And to think we're halfway through the challenge! I'll try and stay on top of prompts now that I'm back caught up.
16. From PowerOfPens: A character reflects on when they first met Holmes.
Before the VR in bullet holes, the knife stuck to the mantle, the strange little urchins and criminal types and hysterical ladies in the parlor, the violin music at odd hours, the science experiments and small fires, Martha Hudson thought that Sherlock Holmes looked hungry.
Poor lad, she thought. He had the look of too little money.
"I can see it has been some years, but I am sorry for the loss of your husband."
She started. "Yes, it has been some time. Jim never returned from the sea."
"Ah, I thought he might've been a sea-faring man."
"How did you know?"
"It's merely a deduction, madame. Surely you must've once been married to have ownership of such a house as this, but there is no recent sign of a husband about- though the portrait of the ship and the captain's hat tucked in the corner suggested there once was. Since this sign of him was not hidden, I thought it more likely he had died than left under less honorable circumstances."
"Well, you're right," she said, quite amazed. "Let me show you the rooms."
He was quiet and serious as she showed him the space, and was polite in his refusal of a scone when they returned to her chambers. She was disappointed when he thanked her for the tour and stated he did not think he could afford the rooms.
"I might take on two lodgers, if the other were also as courteous as you."
"I'm afraid I don't know any others seeking lodging. Quite unfortunate."
She saw other potential tenants in the week before he came back with Dr. Watson, who she also found pleasant, but something held her back from accepting them into the rooms. Years later, she thought it might've been intuition. She had married an adventurer in her flighty youth, and she had missed it, and despite the headaches of being Sherlock Holmes' landlady, she did enjoy the brightness and escapades he brought into the flat.