Fic: Sixth Labour: Gen
Jul. 17th, 2018 01:01 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
okapi1895.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
holmes_minorLength: 500
Rating: Gen
Notes: Retirement!lock, reminiscing about old cases.
Summary: “Do you remember the case of the maniacal milliner, Watson?”
Author's Note: for the July prompt and the Watson's Woes #17 Writing prompt. Hats, hats, hats!
Worn from bee-tending and gardening, respectively, Holmes and I sat in the shade, sipping tall glasses of my own infusion of strawberries, honey, and gin.
A single, white downy feather floated by on the breeze. We watched it pass with an easeful delight, then Holmes said,
“Do you remember the case of the maniacal milliner, Watson?”
“Yes, I regret the case could never be made public. There was a novel’s worth of material.”
“Indeed. Over the years, we took on a lot of cases requiring discretion and patience, but that one was among the most delicate. Stymphalian was a ladies’ hatmaker. His creations were sought after by all of high society, but he worked on very selective commission, and the price he exacted.” Holmes exhaled.
“Those hats, though,” I said. “They were stunning. The feathers! The fabric! The beading and ribbon! To see a woman wearing one of Stymphalian’s creations was to witness a mythical bird atop an imperial nest drifting through the air.”
“Watson,” said Holmes, admonishingly, then he added, “but I shouldn’t mock you because it was your appreciation for ladies’ hats that was the key to the whole affair.”
I blushed. Holmes continued.
“Stymphalian did not have clients, he had disciples. He cultivated their devotion carefully, but ruthlessly and tailored his methods to each lady’s weaknesses: medicinal tonics, fitting sessions that were unconventional, to say the least, violence as a last resort. He was an extraordinary assessor of human nature, but he used his skill for the worst of ends.”
“He was a mesmerist, too.”
“Oh, Watson,” sighed Holmes and rolled his eyes.
“He was!”
“Perhaps, but he was also very shrewd. I knew that trying to steal into his world disguised, much as I did with Charles Augustus Milverton, would never have worked. We couldn’t go small, so we went big.”
“We had very deep pockets. Lord Ruby, after his wife’s untimely accident, was ready to forfeit his kingdom to bring down Stymphalian.”
Holmes nodded. “And so, we opened a hat shop, right across the street from Stymphalian’s studio.”
I grinned. “And beat the bastard at his own game.”
“It was a house of cards, Watson, one gust of wind would’ve toppled it, but we pulled it off.”
“For a month.”
“For a month, Hudson’s Hats were the talk of the town, and the young actor we hired to play the hatmaker…”
“…loved every minute of it.”
“We flushed Stymphalian out of his swamp and enraged his flock.”
“And when he was fished out of the Thames, twelve of his own jeweled hat pins were sticking out of his chest.”
“That wasn’t what killed him, of course.”
“You refused to aide Scotland Yard.”
“We were, unfortunately, called to the Continent right after the body was discovered.”
“That last night, Holmes, before Hudson’s Hats vanished?”
He smirked. “We made imaginative use of the remaining inventory.”
“I kept the ostrich one, you know.”
“Indeed. After a bath, shall we flock together?”
“Let’s do feather the nest,” I cooed.
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no subject
Date: 2018-07-17 09:30 pm (UTC)I realise Stymphalian was a terrible man so it could hardly have been a lighthearted case - but I do love the thought of Hudson's Hats. It's just a pity that Holmes and Watson couldn't have run it themselves ^__^ And I love Watson's enthusiasm for and description of the hats ^_^
no subject
Date: 2018-07-17 11:05 pm (UTC)Yes, I imagined it like the film "The Sting" with Robert Redford and Paul Newman where they play a long con and set up a shop with Watson & Mrs. Hudson designing the hats and Holmes engineering them and Lord Ruby using his clout to make them popular overnight.
I think it's canon that Watson likes hats & ladies' fashionable apparel. He seems at time to be more descriptive than one would expect.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-18 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-18 11:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-18 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-18 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 04:21 pm (UTC)*doffs hat to author*
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 06:47 pm (UTC)I see what you did there :)