Bonds of Time

Chapter 6

Sherlock kept quiet. From the corner of her eye she saw his mouth twitch in a half smile reluctantly.

"I could say the same for you. You were a rather unconvincing boy. Now, tell me what you gleaned and I'll tell you what I think."

She frowned at the fire, thinking and categorizing every piece of information.

"Captain Basil is a trader who trades and travels round the world. Silks, ivory, jewels, spices, tobacco and coal if I'm not mistaken. No known affiliation with women, quiet personality but not easily bullied, pays his debts. He's from Whitechapel and no known criminal activities. His friend though, Stanton, is a known cheat. So therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if he is involved in criminal activities. Which casts doubt on Basil. Is he as clean as he looks? Or is he good enough to hide his dirty hands? Also, he's a good captain, from what I heard, a fair one who tries to uphold justice aboard his ship while trying to prevent any...casualties as well."

Sherlock nodded. "Not bad. What else did you glean from his appearance?"

Giselle closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

"He takes care of his clothes, but only to a certain extent. Stains in his coat and dull buttons suggest that he's a bachelor. Or a widower. Hat drawn low over his eyes, he was trying to hide his identity. He smokes and yet his moustache has no yellowing. Clearly, he can't grow a moustache overnight, so that leaves us with two options. He doesn't smoke regularly enough or his moustache is a fake. His voice was gruff, but forced. So he was trying to hide his voice as well. His hands did not look as if they did any hard work, so his work aboard his ship may be questionable. Does he do any work on the ship? Is he even a captain? No tan, so definitely not a captain. There was a slight bulging in his coat's breast pocket. Most probably a fire arm. I'm inclined to think that he's not as 'clean' as he looks, or that Captain Basil is nothing but an alias; a disguise used for another purpose. His clothes, I had already seen them and his eyes were familiar. It's safe to assume that Captain Basil is none other than one of Sherlock Holmes' disguises."

She stopped and opened her gray eyes.

"What do you think?" she said as she turned her tired eyes to him.

"Good, you got the rumours and physical appearance perfectly. What about the facts? Were you able to prove the rumours with the facts?"

She frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"For someone trained in the scientific ways, your methods were rather lacking. You must always prove your theories with fact. You must never twist the facts to suit the theory, but the other way round; the theory must suit the facts. Quite simply, I was rather disappointed." He stated.

Giselle stared at him, her lips parted in shock.

He waited for her to respond back, to defend herself.

However, her reply died on her lips. Her lips closed and pressed themselves into a thin line as she realised what he was doing.

He had deduced that she always learned the theory before moving to something practical. She realised that he wanted to teach her that there would not always be time to learn the theory before; that sometimes she would have to rely on her knowledge and instincts to get her through situations. Bluff her way through in a believable manner, so to speak.

Giselle's face tightened in a grimace as several more things were made obvious to her.

His methods of teaching were not easy on the student; there would be no spoon feeding. She also realised that she was meant to fail; that this was a direct hit at her pride. She knew that it was obvious that she was proud in her abilities due to her academic successes, which had made her very proud in her abilities.

She looked in his eyes, frowning.

She concluded that he wanted her to be more humble in her approach to what he was going to teach her.

"I understand." She said, the frown not leaving her face.

Sherlock's lips twitched.

"Do you? Then we have no further need to discuss your methods. Moving on to your disguise, what are my thoughts?"

"Horrible disguise." She promptly replied.

"Remember what I just told you, always support your claims."

It was difficult to find flaws in her plan.

"I was too feminine." She said, as he nodded in response.

"What else?"

"My clothes were too clean for a homeless person, especially a boy. I kept changing the tone of my voice, revealing my disguise and I left my drink unattended. Also, the story I provided was weak."

Sherlock nodded again in agreement.

"You must always strive to improve yourself." He said as he stood up.

She followed his example, her back aching in protest.

"First thing tomorrow evening after the book store, Miss Elmer. Don't be late." He said as he turned from her and walked to the window.

"Goodnight, Mr Holmes." She said, realising her dismissal and hurrying back to her room, eager for her comfortable bed.

As she lay in bed that night, her eyebrows knitted themselves into a frown.

Humility, she decided, was a very bitter medicine and she vowed to herself to try even harder.

With that final thought, her vision blurred and moments later she was fast asleep.
♠ ♠ ♠
I have no excuse for delaying this chapter so much. But can you find it in you to be happy for me for receiving results for half my exams (passed all of the exams that I received results for, so far), finally managed to get a house in the place of my dreams and are currently living in it and also been working on two other stories?

Anyway, my thanks for the comments go to
ThatOtherWeirdPoet
JustThinking
PunkRockChick
mf_user
glassdragon93
Khloe Styles

and to all the subscribers. Thank you!!