[Pride and Prejudice] Liz's Little Vest

A quarter of an hour later, Darcy and Elizabeth bid farewell to the ladies' magazine, each with its own thoughts.

The carriage passed through Hyde Park and headed north.Another quarter of an hour later, they arrived at Rhodes Royal Racecourse.

There should have been a light rain in the morning, and the grass on the racecourse is still wet.However, this does not affect the interest of the audience and the nerves of the gamblers.

"Would you like to place a bet, Miss Elizabeth?"

There were people coming and going outside the racecourse, and there were even more crowds around the wall near the stands.

Darcy used his arm to isolate Elizabeth from the crowd, but from behind, they were very close, and Elizabeth seemed to be nestled in Darcy's arms.

In fact it is.

Feeling the temperature on her shoulders and the breath in her ears, Elizabeth felt that Darcy's gentlemanly behavior must be intentional!

Her whole body was tense, and she only pretended to be relaxed and said, "I didn't know you still like to bet on horses, Mr. Darcy."

Now it was the man's turn to be nervous, for fear that the lady might misunderstand something.

He hastened to explain that he was usually just a bored spectator, not taking part in the bets, that is, having no vices.The current inquiry is mainly because there are friends participating in it.

"Colonel Ross?"

Elizabeth looked down from the top of the race list and saw Darcy's friend's name on the fourth track.She read along:

"Four. Colonel Ross's racehorse, the silver-fronted horse. The rider wears a black hat and a red tunic[1]."

Elizabeth asked: "How is the silver-fronted horse?"

Darcy said: "It is five years old this year, and it belongs to the Sonomi breed. Every horse race can win the first prize for its owner, and it has the same excellent results as its ancestors[1]."

"Then are you going to vote for this horse, Mr. Darcy?" Elizabeth's eyes lit up, "but its odds shouldn't be high, its odds—"

She looked down the list and saw the numbers, a little surprised: "Five to four? It stands to reason that the odds of such a famous horse should be lower. Is something wrong?"

Darcy also froze for a moment, and then only heard the gamblers around the horse race yelling:

"Five to four, silver brow!" they cried. "Five to four, silver breech! Five to fifteen, Dusbara! Five to four, the rest!"

"It seems that there is a dark horse today." Darcy replied, pointing to the position of the third track on the list of horses. sleeves[1]."

"How is the horse?"

"I haven't heard much about it, but the odds should be very strong. But I think it can't compare to the silver white-fronted horse." Darcy said, protecting Elizabeth with his right hand, walked out of the crowd, came to the stand and sat down.

"Then go for the silver-fronted horse," said Elizabeth. "I don't know much about horse racing, but trust your judgment."

It was a very simple and natural sentence, but when Darcy heard it, his heart softened inexplicably, and the roots of his ears were slightly red.

"Would you like something to drink, Miss Elizabeth?"

"Black tea, thank you."

"No wine?"

"Editor Tom is almost getting me drunk." Elizabeth blinked at Darcy, her cheeks blushing faintly.

Looking at it, Darcy felt that his heart was hit hard again.He stood up and called the waiter, but his steps stumbled a little.

After returning, he seemed to have subconsciously sat closer to Elizabeth, shoulder to shoulder.The waiter handed over the black tea and the betting receipt, he said "thank you", and then handed the other party a £[-] tip.

Elizabeth watched the track, and Darcy watched her.

Her hair was smooth, her lips were red, her eyes—Tom Hughes had no objection that Elizabeth had perfect eyes.In fact, he had never seen such a pair of beautiful and intelligent eyes in other young ladies.

Those eyes made her whole body glow.

Elizabeth had already turned her head at this time, and her eyes were shining like stars twinkling in the dark night.

"Mr. Darcy?"

"Miss Elizabeth, you have perfect eyes."

"Huh?" Looking at Darcy's deep eyes, Elizabeth's heart suddenly beat like thunder.

At this time, Darcy also felt that he seemed to be abrupt.He turned his face away and said with some embarrassment: "The editor-in-chief Tom Hughes said."

"And you, Mr. Darcy, do you agree?"

"I--"

Darcy was startled by Elizabeth's bold question at first.Then slowly, slowly, he felt that something seemed to be touched on the tip of his heart, and an inexplicable emotion blossomed.

"Well, it's pretty." He said softly, his ears burning red.

The atmosphere at this moment is very delicate.

There was a lot of voices around, but between the two of them, it was so quiet that you could hear the heartbeat of "bang bang bang".

"Mr. Darcy!"

A thick male voice broke the slowly heating up atmosphere.Elizabeth quietly breathed a sigh of relief, but Darcy frowned slightly, and then followed the prestige.

"Mr. Darcy."

A tall, thin middle-aged man in military uniform ran towards him in a hurry.The hair is messy, the beard is unshaven, and there are obvious dark circles under the eyes, but the exquisite clothes on his body show that he is a person of some status.

"Colonel Ross? This is my companion, Miss Elizabeth," said Darcy. "You don't look well."

"It's so unlucky." Colonel Ross said while panting again and again, "Mr. Darcy, should you read the newspaper? Sorry——Miss Elizabeth, please forgive me for not saying hello to you at the first time."

"Newspaper? I didn't pay attention." Darcy frowned. "What happened?"

"Silver Blaze, my Silver Blaze!" cried Colonel Ross. "Lost a week ago!"

"I bet ten pounds just now, Colonel Ross, on your horse," said Darcy, with a meaningful look at the other party.

He was a little worried at first, but after seeing Rose's crying state, he was relieved instead.

According to his understanding of his friends, if something really happened to the horse racing, he would just keep a low profile and pretend nothing had happened.And the clamor now is obviously just an emotional expression after the fact.

"Mr. Darcy..." Colonel Ross said angrily, "The racehorse was indeed lost a week ago, and my trainer John Stryker lost his life in a fight with the thief..."

"but?"

"However, Mr. Holmes says he found the race-horse yesterday. But I haven't seen it yet, and I'm very worried."

"Please trust me and don't jump to conclusions, Colonel Ross."

Even a casual glance at the speaker from a distance is enough to attract attention.He is six feet tall, thin and slender.His eyes are deep, like a falcon, alert and decisive[1].

Walking with him was a slightly shorter man in black woolen clothes, who walked with a limp, which may be the reason why they lagged behind Colonel Ross.

"Mr. Darcy, Miss Elizabeth, this is Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson. Mr. Holmes is the most famous consulting detective in London."

What he said before was refuted mercilessly, and Colonel Ross was slightly embarrassed.But he didn't respond with disdain or contempt at all. Anyway, he solemnly introduced the two parties, which surprised Elizabeth a little.

She couldn't help but look at the gentleman more.

Holmes had already sat down and flipped through today's "The Times" without paying attention to the lady's gaze, but Darcy was a little jealous.

"You said you were a consulting detective, Mr. Holmes?" he asked.

"Yes."

Elizabeth was very curious about the topic, but just now she didn't ask too many questions out of etiquette, and this time Darcy spoke, she would naturally not let go of such an opportunity.

Elizabeth asked: "I have never heard of the term consulting detective. What is a consulting detective, Mr. Holmes?"

Holmes said: "When the police in England are at a loss, they will come to me, put the evidence in front of me, and I will correct their mistakes."

Police in England at a loss?

She felt a little unbelievable.

Holmes continued to flip through the newspaper in his hand quickly, waiting for the horse race to start, without much explanation.

His friend Dr. Watson kindly added: "Often people find it hard to believe, but this is the truth. My friend Sherlock Holmes's deductive analysis is definitely the best helper for the English police."

"Deductive analysis?"

"A man's nails, his sleeves, his boots, the callouses on his trousers' knees, and on his thumb and forefinger, his facial expression, his shirt cuffs, etc.—all are sufficient to clearly reflect his profession[1]."

"It's impossible!" Elizabeth said subconsciously.

"Miss Elizabeth, you are from Meryton, thirty or forty miles south of London, aren't you?" Holmes looked away slightly from the newspaper.

"Did someone tell you?"

"Absolutely not," said Holmes. "You and this Mr. Darcy obviously did not just meet in London. Whether you traveled together or not, I will assume for the time being that you are from the same place in the short term. You both have horses and carts on your clothes." Hair, unfortunately, I have done a little research on horse breeds, and know that such horses are only bred and produced in two small towns in the south and north of London."

"The next step is very simple. A detective is often very sensitive to smell. From the smell of clothes, I can tell that the place you come from has been raining this week, so there is no chance to dry it. The continuous rainy season for a week, the north and south of London A small town, judging from these two points, there is obviously only one answer, Meryton."

"It's amazing!" murmured Elizabeth.

"It's very simple." Holmes turned his eyes back to the newspaper. "Not only that, but I can tell where you went yesterday. You kept scratching your right arm, indicating a slight itching. The quality and color of the dirt, I can assure you, you—”

Having said this, he stopped suddenly.His gaze stayed on the entire report on the third page of the newspaper.

This pause was a bit strange. Dr. Watson and Colonel Ross stared at Holmes, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

Darcy immediately looked at Elizabeth's arm, with a worried look on his face: "Miss Elizabeth, is your right arm uncomfortable? Is there any pain?"

"It doesn't matter."

Elizabeth subconsciously covered her right arm, but her heart beat quickly.

The author has something to say:

The 3000 words of this chapter have been completed!notify:

I apologize in advance, because I will apply for a doctorate + prepare to graduate in the fall, so I can only make a change before 2020.1.1.The little angels are very welcome to watch after getting fat.

The return date of the daily update is tentatively scheduled for 2020.1.1, at the beginning of the new year, let's make auspicious~

The outline is complete, and the number of words at the end is about 20-30W. It will not be abandoned or missing.I will regularly read the comment area and accept inspection and criticism~

--Stay on September 2019.9.1, [-].

Note:

[1].Quoted from the Sherlock Holmes detective stories "The Silver White Horse" and "A Study in Scarlet".The timeline has been advanced a lot. Sherlock Holmes will make a cameo appearance, which will not affect the plot~ In addition, the pediatric reasoning written by myself, please forgive me for the dead logic!