Holmes and Watson End Peace: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes (10 page)

End Piece

Now that I have been disowned by the Holmesian world, let me try and explain myself...

First of all, theory wise, there is nothing in Holmes and Watson's conversation that has not been mooted previously; I may however have taken one or two of these theories to extremes.

The fact of Watson being in Australia is undeniable, after all he says so himself when referring to the gold fields of Ballarat. Most commentators believe he was there in his youth before his studies, but I put his being there as somewhat later. It is my idea that after attaining his degree at the University of Edinburgh, he chose to take what we call now a ‘gap year' before resuming his studies at the University of London and eventually obtaining a further degree.

Watson's comment that he had ‘experience of women over three continents' does not suggest to me a dalliance of extreme youth, but rather one reminiscing of an entanglement or entanglements of one a little more mature, placing Watson in Ballarat during late 1873 and early 1874 at the age of twenty-one seems to me to fulfil that criteria.

WG Grace the eminent cricketer of his day took his touring team to Ballarat to play a match which commenced on New Year's day 1874. In deference to the gulf in class between the teams Ballarat fielded a team of twenty-two as opposed to the touring team's eleven. All the same, it was a win for Dr Grace's team, but on the Ballarat side was a Watson who acquitted himself well. This I believe was the cousin that Watson was visiting with the tragic results that we have seen. He may well have been fast approaching making a decision which would have altered the whole course of his life; to stay in Australia with Adaline and perhaps pursue his studies there. He was no doubt an impulsive man then and it was that characteristic of his that led him into trouble.

Of course Watson was right, once he had committed that rash act, there could be no going back to any kind of normality or what passed for it out there, A life with Adaline was no longer an option whichever way he looked at it. Flight was the only answer and fortunately Dr Grace was on hand to offer advice and also the means of escape. Perhaps an older Watson would have taken stock and offered himself up to the mercy of the authorities, but he was young and although horror-struck with his actions, decided that flight was the best course. The ramifications of his act would never leave him and it is typical of the Watson that we know that he would seek to make a small gesture later in life to the bereaved family.

Although both men paid lip-service to some kind of faith in the canon, I am confident that neither were believers in any kind of sense of the term. They would have certainly grown up with religion apparent in their everyday lives; at home and at school where it really would have been a way of life whatever type of schools theirs may have been. The spectre of the church would have walked the corridors and be in the very fabric of the buildings. Their parents would have been religious if not actually devout and certainly in the case of Holmes's father, any display of faith would have been for show only, not uncommon among the gentry.

The battle within Holmes family would indeed have placed an intolerable strain upon him. His aversion to women and his inability to love has often been ascribed to some degree of desertion by his mother causing him to shrink from all female contact, excepting that in the line of his work. I look at it from another viewpoint, as a variation on the classic Oedipal scenario. Not that Holmes felt anything sexual for his mother, but the bond that tied them, that ‘art in the blood' was an emotional tie that Holmes would never have broken, even if his mother had not died when she did at the hands of her husband. That one event would colour all Holmes's life and career. And the event that it gave rise to was the most shocking of all... patricide.

To the young Holmes it was the only solution that appeared to be open to him after the discovery that his beloved mother had her life snatched away so callously by his own father, the one man who had sworn to love and cherish her. To Holmes there would been no question of mercy, he was as single-minded then as he would be throughout his personal and professional life. A life for a life was how he saw it and he promptly, cold-bloodedly and efficient put his plan into operation.

Mycroft may have suspected, but perhaps he could not bring himself to believe it of his fourteen year old brother. Of course he may have harboured suspicions regarding the death of his mother and in spite of his former closeness to his father he may have come to the conclusion that his younger brother despatched their father then perhaps it was for the best. We will never know. Relations between the brothers were certainly apt to cool throughout their lives. The visits to each other were infrequent as to be virtually non-existent unless it was in a professional capacity.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John H Watson were to live with their respective acts of violence all their lives, no doubt being reminded of them time and time again. Their secrets were eventually revealed to each other when no one on earth could any longer judge them or their actions.

But, get this,

It is fiction...

Acknowledgements

As always, to Gill, on hand with advice and grammatical insights hurled at me like flaming arrows! As in ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Lyme Regis Horror' and ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Lyme Regis Legacy', some lines and paragraphs are hers alone.

To Steve at MX Publishing and Bob at Staunch.com. The book you now hold or have thrown into the dustbin is alive and looks the way it does because of them.

Thanks to various Holmes authors who are always supportive, especially those from the MX stable who are a great bunch of folk.

David Ruffle

March 2012

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