My Dear Doctor:

I was most gratified to see that you and brother mine were indeed on time for the ceremony honouring your late brother, and that you both actually behaved yourselves as becoming such an occasion. My congratulations to you, Doctor, and to your brother, for your service to the Crown.

But wishing you felicitations upon the reception of this honour was not the reason for this missive.

I should like to express in the most personal manner possible for a man who has had little practice in such matters my deepest gratitude to you, Watson. This investigation was nearly fatal to you, physically and emotionally.

Yet despite this, you kept always at the fore of your mind not your own feelings but my brother's safety– in the barrow, after he was shot upon the moor, and most importantly in the mill, where each time you saved his life after first risking your own.

And for that, I shall be forever in your debt. Sherlock will never tell you how deeply you have become a part of his life, but I thank you for it. You have saved my brother, Doctor, not just from death in that mill.

I thank you.

Yours very sincerely,

Mycroft Holmes

P.S. Do drop by the Diogenes at some point when you are feeling better?