Infatuation

Expanding from Watson's letter to Doyle, here's what happened later in April 1883, after the Specked Band case. Apologies if I haven't caught all the present tense and changed it to past tense.

Fandom: Sherlock Holmes

Story: Deeper in Memory, partial chapter 16

Pairing: Holmes/Watson, Holmes/Helen Stoner

Warnings: unresolved sexual tension, G

About a fortnight after the case, the inquest takes place in Surrey. Strangely, Holmes and Watson are not called to testify. Helen Stoner convinced the police to accept only her and Mrs. Beale's testimony on what happened that night. And she had Mrs. Beale confine her comments to how Holmes and Watson acted chivalrously in taking them to the Crown Inn.

In any case, Roylott's death was ruled an accident with a pet snake. They believed her tale that her stepfather was sleepwalking and peering through the ventilator with envy because he planned to knock out the wall and expand his bedroom into the next room, once she moved out. He had been playing with the snake too, but it unfortunately crawled down the bellrope, frightening the detectives investigating a whistling sound in the night. They panicked, striking the snake, and it turned back, fatally attacking Roylott. The jury were satisfied.

After reading the news about the inquest, they are surprised and Holmes is dismayed, pacing his room restlessly.

Watson ventured to prescribe him something so he need not self-medicate any more with morphine.

Holmes dismissed Watson's offer. He regretted again revealing his morphine use at the inn during their nap. "I'm not your patient, doctor." Going to his desk, he wrote up a quick bill for Miss Stoner, itemising his expenses from memory. Then he rose and told Watson he was going down to Harrow to get Miss Stoner's payment for her case.

Watson got up and offers to go with him, but Holmes stops him. "No."

"No?" he's bewildered. Why should he not go and comfort her?

"Comfort her?" Holmes reacts suspiciously. "As I thought. You are hoping to romance the lady before she gets properly wed to her fiancé. "

"No!" Offended, he replied, "I merely wanted to stop you from speaking callously about her stepfather's death or her mother's death or her sister's--God, what a tragic life she has had! Holmes, you must be sensitive to her feelings of grief." He recalled how Holmes had been too proud of killing Roylott that morning two weeks ago. Practically bragging as if he were Nemesis getting justice.

Holmes said with a sneer that he was perfectly capable of being "sensitive" and he rushed off to catch the train.

=====

So Holmes visits Helen Stoner at her aunt's house, ostensibly to ask for her payment, but more because he's curious about the inquest. The aunt let him wait in a sitting-room before sending the maid to get Helen. Miss Honoria Westphail sat near him and tried talking to him about Roylott's death. "Nevermind the nonsense in the inquest. We do know how you saved her."

Holmes is dismissive of her gratitude.

"Nevertheless, thank you, sir."

The maid returns and asks him to follow her into an office.

The door opened and Helen Stoner stood smiling at him and looking pleased. "Mr. Holmes, how good to see you!"

She was wearing mourning dress again, but without the heavy veil this time. He could see her grey-streaked brown hair, but because she no longer looked distressed and frightened, she looked younger than before. "Mr. Holmes?"

He abruptly realised he had not responded to her greeting yet. "Yes, Miss Stoner. Good to see you too. I apologise. I--" he gestured to her costume, "Your clothes remind me of the day that we met in Baker Street."

"Oh." She nods and says she's mourning more for Julia now than for her stepfather. "Come in." She waves him inside and shuts the door for privacy. She invites him to sit at a coffee table.

"I hope I have not disturbed you in your grief. But with the inquest..."

She sat opposite him. "Of course. And I did promise that I would pay you later for your services. I'm sorry that I forgot, what with dealing with the Roylott estate and the inquest..."

"I understand." In fact he was the one presuming too soon, because six weeks had not passed, nor had she married yet.

"You must know that I'm so grateful to you and Dr. Watson both. I certainly want to pay you what you deserve." Clearing her throat, she asked, "Do you have the bill?" She held out her hand for it.

He's surprised by her directness, having intended to give it to her only as he left the interview. She reminds him of a businesslike American. He had wanted to be discreet like a gentleman, "sensitive" like Watson had urged. Reaching into his pocket, he reluctantly pulled out the envelope and handed it over. It made him feel like a dirty tradesman, unworthy of her. Did she make all men feel this way?

"Thank you." Using a letter opener, she promptly sliced the envelope and took out the bill. She unfolded the paper and read it twice. She stared in some confusion, not noticing that she disconcerted him.

Holmes demurred, "You need not pay it now, what with your upcoming wedding..."

Looking up, she feared that he had misread her hesitation. That he thought she was trying to delay payment. "No, no, I can do it now. Just a moment." Embarrassed, she goes to the desk and quickly writes out a check. After blotting it, she returns to the table and hands it to him.

He goes to put it in his wallet. He does not mean to look at it, but he has to, to fold it. Shocked, he says, "You are too generous. This is twice what I asked for."

She resumed her seat in the armchair and protested, "That bill only itemised your expenses for the trains, dog-cart, and your stay in the Crown Inn. I thought you both deserved far more, especially for being detained by the police."

There she went, referring to Watson again. He felt jealous, annoyed, and confounded by how she made him so irrational, even though he slept perfectly well last night.

"As for my wedding," she chatted in a more casual way, "It is postponed for now. It would hardly be seemly to the public, though my stepfather does not really deserve to be mourned..."

"And I don't deserve this," Holmes interrupted her. He tries to give the check back, and he says he bungled the case, "as you well know."

She blinked, then spoke frankly, "You unwisely attacked the snake instead of trying to capture it and arrest my stepfather, but I suppose you didn't have enough proof to go to the police. Fortunately, neither of you were hurt that night. I'm so glad."

Again, always including Watson.

"Thankfully, the police released you despite the misunderstanding, and the judge didn't try to bring you both back for the inquest. I'm glad I managed to convince them."

"Yes, you managed it. Managed it quite well." She managed all the police well. She managed him too. He felt the manipulation as if it were palpable in the air.

She pushed the check back to him. "You must accept it, Mr. Holmes. I will not write another for less."

He grudgingly takes it and puts his wallet back in his pocket. But he still feels dirty. He refers to the snake milk blunder in frustration.

"You're still worried about that?" She dismisses it. "It doesn't matter. You amazingly solved a mystery that had been hanging over me for two years. It is my fault that I did not consult you two years ago when Julia's murder was fresh."

He considers it and mentions that Watson was new to his cases in 1881 and might not have come.

She asks, "Then he did not join you immediately to be your secretary?" She assumes that Watson will be paid as well, because she thinks that they are business partners.

He corrects her that they are merely... friends, and that Watson indulges his curiosity and provides his assistance voluntarily.

She is astounded that Watson would risk his life for no reward, and asks that Holmes convey her gratitude then.

"Yes," he says with a sigh. Considers cashing the check and giving Watson half, since after all she had paid double his fee.

"I trust you are both well now?" she asks. When he nods, she mentions that she's busy now settling the mortgage on the Roylott Manor and finding a place for the animals, since the gypsies never came back. She wonders if the gypsies were Roylott's accomplices, and they speculate on the case a little more. "Is there anything more you didn't tell me?"

He apologises, but assures her that he was wrong about the gypsies. At most, they probably kept the snake for him when it wasn't in the safe.

"The worst part was that I had to arrange my stepfather's funeral and not mention a word of his villainy in murdering Julia."

He touches her hand, "Or attempting to murder you."

She nods and asks his thoughts on whether her mother too was murdered.

He asks her details about the railway accident and they speculate.

Maybe discuss Percy and Harry Tibbs.

Eventually their talk leads to half flirting, and Holmes's suggestion that she take a vacation to New York City, USA. She laughs but says she'll think about it and consult with Percy.

They rise, and she says goodbye, holding out her hand to shake his.

Instead he kisses her ungloved hand and bows, trying to keep his dignity. "Good day, Miss Roylott."

"Miss Stoner," she corrects him. "You know, you called me that the other day too. That morning in Baker Street." She had not corrected him at the time, too upset about the bruises on her wrist.

"Ah yes," he says, finally letting go of her hand. "Well, I suppose I was not fully awake then. I apologise. Good day, Miss Stoner."

"Good day, Mr Holmes. And please send my fond regards to Dr. Watson too. You should bring him next time."

"Next time?" Suspicious and jealous.

"When you both come for my wedding, though I know not the date now."

"Of course."

"I will send you the invitations in due course. Thank you again."

"Thank you. Enjoy your vacation."

She laughed a little and smiled. "Yes."

After he departs, she goes back to the desk and makes a note of the actual fee she paid him, before putting the bill away among her financial documents. Though she is puzzled, she shrugs off his multiple slips of the tongue. She wonders vaguely if he is American.