Meaning Of Loving You- Enola Holmes

001: Missing Mother

Lilli Wilson was not a morning person, you would rarely see her out of bed before noon. She was always staying up late sketching new designs of clothing. Lilli had many dreams for her future. Her biggest being a fashion designer, who solved crimes in her spare time. But her best friends birthday, was one of the rare occasions the girl would get out of bed early.
"Miss Wilson." Eva says, coming into Lilli's room where the brunette was sat at her vanity.
"Yes?" Lilli asks.
"Miss Enola Holmes has requested you go to see her. There's a carriage waiting outside for you." Eva tells her.
"Okay, thank you, Eva." Lilli says, standing up from her vanity.
The Wilson girl grabs her sketchbook and pencil and the present she had gotten Enola for her birthday, before heading out to the carriage.

Lilli climbs out of the carriage after it came to a stop outside of the Holmes household. She spots Enola sat under a tree and walks over.
"You know you didn't have to request for me to come. I was going to be here no matter what. I can't miss you're birthday." Lilli tells her best friend, as she gets closer. As Lilli stands in front of her, the brunette sees the tears running down Enola's cheeks. "What's wrong?"
"She's gone. My mother... she disappeared." Enola tells her.
The news hit Lilli like a train. The women who had became a mother figure to her when her own mother had left them... was gone.
"Wh- when did she go missing?" Lilli asks.
"I awoke this morning and she was gone." Enola says.
"Oh my..." Lilli says sadly, looking past her best friend before looking down. "Enola, I'm so sorry."
"I don't know what I'm going to do without her." Enola says.
"We'll find her. I'll help you. We'll do whatever it takes." Lilli says.
"Thank you, Lil." Enola says.
Lilli gives her best friend a sad smile. The two girls lives had changed, little did they know it was all about to change a lot more.

__________

A Week Later...

A week had passed since Eudoria Holmes had disappeared suddenly. Lilli and Enola were on their way to the train station to go pick up their brothers. They were both riding their bikes, until Enola fall off.
"Are you okay, Enola?" Lilli asks.
"Yes, thank you, Lilli." Enola replies. "You know that cycling is not one of my core strengths."
"But needs must when you must speed somewhere." Lilli reminds her, before they hear the train. "Come on."
Lilli cycles off as Enola picks up her bike, climbing on and cycling to catch her up.

The girls get to the station just as the train pulls in they park their bikes and walk to the middle of the platform. The girls look around until they see their brothers walking out the train and towards them. They smile brightly at each other before looking back to their brothers. But instead of stopping at them they walk past.
"Mr Holmes." Enola says. "And um, Mr Holmes."
The three man turn to them.
"Oh my Lord, Lilli." Liam says, walking up giving his sister a big hug.
"It hasn't been that long that you would forget me, has it?" Lilli asks, laughing a little.
"Oh my... Lilli you have grown." Sherlock says, before looking at Enola. "And you are?"
"You sent for me. You sent a telegram. Asked me to meet you here?" Enola says, giving them some clues, a bit hurt they didn't recognise her.
"Enola." Sherlock says, as it hits him.
"My god. Look at you." Mycroft says, looking between the two girls. "Both of you. You're in such a mess. Where's you're hats and your gloves?"
"Well, I have hat, just make my heads itch. And I have no gloves." Enola says.
"She has no gloves?" Mycroft asks, looking at Sherlock.
"Clearly not, Mycroft." Sherlock responds.
"I don't wear my hat and gloves as they make me feel restricted." Lilli answers.
"We didn't send for you, silly girls. We sent for the carriage." Mycroft says. "Did you at least bring it?"
"The carriage?" Enola asks.
"Yes." Mycroft says.
"What carriage would you be wanting? Because we have a few in mind." Lilli jokes.
"The carriage I pay for." Mycroft responds, annoyed.
"Right. I think you may have us confused with another house." Enola tells him.
Mycroft looks shocked, while Sherlock and Liam try not to laugh.
"Liam, doesn't you're family have a carriage?" Mycroft asks.
"Yes we do." Liam says.
"But the wheel broke so it's currently being fixed." Lilli tells him.
Mycroft looks at the two girls even more annoyed.
"Boy, fetch us a carriage." Sherlock tells someone.
"Quickly!" Mycroft adds.

__________

The five of them arrive back at the Holmes household, and Mrs Lane walks out to great them.
"Gentlemen, welcome home. It's been some time." Mrs Lane says.
They walk into the house and look around, Mycroft picks up a tennis racket.
"What is this?" Mycroft asks.
"Tennis?" Lilli asks.
"Mother says we're getting quite proficient." Enola says, looking at Sherlock and Liam.
"Where the hell is she?" Mycroft asks, before walking to the bedroom Sherlock and Liam following. "her bed hasn't been made."
"Hmm. Chrysanthemums." Sherlock says, looking at some flowers.
"Clothes haven't been put away." Mycroft adds.
"And laurustinus, and Queen Anne's lace." Sherlock mutters.
"Enough of the bally flowers, Sherlock." Mycroft tells him.
"Huh." Sherlock says looking around. "But it wasn't foul play."
"How? Are you certain?" Mycroft asks.
"Her regular supply of drawing pencils had dwindled to nothing. She clearly had decided not to replace them, and you rarely find kidnapped victims have planned for their own disappearance." Sherlock explains.
"She wasn't returning, and yet she disguised her intentions perfectly." Liam adds.
"That's good news, is it not?" Mycroft asks.
"Depends on if you're relying on her coming back." Sherlock says, as Enola and Lilli walk towards the door.
"Oh good God." Mycroft says, picking up a book. "Feminism. Perhaps she was mad or senile. Though madness, in our family? I would doubt it."
"I think we can surmise by the way she left leaving no clear leads, she still had her full wits about her." Sherlock says.
"No madwomen could compile the accounts she sent me over the last ten years." Mycroft says. "Perfectly clear and orderly. Detailing a bathroom. And a water closet. And the constantly rising salaries of he footmen, the housemaids, the kitchen maids, gardeners, the under gardeners, and for Enola and Lilli a music teacher, a dance instructor, a governess."
"Enola, lilli, you at least had a governess." Sherlock says.
"She wouldn't like you in here." Enola tells them. "This is her private space."
"Tell me, she at least saw that you both had an education?" Sherlock says. "She valued education."
"She taught us herself." Lilli says. "She made us read every book in Ferndell Hall's library."
"Shakespeare, Locke, and the encyclopedia, and Thackeray, and the essays of Mary Wollstonecraft." Enola lists. "And we did it on our own account. For our own learning. Which mother said was the best way to become a young... woman."
"Well, this is what she wanted you both to become?" Mycroft asks.
"Mycroft." Liam says.
"What?" Mycroft asks.
"I don;t know what she wanted me to be. She's left us to." Enola says. "She will return, won't she, Sherlock?"
Sherlock remains silent.
"Won't she?" Lilli asks.
Without answering Sherlock excuses himself, Liam and Mycroft into the other room.