maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains you refuse

[thewomanswit]

Characters: Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler
Rating: PG (Come on, they're Victorian)
Time Period: Modern
Location: The Maze
Relative Date: At least a few days after Irene's arrival and and Holmes and Gene stalking Sawyer.
Status: CLOSED

Comments

[elementrymydear]

Holmes was counting paces, retracing his steps towards the entrance of the maze, as his cane hit the ground. One hundred and twenty five, one hundred and twenty four, one hundred and twenty three.... He had taken it upon himself to begin memorizing the grounds of this castle, now that it seemed the threat from the killer had been momentarily stemmed (though he certainly regretted that there seemed no counterpoint as of yet to the 'vampire' theory). Now that he had opened himself back up to his old line of work, he knew he wouldn't be to turn his back on it again until he had solved the mystery of this castle itself

[thewomanswit]

Irene was aware of great many things. The tightening of her muscles as her lips curved into a smile, the sharp whip of the wind around her cheeks, and the way the snow gave ever so slightly beneath the weight of her body on the ground

[elementrymydear]

Holmes listened to her retreating steps carefully, counting and timing them to mentally calculate and track her speed and distance from him. He yanked the brim of his hat down further to shadow his features. If this was, as he suspected, Miss Irene Adler, (or rather Mrs. Irene Norton) it would be better to prevent her from recognizing him from afar. He waited until she had rounded the next bend, before poking his head out to verify her retreating form. Holmes wasn't particularly worried about losing her in the maze - the vestiges of snow on the ground left plenty of tracks to be followed

[thewomanswit]

Irene walked slowly, listening for the intermittent sound of footsteps over snow that were not her own, attempting to ascertain how far he was behind her.

She was at a disadvantage, however; she didn't know the layout of the maze, and it could prove to trap her just as easily as anything else. Her feet left her mark clearly in the snow, so hiding from her pursuer was completely out of the question. She wouldn't have time to double over her tracks, and the hedges made it impossible to loop back around him.

Perhaps leading him into a maze had not been a particularly clever idea, she thought.

Suddenly, she took a steep left and sped up her stride, rushing around the corner of a hedge until she was parallel with her previous path. Irene lifted her foot and stuck it solidly into the branches of the foliage, and grasped the ice-laden leaves with her already frozen fingers. With a deep breath, she began to pull herself up from the ground, climbing the hedge as quickly as she could.