Читать книгу A Question of Time - Jamie Ashbird - Страница 10

A slow drip of heavy drops fell from the hothouse ceiling onto the two men below.

‘I hardly expected it to happen like this,’ Watson whispered, a hair’s breadth from Holmes’s mouth.

‘You’ve been imagining it?’

‘Oh, yes. On the rooftops of the city, breathless after a chase. At the foot of our own stairs at Baker Street, breathless after a chase. In the back of a cab–’

‘Breathless after a chase? I detect a pattern to these whimsies of yours, John.’

‘Hardly fanciful. We spend half our days out of breath at the heels of some nefarious criminal.’

‘True. Oh!’ Holmes beamed as a giant swallowtail fluttered by.

‘You shine, you know, when you’re on a case. You’re like a beacon.’

‘So I recall from your sensational accounts of our adventures. I didn’t imagine us to be breathless.’

‘Ho ho! You’ve been imagining too?’

Holmes leaned in and brushed his lips against John’s.

‘Of course, though not so adventurous as you. At home, in our own rooms. A fire lit, a pot of tea. A pipe for me, a brandy for you. Comfortable, warm.’

‘You old sop. And you accuse me of being a romantic.’

‘Hardly, my dear. If I were I’d have thought of this sooner.’

And they kissed for the very seventh time surrounded by orchids and butterflies.