Chapter 4 - A Friend?

It had been a few days since the incident with the Weevil and during this time Holmes had managed to squeeze more information out of Arianna. However as often as Arianna tried to ask Holmes any questions he refused to divulge much information. He was incredibly stubborn.

It was an ordinary Monday morning and Arianna was just sealing the envelope that contained the account of her latest mission when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in," Arianna called.

A timid maid shuffled into the room, "Sorry to disturb you Miss, but would you be so kind as to give these letters to Mr Holmes…" the girl paused, "I would do it myself Miss, it's just that…" she trailed off again.

Arianna smiled, stood up and walked towards her. "I completely understand." She took the letters out of the maid's hands before handing her another. "Would you please deliver this for me?"

"Of course Miss." The maid smiled giddily, "Thank you, thank you very much."

"You're welcome." Arianna replied as the maid hurried back out her room and down the stairs.

Arianna flicked through the letters as she walked into Holmes' room.

"You know, you really shouldn't scare the maids, they're starting to refuse to…" But Arianna stopped as she looked up and found another man sitting opposite Holmes, they were both staring at her.

"I'm terribly sorry, I didn't know…" Arianna began but the other man cut her off politely.

"Please don't worry," The man said as he stood up and walked towards her, "Holmes didn't mention there was someone else living her now, but I completely agree with you about the maids."

"Arianna Smith, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance." She smiled and held out her hand.

The man took her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles gently, "Dr John Watson and the pleasure is all mine."

"Watson, you're a married man." Holmes muttered, his tone of voice displayed an obvious disgust for what is considered by most people as charm and social etiquette.

Arianna smiled at Dr Watson before walking over to Holmes and dumping the letters on his lap, "Your letters Mr Holmes."

"Thank you kindly, Miss Smith." He replied, not even bothering to veil his miserable mood.

There was an awkward silence before Watson decided to intervene.

"I used to live here Miss Smith," He begun.

"Before he abandoned me." Holmes added.

After a brief sigh Watson continued, "I moved out so that I could share a home with my wife."

"Ah." Arianna smiled.

"Anyway, I really must be going, it was a delight to meet you Miss Smith." Watson said as he headed for the door.

"And you Dr Watson, I do hope I didn't intrude…" Arianna said hesitantly.

"No, not all. Good day." Watson smiled as he turned to door handle.

"Feel free to drop by before next year." Holmes said as he fiddled with his violin.

"Why don't you ever come to see me?" Watson asked, "In fact are the two of you free tonight?"

"Absolutely not." Holmes replied.

"Neither of us have plans." Arianna said a little louder.

"I'm glad, please come to dinner tonight, 7 O'clock, with myself and my wife." Watson said.

"I'm afraid I have a dentist appointment this evening." Holmes said.

"We'll be there for 7." Arianna smiled.

"Thank you Miss Smith. I think you'll do him the world of good." Watson smiled.

"I do try." she replied.

Holmes let out a loud huff as Watson left. He plucked a few strings on his violin.

"Why did you agree to go?" Holmes asked bitterly, "I have no desire to attend social dinners."

Arianna sighed as she sat opposite him.

"He's your friend. You should visit him, it was very kind of him to invite us." She replied.

Holmes glanced up, his scowl diminished briefly as their eyes locked. A silent battle of will power raged between them until something seemed to happen and neither of them were fighting any more.

Suddenly Arianna broken the tranquil trance they had entered by sitting up and clearing her voice.

"Any new cases?" She asked, trying to rid them of the enveloping silence.

"None of any interest at all." He replied as he finally took his eyes off her briefly and plucked a few more chords.

"Yes, well." She cleared her voice again and avoided his gaze. "There must be something. You haven't even looked through those yet."

"Hmm… You can look through them." He tossed them onto her lap and looked at her intensely as he plucked a few more chords.

"Too boring for you to do yourself?" She asked absently.

"Of course." He said as his lips upturned slightly.

Arianna rolled her eyes and picked up the letters. She undid the first and began flicking through it.

"The enigmatic Arianna Smith." Holmes said softly.

Arianna glanced up and raised an eye brow.

"You puzzle me." He said as if that would clarify everything. "You say so very little."

Arianna laughed "I say plenty. You say so very little."

"Oh but there's so much you don't say. My life is as ordinary as anyone else on this planet, so there is really no need for me to say much. Whereas you have experienced so many fantastic things, which I have no knowledge of at all and which you fail to elaborate on." He said.

"I wondered why you've momentarily stopped your science experiments. I'm your new experiment." Arianna said sarcastically.

"No, no. You're far more interesting than any experiment."