We arrived in Switzerland as soon as the sun set over the mountains; Mycroft graciously allowed us to stay with him in the house he was using for the event- since he preferred to stay away from the other diplomats, perfectly understandable; and it was the perfect place to catch our breath and prepare for the day to come.
I was pretty restless, however, and counting sheep did not do any good; I tried reading one of the books on the shelves, but even that didn't make me feel sleepy,. It was a two-storey chalet in the middle of the woods, surrounded by the Alps; icicles crystallized the roof and the railings and sparkled in the glow of the moon that made its appearance at half-past nine, but I didn't mind it so much, it was far less dreary than it was in London on days like this; so instead I decided to just walk around the house, hoping that would tire me out; As far as I knew, everyone else was resting, and when I spotted a shadow coming down the hall, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Thank goodness it's only you, Sim; I nearly had a heart attack!" I gasped and put my hand on my chest.
"Sorry about that, I will try to be a bit louder the next time," she joked, tightening her grip on the oil lamp she was holding, and then followed my gaze to where Holmes was resting in one of the guest bedrooms; Watson had started to properly clean and dress the wounds on his shoulder and leg. "Just tell him you love him and get it over with!" she whisper-shouted while I kept my eyes on him; I could see that he was in a lot of pain. "What's the worst that can possibly happen? We all end up in danger? Can't be a more worse situation than we're in right now."
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Doctor Watson is happily married, in fact he was about to go on his honeymoon before being dragged into these shenanigans."
"Hilarious," Simza said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. "I mean Sherlock."
"We hardly know each other. Most people I know have known each other for years before getting married, or are literally born to be engaged." By that, I meant some parents know that their children are going to be married because their mothers or fathers were friends and if they spent a lot of time together, some form of a connection was bound to be made. "Like my neighbour Marie, she married her childhood sweetheart, Andrew and they knew each other since they were babies. I have never known anyone for that long, except my sister."
"What difference does that make? Besides, I'm sure you can make time to get to know one another," she smirked and once I understood what she meant, I lightly slapped her arm, smiling as she laughed. "I'm serious, Charlotte. It doesn't matter how long you've known each other; think of Romeo and Juliet; sure, they both died in the end, but-" She paused, shaking her head. "Listen, I may not know a lot about love, and I know that you've had rough relationships in the past, I'm just saying, you deserve to be happy; and it doesn't take a great detective to see that you two have feelings for each other."
Is it really that obvious? Is it true that he feels the same way about me that I do about him?
Simza put a hand on my shoulder. "Well, it's better late than never."
"Great, now you're starting to sound like my mother."
"Good, at least one of us does," she chuckled and then, more serious, "Don't worry, if he's the sort of man he's led me to believe he is, he'll love you back."
"Do you think so?" I asked hopefully.
"Why wouldn't he?" I couldn't really come up with an answer that would make her doubt her opinion. She probably knew something I didn't.
"Thanks, Simza," I smiled and she put her arms around me.
"Anytime, now go to him," she motioned toward the open door as Doctor Watson walked out, carrying a bowl of dirty water and old bandages; he seemed relieved, that was a good sign.
"You can see him now if you like, Charlotte." I smiled, thanking him as he carried everything downstairs; Simza followed him and I quietly stepped into the room and toward the bed, only to see that he didn't have a shirt on; it didn't fluster me as much as it did the first time, back at the hotel in France, but the sight still brought a little heat to my cheeks which made him smile, so I tried to avert my gaze elsewhere, but it was easier said than done; especially when the dim light of an oil lamp placed on the bedside table managed to cast a warm glow on his peaceful face, illuminating his features; his deep, dark eyes, were only halfway open, and there were small bags underneath them from the obvious lack of sleep; his lips were chapped as a result of the cold air nipping at them and there was a cut on his left cheek. Sherlock could be too much sometimes and I worried for his health, even if answers did come to him doing such a thing.
"Do you like what you see?" He teased with a devilish smirk and I stood there, blushing like an idiot. "Don't deny it, I know you were spying on me from in the hallway; and judging from the blush on your cheeks and your accelerated heart rate, face the facts, darling, you can't resist me."
"Can't I?" I quirked an eyebrow, huffed and began walking away. "Watch me." I stopped when I felt his uninjured arm circling me and gently pulling me backwards onto the bed.
I laughed and he let out a soft groan in my ear. "See? I'm like a magnet, you're attracted to me." He held on and I tried to get away, only in vain so I just relaxed for a few moments, before turning around so that we were facing each other and I shrugged.
"Perhaps you're right, I can't resist running a hand through that soft, messy hair of yours." I reached out and took one of his curls between my fingers and twirled it for a little while while humming the same song that Simza sang to him on the train when he was so close to death and we glanced at each other, not saying anything at all.
There was a time in which the English language was not invented yet, before we started communicating with simple grunts, shrieks, growls and howls, there was human touch; in moments like this, one could not underestimate its power; the way my heart quickened when his fingers brushed against the lines in my hand, the way his breath felt against the bare skin of my shoulder, and the way our bodies fit together side-by-side, like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, was nothing compared to the things I wanted to say, that screamed to be let out. I wanted to tell him so many things: That he was my favorite person to be around; his presence always made me smile; and at times, I even began to think that I loved him.
No, I do love him. I really do.
In a moment of desperation, thinking that this was the last day of our lives, a certain feeling began taking over me; it clouded my mind and burned in my soul; I moved so that he was beneath me and glanced down at his lips which were inches apart from mine; I gently pressed them together; it was not a passionate kiss, it was to signify a good-bye, to promise that everything would be alright; he said the same thing to me and slowly raised his hand to brush against the side of my face; I closed my eyes, feeling a few tears gently being brushed away and I sighed, placing my hand on top to keep his in place and neither of us wanted to pull away-not just yet, but as things were starting to become more passionate, a yawn on my part ruined the moment right then and there and I cursed under my breath.
"Such strong words from such a good little girl," he said, grinning against my neck and I giggled, moving my head away; our eyes locked again and I could see a frown beginning to form. "You look exhausted."
"I'm fine," I replied honestly. "Just a little scared, that's all. What's going to happen to us? What if we don't make it out of this alive?"
He opened up his arms and then signaled for me to move closer. "Come here, put your head on my chest, right where my heart is." I leaned so that my head was resting on his chest and I could feel the thumping of his heart and it calmed me. "We will be alright. I will do everything in my power to protect you all; even if it costs me my life." His voice lowered to a whisper. "But no matter what happens, I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me?" I nodded and more tears slipped, soaking his shirt. "Go to sleep now." He kissed the top of my head and rubbed gentle circles on my back while he timed his breathing with mine.
"I could very happily live here, away from all the hustle and bustle of the city, " I said to Jane the next morning as I curled up in an armchair with a cup of tea. "You know, without all the noises of carriages passing by or people shouting at each other when they come out of the bar. I would much rather hear the birds singing and the wind whistling in the trees, where I can just sit with a nice cup of tea and write."
"You've certainly thought this through, haven't you?" Jane replied, shading in the feathers of a little cardinal. "When are you planning on leaving? Once you get married, I hope. You wouldn't want to live in a place like this all by yourself, would you? I don't think you've met the right man yet, and don't say that you won't because it's not true, there are plenty of handsome men who would love to be married to you."
"Well, believe it or not, Jane, not all of us want to be married." Simza looked up from her book, but when Jane looked away for a split second, she shared a secret glance with me.
"I will not have my sister die sad and alone." Jane shook her head and continued to work on her sketch. "And certainly not away from her family."
"She won't be away from her family; and whoever said she's going to die? And what gave you the notion that she'll be sad?" Sim furrowed her eyebrows. "From what I can see, she's perfectly content right now in terms of martial status."
While the two ladies continued to bicker back and forth like two squabbling sisters, I stowed away to the study and wrote a short letter to Mother and Father explaining my delay in writing to them. They were probably worried sick about us and I wanted to let them know that we were perfectly fine. I didn't mention where we were or who we were with, or what was about to happen, it was much too risky, though I did mention that Aunt Daisy and Uncle Charlie just came back from a camping trip with the children when we arrived and that Anne was starting to look more like her mother. Even though I didn't see the point in writing the letter now because would make it to London in the short amount of time it took for Mother to go berserk. I couldn't even add the return address to it. I know that I mentioned that I wasn't paranoid before, but as I put mine and Jane's initials at the bottom of the letter and stuck it in an envelope, I was going through all the what ifs.
What if someone gets a hold of the letter?
What if they know where my parents live?
What if they threaten them?
What if we can't stop them?
I must have been thinking out loud because Jane had paused her sketching, Simza set her book down, and Doctor Watson was now looking at me oddly. "It's going to be fine, Charlotte," he said, sitting across from me and putting a hand on the side of my face, as if to check my temperature. "Your mother and father will be fine, and if they need any assistance, Scotland Yard will be there and they'll do whatever they can." His hands moved to mine and he looked me in the eyes. "I promise. Now, we need to get ready, we're going to find some clothes to wear to the ball tonight?"
The ball? How could I forget?
I just remembered that the Peace Summit was going to be hosting a ball at the castle. I loved the idea of dressing up and dancing the night away, but for some reason, the mention of it made me nervous. Like I said before, I couldn't dance to save my life, and even though it didn't matter back in the camp, I certainly didn't want to be humiliated in front of all of those dignitaries.
"Don't tell me you don't know how to dance?" he said, and I shook my head, hanging my head in shame. "Where is Holmes when you need him?" He muttered, almost to himself. "He's the one who taught me." Watson looked to the window for a moment towards the sun and for a moment, I thought I saw his eyes sparkling with reminiscence. "In that case, I will teach you myself." He straightened up, as if standing at attention. "First, put your one hand on my shoulder." I did so. "Then place the other hand in mine; now we are going to take one step this way," he stepped backwards while I stepped forwards, "And another step that way." It was reversed this time. We repeated the process to the beat of the music, until I got used to the footwork, we stopped when we heard a familiar voice speaking.
"I see that I've done a fine job teaching you, Watson." I looked up to see Holmes standing near the small stairway and watching us.
"Oh! He's alive!" Simza said as I give him a small smile, then she went back to her book.
"But there's still a lot that needs to be improved." I watched as he stepped over to a record player and after some minor tweaking up, started the music, then he stood in front of me, taking my one hand and using his other to slip around my waist. "Here, straighten your shoulders a little, and move just a little closer to me." He brought me a little closer and I made a strange sound at the back of my throat, making Jane giggle and someone else gasp.
"Well, I didn't think I'd live to see this day," A new voice said. "Sherly dancing with a woman, and a handsome one at that."
"I'm teaching her to dance, Mikey, that's all. She is a dear friend of mine." He shook his head. "Don't mind my brother. He loves to tease me relentlessly."
"I didn't know you had friends, such a shock. Well, don't let me interfere, carry on, carry on." He sat down on one of the other chairs in the room, and started reading a newspaper. I tried not to pay either of them any attention, instead, I concentrated on what I needed to do and the voice of my instructor and told my feet to cooperate.
"No, no, don't worry about your feet," he said suddenly, making my heart jump and my head snapped upward. "The more you do that, the more nervous you'll become because you will be worried about making a mistake. Just...look at me." I turned my head up so that I was looking into his eyes and I nearly melted on the spot and I had to catch my breath.
The music continued and we moved across the living room as if we were dancing on a stage; when the music stopped, it was so quiet that you could hear a pin dropping. I was disappointed when the song ended and we separated from each other.
"There, now you're ready," he whispered and took my hand, planting a small kiss on the back of it. "The caterpillar has become a butterfly." He smiled at me once more.
"I hate to cut this short," Mycroft said after a long silence. "but we do have an appointment with the dressmaker." He stood up and placed the paper on a tray that Stanley was holding, then grabbed his coat off the hook and put on his hat and scarf.
"How fun!" said Jane; she loved shopping for clothes and was looking forward to trying out the latest trends. "I have no clue what I'm going to wear, but I'm sure I'll find something nice."
"I've never been shopping in Switzerland," I replied. "I just hope I don't accidentally say the wrong thing when I'm talking to the employees."
"Neither have we; You speak French better than anyone else here." Simza was combing her hair with her fingers and then braiding it so that her hat would fit on her head. "I'm sure you'll be fine."
Once everyone was ready to go, we stepped out into the cold air and I let it sink into my lungs; that was another thing I loved about this place, that the air was cleaner and more pure. I glanced up at the Alps, wondering what it would be like to stand on top of them and look out onto the city; I imagined it would be like how a king or queen looks over their kingdom.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" A soft voice said beside me and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. "Sometimes I would just like to come here and get away from it all, just have some peace and quiet."
"That's what I said to Jane, but of course, she doesn't want me living in a place like this without a husband, she thinks I'll die sad and alone."
"Why would she think that? My brother isn't married and he's turned out just fine. And he's not alone, he's got Stanley."
"Exactly my point; you don't have to be married to be happy."
"But what if someone did want to marry you, would you decline?"
I thought about this for a moment. "It depends on who asked me."
If only I was prepared for the complexity of choosing the right dress; usually, Mother would already have our clothes picked out for us so it saved us the trouble, and if they needed to be bigger or smaller, she would just have them altered and then they would be ready; I didn't know the first thing about what colour went best with what, or whether puffed sleeves were too old-fashioned, and I wasn't sure what anyone else had picked yet and Jane wanted us to colour-coordinate, so that made it a hundred times more difficult than it already was. I huffed in frustration and sat on the bench outside the changing room, putting my face in my hands.
"Are you having trouble picking something?" I looked up from my misery and saw that a young, blond woman, an employee was watching me with concern, and lucky for me, she appeared to speak English. I nodded. "Don't worry, you're not the first nervous customer I've had, and I'm sure I can help you find what you're looking for. I just need to know what kind of dress you would like; the style, the colour, sleeves or no sleeves." As she went on about the different kinds of dresses I could choose from and we passed the rest of the aisles until we found the formal wear section; there were so many colours, it looked like a rainbow had exploded in here. I was a girl who loved wearing black, but I didn't want to look like I was attending a funeral, White was nice, but I did not want to stand out from everyone else, the job was to blend in. "Perhaps something like what those ladies over there are wearing?"
From the corner of my eye, I spotted Simza and Jane showing off their new dresses; both of them were red velvet; and they looked nice. "I think that would be perfect," I said, relieved that the decision-making was over.
"Excellent choice, I will find one for you and you can try it on; if I need to make it bigger, or smaller then I will." She pulled out a matching dress and handed it to me; then we went into the changing room to try it on. Since there was a lace corset at the back which would need doing up, I figured it was a good idea for her to come with me, as embarrassing as it was; I was only grateful that there was a curtain separating us from the other customers.
The corset was first, but she made sure that she didn't do it up too tight, just tight enough that my already small waist was a lot smaller, then there was the daunting task of putting on the dress; it had to go over my head and at the same time, I needed to put my arms in the sleeves. Once we finally got it on, I turned around and looked in the mirror, I loved the way the dress looked and felt on me.
"It's perfect," I said with a small smile, running my fingers over the soft material. "I couldn't have done it without your help."
"Just doing my job," she smiled back and a few minutes later, I changed into my regular clothes and then joined Simza and Jane who were also ready to go.
"Charlotte!" Jane ran over to me; her cheeks were red from the warmth inside the shop. "Did you find anything?"
"I got a dress to match yours," I said, holding it up. "Where are the boys?"
"I can hear them." Simza nodded toward the men who were arguing back and forth about something, but stopped once they reached us.
"There you are!" I put on my coat and scarf. "Who knew choosing the right dress could be this exhausting?"
"Did you find what you were looking for?" asked Watson.
"I found one to match the others' dresses, but you don't get to see it until tonight. And no, it's not behind my back," I added when I saw them all trying to get a peek. "someone already took it out to the carriage for me. Now, we should get going if we're going to be ready on time."
And that's Chapter 12, everyone! Sorry it's taken me a little while to upload, I have been working on a few other things, and as a writer, sometimes it's far too easy to take on too many projects at one time, not to mention I accidentally deleted an entire chapter of one of my fanfictions. *Gasp* Anywho, my birthday is on Friday and guess what I am watching? You got it! So on that happy note, I bid you Adieu for now!