Young Sherlock Holmes_ Death Cloud Part 17

'Perhaps. Perhaps not. But I think some people would have died, and you saved them. You can thank yourself for that. And your brother will thank you too, when he arrives.'

'Mycroft is coming here?'

'He's already on the train.'

A woman in an ap.r.o.n came out of the tavern carrying a plate that seemed to be laden with every possible item that a person could want for breakfast, plus several that Sherlock didn't even recognize. She smiled, and put the plate in front of him.

'Tuck in,' Crowe said. 'You deserve it.'

Sherlock paused for a moment. Everything around him seemed simultaneously overly sharp and yet slightly distanced.

'You OK?' Crowe said.

'I'm not sure,' Sherlock replied.

'You've been through a lot. You were knocked out, and you were drugged with laudanum, not to mention several fights and a long stretch of rowing. That's all bound to have an effect on your system.'

Laudanum. Remembering the strange dreams that he'd had after he had been drugged, while he was being taken to France, Sherlock felt a twinge of what? Melancholy, perhaps. Wistfulness. Surely not . . . longing? Whatever the feeling was, he pushed it away. He'd heard stories about people becoming dependent on the effects produced by laudanum, and he had no desire to go down that route. None at all.

'How's Virginia?' he asked to break the mood.

'Annoyed that she missed all the fun. And missing her horse, of course. She wants to look around the town, but I said she can't go alone. I guess she'll be glad you're awake.'

Sherlock gazed out at the sea. 'I can't believe it's all over,' he said.

'It's not,' Crowe said. 'It's part of your life now, and your life keeps on goin'. You can't separate these events out as a story with a beginnin' and an end. You're a different person because of them, and that means the story will never really finish. But as your tutor, the question I have is, what did you learn from it all?'

Sherlock thought for a minute. 'I learned,' he said eventually, 'that bees are fascinating and sorely neglected creatures. I think I want to know more about them. Perhaps even try to change people's opinions of them.' He grimaced. 'I probably owe them that, having killed so many.' He glanced over at Matty Arnatt. 'What about you, Matty? What did you learn?'

Matty looked up from his breakfast. 'I learned,' he said, 'that you need someone to look after you, otherwise your logical ideas are going to get you killed.'

'Are you volunteering for the position?' Amyus Crowe asked, eyes crinkling with good humour.

'Dunno,' Matty replied. 'What's the pay like?'

As Amyus laughed, and as Matty protested that he was serious, Sherlock gazed out at the constant, timeless sea, wondering what would happen next in his life. He felt as if he had been diverted on to a road that he hadn't known existed. What would he find at the end of it?

Something moved to one side of his vision, attracting his attention. He glanced past the tavern, to where the road led away in two directions. A carriage was approaching a black carriage drawn by two black horses. For a moment he thought that Mycroft had arrived, and he started to get up.

And then with a chill he saw a bone-white face and pink eyes glaring at him through the gla.s.s before a gloved hand firmly pulled down the blind as the carriage pa.s.sed by, and he knew that he was right: things never would be the same again. Baron Maupertuis and the Paradol Chamber were still out there, and they would never rest.

Which meant that he could never rest either.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

I've consulted a number of books in order to get the history of the time and the area about right. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the following works: London's Lost Route to Basingstoke: The Story of the Basingstoke Ca.n.a.l, by P. A. L. Vine, published by Allan Sutton Publis.h.i.+ng, 1968 (revised and expanded in 1994) great material about the local waterways and ca.n.a.ls in the Farnham area.

The Tongham Railway by Peter A. Harding, self-published 1994 obviously the product of one man's obsession, but immensely useful. by Peter A. Harding, self-published 1994 obviously the product of one man's obsession, but immensely useful.

Bygone Farnham by Jean Parratt, published by Phillimore & Co. Ltd, 1985. Useful if only for the exhaustive list of pubs and taverns it contains, which suggests that every second house in Farnham sold beer. by Jean Parratt, published by Phillimore & Co. Ltd, 1985. Useful if only for the exhaustive list of pubs and taverns it contains, which suggests that every second house in Farnham sold beer.

London Under London A Subterranean Guide by Richard Trench and Ellis Hillman, published by John Murray (the original publisher of the Sherlock Holmes stories in book form), 1984. The cla.s.sic guide to London's underground rivers and tunnels. by Richard Trench and Ellis Hillman, published by John Murray (the original publisher of the Sherlock Holmes stories in book form), 1984. The cla.s.sic guide to London's underground rivers and tunnels.

Subterranean City Beneath the Streets of London by Antony Clayton, published by Historical Publications, 2000. Covers much the same ground (as it were) as Trench and Hillman's book, but benefits from material more recently discovered. Or perhaps 'unearthed' would be a better word. by Antony Clayton, published by Historical Publications, 2000. Covers much the same ground (as it were) as Trench and Hillman's book, but benefits from material more recently discovered. Or perhaps 'unearthed' would be a better word.

The London of Sherlock Holmes by Michael Harrison, published by David & Charles, 1972. An invaluable and immaculately researched investigation of what London would have looked like to the eyes of Sherlock Holmes. by Michael Harrison, published by David & Charles, 1972. An invaluable and immaculately researched investigation of what London would have looked like to the eyes of Sherlock Holmes.

A NOTE ABOUT MONEY.

Money in England in the 1860s was not like the money we have now. These days we use the decimal system, which was introduced in 1971, and there are a hundred pence to the pound. Back then, there were 240 pence to the pound, not 100. All the way through this book I've used the proper terms in use at the time farthings, sovereigns, s.h.i.+llings, and so on. In case you are interested, the conversion works out like this:

1 farthing =.

0.1 pence 1 halfpenny =.

0.2 pence 1 penny =.

0.4 pence Tuppence (two pence) =.

0.8 pence Thruppence (three pence) =.

1.2 pence One s.h.i.+lling (12 pence) =.

5 pence Half a crown =.

12.5 pence A crown =.

25 pence Half sovereign =.

50 pence A sovereign =.

1 pound (1) A guinea (one sovereign and one s.h.i.+lling) =.

1 pound and

5 pence (1.05)

AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote fifty-six short stories and four novels about Sherlock Holmes. You can still find them in most bookshops. When he first appeared, Sherlock was around thirty-three years old and was already a detective with an established set of habits and abilities. In his last appearance he was around sixty, and had retired to the Suss.e.x coast to keep bees. Yes, bees.

My intention with the book you are holding, and with the books that will follow, is to find out what Sherlock was like before Arthur Conan Doyle first introduced him to the world. What sort of teenager was he? Where did he go to school, and who were his friends? Where and when did he learn the skills that he displayed later in life the logical mind, the boxing and sword-fighting, the love of music and of playing the violin? What did he study at university? When (if ever) did he travel abroad? What scared him and who, if anyone, did he love?

Other people have written about Sherlock Holmes over the years, to the point where he is probably the most recognized fictional character in the world. The number of stories written about Sherlock by other writers far exceeds the number written by Arthur Conan Doyle, and yet it is Doyle's stories that people keep returning to. There is a reason for that, and the reason is that he understood understood Sherlock from the inside out, while the other writers, for the most part, merely tried to copy the outside. Sherlock from the inside out, while the other writers, for the most part, merely tried to copy the outside.

Arthur Conan Doyle gave little away about Sherlock's early years, and most writers since then have avoided that period of time as well. We know little about his parents, or indeed where he lived. We know he was descended on his mother's side from the French artist Vernet and that he had a brother called Mycroft, who appears in a few of the short stories, but that's about it. That has given me the freedom to create a history for Sherlock that is consistent with the few hints that Conan Doyle did let slip, but also leads inevitably to the man that Conan Doyle described. In this endeavour I have been lucky to have had the approval of Jon Lellenberg, the representative of the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd, and the approval of the surviving relatives of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Richard Pooley, Richard Doyle and Cathy Beggs. I have been lucky too to have the approval of Andrea Plunkett, owner of several trademarks in Europe. I have also been fortunate in having an agent and an editor Robert Kirby and Rebecca McNally respectively who understood completely what I wanted to do.

Various writers have attempted to produce their own biographies of Sherlock Holmes, tying together what Doyle revealed with actual historical events. These works are inevitably flawed, incomplete and personal, but I confess that I have a sneaking fondness for William Baring-Gould's Sherlock Holmes A Biography of the World's First Consulting Detective Sherlock Holmes A Biography of the World's First Consulting Detective, and have taken some details (most notably, dates) from that iconic work.

I promise that there will be more adventures of Sherlock Holmes at school and university, but in the meantime you might want to seek out the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. The short stories have been collected together in five books The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Final Bow His Final Bow and and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. The novels are A Study in Scarlet A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles The Hound of the Baskervilles and and The Valley of Fear The Valley of Fear. If you want to go further, you could do worse than seek out the three more recent Holmes novels by Nicholas Meyer The Seven Per Cent Solution The Seven Per Cent Solution, The West End Horror The West End Horror and and The Canary Trainer The Canary Trainer as well as Michael Hardwick's as well as Michael Hardwick's The Revenge of the Hound The Revenge of the Hound and Lyndsay Faye's and Lyndsay Faye's Dust and Shadow Dust and Shadow. You might also like to check out Michael Kurland's stories told from the point of view of Sherlock Holmes's arch-enemy, Professor James Moriarty, which provide a refres.h.i.+ng alternative look at the Great Detective The Infernal Device The Infernal Device, Death by Gaslight Death by Gaslight and and The Great Game The Great Game. Second-hand bookshops or eBay might be your best bet.

Until next time, when Sherlock faces the repulsive Red Leech . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Andrew Lane is the author of some twenty previous books. Some are original novels set in the same universes as the BBC TV programmes Doctor Who Doctor Who, Torchwood Torchwood and and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), some are contemporary novels written under a pseudonym, and some are non-fiction books concerning specific film and TV programme characters (notably James Bond, and Wallace and Gromit). He has also written for the Radio Times Radio Times and its US equivalent, and its US equivalent, TV Guide TV Guide. Andrew lives in Dorset with his wife, his son and a vast collection of Sherlock Holmes books, the purchase of which over the past twenty years is now a justifiably tax-deductible expense.

[image]

Dedicated to the memory of the Young Adult writers whose work I used to devour when I was young: Capt. W. E. Johns, Hugh Walters, Andre Norton, Malcolm Saville, Alan E. Norse and John Christopher; and also to the friends.h.i.+p and support of those members of the latest generation that I'm fortunate enough to know: Ben Jeapes, Stephen Cole, Justin Richards, Gus Smith and the incomparable Charlie Higson.

And with grateful acknowledgements to: Rebecca McNally and Robert Kirby, for having faith; Jon Lellenberg, Charles Foley and Andrea Plunkett, for giving permission; Gareth Pugh, for telling me all about bees; and Nigel McCreary, for keeping me sane on the journey.

[image]

First published 2010 by Macmillan Children's Books This electronic edition published 2010 by Macmillan Children's Books a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR Basingstoke and Oxford a.s.sociated companies throughout the world www.panmacmillan.com ISBN 978-0-330-53271-6 PDF.

ISBN 978-0-330-53270-9 EPUB.

Copyright Andrew Lane 2010 The right of Andrew Lane to be identified as the author of this work has been a.s.serted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you're always first to hear about our new releases. to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you're always first to hear about our new releases.

[image]