wolcott Balestier disappeared. I must, simply must, track down Mary Erasmus today, because she knew something! Why else would she have given me a false name? Ethel Etheridge, my eye.
Skipping breakfast (not something I would normally do!), I clothed myself simply, with a scarf tied over my head in lieu of a hat, and set forth quite early. I reached the Covent Garden Flower Market at the height of morning bustle, went directly to the vendors of day-old flowers at the bottom of the market, and started asking, âExcuse me, have you seen Mary Erasmus?â
The fifth vendor I asked, a harried and rather hairy woman of uncertain age, answered without even looking up to see what I was about, âShe should be here any minute.â
And so she was.
I watched Mary Erasmus, stoutly corseted and looking upholstered as before, approach through the crowd with a big, empty basket on her arm and what looked like a genuine smile on her flat face. Rather than confronting her, I thought, I would learn more from her if I could keep her smiling, so when I stepped forwards to intercept her, I greeted her lightly, almost in jest. âEthel Etheridge, you are a sobriquet!â
Startled only slightly, she acknowledged, âAn incognito.â
âAn alias!â
Playfully sparring with vocabulary, we stood like two rocks in the middle of a flowery flow, people from all directions parting to pass us.
âA pseudonym.â
âAn anonym.â
âA nom de guerre.â
âA name of war? I admit defeat,â said I with a smile. âPray tell, how did you come to acquire your victorious vocabulary?â Anything I might learn of her could do me only good.
She replied amiably enough, âMy mother was a ragged schoolteacher.â
Ragged school! From such struggling beginnings came the scholars of the streets, and sometimes the leaders, or the rebels.
âAnd she was the proud owner of a dictionary,â added âEthel Etheridge.â
I cocked my head. âWas there a bit of a competition with your mother?â I inquired, remembering my own illustrious mum.
âA bit,â she conceded.
Yes. I knew I had recognised something in her.
âAre your parents still alive?â
âNo.â Her amiability vanished.
But I persisted. âSo, you are on your own? Can you support yourself by selling boutonnieres?â
âHardly. By day, I am an artisan in fingernail lacquer.â Interesting! A recent fad, nail lacquer was much in demand among the wealthy, although why any woman should want to glorify her fingernails only to hide them in multi-button gloves was beyond my understanding. âI concoct, sell, and apply my own product,â continued Mary Erasmus with a proud lift of the head. âI am as much of an entrepreneur as any factory owner.â
I heard heavy scorn in those last words.
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