"Baker's Three" (SH ACD fanfic, rated G), 2014 JWP Prompt #14

[gardnerhill]

Title: Baker’s Three
Author: gardnerhill
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Word Count: 2550
Rating: G
Summary: What did Mary Watson do while her husband was off with Holmes?
Author's Notes: For the 2014 July Watson’s Woes Prompt #14, brought to you by maestress83 : All For One And One For All. Have any three characters cooperate to overcome some

Comments

[capt_facepalm]

This is great! The three most important women in canon get together and have a grand adventure of their own!

[gardnerhill]

I'd had the skeleton of this story in the back of my mind for years (Mary hires a pearl-diver to regain her treasure), and this prompt turned it into a heist story.

Unlike the greedy folks in most treasure hunt tales, however, they're in it for the fun of sneaking this right under the noses of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, have absolutely no problem spreading the wealth, and keep just enough money to cushion the vicissitudes of life for Victorian women (Mary does retain a whole 100 pounds out of the entire fortune). I was happy to throw in an editorial about the unfairness of coverture, too.

[capt_facepalm]

I spotted the editorial too, and how both Mrs Hudson and Mary don't seem to have a problem with foreigners. (Mrs Hudson has a problem with all of Holmes' clients, making her an equal-opportunity discriminator.)

[gardnerhill]

This kind of turned into a story about the triumph of the Untermenschen in Victorian society - the women, the non-white people, the foreigners, the Jewish jeweller (I didn't get around to doing a scene with Heinz, but he was gay too, one of Irene Adler's opera fanboys) - getting the drop on the white wealthy men who owned the world in those days.