Prompt from trustingHim17: What was the worst experiment Holmes ever used on Watson? Was the experiment's outcome intentional?
My eye caught on some papers on my friend's desk. It was not the content of the letters that occupied my attention. Indeed, I scarcely noticed what the letters were about. Far more importantly were the handwriting the letters were written in – the handwriting of my dear wife Mary, dead for just slightly over a year.
"Holmes," I asked, a burst of hope rising in my chest, "where did you get those letters?" I had thought I had found all correspondence between my wife and Holmes when sorting through the personal effects of each after their deaths, but perhaps Holmes had carried them with him while he was away. Any word that Mary penned would be something for me to value, another piece of her that could carry on even after her own death.
The next moment, my hopes were dashed. "Ah, you noticed!" Holmes said delightedly. "I have been experimenting with different styles of handwriting, and Mary's made for a quite beautiful example. Tell me, how accurate is it?"
Unable to answer, I sank into my chair with a cry, my heart aching as if I had lost Mary for a second time. I had known Holmes had not taken anything with him after Reichenbach, that he had not even expected to survive, yet I had let myself be carried away on a dream. Mary was gone, and however well Holmes copied her handwriting, it could never be her words.