holmes_minor | Fic: Score One for the Yellow Roses: Gen

Title: Score One for the Yellow Roses
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Summary: The maids of 221 Baker Street are enterprising.

“Watson, there you are!”

Holmes was not a frequent visitor below stairs. Thus, his sudden and unexpected arrival caused the two maids, Bessie and Essie, as well as an aproned Watson himself, to jump to their feet.

“I was just helping,” explained Watson quickly.

Holmes surveyed the scene. There was an enterprise underway, but it did not appear to be a culinary one.

“Please, sir, you’ll be requiring something?” inquired Essie politely.

“No, no,” said Holmes, with a soothing noise which changed timbre, “Well, yes, that is, in the form of Doctor Watson, but what, may I ask is happening here?”

Bessie stepped forward. “We’re making, uh…”

She looked at Doctor Watson, who supplied the word.

“Sachets.”

“…of dried flowers,” finished Bessie.

“Ah,” said Holmes, nodding comprehendingly at the lengths of muslin and ribbon and abundance of drying flora. “For sale, naturally.”

“You know I am helping out at the theatre, The Drum House, in the evening, sir,” said Bessie. “You encouraged me particularly…”

“Yes, of course,” said Holmes.

“And, well, a couple of nights ago, Miss Catherine, that, the main actress of the show, the lead, as it were, the one I dress, well, she got a most fabulous bunch of flowers, I swear I’d never seen the likes of it, we were all talking about it, but well, it seems she and the gentleman who’d gave ‘em to her aren’t, well, getting along so well.”

“The principal flowers in the bouquet were yellow roses,” interjected Watson.

“Ah,” said Holmes again. “Yellow roses can mean ‘decrease of affections.’”

“But they were gorgeous, sir!” said Bessie in protest. “But, well, she threw ‘em right at me, hit my chest with a thud they did, blindin’ me and windin’ me, both, and she said—,” and here Bessie showed her own promise as a character actress by doing a perfect imitation of the actress, “’Bess, don’t you ever take up with a cricket player, they’re always keeping score!’”

The girls felt into fits of giggles and snorts behind their hands, and Watson and Holmes smiled, Watson adding avuncularly,

“Wise words.”

Holmes hummed in agreement. “So, you have decided to turn your good fortune into a greater one?”

“One girl’s decrease of affection is another two’s increase of coin collection!” crowed Essie, but Bessie shushed her.

“We’ve got permission to use the kitchen as Mrs. Hudson is gone to the landladies’ luncheon, and Doctor Watson was giving us another set of hands, but we’ve done most of the cutting.”

“So, I may steal him back?” asked Holmes.

The maids nodded.

Holmes and Watson wished them both luck, and as they took the stairs, Holmes remarked,

“Score one for the yellow roses.”

“Yes, it’s a pity they have that unfortunate connotation. I’ve always thought them a very handsome flower.”

Holmes paused mid-step and looked back. “Shall I secure one of the harvest for domestic appreciation?”

Watson produced a small muslin bag tied with yellow ribbon from his pocket. “I’ve beat you to it.”