Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Life

Chapter 19

"What's she doing here?" Sherlock said, his voice flat; all traces of humour gone

"Sarah works for me so she is required to attend all of my meetings. She is doing her job." Mycroft defended me

"Hi." I said with no obvious emotion in my tone, Sherlock acknowledged my greeting with a very slight nod which would have been unnoticeable to anyone else; then he went back to his original train of thought.

"I was in the middle of a case, Mycroft."

"What, the hiker and the backfire?" he replied, "I glanced at the police report. Bit obvious, surely?"

"Transparent." at this John looked startled, clearly he didn't know what the Holmes brothers knew. Without allowing John time to speak, Mycroft said

"Time to move on, then.". He then proceeded to pick up the neatly folded pile of Sherlock's clothes and shoes from the table and turned to offer them to his younger brother. Sherlock looked at them uninterestedly and Mycroft sighed. "We are in Buckingham Palace, the very heart of the British nation. Sherlock Holmes, put your trousers on." he said sternly. Sherlock shrugged and replied with

"What for?"

"Your client."

"And my client is?" Sherlock said, standing up. I found it hard to keep a lid on my laughter while the two were bickering. They may not act like it, but in moments like these you could really tell that they were brothers.

Suddenly, a fairly tall, well groomed gentleman wandered into the room and said

"Illustrious, in the extreme." Sherlock turned to look at him and John stood up respectfully. "And remaining- I have to inform you- entirely anonymous.". He seemed fairly serious until he caught sight of Mycroft.

"Mycroft!" he said cheerfully

"Harry." Mycroft happily answered before walking over to greet him with a handshake. "May I just apologise for the state of my little brother?"

"Full-time occupation, I imagine." Sherlock scowled at his joke, "And this must be Doctor John Watson, formerly of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers." Harry turned his attention to John

"Hello, yes." John answered whilst shaking hands with him

"My employer is an enormous fan of your blog."

"Your employer?" he said, shocked

"Particularly enjoyed the one about the aluminium crutch."

"Thank you!" John answered, giving Sherlock a sly glance for all of the times he'd said that no-one reads his blog. Harry next decided that he hadn't spoken to Sherlock enough so he walked slightly closer to him

"And Mr Holmes, the younger. You look taller in your photographs." I snorted as I tried to hold back my laughter and Sherlock shot me a look that told me to shut up, I just smiled in response.

"I take the precaution of a good coat and short friends." he addressed Harry but I knew that the short friends thing was just a jab at me because I laughed at him. Sherlock walked abruptly past John, forcing him to step back, and approached his brother. "Mycroft, I don't do anonymous clients. I'm used to mystery at one end of my cases. Both ends is too much work." Sherlock looked round at Harry and, after a curt "Good morning.", began to take his leave but before he could reach the door Mycroft stepped onto the trailing edged of the sheet that he was wearing which resulted in it dropping almost fully off his body. If it weren't for Sherlock catching the remainder of the sheet he would have been stark naked.

"This is a matter of national importance." Mycroft reminded him, "Grow up." Sherlock didn't turn to face his brother as he said

"Get off my sheet!" through gritted teeth