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vocab_drabblesTitle: Clairvoyant
Prompt: clairvoyant
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD) - Sussex Retirement AU
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Summary: Watson returns from a child's birthday party with shocking news.
Watson crossed the threshold of the Sussex cottage and stopped, clutching something, something light and thin and square and wrapped, to his chest. A blustery late winter afternoon was whipping about behind him and threatening to encroach upon the quiet warmth and comfort of the cottage’s interior.
“Do you know?” he asked, not even attempting to remove his hat or coat or even close the front door.
Still seated in his cosy armchair, Holmes smiled and extended both hands in a gentile manner.
“I am, was, a detective, my dear man, not a clairvoyant. I don’t see how attendance at birthday festivities for a seven-year-old could have you in such a state—even if you did recently tend her through a nasty bout of scarlet fever. Surely whatever gossip you might have picked up between petite fours and punch could not be so shocking for a man of your many years and admittedly colourful careers.”
Watson did not register a single word of Holmes’s, but continued, almost blurting the question out.
“Do you know that your brother has published a book for children entitled ‘Mrs. Duchess Answers her Wee Friends Questions’?” With a shuffling of hands, Watson produced a thin volume, the cover facing the still-seated Holmes.
Holmes frowned and adjusted his spectacles and leaned closer. “No, I didn’t. Well, well, well. Oh, yes, of course, ‘Mrs. Tom Fey-Loch is an anagram of Mycroft Holmes.’”
“Is it?” Watson looked at the cover. “Oh, of course it is.” He sighed with relief. “I thought I was going mad there for a moment.” He gave the book over to Holmes’s outstretched hands and closed the door. Then he began to divest himself of his outer garments. “You won’t believe the sum I parted with to be allowed to take the volume. It was one of Masie’s gifts from a London cousin.”
One corner of Holmes’s mouth lifted in a wry smirk as he flipped the pages. “Money well spent.”
“I recognised the Duchess at once. How could I not when your brother and that cat stayed with us for a fortnight last summer? And there was also something familiar about the, shall we say, unusual style of watercolours your brother has been experimenting with in his retirement.”
“Yes, I believe the term is author-illustrator,” remarked Holmes dryly. “Dear me.”
Watson moved toward Holmes and the fire and looked over the former’s shoulder at the pages of the book. “So, the gist of the book is that children have answered an advertisement in a newspaper posing questions to your brother’s cat about being a cat and other less philosophical questions, and the Duchess has replied.”
“Of course, she has. Noblesse oblige,” said Holmes, chuckling under his breath. “Well, it’s as I said long ago, art in the blood, my dear man, art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms, but no even if I had been a clairvoyant instead of a detective, I don’t know I would’ve seen this coming.”
Prompt: clairvoyant
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD) - Sussex Retirement AU
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Summary: Watson returns from a child's birthday party with shocking news.
Watson crossed the threshold of the Sussex cottage and stopped, clutching something, something light and thin and square and wrapped, to his chest. A blustery late winter afternoon was whipping about behind him and threatening to encroach upon the quiet warmth and comfort of the cottage’s interior.
“Do you know?” he asked, not even attempting to remove his hat or coat or even close the front door.
Still seated in his cosy armchair, Holmes smiled and extended both hands in a gentile manner.
“I am, was, a detective, my dear man, not a clairvoyant. I don’t see how attendance at birthday festivities for a seven-year-old could have you in such a state—even if you did recently tend her through a nasty bout of scarlet fever. Surely whatever gossip you might have picked up between petite fours and punch could not be so shocking for a man of your many years and admittedly colourful careers.”
Watson did not register a single word of Holmes’s, but continued, almost blurting the question out.
“Do you know that your brother has published a book for children entitled ‘Mrs. Duchess Answers her Wee Friends Questions’?” With a shuffling of hands, Watson produced a thin volume, the cover facing the still-seated Holmes.
Holmes frowned and adjusted his spectacles and leaned closer. “No, I didn’t. Well, well, well. Oh, yes, of course, ‘Mrs. Tom Fey-Loch is an anagram of Mycroft Holmes.’”
“Is it?” Watson looked at the cover. “Oh, of course it is.” He sighed with relief. “I thought I was going mad there for a moment.” He gave the book over to Holmes’s outstretched hands and closed the door. Then he began to divest himself of his outer garments. “You won’t believe the sum I parted with to be allowed to take the volume. It was one of Masie’s gifts from a London cousin.”
One corner of Holmes’s mouth lifted in a wry smirk as he flipped the pages. “Money well spent.”
“I recognised the Duchess at once. How could I not when your brother and that cat stayed with us for a fortnight last summer? And there was also something familiar about the, shall we say, unusual style of watercolours your brother has been experimenting with in his retirement.”
“Yes, I believe the term is author-illustrator,” remarked Holmes dryly. “Dear me.”
Watson moved toward Holmes and the fire and looked over the former’s shoulder at the pages of the book. “So, the gist of the book is that children have answered an advertisement in a newspaper posing questions to your brother’s cat about being a cat and other less philosophical questions, and the Duchess has replied.”
“Of course, she has. Noblesse oblige,” said Holmes, chuckling under his breath. “Well, it’s as I said long ago, art in the blood, my dear man, art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms, but no even if I had been a clairvoyant instead of a detective, I don’t know I would’ve seen this coming.”
