Author's Note: This finishes this little case, but if you liked it, I'd love to write more. I actually have a little more adventurous one in mind, so if you're interested in reading more, drop me a review and let me know. THanks for reading!

Chapter Eight: A Subsequent Revelation

"Ah," said Holmes, turning on the newcomer, "Mr. Allastair. I belivee that I have you to thank for the blaze that nearly incinerated my associate. You remember, I assume, Doctor Watson, don't you?"
"I did not," said Alec Allastair, with a staunch expression, "have any designs against either yourself or Doctor Watson, and I ws under the impression that you would be out that night."

"So you threw a burning candle into an empty house?" asked Holmes. "Did my furniture particularly offend you?"
"I did not mean," Alec insisted, "to harm anyone."

"Indeed," said Holmes with some skepticism. "Well now, no matter what your good intentions were, you have severely endangered not only Dr. Watson and myself, but your own mother and cousin. That, I will easily admit to you, I cannot possibly understand, though the methods are quite clear in themselves.:"

Mr. Allastair looked at his mother, who was standing there with her eyes wide, and her limp arms dangling at her side in her total lack of comprehension. She reached out to him with a tremulous hand, her voice beseeching.

"Alec," she said, "Alec, you've done no such thing. It doesn't make sense, Alec, how could you have? I saw a girl in the window. Yes, that's right." More confidant, she glared at Holmes and myself, head held high in her certainty. "It was a woman who lit the fires, and not my son at all. Your case has no grounds."

Holmes nodded respectfully, "You are quite right, madam," he agreed, "in that the fire itself was started, in both cases, by a young woman. And so, I hope in only a few minutes to be able to introduce you to that very remarkable girl."

It was obvious that Mr. Alec Allastair was not a time-hardened criminal, and that he had absolutely no knack for crime. His face blanched terribly when Holmes s poke of the woman that he hoped to find. Mrs. Allastair looked quite satisfied, but Alec, glancing around and noticing that Holmes attention was again focused out the door on the road from which he had come, attempted to slink upstairs and out of sight.

"Mr. Allastair,"said Holmes, without turning, "it would benefit you to stay where I can see you. As you have no doubt already recognized, anything that occurs while you are in my sight cannot be committed to your responsibility."

Alec stopped, and looked to me beseechingly, as if seeing that I was the more sympathetic soul in the room. No doubt he failed to remember that it was I who had nearly perished at his hands, and I looked away from him, recoiling from giving him any sort of comfort.

"Now," continued Holmes, "you woudl do well to let me in on the matter before the official police, if you have any desire for leniency on the part of your friend. You will now take us to to where she lives, or perhaps wehre she is staying, and we will sort out the entire matter together."

Mr. Allastair saw the reason in this, and knew that it was his only option. With a brooding, sullen face, he stalked to the door, and led us out on to the street.

Shortly after leaving his mother's sight, Mr. Allastair turned sharply and made for the side of the house, over towards the window which now lay open. At first, we saw nothing, but as we drew closer, I realized that there was a young woman seated, or rather, crouched down beneath the window, not looking in, but trying, it seemed, to listen to the proceedings.

"Sarah," murmured Mr. Allastair, "it's all up, now. We're finished."

The girl started, and spun around to find myself, Mr. Allastair, and Holmes looming over her. She did not scream, but opened her mouth as if to speak. Then, seeing the closed expression on Alec Allastair's face, she let out a little resigned breath, and got slowly to her feet. Mr. Allastair reached down to help her up, and the two of them stood together, facing the two of us.

"Miss Sarah Carraway, I believe," said Holmes politely. "I have no qualms about congratulating you. You are a very talented actress."

Miss Carraway was obviously torn between blushing in shame, or pretending to be completely confused by Holmes' comment. My friend did not wait for her to react, but instead sat himself down on the grass beneath the window, and folded his legs around each other, hands resting on his lap. "Come, Watson," He said, "we have much to discuss, and I would prefer to stay outside the window, as I believe that the persistent Mrs. Allastair has gone upstairs so as to await our return, and to surprise therefore." He patted the patch of ground beside him, and I seated myself where he suggested.

"It is my custom," my companion began, "to unravel the case on my own, and to ask you to break in upon my narrative when I go wrong in any way. Does that suit you?" The two young people only nodded, and Holmes smiled. "Capital," he said, "Very good."

"Mr. Allastair," he commenced, "and Mr. Daniel Fairchild met each other in America, while in the midst of their studies. It was not long before they shared a bond over their mutual family ties to London, and although they may have been fast friends, they were certainly close aquaintances."

Holmes paused, and looked at Alec Allastair, but the young man had cast his eyes down upon the ground, and was plucking at the grass, so that Holmes assumed he had touched upon the truth, and, looking up, continued.

"One day," he continued, "Your friend Mr. Fairchild flew into a rage while the two of you were talking. Perhaps he was drunk, and let the facts loose not entirely of his own volition. He informed you that his sister, our infamous Miss Anne, had taken to a certain Mycroft Holmes, and that he did not at all favor the marriage. You decided, for some reason that I confess I am ignorant of, that you would take control of the situation, and that you would scare away Miss Fairchild's unwelcome suitor before the wedding had taken place."

Here, he stopped, and turned his gaze on Sarah Carraway. "At this point," he said, with some admiration, and yet no kindness in his voice, "came your debut You, being a woman who was very similarly shaped to Miss Fairchild, were employed by your own lover, Mr. Alec Allastair, to impersonate Miss Fairchild. With some of her cast-off clothes, and a wig of Miss Fairchild's own hair, given to you by her brother, you made a perfect picture of the lady. And yet," he said, "you discovered that your plan had backfired. Rather than frightening Mycroft away from Miss Fairchild, the lady in question was handed over to the police, and Mycroft looked to me for assistance. Hoping to create enough confusion to give no proof of her guilt, and yet to make her an unwelcome housemate, you then turned your attentions to myself and doctor Watson."

"We never meant to hurt anyone," insisted Sarah Carraway, with some fear in her drawn face. "We only wanted to frighten you. We never wanted to-!"

"As I have said once before," murmured Holmes coldly, "it is your actions, and not your intentions, that speak rather loudly in this case."

All four of us waited in silence for a moment, the young couple quiet and unsure of where they stood, myself impressed as always, Holmes unperturbed, but eager. After a moment, it was Miss Sarah's turn to speak, and she did so with eyes half-closed, as if too afraid to meet my friend's gaze.

"Please," she said quietly, "don't blame Alec for this, it was on my behalf that he committed the crimes in the first place."

"And yet," noted Holmes, "it is Mr. Fairchild that has all of the motive, and on his request or recommendation, I believe, that Alec acted."

Miss Carraway shook her head. "Daniel Fairchild," she started, "is a very wealthy man, considerably more so than he would like you to believe. He has won a great deal at cards in America, and though generally honest in his ways, he has a bit of a malicious streak, and a taste for gambling, not only with cards, but now with the happiness of his sister, as you've seen."

She cleared her throat a little, and looked to Alec for support. He seemed surprised at her willingness, and yet unable to offer anything of his own. "Alec and I," she continued, "wanted to be married, but had not the money. We knew that if we did a favor for Mr. Fairchild, he'd repay us by granting us the funds to get married, and that we needn't tell Mrs. Allastair anything about it, since she knew nothing about the aquaintance in the first place.

"And so it was prearranged," Holmes interjected, "that Mr. Fairchild would recompense you for your actions."

Miss Carraway nodded. She looked at me, and clasped her white hands in front of her face, her lips pursed in worry and sorrow. "I am sorry," she said, holding out a hand to me. "I am so terribly sorry."

I was almost moved to pity for the creature, but Holmes stood abruptly, before I could return any gesture of understanding. "And now," he said, "I shall walk across and introduce myself to Mr. Fairchild, who I believe has been retained by my brother now for some time." He stood to go, and the couple stared at him, shocked at their good fortune.

"Sir?" asked Mr. Allastair. Holmes turned back to regard him for a long moment before he spoke.

"Your fate," he said, "is entirely in the hands of Doctor Watson,and for that I believe you may thank any lucky stars you have. It is he who has been most injured by these attempts on your part, and I shall let him pass judgement over both of you."

I was startled, and stood up, stepping back from the pair with an intake of breath. "I should like to do nothing," I said hurriedly. "Seeing as there is really no harm done, after all." I attempted to look sternly on Alec and Miss Sarah, but they were such a pitiful pair, Miss Sarah's face now in Mr. Allastair's shirt, that I could do nothing.

"Well," I said again, "I should be glad of your word that you shall no longer associate yourselves with this Mr. Fairchild."

My friend laughed, not cruelly, and rolled his eyes in my direction. "You are benevolence itself, Watson," he said. "Oh, and, one more thing." He waved a hand at Alec Allastair. "I should very much like you to do your best to refurnish my Baker Street rooms. I do not very much like the smell of rotting wood, and I have recently been hoping for a change."