Young Sherlock Holmes: Knife Edge Read Free Page A

have not picked up any
tattoos on your travels. I find the idea of disfiguring one’s skin with a design that can never be removed abhorrent in the extreme.’
    ‘No, Mycroft – no tattoos. And, just to putyour mind at rest, I have contracted no strange tropical diseases either.’
    ‘I am relieved to hear it.’ He suddenly reached out a hand and put it on Sherlock’s knee. ‘Are you . . . all right, Sherlock? Are you
well
?’
    Sherlock took a moment before answering. ‘What is the phrase that doctors use when conveying news to relatives? I am “as well as can be expected”, I suppose.’
    ‘You survived.That is what counts.’
    ‘Not unchanged, Mycroft,’ Sherlock said.
    ‘If you had remained at home in England then you would have changed anyway. It is called “growing up”.’
    ‘If I had remained at home in England, then
some
things would not have changed. Or at least, they would have changed in a different way.’
    ‘You mean Virginia, of course. Or at least, the burgeoning relationship betweenyou and her. You obviously received at least one of the letters I sent.’
    Sherlock glanced sideways, out of the window, before Mycroft could see the sudden gleam of tears in his eyes.
    Instead of pressing Sherlock on the matter, Mycroft made a brief ‘harrumph’ sound, then said: ‘Before you ask, Father is still in India with his regiment. I have received a
series of letters from him, soI know that he is fit and well. Mother is . . . stable . . . but her health is still fragile. She sleeps a lot. As for our sister – well, what can one
say?’ He shrugged. ‘She is as she always is. I am afraid to tell you, by the way, that Uncle Sherrinford has had a bad fall. He broke an arm and several ribs. Aunt Jane is looking after
him, but at his age a fall like that can accelerate the inevitableend that we all come to.’
    Sherlock took a few moments to process the information. He felt a twinge of sadness. He hadn’t got to know his uncle very well, but he had liked the man. Sherrinford had embodied a
kindness, a Christian morality and an obsession with research that had impressed Sherlock in the time he had spent at Holmes Manor.
    ‘What about you?’ he asked eventually. ‘Are youstill living in Whitehall and working in the Foreign Office?’
    ‘Sherlock, I suspect I shall be living in the one and working in the other until the day I die. When you add the Diogenes Club, where I spend most of my lunchtimes and evenings, the three
locations form a triangle which defines my life.’ He stared at Sherlock for a few moments in silence. ‘We should have a discussion some timeabout your future, but I have a feeling that
we will need a geometric figure with considerably more vertices than a triangle to describe it.’
    ‘I’m not sure I like the idea of being
defined
by any shape, Mycroft. As far as I can see, my future is amorphous. Shapeless.’
    ‘You will need to earn money somehow. You will need to live somewhere. Thought must be given to these things.’
    ‘Butnot now,’ Sherlock said.
    ‘I agree. Not now.’ Mycroft reached up with his walking stick and rapped it against the roof of the carriage. ‘Driver! You there! Take us back to the hotel.’ As the
carriage lurched off he looked back to Sherlock. ‘I have taken rooms at the local tavern. The beds sag but the food is acceptable. I trust you do not object to spending a night or two here
before wereturn to England?’ He paused for a second, and when he spoke again his voice was uncharacteristically hesitant. ‘You
are
coming back to England, aren’t
you?’
    Sherlock nodded. ‘I am,’ he confirmed. ‘I have been to sea and come back. I don’t want to make either a habit or a career out of it.’ Just to provoke his brother a
little he added: ‘Maybe I’ll join the circus next – for the experience.’

    ‘There are some experiences that can be taken on trust,’ Mycroft said. ‘That is one of them.’
    As the carriage clattered