The New Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes by Martin Edwards Read Free Book Online Page A

allegations are substantiated, he will have no choice but to dismiss William. This, of a man who has been a faithful servant and who, a short time ago, had the world at his feet. So, Mr Holmes, there you have it. Will you help the two of us to identify the destroyer of our happiness?”
    “A man’s reputation is a precious thing,” Holmes said quietly. “Miss Pyemont, I am at your service.”
     
    The firm of Pyemont and Noone was at that time one of the most prominent property agencies on the south coast of England. The principal office was in Brighton, a stone’s throw away from the ornate folly of the Pavilion. We accompanied Arabella Pyemont there for the purpose of interviewing her father and his partner.
    Gervase Pyemont was a tall, stooping man with a grey beard who greeted us civilly but with a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm. When his daughter announced that she had engaged Holmes with a view to identifying the persecutor of her fiancee, he uttered a weary sigh.
    “Do you really think, my dear, that it is necessary...?”
    “I do, father,” Arabella Pyemont said firmly.
    “Your loyalty to Cropper does you credit,” he replied. “But I fear that you are allowing your heart to rule your head.”
    “You have received a malicious letter concerning your daughter’s fiancee," Holmes said. “Did you keep it?”
    Pyemont shook his head. “I have no use for anonymous correspondence. As soon as I had read it, I threw the letter into the fire. The allegations made against Cropper were disgraceful. I do not suggest that I believed them.”
    “But...?” Holmes prompted.
    Pyemont shifted uncomfortably. "The very fact that Cropper has inspired a person to such loathing that these foul lies - I assume them to be lies - are being disseminated is, shall we say, disquieting. The fellow clearly has a dangerous enemy.”
    “And such a man is an unsuitable husband?”
    Pyemont folded his arms. “I shall say merely that my daughter is not short of admirers. She is young and there is no need for her to hasten into a match which may prove...unfortunate.”
    Arabella Pyemont reddened and seemed about to respond angrily, but Holmes quietened her with a look that would have doused any fire. “I gather that your colleague, Mr Noone, is amongst the admirers whom you mention and that he too received one of the scandalous missives. Would it be possible for us to speak with him?”
    “Certainly. Come with me.”
    Pyemont led us out into the corridor, leaving his daughter in the office. He closed the door carefully before turning to us.
    “I regret, Mr Holmes, that you have been embroiled in this little matter.”
    “For your daughter,” my friend said, “I believe it is the most important matter in the world.”
    Pyemont grunted. “She is infatuated. But these things pass. She is no fool. Soon she will see sense.”
    “And break off the engagement?”
    “It is inevitable.”
    “Would that not be exceedingly harsh upon young Cropper?” Pyemont shrugged. “I have some sympathy for him, I must confess. He has struck me as amiable enough on the occasions when I have met him. Bright, keen and anxious to please. The firm he works for is of no consequence and I have always thought that the principal would benefit from spending more time at his desk and less putting on airs. But Cropper is plainly competent as well as ambitious. Even so, no prospective son-in-law is ever quite good enough for a doting father, Mr Holmes. I was disappointed that Arabella saw fit to choose a young fellow of, as yet, limited means in preference to a reliable older man who would have taken the utmost pains to ensure that she had whatever she wished. Yet it seemed she might have chosen worse than William Cropper until those damnable letters arrived.”
    “So the timing of the letters might have been calculated to wreck your daughter’s marriage plans?”
    “If you care to put it that way.” Pyemont’s eyes narrowed. “I hope you are not implying