A Trail of Treasure - Sherlock Holmes

Chapter Eighteen - Hurt and Betrayal

"Miss Westin!"

Caroline jumped when she entered 221B and heard her name hissed from the doorway up ahead. She turned to see Mrs. Hudson's head peeking around the corner.

"Mrs. Hudson, is everything all right?"

"She's here!"

"Who?"

"Irene Adler!"

Caroline's jaw fell open.  Holmes's old flame was here? As in here in the house here? 

"He must have let her in while I was at the market - I wouldn't have let her into my house had I been here. I don't want her causing any more trouble under this roof!"

"No, certainly not. Don't worry, Mrs. Hudson.  I'll go and check to make sure everything's all right." 

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. You stay down here. I'll be right back." With that, she started up the stairs. 

She paused on her way upstairs - she didn't know what she would find up there. But keeping her promise to the kind landlady in mind, she carried on.  

When she reached Sherlock's room she lay her ear against the door for a moment - she heard a giggle, a woman's giggle. 

She knocked a few times.   "Sherlock? It's me." She was about to ask if it was alright for her to come in when the door swung open before her, startling her. 

A dark-haired woman in a deep purple dress stood there. Caroline could just make out Sherlock's figure over the woman's shoulder, standing deeper into the room staring out the window. 

"So you're her.  The infamous Irene."

The woman smiled. "That's me." She spoke with an American accent. 

Caroline wondered what she was doing all the way over here in England, besides charming Sherlock Holmes, but Irene was standing close enough for her to notice something right away about her appearance: 

The pearls around her neck. 

Her pearls. The ones supposedly sent by her father. 

"Hey, those are mine-" She strode towards the other woman, making her back up into the room.  "Give them back." Then she stiffened and turned to Sherlock.  "I thought you had them, kept them for safekeeping."

Irene snorted. "If that's what you want to call it." 

"Because you were concerned for my safety." Caroline's gaze didn't leave Sherlock. 

"Ah, always the gentleman, isn't he.  These were a lovely little gift from Sherlock here." Irene lay a gloved hand over the pearls around her neck.  "Always the charmer."

"If that's what you want to call it," Holmes shot back, finally turning away from the window.  "You stole them."

"How could you?" Caroline cried.  

"That's what I was wondering," he agreed.

"No, I was talking to you," she clarified.  "How could you let her take them?"

"She tricked me."

"Well then clearly you weren't keeping them safe enough! How did she even know about them?"

"I have my ways," Irene responded in a sing-song voice. 

"I can't believe this! I can't believe you!" Caroline pointed an accusatory finger at Sherlock.  "How could you?"