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Hello there readers, let's start, shall we?
ENOLA HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE LEFT-HANDED LIAR
-CHAPTER THE SECOND-
Sherlock Holmes.
My brother. As much as I feared him, I also worshiped him. He is my biggest weakness.
A shiver went down my spine. I could not stop worrying over Dr. Watson's visit. Why would he come see me? I know that it couldn't possibly be because of concern for Sherlock-no one likes Sherlock.
Well, except for me, but in all honestly it's mostly respect/admiration. Is it possible my brother has found a friend?
I scoffed at the idea.
On the other, I was horrified at the other option, that Sherlock Holmes suspected me, Dr. Leslie T. Ragostin, either as Enola Holmes, or as just perhaps competition. Would Sherlock truly send someone to see the Scientific Perditorian just because he needed to know if 'he' would be a 'threat'?
I felt as though I was overthinking this. Wielding a magic wand would make more sense than my family!
For a brief moment, although it was really longer than a moment, I wished to talk with Mum. Just to hear her voice would be enough for me. I had sent her another message, printing it out in all of the regular periodicals: Pall Mall Gazette, Modern Womanhood, ect. It follows as such:
My Chrysanthemum: The fourth letter of true love, the fourth letter of purity, the first letter of thoughts, the fourth letter of innocence, the first letter of fidelity, the third or fourth letter of departure, and the first letter of the same. Correct? Your Ivy.
It was unspoken between us, but we referred to each other as Chrysanthemum for Mum, and Ivy for me. I had sent her a metaphorical bouquet, with my words. For, in The Meanings of Flowers, true love stood for forget-me-not, purity stood for the lily, and so on, and so on. It went on to include the pansy, daisy, and sweet pea.
This all spelled GYPSIES.
After a week of waiting, biting my nails, I received a message in similar fashion. Mum said, "Close. Where are you?"
Close? My mind had been stumped for the longest time, until I finally came to the conclusion that close meant either I was close in my guess, or she was close to Gypsies. Either way, it was just nice to be in communications with her. Despite the circumstances.
I replied likewise, "London."
That was it. No more communications between us. While I was drawn to my mother, not all of my feelings were kind. I was also angry at her for leaving, what child wouldn't? I hesitated in dropping everything and searching for her. Instead, I paced myself, trying hard not to immediately rush into contacting her. No doubt back-and-forth ciphers in the newspapers would draw unwanted attention.
But with the news of Sherlock, I felt… small. I needed to contact Mum urgently. Just to get some advice on how to handle this.
~!~
I waited until I got home, a good distance away from the office. I could have boarded up in the residence, but for caution's sake, I did not. Instead I lived in a humble home right by the East End. I was the only lodger to a wonderful old lady named Mrs. Tupper. She was mostly deaf, the only way to talk to her is to yell very loudly into an earpiece. I rarely saw anyone else when I was there.
Once I arrived back at my flat, I removed my rubber inserts, scraped off my make-up and took of my wig. I slipped into more comfortable clothing, removing the dreadful skirt that Ivy Meshle loved, and sat down at my desk.
The message must be different than the others. Sherlock knew I had money, Mycroft as well. This worried me to no end-what if he knew more-could he possibly suspect the coded words in the periodicals were between Mum and I? I there composed the following cipher:
DOGWOOD FOUR IRIS TWICE THREE VIOLET AND
APPLE BLOSSOM HOW MANY?
I didn't mention Ivy, because I needed to be cautious, but I knew (hoped) Mum would recognize that this was from me. I broke the words into groups of three.
DOG WOO DFO URI RIS TWI CET HRE EVI OLE TAN
DAP PLE BLO SSO MHO WMA NY?
Hopefully Mum would understand how the code had changed. Irises have three large petals on top and three on bottom, a dogwood flower has four petals and a violet and apple blossom both have five. Once I broke up the message, I reversed it. I noticed, however, that the question mark would be obvious, and replaced it with a 'null', otherwise known as an X.
NYX WMA MHO SSO BLO PLE DAP TAN OLE EVI HRE
CET TWI RIS URI DFO WOO DOG
All that work was to make just make sure Mum had the number five in her head. Because, you see, one can split the alphabet into five parts. Z is used so little that it can be squished together with Y.
ABCDE
FGHIJ
KLMNO
PQRST
UVWXYZ
I wrote the real message now. LONDON BRIDE FALLING DOWN URGENT MUST TALK. I coded like this: L is in the third group, second letter. Therefore it is written as 32. O is in the third row, and is the fifth letter: 35. You do this until you have the whole message enciphered.
323534143534 124324142215 2444
21113232243432 14355334 514322153445
33514445 45113231
My final draft was this:
NYX WMA MHO SSO BLO PLE DAP TAN OLE EVI HRE CET TWI RIS URI DFO WOO DOG 323534143534 124324142215 2444 21113232243432 14355334 14322153445 33514445 45113231
Mother wouldn't be able to resist such a cipher. Unfortunately, neither would my brother, Sherlock. I could only hope that he wouldn't be able to solve, or that he might not see it. He could be on a case.
After copying the cipher several times, making sure I triple-checked it, i sealed them in an envelope. I would mail them tomorrow.
And as for my other case, the Alistair daughter, it would have to wait as well.
I detested waiting.
I glanced at my wardrobe before getting up and stretching. I opened the doors and smiled. While I had to wait, that did not mean I had to be idle. I dressed myself-but not as Ivy Meshle, or a widow or business woman-this time, I would be clothed differently.
I threw on warm leggings and a long sleeved black shirt. I put on a heavy black skirt, with pockets sewn on and then I placed the cloak I had painstakingly made myself. It was simple, but efficient. I had hoped it would pass as a nun's habit of some sorts. I supplied myself with blankets, clothes, food and, and also armed myself.
In the cloak, at the side, I hid a sheathed dagger. It was long and slender. I had never used it, but I didn't want to risk anything. I put on a thick scarf as the final touch. Before I escaped down the stairs, after making sure that I heard Mrs. Tupper head to bed, I covered my face with the thick black veil that was attached to the hood of my clothes.
This was the apparel of my nightlife.
THE END!
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With that out of the way, it's time to say-
-GP2 OUT!