Prompt: winning (or losing) a bet (goodpenmanship)
This ended up more about winning and losing than a bet exactly, but hopefully it keeps to the spirit of it.
"As peculiar as it may be," Mrs. Watson remarked quietly, falling into step with me as we neared the inn, "I am honestly grateful to you, Mr. Holmes."
I slowed to put a little more distance between us and Watson and Miss Marple, who were engrossed in their own discussion and I expected would not miss us for a little while.
"Perhaps I ought to resent you," she continued, her gaze trailing along the brick rowhouses which lined the winding country avenue, "that you won what I lost, but these days I cannot bring myself to mind. After all, it is thanks to you and Dr. Watson that I have the means and freedom to spend my days as I please. And your family has welcomed me as I could have never hoped."
"Even I could not have foreseen having such a family," I said airily, but Mrs. Watson must have perceived the truth in it, for she turned to look at me for the first time since she had fallen in beside me.
She nodded in understanding and I could see her sympathetic nature. "John told me. All three of us, orphans without any family to speak of, and yet, somehow, now Jane and her sisters are like the sisters I never knew, and I've watched dear Phryne and Bess grow up into such daring young ladies, and I even see Jeeves and Brown sometimes on their days off, like nephews. I can only count myself fortunate."
Now, it was I who could not meet her forthright gaze. They may have been my own family, but families are rarely simple, and I could say with some confidence that mine was more complicated than most.
"I loved John," she said at last, "but in truth I believe we were not so well suited as my girlish heart hoped, and thanks to him I have found something even more precious, so I can only wish you both well."
"Thank you, Mrs. Watson," I said, and I meant it earnestly. I believe it was her honesty, which encouraged me to confess in kind, "It is all far more than I too could have hoped. I only regret that Watson's old tendency to understate his own abilities has reared its head again."
A smile flitted across Mrs. Watson's face, though she quickly stifled it with a serious nod. "He always felt he could never be worthy of you, especially when his old injury troubled him. That I resented you for."
I could not argue with her reason. "Regrettably, I cannot employ such a simple solution."
"No, I suppose not," she said with a wry smile.
Watson and Miss Marple were already waiting for us out front of the inn, and at last we inevitably caught up with them, even though we had slowed our pace to allow for some privacy as we spoke.
As we neared, I heard Miss Marple saying to Watson, "I have noticed several of the gentlemen in the village who as they reach your and Mr. Holmes's age, suddenly start acting in ways that even a younger man would call reckless. There was Mr. Williams who ran off with his mistress who was half his age, and Mr. Bennet suddenly bought that yacht on the mediterranean."
"I hope you are not longing for the ocean air, Watson?" I interjected.
Watson flushed delicately at our ill-timed arrival. "Hardly," he insisted.
"No, I should think not," Miss Marple said with a shake of her head. "It shakes things up well enough, but they rarely end up more satisfied than when they started. Really, I find it's often about something else all together, and the extravagances are just a distraction."