Chapter XIX
A Letter from a Dear Lady
23rd October, 1910
Dear Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson,
As I write this I know that my time is near for I have seen visions of my dear departed husband and feel that he will come for me very soon, and so I leave you, my dears, with these few words.
You must not grieve for me for, even though I lost my dear husband before ever I met you, I have led a full and happy life. Indeed I may say that my life has been more eventful than most due to having you, Mr. Holmes, as a tenant for over thirty years. Indeed, Mr. Holmes, I frequently lamented that you were the world's worst tenant and many were the days when I despaired of cleaning and tidying your rooms. I used to tell myself that a woman's work was never done.
Since my children had grown up and now had families of their own I had no one to look after any more so that when you moved in and needed me to do so many little things for you - and paid me handsomely to do it - I realised that it was good to be needed once more, and, heaven knows, you both needed someone to look after you. Two such handsome gentlemen who were as different as chalk and cheese. No doubt you both thought that I didn't notice too much but I saw perhaps more than you would think. I soon came to realise that you, Mr. Holmes, were a solver of mysteries that would baffle most ordinary folks and from time to time I witnessed the gratitude of your clients. Then one day I knew that you and Dr. Watson had become friends when I saw how Dr. Watson tried to care for you. I remember that morning I had taken your breakfast up to the sitting room and as I went downstairs I heard you persuading him to eat something and I knew then that you had become real friends, not just fellow lodgers. I saw you go for walks together and you, Mr. Holmes, would include the good doctor in your cases and he began to write them up and have them published. I read them all, you know, and some half frightened me to death, especially the one about that dreadful Hound of the Baskervilles.
Then one morning when you had both been living here for a good six years I went up to tidy Dr. Watson's room and make his bed and I was puzzled to see the grey shawl that I had made for Mr. Holmes draped over Dr. Watson's bed. I wondered what it was doing there. I thought that perhaps the good doctor had been feeling cold and that Mr. Holmes had loaned it to him for the night to help warm him, but then I remembered that the night had been a warm spring night. I then thought that perhaps Dr. Watson had felt unwell and Mr. Holmes, seeking to care for him, had placed it around him, although that would not really explain why it was on the bed. Then I thought that perhaps Mr. Holmes had accidentally left it there, but it looked as if it had been deliberately spread out on the bed. However, I thought no more about it until the following day when I again went up to Dr. Watson's room to change the sheets.
Well, there was the shawl draped over the quilt for all to see and I began to wonder if Mr. Holmes had simply given it to Dr. Watson. Well, if Dr. Watson really wanted one for his own I would have gladly made another for him, I thought. But then as I stripped the bed I saw the stains on the sheets. They were the kind of stains that one would normally find on the sheets of a marriage bed (having been married myself I know about these things).
I must say that those stains gave me quite a turn and I wondered how came they there, on the good doctor's bed of all places? I was sure I should have known if he had had a woman up in his room and I was just as sure that he never had, so that that explanation seemed most unlikely. Having read all of Dr. Watson's accounts of his adventures with you, Mr. Holmes, I realised that those stained sheets were an important clue to this little mystery of mine and I was determined to solve it. I changed the sheets, made the bed as always and draped the shawl over it as I had found it.
The following week when I again went to change the sheets, lo and behold there were more stains and another puzzle, namely that Mr. Holmes seemed hardly to have slept in his bed. I wondered if he might be sleeping on the settee as he has often done so for he keeps odd hours and is a poor sleeper. Why sometimes he seems not to sleep at all!
The mystery of the shawl and the stained sheets remained a mystery until one day over a month later, (during which time more stains had mysteriously appeared on the good doctor's sheets), when you returned from an afternoon stroll together and I was in Mr. Holmes's room trying to tidy it up. As I was picking up a sock that had somehow found its way under the bed I overheard your conversation. You, Doctor, remarked that you had had a splendid walk and wondered what I was preparing for dinner as you were famished. I remember how your words made me smile - it felt good to be needed. I stood up then and was about to go out to the sitting room to greet you both, but then Mr. Holmes said that he knew what he was having for dessert and he smiled at you, Doctor, and I wondered how he could possibly know that I was planning to make an apple tart. Then, much to my shock, I saw you, Mr. Holmes, embrace the good doctor - and kiss him too! - not as the French do it, on the cheeks, but as a man might kiss a woman. What was even more surprising was that you, Doctor Watson, did not resist Mr. Holmes's kiss but threw your arms around him with great enthusiasm. Well, I don't mind telling you both now that it gave me quite a turn! Why I thought that I should faint dead away at the sight of two sensible, grown men acting in such an improper manner!
Well, I knew that I had to get out of there without being seen as I knew you would both be mortified if you had known that I was a witness to your passionate embrace so, as quietly as I could, I tiptoed across the bedroom and escaped by the door onto the landing, closing it as quietly as possible behind me, and fled downstairs as fast as my feet would carry me in a state of nervous shock. Having reached the safety of my kitchen I made myself a good strong cup of tea and sat down to think about it all.
I had the answer to my little mystery, and a most unexpected one it was too but, as you, Mr. Holmes, would say - it was the only answer that fit the facts. Dear, oh, dear, what was I to do? In the six years that you had lived here I had grown most fond of both of you, but it seemed that you were even fonder of each other. I had often thought that you were two of the most lonely men I had ever known (not at all like my dear Jack) and although you seemed to have many acquaintances you seemed to have no friends to speak of, save each other. Under the circumstances I could understand that you would become friends, even as different as you were. What was difficult for me to understand was how you had come to share a marriage bed together. Then I thought of the shawl and I remembered how my dear departed Jack had courted me when we were young and how on our first anniversary when our youngest was barely one month old he had given me a gift of a large and most beautiful silk shawl and I had chided him for his extravagance but oh, I how loved that shawl! In my gratitude I had wrapped it around him and kissed him and we had laughed together. I still have it. I often wear it and frequently place it on the bed at night.
As I remembered this I realised the significance of the shawl on Dr. Watson's bed and I understood then how dearly you, Mr. Holmes, must love the good doctor to have given him your shawl, even though it was plain wool and not made of embroidered Italian silk like mine. Of course, it was not even made to be a shawl, but a travel rug, but Mr. Holmes would wrap it around himself like a shawl.
I also remembered my poor dear Andy, my youngest son. You never knew him for he died many years ago. I also know that he would be alive today if my husband had not driven him out of the house in shame for he was of the same persuasion as yourselves and the late Mr. Wilde.
Days and weeks passed and I watched the two of you together at every opportunity. I noticed how you would look at each other, how you would sit a little closer together, how happy you both seemed, especially you, Mr. Holmes, for I had often thought that you were a troubled and lonely young man. I also considered that there was a possibility of your great affection for each other being discovered and the ruin it could bring to you and all associated with you. I also knew that you were the two finest, most decent and honourable men that I had ever known and I thought of all the good work that you do helping all those unhappy people who come to you in their sore need, even those who can't afford to pay for your services.
Well, I vowed then and there that your secret was safe with me! I fancy that I knew love when I saw it, (even a different kind of love), and if it brought happiness to two such lonely men as yourselves, who was I to condemn you for the love you so plainly needed and had found, not in a woman's arms like most men, but in each other. I could not claim to understand why two such eligible and handsome bachelors would seek comfort with each other rather than with a woman, but the consummation of your great affection for each other had apparently been good for you both. I knew then that I had made the right decision and my heart was glad, both for your sake and for my poor Andy's sake.
Since that day so many years ago now I have never had cause to regret my decision, though I must say I laughed when I read the good doctor's accounts of his marriages. Now what would he know about being married to a woman! I thought, though, of course, we did have the occasional visit from Lady Sarah Hawthorne, an elegant, gracious and fashionable lady whom I was privileged to know and assist in a small way and of whom the good doctor was most fond.
Speaking of marriage, I will never forget your wedding day, my dears, and the gentleman's garments I had to wear to that very strange club where no one was allowed to speak. Your wedding was the strangest affair I have ever attended and I felt so privileged that you would think to invite me. It was also the most beautiful and moving wedding ceremony I have ever seen and I don't believe I have ever seen two people who loved each other more.
Thank you also, Dr. Watson, for looking after me and hiring the nurse to take care of me these three years gone. It was a kindness that I will never forget.
Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson, I hope that you will forgive the bold words of an old lady who was privileged to know you both intimately and most fond of you dear kind gentlemen. Look after each other for me.
May your love always be steadfast, my dears, and may God protect you and keep you. My love and fondest wishes to you both always.
Your obedient servant
Rose Hudson
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