The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes, #1)

by Nancy Springer

Ferndell.

LADY EUDORIA VERNET HOLMES MISSING SINCE YESTERDAY STOP PLEASE ADVISE STOP ENOLA HOLMES

Mycroft Holmes, of Pall Mall, in London.

Sherlock Holmes, of Baker Street, also in London.

My bro...

Dick…. Her grown son, who did odd jobs around the estate, while Reginald, the somewhat more intelligent collie dog, supervised him.

not some old high-wheeled bone-shaker, but an up-to-date “dwarf” bicycle with pneumatic tyres, perfectly safe.

“rationals”—bloomers covered by a waterproof skirt—or indeed any kind of skirt long enough to conceal my ankles.

my mother was criticised for failing properly to drape vulgar surfaces such as coal scuttles, the back of her piano, and me. Shocking child that I was.

my late arrival all the more shameful for a gentleman Rationalist logician and his well-bred artistic wife.

Mum was, you see, very much a free thinker, a woman of character, a proponent of female suffrage and dress reform,

my brother’s accomplishments: scholar, chemist, superb violinist, expert marksman, swordsman, singlestick fighter, pugilist, and brilliant deductive thinker.

I wanted my brothers to . . . I did not dare to think in terms of affection, but I wanted them to care for me a little, somehow.

ALO NEK OOL NIY MSM UME HTN ASY RHC

Enola look in my chrysanthemums.

“Enola, look in my chrysanthemums”?

“The bestowing of chrysanthemums indicates familial attachment and, by implication, affection.”

sweet pea blossom. “Good-bye, and thank you for a lovely time. A gift made upon departure.”

thistles. “Defiance.”

AOEOLIMESOK LNKONYDBBN

KNOBSBEDMYINLOOKENOLA KNOBS BED MY IN LOOK ENOLA

the heat and the exercise. Horses sweat, you know, and men perspire, whereas ladies glow. I am sure I looked all of a glow also.

Take “Holmes,” divide it into hol mes, reverse it into mes hol, Meshol, then spell it the way it was pronounced: Meshle.

“Madame Laelia Sibyl de Papaver, Astral Perditorian, at your service,”

Perditorian. From the Latin perditus, meaning “lost.” Perditorian: one who divines that which is lost.

Why did Cutter search the train? Why did he follow me? Why did he think I knew where to find Tewky? What did he want with Tewky? Why did he wire Squeaky to look for Tewky on the docks? What did he mean when he said “much the same”? Is he in the business of kidnapping? How did he know anything about Tewky and the Great Eastern at all?

Soon to Be Available for Consultation, Dr. Leslie T. Ragostin, Scientific Perditorian. A scientist must of course be a man,

“Iris tipstails to Ivy ABOMNITEUNTNYHYATEUASRMLNRSML OIGNHSNOOLCRSNHMMLOABIGOE”

AM BLOOMING IN THE SUN. NOT ONLY CHRYSANTHEMUM, ALSO RAMBLING ROSE This message was sent, she believes, by a contented woman who is wandering, free,

If she had any distance to travel, why did she not use the bicycle? Why did she not leave by the gate? If she struck out across country, on foot, where was she going?

the rambling rose refers to “a free, wandering, Gypsy type of life.”