Holmes Takes a Holiday by Anna Elliott & Charles Veley

Author:Anna Elliott & Charles Veley [Elliott, Anna & Veley, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wilton Press
Published: 2021-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11: BECKY

Becky was glad that Lucy had asked to borrow the Croftsmere carriage to drive them down to the docks. But even still, the ride seemed to be taking a hundred years, and what was worse, the coachman was an elderly, chatty old man, who seemed to know the history of every square inch of ground they covered and would, if they let him, tell them all about it as they clip-clopped along.

Lucy smiled and answered him very nicely—she was always good at that sort of thing. But Becky could tell that she was crawling with impatience, as well.

What if Sir Clarence tried to throw Mr. Holmes or Dr. Watson overboard? What if he already had? They could be drowning right now.

To distract herself, Becky pulled out the old diary of Belinda’s that she’d found and opened it up at random. At first, she read the printed words without really taking them in. She was mostly thinking about what could be happening on board the Swift.

But then a phrase caught her attention, and she stopped and read the page again. Really read it, this time.

I heard Mother Sybil (that’s what she’s asked me to call her, now that I’m to be her own little girl) talking to Sir John tonight, Belinda had written. They didn’t know I was there, hiding outside the drawing room. They thought I was upstairs in the nursery with the boys, asleep, but I could not sleep. I thought I would go to the kitchen and see whether Cook had left out any of the chocolate biscuits she made for tea. But as I was passing the drawing-room door, I heard voices.

Sir John (he does not prefer that I call him Father, although Mother Sybil wishes that he did) said that I ought to be told the truth someday when I was older, that it was my right to know. Mother Sybil was very angry and said that we did not know for certain that it was the truth, we had only guesswork and another word I did not know. I think it started with sup.

Sir John said that we had more than just guesses, we knew for a fact that my father had embezzled—

Becky looked up and opened her mouth, about to tell Lucy about what she’d just read. But then she heard a familiar voice.

“I’m telling you, I need to hire a boat!”

They had arrived at the docks. Looking out the window, Becky saw that the sky overhead had grown overcast, with towering mounds of sullen-looking clouds hanging low over the water. A row of wooden jetties stretched out into the lake’s choppy grey water, with sail boats and row boats and steam launches bobbing at their moorings as the waves grew rougher.

And at the head of the nearest dock, close enough for Becky to hear him, Flynn was engaged in what looked like a heated argument with the captain of one of the steam launches.

“I’ve got friends out there on water.” Flynn stabbed a finger at the lake for emphasis.

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