The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chaps. 8-15: A Curly-Haired Spaniel

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Title: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chaps. 8-15: A Curly-Haired Spaniel
Author: gardnerhill          
Word Count: 60
Rating: G
Warning: You may get feels on this ride.
Summary: There was one casualty on the good guys’ side.

***

Holmes told Dr. Mortimer of his find.

Mortimer blinked hard, sniffed, coughed, exhaled. “Huh! It’s ridiculous. So much murder and horror, Sir Henry and Beryl assaulted – we’re deuced lucky our only loss was a, a dog.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. “They give us their whole hearts, and break ours when they die.”

And finally Dr. Mortimer wept.

Comments

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I did get feels ^^"

That line in the story always breaks my heart a little: I gave him such consolation as I might, but I thought of the pony on the Grimpen Mire, and I do not fancy that he will see his little dog again. I always forget at the beginning of the novel that the spaniel is going to die.

And in your story I found it moving that poor Mortimer attempts to put his own feelings into proportion but Watson gives him permission to grieve. It always annoys me in real life when people do the opposite. Try and imply that a person should put their feelings into proportion - measure them against what other people are going through. Grief is grief - you shouldn't have to apologise for it.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

That's the part I try not to remember each time I read the story. *sniffs*

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was so bummed out when I read that at the end.

Granada's HOUN made sure the spaniel was alive at the end - which relieved me even if it ticked me off a bit for being canonically inaccurate.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

That made me so sad the first time I read the book. (I was rather relieved that the Granada production kept Mortimer's spaniel alive at the end.)


This is exactly why Holmes keeps Watson around - he can deduce the hearts of their clients better than can Holmes.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

*sniffle* Well done, gardnerhill! Thank you for this sidelight.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Poor little guy.

[debriswoman]

Sad, but really well penned.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That was one emotional loose end left out of the denouement.