Holmes takes another breath to steady himself and closes his eyes, unhappy to have to go back to that afternoon, but he wants to lay it all before Watson. If, at the end of it all, Watson doesn't see... If he doesn't forgive Holmes... Moran might get the suicide he's wanted for so long.
"After I wrote you the letter, Moriarty and I struggled, as you surmised. I tipped him over the edge of the cliff and watched him disappear into the Falls, and it seemed over. But Moriarty had not come alone." He runs a hand over his face and remembers again Moran's voice, chilled in the air.
"Moriarty was a consummate gentleman, along with being an ingenious criminal. If I won our fight, if I killed him, then he would let me live, at least technically. If I won, I was off the table. But there are other ways to kill a man than simply taking his life."
He pauses again to steady his voice, and his eyes are fixed now at a spot in the carpet that he put there himself with chemicals years ago.
"His second-in-command, the man we will trap tonight, was waiting at the top of the cliff, and he informed me of the terms of my newly-won life. I would not die, but if I ever saw you again from that moment on, if I ever spoke to you again, you would." He can't look at Watson just then to see how that news settles, if it matters to him, if it changes anything.
"I watched you call for me, and I prayed that my hands would not shake, that I would not accidentally loose a rock, that I would do nothing to attract your attention because there was a man not twenty yards away with a rifle trained on your head, waiting for you to look up and see me, and there was nothing I could do."
no subject
"After I wrote you the letter, Moriarty and I struggled, as you surmised. I tipped him over the edge of the cliff and watched him disappear into the Falls, and it seemed over. But Moriarty had not come alone." He runs a hand over his face and remembers again Moran's voice, chilled in the air.
"Moriarty was a consummate gentleman, along with being an ingenious criminal. If I won our fight, if I killed him, then he would let me live, at least technically. If I won, I was off the table. But there are other ways to kill a man than simply taking his life."
He pauses again to steady his voice, and his eyes are fixed now at a spot in the carpet that he put there himself with chemicals years ago.
"His second-in-command, the man we will trap tonight, was waiting at the top of the cliff, and he informed me of the terms of my newly-won life. I would not die, but if I ever saw you again from that moment on, if I ever spoke to you again, you would." He can't look at Watson just then to see how that news settles, if it matters to him, if it changes anything.
"I watched you call for me, and I prayed that my hands would not shake, that I would not accidentally loose a rock, that I would do nothing to attract your attention because there was a man not twenty yards away with a rifle trained on your head, waiting for you to look up and see me, and there was nothing I could do."