smallhobbit

“Thank you so much for coming, Molly,” John said.  “I really appreciate it, but are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Of course not,” Molly replied, “I’ll be happy to take Rosie out for a while to give you a chance to go back to bed.  You look dreadful.”

“I feel it.” John sneezed.  “Sorry!  Ordinarily Mrs Hudson would have taken her to throw some bread to the ducks, but I can’t ask her to go out in this weather.”

“Of course not.  The pavements aren’t too bad, but there’s the odd icy patch and you wouldn’t want her to have a fall.”

At that moment, Rosie came through, struggling to get her arms into her coat.

“Come here, poppet,” Molly said.  “Let’s get that coat on.  And perhaps we should swap your wellies onto the other feet.  Then it’s hat, scarf and mittens, and we’ll be off.  Go to bed, John.  I’ll take care of this.”

John departed, without arguing, clear indication to Molly that he really wasn’t feeling well.

Molly finished getting Rosie dressed and pocketed the key with the R keyring.

***

When they arrived back at 221B just over an hour later, Molly was surprised to see Sherlock there.  Rosie bounded in and shook herself like a puppy, showering Sherlock with snow.

“Yuk!” he said.

“Sorry, Sherlock,” Molly laughed.  “I wasn’t expecting you to be home.  I was planning to take her coat off by the door.”

“Yes, I didn’t think you had intended to scatter half the snow from Regent’s Park across our carpet.”  Sherlock paused to remove Rosie’s outer garments before she could shower the remaining snow over him.  “I thought I’d get back as soon as I could to give John a break.”

“That was kind of you.”

“No kinder than you giving up your one day off this week to cross London and get cold standing in the snow.”

“That’s all right.  They’ll be other times when I can do the things I had planned for today.  And it was the perfect excuse to build a snowman and throw snowballs.  Shall I put the kettle on?”

“Now that would be very kind.”