#068: Sherlock Holmes (ACD): Gen

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Title: Insouciant
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Length: 200
Rating: Gen
Summary: Holmes has visitor to his neolithic hut as he hides out on the moor during the Baskerville case.


Holmes was surprised by the visitor to the hovel he’d commandeered. It was not the boy he’d employed to bring him a fresh collar or news of Baskerville Hall. It was not a wayward moorland pony or a bittern tired from booming. It was not even Watson uncovering his secret.

No, it was a cat.

Without any announcement or preamble, the cat waltzed into the neolithic hut. It was well groomed and obviously thought very highly of itself. It paused as if to survey this corner of its domain and its inhabitant.

Holmes wasn’t entirely sure they both weren’t found wanting in the cat’s eyes, but surprise gave way to admiration, and he gave a solemn bow and addressed the feline.

“I am afraid all I have to offer you, your Majesty, is tinned tongue. Or tinned peaches.”

At this the cat gave an insouciant sniff, turned on its paws and strode out of the hut.
Holmes never saw the cat again, and he never discovered from whence the cat had come or who it belonged to (or, more likely, who belonged to it).

But he had no doubt the cat was more than a match for a moorland hellhound.

Comments

[lurking_latinist]

What a perfect description of a cat! I liked Holmes’s formal little greeting. He’s a bit like a cat himself sometimes, isn’t he?

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes, indeed. Watson even mentions his 'cat-like cleanses.' but yes, Holmes recognizes a dignitary when he sees one 😊😊