Holmes snatched the served sleeve out of the Irregular's hands. "Excellent, Alfie!"
The boy grinned at the coins pressed upon him.
"Come, Watson, I need your note taking! After I run a few tests on this, we ought to be able to pin that suspect once and for all!"
I had been assisting Eve with her writing practice. "Holmes, I'm a bit busy. I can hardly leave her unsupervised in this place; God only knows what she'd find her way into unoccupied."
The tiny girl gave an affronted look.
"Can you honestly say you wouldn't do all you could to get into a locked cabinet?"
The look melted into sheepish admittance. Again, she reminded me of my friend far too much.
"Who says she is unoccupied? She has her writing and…" He glanced towards the Irregular, a grin coming upon him. "And Mycroft does insist she needs interaction with those closer to her age. What do you say, you two? You could each gain a playmate."
The girl in the lacey dress and the boy in the patched clothes regarded each other silently. Alfie then stuck out his tongue, which caused Eve to make a rather rude gesture. Before I could blink, they were both on the floor trying to throttle each other.
"Holmes…!"
"They're just playing, Watson. They're regular buddies."