Enola sat in the office quietly, preparing to listen to a long and boring lecture. "Do you know why I'm an educator?" The headmistress questioned. "It's because I want to make people happy."
Enola scoffed.
"I want you to live a full and vibrant life. Not with anger and endless questions, but with answers." She continued. "I prepare my girls for the world, for the real world!" She said proudly.
"I would never abandon you...." The headmistress spoke.
Enola turned to look at the old woman slowly.
"I would never leave you to fend for yourself." She said.
Enola eyebrows furrowed and the lady nodded.
"Yes," the wrinkly lady spoke. "Mycroft told me," she said.
Enola opened her mouth. "My mother had her reasons." She said.
"I'm sure she did." The headmistress nodded, there was a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice. "I knew your mother. We were friends for a while. At school. Along with this other girl, Grace L/N. They were both wild things. Were always unpredictable, always ready to face a challenge. And I admired them. Grace ran away the second school was done with some boy. She had no money or anything. And as I've heard she had a child. The child's probably around your age by now. I wonder how Grace is doing."
"L/N..." Enola whispered.
"Grace was my friend." The headmistress sighed.
"Her friendship is something I will cherish. Your mother on the other hand, she never truly cared for anything execpt her own...unusual ideas."
Enola looked at her angrily. "She cared for me."
"Then why did she leave you?"
Enola sat in silence, not knowing what to say. The one question she couldn't answer. She looked down, why did she leave me. The headmistress shrugged and stood up.
"Prefects will accompany you to and from lessons." She spoke. "Seeing as you don't know how to handle yourself. This door will always be kept locked."
Enola wasn't listening, she was just asking herself the same question. Why did she leave me.
"You'll thank me..." the lady said. "One day, when you're happily married with a pair of strapping boys." She opened the door and stepped outside, and locked it.
•••
Y/N shook Tewksbury awake. "Jesus, wake up!" She exclaimed. "Your snoring is driving me mad." Tewksbury sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?" He yawned. "I don't know, but it's morning. So get up."
"Why are you in such a rush?" He questioned before standing up and stretching. "We have to save Enola." Y/N smiled.
"And how are we meant to save Enola if we don't know where Enola is?" He asked, confused. "You're a very confusing person sometimes."
Y/N rolled her eyes and showed Tewksbury the poster. "Finishing School?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowed. "You really think the Enola Holmes would be in finishing school?"
"YES!" Y/N yelled. "She said herself that if she got caught she'd be sentenced to a life she did not want? Where's the one place Enola would rather die than be in?"
"Finishing School." They both said.
"Well, how are we meant to save her?" He questioned, reading the poster. "I may have an idea." She smiled.
"Normally, your ideas are not always the safest ideas." Tewksbury said nervously.
•••
Enola sat in her room. She was on her bench, facing the mirror with her corset around her waist. She was trying as hard as she could to tighten it. She sighed and grabbed the strings and pulled as hard as she could. She felt like she couldn't breathe with this cage around her torso.
"Enola!" Someone said from the other side of the door. "Hurry up, you're brothers here."
After another ten minutes of doing the corset the headmistress led Enola into a room where Sherlock Holmes sat patiently. "Mister Holmes."
Enola looked down, expecting to see Mycroft but to her surprise she saw Sherlock. She felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
"You." She whispered.
"Thank you, Miss Harrison." Sherlock smiled, signalling for her to leave the room. "Oh. Of course." She said, being broken out of her daze of staring at Sherlock.
Sherlock was looking through the bookshelves when Enola stormed over to him. "I have never seen such a range of romances in my life." He said inspecting each book. He had a newspaper tucked under his arm which Enola grabbed out of his possession.
She unfolded it immediately. "What in heavens are you looking for?" Sherlock asked as she looked through each and every page. "Why might you be interested in the personals? You've gone quite mad." He said confusedly.
"I have a right to be mad in a place like this." She answered, her eyes not leaving the page.
Sherlock nodded. "I was forced into calligraphy as a child. Ah. Hated it. But there's rarely a case where someone's handwriting doesn't tell me something I need to know." Enola looked up at him.
"And what might I learn from deportment?" She said.
"The way a person stands may disguise who they are." Sherlock spoke. "Nothing's wasted."
Enola looked at Sherlock hopefully. "Have you found her?" She asked. Sherlock sighed and put the magnifying glass he was playing with down. "No, not yet. I went to the tearooms, where Edith threatened me with a teapot. She said you were with some girl. And then I went to Limehouse. I believe you and that same girl went there too." Enola looked down, her face going pink and Sherlock chuckled.
"You've become quite the detective, Enola." He smiled.
"Did you find the gunpowder and the bombs?" She asked. "I did." He answered.
"Why would she-" Enola asked but got cut off.
"I shudder to think." He interrupted. "Perhaps she wants to change the world." He let out a small smile.
Enola looked at him sadly.
"Perhaps it's a world that needs changing."
Sherlock looked at her, amazed.
"Will you stop her?" She asked him.
"I don't get involved in politics." He shrugged.
"Or people, either, unless they're clues." Enola rolled her eyes. Sherlock looked at her.
"Did you help Mycroft catch me?"
"No."
"But, you found out about the money and you told him." She said, clutching the newspaper tightly in her hands.
"You disappeared. We had to know how far you'd run." He said.
"I'm just a case to you, aren't I?" She said throwing the newspaper on the desk. "A curiosity! Is that why you're here, to pick my brains? Or possibly you're feeling guilty!"
"No!" Sherlock raised his voice. "I'm here because I care for you!" It was silent. Enola closed her mouth and looked at him sadly. "You're being emotional." She joked, "it's understandable, but unnecessary." She said walking away from him.
Sherlock smiled at the girl. He nodded. "Using my own line against me." He paused. "It's an intrigue, isn't it?"
Enola looked at him confusedly. "Emotion?"
"The Tewksbury and L/N case." He spoke.
Enola heart skipped a beat. "I believe it's a bit more complicated than a simple disappearance." He said as he looked out the window.
Enola remained silent.
"They both jumped from the train, with another boy. We're they being chased do you think?" He turned to Enola. "How did you know that?" She questioned.
"I traced your departure to the same station that L/N and Tewksbury left from." He said.
"Edith mentioned a useless boy and a strong girl. Fits the description of the ones jumping from the train." He continued. "And I was telegrammed about a young female assistant of mine along with a female police officer, who visited the Tewksbury residence.
Have you solved it?"
"Not yet."
"The only advice I can give to you, one detective to another, sometimes you must dangle your feet in the water in order to attract the sharks." Sherlock said, a big grin on his face.
A smile grew on Enolas face.
"So that's why you came here. Shark lessons."
Sherlock shook his head. "No, no," he walked closer to Enola. "I came here... to give you this." He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out an object wrapped in tissue and handed it to Enola.
Enola carefully unwrapped it. It was a small toy hedgehog that Enola used to carry around the house when she was no more then a baby. "I found it under mothers pillow." Sherlock smiled. "She kept it."
Enola picked it up. "Dash..." she whispered.
"Sentimental, really, but she always did..." Sherlock spoke. "She always found you quite extraordinary."
Enola smiled up at Sherlock, tears in her eyes.
"As do I, Enola Holmes." He smiled back down at her.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. "The choice is always yours. Whatever society may claim, it can't control you. As mother has proven."
Enola breathed sharply. "Keep the newspaper." He said to her.
His hand left her shoulder and he walked towards the door. Enola turned around to watch him leave. The door opened and closed and Enola smiled to herself.
•••
Later that evening Enola sat on her bed, Dash in her hands. She held Dash close to her face. "Mother thought I was extraordinary." She whispered to the hedgehog. "Extraordinary." She repeated.
She placed Dash down and picked up the newspaper Sherlock left her with. Something caught her eye on it. "The lords." She read off the front page.
She opened the next page.
HOPES FADE FOR THE YOUNG LORD
people say he was put under the bad influence of a young girl who goes by the name Y/N L/N.
Enola sighed and shook her head. "Lord." She whispered again. "Every vote counts." She read again. She was brought away from her thoughts when there was a sharp knock on the door.
"Delivery from Ferndell Hall!" A man's voice called out from the other side.
Enola opened the door. "Care of Mr. Mycroft Holmes." The delivery man said. "What does he want?" Enola asked, an intense tone in her voice.
"Well..." the man sighed. "Whatever is in this basket, it's heavy." He said before pushing it inside Enolas room.
Enola closed the door behind him and looked at the brown whicker basket. "What on earth does Mycroft want?" She asked herself. She looked at the basket.
It moved and shifted and she could hear arguing from inside it. "get your foot out of my mouth!" A female voice grunted. "Get you're hair out of mine!" A male voice yelled.
Enola smiled, realising who it was. Someone sneezed inside. "Don't sneeze on me, Tewksbury!" A girl screamed. The basket shifted and shook. Enola gave the basket a kick. "OW!" Tewksbury exclaimed, Y/N burst out laughing.
Enola ripped the top of the basket off.
"Y/N! TEWKSBURY!" Enola exclaimed with joy. She grabbed the both of them into a hug. Squeezing the life out of them. "You're supposed to be helping us out, not getting in with us!" Y/N laughed as Enola helped her out the basket.
Y/N gave Tewksbury a hand out after.
"How did you's find me?" Enola asked incredulously.
"Well, you said you didn't want to come to Miss Harrison's Finishing School for Young Ladies?" Tewksbury laughed.
"I wouldn't want to either, this is practically a prison." Y/N said, looking a around the room.
Enola smiled. "I'm glad to see you's again."
"So are we." Y/N smiled. "Even if Tewksbury kicked me a million times in the face on the way here." She chuckled. "You're acting like you didn't punch me in the nose five times!" He exclaimed back.
"Anyways, I thought we'd go out the same way we came in." Tewksbury suggested. "I even wore my most porter-ish coat!" He laughed. Y/N laughed and rolled her eyes. "I have my hat and trousers." Y/N shrugged.
"That's an excellent idea." Enola smiled. She jumped into the basket and Y/N closed the lid. "No! No! No!" Enola screamed and jumped back out.
"Miss Harrison, she will see right through both of you." Enola said.
"This Miss Harrison lady seems like a real-"
Y/N said before Tewksbury slapped his hand across her face. "I'm gonna stop you there."
"Shh! Let me think." Enola said, closing her eyes.
WORD COUNT : 2042