Mary's Nineteenth Century

November [-]nd, two o'clock in the afternoon.

With the sound of its whistle, the "Diamond" cruise ship left the port of London and began its ten-day sea journey.

This cruise ship is a medium-sized cruise ship, but there are not many guest rooms on board, only first-class cabins and comfort cabins.

6 sets of first-class cabins, each cabin is a suite, including two bedrooms, bathroom, living room, and study; 10 comfort cabins, it only has a bedroom and bathroom, and two beds are placed in the bedroom.

"I've inquired about it. There are 25 staff members on board, plus 7 outside theater troupe."

Bentley didn't stay in the cabin to rest. After sailing, he went around.Don't look at the small number of guest rooms, but there are many entertainment facilities on the cruise ship.Casinos, musical theater halls, squash courts, dance halls, Turkish baths, etc. are all available, no wonder it dares to be called Diamond.

afternoon tea time.

Bentley shared the latest news, "I think the most interesting is the musical performance. The Nightingale Troupe has been performing at sea and is known for its frequent performances of new plays. This time the new play is "Twenty Thousand Miles of Love", which is said to be a mermaid related stories."

"It's very good. It's very suitable to perform the story of the mermaid at sea."

Mary responded symbolically that she had read the itinerary booklet in the guest room, which mentioned musical performances.

"Twenty Thousand Miles of Love" is not performed overnight, but is divided into three episodes.

The ten-day itinerary also arranges two rounds of performances to ensure that interested passengers will not miss the plot because they missed the first round.That is, the first episode is performed on the first night, and the previous episode is repeated on the second night.On the third night, the episode will be performed, and so on.

Interested passengers did not include Mary.

She took some books on board, planning to spend ten days and nine nights quietly.But looking at Bentley's appearance, it was obvious that he was very interested in the new musical.

Sure enough, Bentley said in the next second, "Mr. Minton, do you have any arrangements for tonight? If not, why not enjoy the story of the mermaid together. I heard that the leading actor Judy's singing skills are unique. I have never had the opportunity to get close Listen."

Now there is reason to suspect that the reason why Bentley chose the "Diamond" was for the musical performance.

After all, a ticket of three hundred pounds is by no means a small sum.If the ticket price of the musical is included, it can be more or less worth the psychological comfort of the ticket price.

At this moment, like a smiling angel Samoyed, Bentley tilted his head slightly and looked expectantly at the partner sitting opposite him.

"The show is only 50 minutes a night, and it doesn't hurt to throw yourself into the arms of the books afterwards. Mr. Minton just go along, go—"

These are all tricks learned from.

Mary suddenly felt Darcy's difficulties, who are his friends!

But she is not Darcy who is soft-spoken and soft-hearted, how could she easily agree to the request. "Okay, let's make it clear that we will only watch one round of the musical, and don't call me for other activities."

yeah!

Bentley cheered in his heart, imitating Georgiana's new big dog behavior, it really worked.

Mary: Wait a minute, is there a strange misunderstanding going on?

She agreed to go out together only for the sake of the ticket. Wouldn't it have given Bentley a certain illusion that he had mastered some great negotiating skills?

That's not important anymore.

Anyway, Bentley will always know in the future whether it is useful to learn the cuteness of a big dog.

Time passed slowly.

Cruise travel is never boring as long as there are no worries.Although the sea is full of water, people can always find fun on board.

For example, the musical performance on the first night, it doesn't hurt to enjoy it once.

The content of the performance was a bit unexpected. "Twenty Thousand Miles of Love" is not a love story similar to the Little Mermaid, but a revenge story.

The plot is not too novel. It can be roughly summarized as the mermaid Pearl saves the prince, and the two agree to marry, but Pearl only waits for the prince's betrayal.

It wasn't that the prince had moved on, but that after the prince married Pearl, he took advantage of the mermaid tribe's weaknesses and wealth secrets, and then wiped out all the islands where the mermaid tribe was located.

A group of mermaids were either captured or killed, and the living ones were sold to the exhibition hall as commodities, while the dead ones were dismembered and sold at high prices to adventure lovers.

Only one mermaid escaped, and it was Pearl who married the prince.

Bearing the blood feud of the whole family, Pearl made an exchange with the wizard at the cost of her soul, and she gained the ability of revenge.

Then, there is revenge.

On the first night of the show, almost all the guests were present.There were a total of 25 people in the auditorium, including a maid of a rich lady.

After watching the first musical, most people don't feel very well.It was obviously a romantic performance on a cruise night, how did it become like this?

"The promised "Twenty Thousand Miles of Love"?!"

When Bentley came out of the performance hall, he couldn't help complaining, "How can there be a little bit of love? I began to doubt the rumors in the past, saying that the Nightingale Troupe will bring a special performance. Isn't it a collective deception? People swear to scam more new travelers."

Mary felt that this possibility could not be ruled out, and she was one of the rare viewers who thought such a plot was good.

"Objectively speaking, as you said during the day, the singing and acting skills of the troupe are very good. This is a first-class musical performance. More objectively speaking, the musical is not off topic. The love of [-] miles deep is the result of Mermaid Pearl and The love distance between the cruel princes. Their love is stained with too much blood, no matter whether there is true love at first, they can only be buried at the bottom of the deep sea, and they will never be happy."

Sounds reasonable.

Bentley was at a loss for words, and was unable to refute for a while.

He was silent for a long while, and finally made up his mind before returning to their rooms, "The night after tomorrow, I will watch the second episode, and I must carefully watch the specific posture of revenge."

"as long as you are happy."

Mary didn't care much, no matter which way she used for revenge, the ending was doomed—blood for blood, only death.

Compared with the content of the musical, she paid more attention to one thing. Almost all the passengers came tonight, except for one person.

It was the traveler who lived across from her room.It is said that it is a lady who travels alone, and even the afternoon tea and dinner are eaten in the room, and it seems that no one has come out for activities.

Is it unwell?Still don't like meeting crowds?

Mary casually guessed the reason, and before opening the door of her own room, she looked back at the opposite side again.There was still no sound coming from the opposite side, and it was unknown when the passenger would be seen going out.

The moon sinks and the sun rises, the sun sets and the moon rises, and the cycle repeats.

The cruise trip was quite comfortable, and it was the morning of the third day in a blink of an eye.

November [-]th.

There was a mist over the sea.

After two consecutive days of fine weather, the "Diamond" was far away from the British coastline, but encountered bad weather when entering the Atlantic Ocean.

It will rain today.

Mary pushed open the window, and the distribution of clouds in the sky could not be discerned carefully in the mist.

But the humidity from the sea breeze and the chirping of seagulls all predict that there will be heavy rain in a few hours.

As long as it doesn't happen to be unlucky enough to encounter a huge storm.

There shouldn't be any.Looking back on her experience of sea, land and air travel in her previous life, her luck has always been good, and she has not encountered any wrong weather forecast.

That's it for the restaurant.She likes today's breakfast menu, which is the morning tea series from Oriental Canton.

In her previous life, as far as she knew, dishes like shrimp dumplings appeared in the early 20th century.Thanks to the effect of time and space change, the oriental delicacies of this era appeared earlier, and they have already entered the western world.

Enter the restaurant.

The guests seated were about the same as yesterday, but Miss Fanny was nowhere to be seen.

Miss Fanny and her maid, Abby, are first-class passengers.

All six first-class cabins on the ship were full, except for the lone lady who hadn't yet appeared in public view.In addition, Mary, Bingley, the old Mr. Lucas, the rich businessman Theon, and Miss Fanny and her maid live separately.

Is it strange that some people didn't come out for breakfast?

It's not worth making a fuss about, at 08:30 in the morning, maybe I want to sleep late today.Just like Bentley, he said in advance that he would not have breakfast together.

Before Mary had finished eating the last cage of shrimp dumplings, she saw the maid Abby appearing anxiously at the door of the restaurant.Abi didn't come in, but looked around, and left in a hurry.

It's like looking for someone.

Who else could Abby look for, most likely Miss Fanny, who she served, but Miss Fanny didn't come to the restaurant today.

By 09:30, the fog on the sea surface did not recede but increased.

Mary left the mess room and looked out over the hull rail.According to today's visibility, it is already impossible to see the situation 50 meters away.

"Mr. Minton, hello."

At this time, the first mate walked over with a slight frown, seeing that there was no third person in the aisle, he lowered his voice slightly and asked. "Have you seen Miss Fanny since ten o'clock last night?"

"No."

Mary answered simply, "After dinner last night, I have been in the room since 10 o'clock at night, and I didn't go out to the restaurant until an hour ago. In more than ten hours, I only asked the waiter Aries at 30:[-] at night. Delivered a supper."

"Diamond" has 25 staff including the captain, mainly divided into two categories: operating the ship and serving guests.

There are 12 people in total, such as waiters, cleaners, chefs, etc. For the convenience of passengers, fortunately, each of them wears a nameplate on the neckline, which is distinguished by the codes of the twelve constellations.

The first mate nodded, which was consistent with Aries' testimony.Immediately afterwards, he threw out a bad news.

"Miss Fanny is missing. This morning, the maid Abby woke up and didn't see Miss Fanny. I thought that Miss Fanny got up early to go to the deck to see the scenery, but there was still no one at the regular breakfast time."

Fanny had a habit of eating regularly.

Her breakfast time is basically between 07:30 and 08:30, and she will sit at the table as long as conditions permit.

"God bless, have you searched the rest of the ship?"

Mary thought of the scale of the "Diamond". Although there are not many guest rooms, the whole ship is not small.It takes time to search every corner.

Immediately, she understood what the chief mate meant. "Why don't you go to the room with me and have a look, maybe Miss Fanny accidentally went to the wrong room."

Searching for a ship is not easy.

The entertainment area and the staff area can also be searched by force, but the first officer must have some scruples when facing first-class passengers.

The mate was visibly relieved that it was a great pleasure to meet a reasonable gentleman.

He knew very well that the so-called going to the wrong room was a euphemism, instead of "didn't kidnap Fanny and hide her in the room", and frankly asked people to enter and check.

"Thank you very much for your concern."

The first officer made a gesture of invitation and mentioned briefly, "I have already found four of the six sets of first-class cabins. I didn't disturb your meal before. I hope you don't mind our concealment. I didn't let you tell Miss Fanny the first time. The disappearance lends a helping hand."

Listen, who can't speak beautiful words?

There are really people who can't.

Mary and the chief mate came to the third floor where the first class cabin was located, when they heard rough roars coming from the other end of the corridor.

"Bolton! Why should I ask you to search the house!"

The young man looked impatient, "I didn't kidnap that woman, and who knows if you will steal my business secrets with dirty hands and feet. What's more, if you want to check the house, I must allow it!"

Bolton, the captain of the "Diamond" cruise ship, tried to maintain a calm tone and said:

"Mr. Theon, I'm sorry that the search has offended you, but it's all about finding a kind and innocent lady. I am willing to compensate you within my ability, and the ticket for this trip will be refunded three times."

Compensation is not only given to Theon who refuses to cooperate, but also to all other passengers.

Theon snorted coldly, "Could I be short of nine hundred pounds? No check, just no check."

'boom! '

Sean slammed the door shut involuntarily.

The captain looked at the closed door, and his face sank.Theon, the man who trades in whalebone is really unreasonable.But he couldn't get angry because someone was coming up the stairs.

The first mate cast a sympathetic look, and just now he had his nose broken in front of Theon's door, but it would be useless if the captain came.

At this moment, he raised his voice slightly, "Captain Bolton, you see that Mr. Minton is here. It was because Miss Fanny accidentally went to the wrong room and suggested that we go to the suite to have a look."

The volume of these words is not low, and it can be heard in the guest room through a door.

Yes, just sarcasm.

Some people are helpful, while others are rude and unreasonable, such as Theon who refuses to cooperate.

The captain glanced at Theon's guest room door, turned and smiled and headed for the stairs. "God praise you, Mr. Minton, you are a fine example of a gentleman."

Mary: Stop boasting, no more flowers will grow.

She just finds it troublesome, since she has a clear conscience, she might as well cooperate with the ward rounds, so as to avoid arguing with this group of people.

"Both please."

When Mary came to the room, she first confirmed that the hair on the crack of the door hadn't changed from when she left it, and opened the door immediately.

The three of them entered together.

Not to mention that there is no Fanny in the room, let alone a single mess.

The books that have been read are neatly placed on the desk, the clothes are in the closet, and the shoes are in the shoe cabinet. There is no trace of other people visiting.

"Thank you."

The captain and the first mate thanked again, but their expressions were not so relaxed.Now that another set of rooms has been ruled out, where is the missing Fanny?

"You are Welcome."

Mary didn't offer to go find it together.There is a saying, "Business is not the pursuit of business", and she is not a detective who has no crimes, so is it not good to stay in the room and read?

As for where Miss Fanny went?

Maybe it's a date with someone who hasn't returned.It has only been an hour since the maid Abby found the captain, and the inventory of the entire ship has not yet been completed.

Despite this, Mary still made a solemn suggestion to the captain and first mate: "You two, please don't let go of every corner, including the outside of the cruise ship. No one can say whether there was a crash into the sea."

The hands of the clock move round and round.

Not only did the fog outside the boat fade away, but thunder rumbled in the sky.

11:24

At noon, the sky suddenly darkened.Soon, heavy rain poured down.The dense raindrops hit the hull and the sea surface, making a crackling sound.

Outside the window, the wind and rain are dark.

Someone is looking for him outside the door.

"It's me, Bentley."

Bingley raised his voice, "Mr. Minton, are you there? I just found Miss Fanny."

The wind was roaring and the rain was howling, making the voice of speech blurred.

Mary heard it clearly, and when she opened the door, she saw Bentley who was half drenched. "Where did you go?"

"Stern, deck."

After Bingley learned that someone was missing, he didn't continue to turn over and sleep late. Instead, he ate something in a hurry and helped find someone.

As of 10:55, the search of the entire cruise ship was completed.

Including Theon who refused to open the door at first, after all, let the captain's people enter the house and walk around.

However, nothing was found.

Even though the cargo hold on the first floor was never spared, after opening and checking the boxes one by one, there was still no sign of Miss Fanny, and what was even more bizarre was that there was no trace of conflict or bloodshed.

Not only was there no trace of conflict, but no strange shouts were heard by anyone.

"The captain has listened to your previous suggestion before, and sent people into the sea at ten o'clock to look for it. At first, nothing was found."

Bentley mentioned that the crew went into the water an hour and a half ago to search for people, and they swam around the sea but found nothing.

In fact, everyone knows that if Fanny really fell into the sea, the possibility of finding a living person or a dead body is very small.

Because according to what the maid Abby said, she turned off the lights at ten o'clock last night and fell asleep, and slept very deeply until she woke up at 06:30 in the morning and found that Fanny was not in the room.

Within these eight and a half hours, it is possible that Miss Fanny disappeared.

In addition, at 08:30, Abbie called for help from the captain and reported the disappearance of Miss Fanny.

By simple calculation, Miss Fanny disappeared for at least two hours.At this time, I went to the sea to find it, and it was already far away from the point of falling into the sea.

Bentley continued: "At 10:55, that is, half an hour ago, the three crew members went into the water again. This time they checked the only place on the entire ship that they hadn't checked-the bottom of the ship."

The bottom of the boat is about six or seven meters above the water.Unless it is a fish, the world has not heard of anyone who can breathe underwater for several hours.

Therefore, the chances of finding Fanny at the bottom of the boat are very low.

"However, they found it."

Mary was also a little surprised, "What's the specific situation?"

Bentley's face became strange, and a theoretically extremely low probability situation happened.

"The sailors found the body at the bottom of the boat. Miss Fanny's hair was tangled in the iron pipes at the bottom of the boat, and the body was dragged in the sea for several hours."

"Oh! This is really..."

Mary didn't sigh much, but asked, "Is there any other trauma to the corpse?"

Bingley pointed to his head, "There is a bleeding wound on the back of the head. Now the sailors are looking carefully outside the cabin, and maybe they can find the source of Miss Fanny's wound."

But no guarantee can be given.

It was sea water and heavy rain. Even if Fanny fell into the sea and hit somewhere outside the cabin, most of the blood had been washed away.

What to do next?

Bingley went back to his room first, always changing out of his half-soaked clothes.

After a while, footsteps were heard in the corridor.

Mary heard a knock on the guest room door across the way.After an interval of 6 minutes, there was a knock on her door.

"Sorry to bother you."

It was Captain Bolton who came, "Mr. Minton, please forgive my sudden request. Miss Fanny's body has been found, and now it must be determined whether she fell into the sea by accident or was murdered. I hope you can help find out the truth." .”

Mary was silent. Did she have a face that looked like a detective?

Captain Bolton immediately explained, "I have a doctor friend. Maybe you remember Doctor Jekyll, he briefly mentioned a bean-related murder case, which slightly revealed where the extremely intelligent investigators came from."

Mary smiled. Is this good news spreading far and wide?

But unlike the case of the underground vault, she did not ask others to keep the case of Ben Oliver confidential.

"OK, you have said so. As a gentleman, I seem to have no reason to refuse."

Mary agreed without hesitation.In fact, so far, she has not shown much interest in the case.

At this moment, the door to the opposite room opened, and a lady in a black dress walked out.

"Oh! Please allow me to introduce you to the two of you."

Captain Bolton said briefly, "This is Mr. Minton from London, and this is Mrs. Roman from Paris. The two may cooperate next time.

There is no professional doctor on board, and Mrs. Roman has learned some medical skills from her father.In addition, it was Miss Fanny who had the accident, and now she needs to be checked by a woman. "

'Boom--'

As soon as the captain's words fell, the sky thundered again.

The hallway was getting darker.

The two people who were introduced saw each other clearly.

Mycroft: Well, it's the kind Mr. Umbrella.

How did His Excellency Matthew choose the ship, why didn't he tell him in advance that there would be this person on board?

Actually, Mycroft knew he couldn't blame Matthew.

After all, the fact that he used to dress up as an "old woman" was kept secret from the outside world. Even Sherlock didn't know the level of secrecy. Is this a trick of himself?

Mary looked at the person who came. With his height, body shape, and eye color, he had to say that he was [-]% similar to a stranger he met on the street.

Is this Mrs. Roman related to the old woman to whom she once gave the umbrella?

For a while, the corridor was a little quiet.

Captain Bolton quickly broke the silence, "You two, do you have any questions? If not, can you go to the morgue now?"