Saint Fiacre: Gen
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holmes_minorTitle: Saint Fiacre
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Notes: Angst. Saint Fiacre is patron of gardeners and venereal disease (third-stage syphilis is no joke!).
Summary: Watson is warmly welcomed by the woman he made a widow.
I was horribly uncertain of my decision up until the moment she opened the door.
“Doctor Watson!”
It wasn’t until I had been greeted warmly by the lady of the house and her three children that I turned back to the waiting cab and unloaded all that I had brought with me.
“Mister Holmes sends his highest regards,” I said. “And these!”
I passed the heavy bundle of sweetmeats to the eldest child amidst the cheering of the other two.
“Early Christmas gifts,” I said of the small boxes that Mrs. Hudson had wrapped so carefully and prettily.
“Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said, taking half of the provisions and leading me inside.
She made tea while I unpacked the bundles.
“Some gardening things,” I said, glancing up at the overrun expanse beyond the kitchen window. “Seeds, implements, etcetera.”
“Wonderful. That is one of my aims, to restore order to things before the spring. There wasn’t time before.”
“Yes, I understand. I will call upon you in the months to come in garb more fit for labouring out of doors and lend my hands.”
“You are very kind.”
“It will be my pleasure.”
---
We sat drinking tea in silence for a while.
“It seems strange,” I said, softly so as to be out of earshot of the playing children, “to be so congenially welcomed by a woman I made a widow.”
She smiled, then looked wistfully out the window.
“You are not a murderer, Doctor. You are a savior. Matthew hurt a lot of people, his wife and children included. He did not wish to. It was not in his nature, his real nature, I mean, to hurt anyone, but he was ill, and he ignored his illness for a very long time. And then, at last, his mind was diseased, horribly, dreadfully diseased. There was nothing for it. We lived in terror. He might have killed me, killed the children, and who knows how many other people before the illness finally claimed his own life. And I know there is another family suffering tonight far worse than ours is. As horrible as it is to be a widow, I am relieved that I am no longer a wife. I mourned the loss of my husband, my good, good husband, long before you put a bullet in him, long before he put a knife in poor Jonas Goodacre.”
I winced. “I very much wish your husband had got the treatment he needed a long time ago.”
“We all wish that, Doctor.”
We finished our tea.
“This is for you, my dear,” I said, pulling out a gold chain and pendant. “Saint Fiacre.”
“The patron of gardeners.”
“Among other things and I am expecting to see you in my professional capacity on Monday.”
“I will be there. We learn from our own mistakes as well as those of others.”
“Yes, indeed. Now, let’s hear what plans you have for the garden.”
She smiled. “I thought I’d start off with…”
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Notes: Angst. Saint Fiacre is patron of gardeners and venereal disease (third-stage syphilis is no joke!).
Summary: Watson is warmly welcomed by the woman he made a widow.
I was horribly uncertain of my decision up until the moment she opened the door.
“Doctor Watson!”
It wasn’t until I had been greeted warmly by the lady of the house and her three children that I turned back to the waiting cab and unloaded all that I had brought with me.
“Mister Holmes sends his highest regards,” I said. “And these!”
I passed the heavy bundle of sweetmeats to the eldest child amidst the cheering of the other two.
“Early Christmas gifts,” I said of the small boxes that Mrs. Hudson had wrapped so carefully and prettily.
“Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said, taking half of the provisions and leading me inside.
She made tea while I unpacked the bundles.
“Some gardening things,” I said, glancing up at the overrun expanse beyond the kitchen window. “Seeds, implements, etcetera.”
“Wonderful. That is one of my aims, to restore order to things before the spring. There wasn’t time before.”
“Yes, I understand. I will call upon you in the months to come in garb more fit for labouring out of doors and lend my hands.”
“You are very kind.”
“It will be my pleasure.”
---
We sat drinking tea in silence for a while.
“It seems strange,” I said, softly so as to be out of earshot of the playing children, “to be so congenially welcomed by a woman I made a widow.”
She smiled, then looked wistfully out the window.
“You are not a murderer, Doctor. You are a savior. Matthew hurt a lot of people, his wife and children included. He did not wish to. It was not in his nature, his real nature, I mean, to hurt anyone, but he was ill, and he ignored his illness for a very long time. And then, at last, his mind was diseased, horribly, dreadfully diseased. There was nothing for it. We lived in terror. He might have killed me, killed the children, and who knows how many other people before the illness finally claimed his own life. And I know there is another family suffering tonight far worse than ours is. As horrible as it is to be a widow, I am relieved that I am no longer a wife. I mourned the loss of my husband, my good, good husband, long before you put a bullet in him, long before he put a knife in poor Jonas Goodacre.”
I winced. “I very much wish your husband had got the treatment he needed a long time ago.”
“We all wish that, Doctor.”
We finished our tea.
“This is for you, my dear,” I said, pulling out a gold chain and pendant. “Saint Fiacre.”
“The patron of gardeners.”
“Among other things and I am expecting to see you in my professional capacity on Monday.”
“I will be there. We learn from our own mistakes as well as those of others.”
“Yes, indeed. Now, let’s hear what plans you have for the garden.”
She smiled. “I thought I’d start off with…”
no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-30 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-01 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-02 04:10 pm (UTC)I love the two kinds of bravery Watson has here - he is cool headed in a dangerous situation and willing to kill an aggressor in order to save further people. But he also has the bravery to face the family of the man he killed and offer support to them. I think you've got right to the heart of Watson's personality.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-02 08:17 pm (UTC)Thank you! It would be a very difficult first visit to make, but I think Watson knows it's the right thing to do.
And, FYI, I do like this month's prompt. I did not know the caroling definition so that's very deftly done that it can be non-seasonal or very seasonal. I shall, perhaps, do both. And before I'm any more months behind, I'm going to skip ahead to St. Paul's. I've been looking at photos of it in the snow. Very impressive!
no subject
Date: 2019-12-02 11:28 pm (UTC)And before I'm any more months behind, I'm going to skip ahead to St. Paul's. I'm really not one to talk ^^" Now I've got my other writing commitments out of the way, I must pay more attention to Holmes Minor. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
no subject
Date: 2019-12-09 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-09 06:17 pm (UTC)