Rumour Has It, Part II (PG, #75)

[hawksandfeathers]

Title: Rumour Has It, Part II
Rating: PG
Prompt: Rumour Has It, #75
Summary: Alex and Gary are hot on the Eldorne case.
Disclaimer: Sherlock's and its plot belong to Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. The original plot and characters belong to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

"Gareth, I'm getting the photograph tonight. I've been to her house, and I just need to wait. Meet me at the intersection near the Lower City." 

That was the message that the page-boy related to me. "Absolutely verbatim?" I inquired sternly.

"Yes, Your Grace. And Lady Cythera wanted me to tell you that she has tea in the living room for you."

I smiled at Cythera's gesture. "Coming in a moment." I patted Raffiq, our beagle, and turned off the lamp behind me.

As I strode into the hallway, tantalizing smells of rice and meat filled my nostrils. Cythera came out of the peachy-orange early evening light holding a candle. Her hair was damp and tied in a simple horsetail, and she was wearing an ethereal cotton gown that tickled her ankles. 

"Well?" she asked playfully. "Hungry?"

I grinned. "Of course."

She took my arm and sat me at our simple wooden table I loved so much. I'd gotten it in Tusaine when we went travelling, the time Cythera got horribly sick. I could still remember her hoarse vows coming from the depths of our bedroom covers: "I'm never going there again."

As I wolfed down the food in a rather unmannerly way, Cythera was trying not to laugh. "Hard work day?"

"I had a lot of patients this afternoon," I told her, licking the spoon. "Which reminds me. I need to meet Alex tonight. Provost business."

Cythera raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know he was with the force."

"Unofficial Provost business," I grumbled. "It's about that Eldorne woman."

"Alright," Cythera said, pouring herself some wine, "I'll wait up for you."

"Thanks, dear." I pushed back my chair and ran to the door, the page running after me. 

"Your shoes, sir!" he called. 

I reddened. "Right."

Properly outfitted and in the crisp air of the Lower City, I was a happy man. It didn't take long to find the intersection, and Alex was waiting right where he said he'd be. 

"Hello, Gareth," he said, clapping me on the shoulders. "This won't be hard. All you need to do is create a diversion while I snatch the photograph."

"Sounds simple, but do you know where it is?"

We were walking at a steady pace, winding around the Cesspool and back up to Corus. "No, but I know how to find out."

Soon we stopped in front of a large house artfully built with light, beige stone. "Now what?" I whispered. "Is this the house?"

"Yes," Alex hissed, and drew me into the shadows of the gate. "Go up to the door and tell her that over the past few days, you've observed a swarm of termites crawl through her front window. Say that you've called an exterminator, who will be arriving soon. That's me. You will meander down the path, not to be seen, and I will knock on the door a few minutes after you leave."

"Why am I needed? Can't you just tell her that you saw them firsthand?" I asked, slightly puzzled.

"There has to be a second person - a witness."

"Ah, I see." I straightened my cloak and tried to approach the door as naturally as I could.