The Adventure at Baskerville Hall & Other Cases by Kate Lear Read Free Book Online

as though he had the slightest intention of arguing with my friend. Instead he was regarding him, with occasional fleeting glances at me, with the smallest of smiles tugging at the corner of his mouth. When Holmes had finished speaking Lestrade rose and took his hat.
    "Well, that's quite alright, Mr. Holmes. I was obliged by my superiors to come and ask you but between ourselves, we have had our eyes upon this Mr. Milverton for some time, and he was a bit of a villain. Therefore I am in complete agreement with you that there are some actions that the law cannot touch."
    I could have sworn that, just for a second, his eyes flickered to include me as well in the last sentence, but before I even had time to react, he was bidding us good morning and seeing himself out of our sitting-room with almost undue haste.
    "I think perhaps your welcome was a little too warm to the inspector, Holmes," I remarked dryly as he locked our sitting-room door and came to recline next to me on the settee, his head in my lap.
    "Are you jealous, dear heart?" He turned his head to nuzzle at my trouser front, making me squirm uncomfortably.
    "Don't be ridiculous, of course I am not. But," I paused, unsure how to continue, "I rather think that he may suspect something."
    "Bah! Paranoid suspicion, Watson. I have found that people only ever see what they expect to see, hence your conviction that everyone now notices my discomfort and attributes it to your generous endowments–"
    "Holmes!"
    "–whereas Lestrade sees nothing except eccentric Mr. Holmes and his long-suffering medical friend, exactly the same as every other visit he has paid us."
    "I pray you are right," I replied dubiously. I doubted Holmes's light dismissal of Lestrade's failure to observe the change in our relations – for surely I could not be the only man in London to observe that this morning my companion's eyes glowed as though lit from within – but I did not believe we had anything to fear from him. As long as I had known him, he had always chosen to obey the spirit of the law, rather than the letter, and I was inwardly assured that this occasion would be no different.
    * * * *
    Society is certainly none the worse for Mr. Milverton's passing, and I do not believe that there would be any who would mourn him. Indeed, I strongly suspect that many people, at all levels of society, sleep easier in their beds at night for knowing that he is no more and that the contents of his green safe are reduced to ashes.
    However, bizarre though it sounds, I feel that I owe him a great deal. As I write this, the man who is now my lover and the delight of my life is in his armchair by the fire, perusing the newspapers for the latest gruesome murders, and we have a small but resplendent black safe in the corner of our sitting-room. Holmes assures me, with a total lack of modesty, that it is unbreakable by any save himself and maintains that he acquired it so that I may have a secure place to keep my notes on cases of national importance. He also added that, should I feel the urge to pen any further correspondence to him, I may lock it up securely and he will be sure to keep his safe-breaking skills honed. I found that I had been right regarding his reading of my original letter – his cheeks did indeed take on a faint pink tinge and later, in his bedchamber, he requested that I give him a more thorough demonstration of some of the acts I had described.
    Had Milverton never succeeded in recovering my letter and subjecting me to an infernal two weeks, I should doubtless not now possess the deeper intimacy that has changed my days from mere humdrum existence to something approaching paradise on earth. Therefore I will declare, at the risk of incurring Holmes's mockery for an excess of sentimentalism, that while I am sure that there are many who would scorn me for it, I can find it in my heart to wish that he gain a measure of peace in the next world.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE HANSOM CAB

    After the