29. From Hades Lord of the Dead - We know something about Holmes ancestry, but what about Watson's?
In 1882, Watson emerged from his room one day with a small statue in hand, which he set on the sideboard. I enquired after it—I had never seen the like of it—it was of painted stone, depicting a one-eyed old woman with blue skin and rusty teeth.
"This is Beira," Watson said, smiling indugently at her. "My mother was of old Scot descent; her people had been there since Roman times. My ancestors believed in folklore before Christianity found its way to Scotland. My mother loved the stories, and repeated them often to Hamish and I. Beira is the Queen mother of the gods. She rules over winter with an iron first. She made the mountains and the lochs, and on the longest night of winter she drinks from the Well of Youth and becomes young again as winter melts into Spring, and the Lord and Lady rule for the warm season."
"Quite a woman," I remarked.
"Certainly," he agreed. "She looks like a hag, but she can see into all the world, and she protects animals and plants during the cold months. My mother was fond of her. I had forgotten that I had this statue in my possession."
"I have not heard you speak much of Scotland," I ventured.
Watson looked thoughtful. "I have not been to Scotland for many years," he said. "Sometimes it feels like a dream when I remember the sea and the cliffs. My family and our land is no more. I am not sure whether it would soothe or grate my mind to return to see my old stomping grounds. Do you know the feeling?"
I considered the estate in York, and nodded. Watson sat, and caressed Beira's white hair, before opening his book and dissolving into his own pondering.
Something I love about the challenge is the way it, well, challenges me, to research and find interesting new topics. I'd never read about Scotch mythology before!
