‘Why in heaven’s name are you all dressed up like that, Watson?’

     Holmes, still in his mouse-coloured dressing gown, was lounging back on the ottoman, smoking his infernal pipe, as if we didn’t have an important engagement that evening.

  ‘Have you forgotten?’ I replied. ‘It’s the launch of Mrs Hudson’s account of our recent trip to Turkey.’

  Holmes sighed, languidly.

  ‘Oh, that!’ he said. ‘No, you go, Watson. You can represent both of us. I am far too fatigued.’

    I looked at him reprovingly.

    ‘It’s the least you can do, Holmes. After all, without Mrs Hudson, I doubt we could have solved the mystery of the harem deaths ourselves.’

    ‘Of course we could have,’ he said. ‘Admittedly, Mrs Hudson had her uses at the court of the Sultan, but I imagine her account will tend to swell her importance over and above what she actually accomplished. Which, in fact, was very little.’

     ‘I can’t believe what I am hearing,’ I exclaimed. ‘As men, neither you nor I were able to penetrate the mysteries of the harem. Mrs Hudson did so, performing to perfection and unmasking the perpetrators of a dastardly plot. We certainly could not have managed without her. Or are you claiming you could have disguised yourself as some eccentric aristocratic English lady, and taken her place?’

     It would, after all, not be the first time that Holmes had taken on the guise of the fair sex, although, in his case, ‘fair’ would hardly be the applicable adjective. Widow Twankey would be more apropos.

   ‘Please do not be stupid, Watson,’ Holmes replied. ‘Of course, I should not have attempted such a stunt.’ He passed a drooping hand over his brow. ‘But I could perhaps have passed muster as a eunuch.’

    There was no polite answer to that. However, I could barely repress a chuckle at the thought of Holmes blacked up and sporting the exotic headdress and robes of the guardians of the harem. As I hastily left, he, reading my thoughts no doubt, looked daggers at me.  

     It was some hours later when I returned, only to find Holmes had not moved from his couch. I, acting nonchalant, said nothing to him.

     ‘Well?’ he asked, after a pause. Of course, he was curious.

     ‘It was a great success,’ I said. ‘A pity you could not have been there, Holmes. Mrs Hudson was most disappointed. She has sent back some Turkish delight and baklava for you.’

     Holmes regarded the sweetmeats. ‘I suppose everyone was disappointed at my absence.’

     ‘Not at all,’ I was pleased to inform him. ‘Mrs Hudson was the star of the show and she acquitted herself admirably.’

     ‘Humph!’ Holmes frowned. ‘I knew it. I knew she would take all the glory to herself.’

     ‘Not at all. She was most careful to say that without you… and me, she would never have got out of there alive.’

     Holmes looked somewhat mollified, and popped a piece of rose-flavoured Turkish delight into his mouth. I am afraid I didn’t tell him about the dusting of powdered sugar on the tip of his long nose.

Death in the Harem: A Mrs Hudson and Sherlock Holmes Mystery (MX publishing) is available from Amazon and other on-line distributors, as well as directly from the publisher: https://mxpublishing.com/products/death-in-the-harem-a-sherlock-holmes-and-mrs-hudson-mystery