The Adventure at Baskerville Hall & Other Cases

while cursing myself for being so clearly worked up that even the most naïve observer would be able to tell what I had been doing. I heard the murmur of voices through the door but was unable to make out what they were saying.
    When I judged that our visitor had left and Holmes was once more alone in the room, I entered the sitting-room to find Holmes smiling wryly at me.
    "Nothing of importance," said he, in response to my unasked question. "Merely the new maid mixing up which of the guests had asked for hot water."
    He came to stand in front of me and began to fix all the dozens of small details that I had clearly missed but that had not escaped his keen eye. I looked at him as he twitched my collar straight and re-knotted my cravat to something more closely approaching that morning's neatness. I had not the slightest notion how he managed it, but he bore only the faintest of flushes along his high cheekbones, and his attire merely looked slightly casual, nowhere near as rumpled and dishevelled as I felt.
    Finally he stepped back.
    "There," he said, looking me over. "Much as I enjoy seeing you in such dishabille, dear boy, it would be rather indiscreet to wander about in public in such a state."
    "Thank you." I smiled at him, and then caught one of those long-fingered hands that captivated me so, and planted a brief kiss in the palm. "I believe you are still owed something from me. Do you want to claim it now? Or perhaps you would prefer to wait until we return to Baker Street, and we have all the space and time for you to use me as you will."
    He looked at me with eyes gone dark and liquid, and murmured, "I would rather wait."
    "Very well." I pressed another kiss to the thin, sensitive skin on the inside of his wrist and continued, "I'm not sure how I shall concentrate for the rest of the night with such a prospect before me."
    The corner of his mouth quirked up, in that fashion that said that he could not decide whether to be amused or aroused.
    "I would advise you to make the effort, however" – I noted with delight that his habitual lightly mocking tone was still slightly breathless – "for we are dealing with a most dangerous foe." As he crossed the room to the window, I noticed that the back of his neck was flushed and I grinned to myself. "And look!"
    Obediently, I crossed the room to stand at his side as he pointed towards Stoke Moran and spoke. "That is Miss Stoner's lamp, if I am not mistaken, and so we had best be off."
    * * * *
    I shall never forget that night. The silent vigil we kept in Miss Stoner's room was one of the most thrilling experiences of our adventures to date. Holmes, with his typical love of the dramatic, still had not told me what we were facing, and I had not pressed him. He had only intimated to me that our very lives depended upon our not falling asleep nor relaxing our guard even for a moment.
    I could not tell him so at the time, for Holmes had told me that the slightest sound from either of us could mean discovery, but there was not the slightest danger of my falling asleep. Even had there not been a terrible, unspecified danger lurking in the dark, Holmes was within arm's reach of me. He was close enough for me to breathe the subtle cologne he wore, which had not ceased to induce vaguely adolescent flutters in my stomach, and the knowledge of what had been interrupted back at the inn kept circling in my mind. He had been left hard and unsatisfied, and I had to repeat the sternest warnings to myself to avoid reaching out for him.
    How long I sat there, poised between dizzy half-arousal and keen-edged alertness I did not know, but it was long enough that it was almost a relief when I heard the curious, sibilant noise that heralded the beginning of the end of the whole dreadful affair.
    The rest of the matter was something of a blur. Holmes had evidently had a much better idea of what we were to face – barely had I gathered my wits about me than Holmes had succeeded in driving off the threat and was rushing next door to follow where it had retreated.
    Holmes's exclamation when he entered Dr. Roylott's room and saw what had become of him was a much stronger oath than I had ever heard from him before, and I must confess that for a moment my inaction was as much due to sheer unbridled amazement as loathing at the horrible animal.
    But before long the wretched serpent was safely incarcerated, the police were summoned, and then it only remained to gently break the news to Miss