Sherlock Holmes and the Dance of the Tiger
Read Sherlock Holmes and the Dance of the Tiger Online
Authors: Suzette Hollingsworth
Praise for Suzette Hollingsworth’s novels
Chapter One - St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Chapter Three - London from a Hansom Cab
Chapter Four - A Wish Come True
Chapter Five - 221B Baker Street
Chapter Six - Palace of Westminster
Chapter Seven - The Winter Circus
Chapter Eight - rue des Filles Calvaires, Paris
Chapter Nine - The Girl Who Danced on Horses
Chapter Ten - Out of the Schoolroom and Into the Ring
Chapter Thirteen - The Bend in the Road
Chapter Fourteen - Key to the Case
Chapter Fifteen - Napoleon and Josephine: Le Grand Véfour
Chapter Sixteen - The Walking Dead
Chapter Seventeen - Aladdin's Lamp
Chapter Eighteen - The Seeds of Revolution
Chapter Nineteen - Animal Attraction
Chapter Twenty - Le Grand Hôtel de la Paix, Paris
Chapter Twenty-One - The Ring of Fire
Chapter Twenty-Two - First Kiss
Chapter Twenty-Three - Jump Ship
Chapter Twenty-Four - On the Clock
Chapter Twenty-Five - One's Patriotic Duty
Chapter Twenty-Six - Ebony Butterfly
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Voodoo Murder
Chapter Twenty-Eight - A Crime of Passion
Chapter Twenty-Nine - Time for Reflection
Chapter Thirty-One - The Royal George
Chapter Thirty-Two - Office of the Okhrana
Chapter Thirty-Three - A Former Lover
Chapter Thirty-Five - La Santé Prison
Chapter Thirty-Six - The Royal Mistress
Chapter Thirty-Seven - A Prisoner of his Own Mind
Chapter Thirty-Eight - Alone in a Man's Boudoir
Chapter Thirty-Nine - A Meeting of the Minds
Chapter Forty - A Terrorist Plot
Chapter Forty-Two - A Criminal Offence
Chapter Forty-Three - Isandlwana
Chapter Forty-Four - A Good Beginning
Chapter Forty-Five - The World is my Oyster
Praise for Suzette Hollingsworth’s novels
“Best Holmesian Book of 2015” – Amazon customer
“This is an excellent, gifted writer, with a true future ahead of her.” – CHARLOTTE CARTER
“Sir Doyle would enjoy.
It has all the classic trappings of one of his novels.
From the language to the descriptions of London and its denizens, it is historical fiction at its best.” – Christopher Gallagher
"A Sherlock tale with Hepburn and Tracy flair . . . It had the feel of a classic old Hollywood mismatched romantic comedy to me.... Hepburn and Tracy. It was charming and would really appeal to people who love the idea of a kind of Jane Austen meets Conan Doyle mash-up." - RaynaRed, Audible reviewer
"Cumberbatch/Sherlock meets his match!" - Jan, Audible reviewer
"Sherlock in Mr. Darcy mode . . . " - PandaRS, Audible reviewer
"Irene Adler has competition" - Mary, Audible reviewer
“This is a very fascinating novel. All the characters are very vibrant and come to life while reading them.” -
Coffee Time Romance & More
“Her humor is refreshing, I laughed out-loud on a few occasions, shed a few tears, and sat on the edge of my seat for most of it.” AnaMaree Ordway, owner Wenatchee Book Co.
Also by Suzette Hollingsworth
Sherlock Holmes & The Case of the Sword Princess
THE PARADOX:
The Soldier and the Mystic
THE SERENADE:
The Prince and the Siren
THE CONSPIRACY:
The Cartoonist and the Contessa
To be released in 2016
:
Sherlock Holmes & The Chocolate Menace
Sherlock Holmes
and the Dance of the Tiger
by
Suzette Hollingsworth
The Great Detective In Love #2
Sherlock Holmes solves the most perplexing mystery of his life—
unlocking the human heart
Dedication
The subtext of this book and the original title was
Sherlock Holmes and the Spy Who Danced on Horses
Hence, the dedication.
To Donna Weiss
who is not a spy (to my knowledge), but who certainly dances on horses
to Bill Green
who is a spy—and probably a mad scientist as well.
Watch out Moriarty!
St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
13 March 1881
“I signed it this morning,” stated Alexander II, Czar of Russia.
“You signed what, Father?” Alexander III, Czarevich and next in line for the throne, asked with trepidation.
He sat across from the Czar and beside his twelve-year-old son and the Czar’s grandson, Nicholas II.
Was the document in question an alliance with Germany?
Or perhaps with France?
Something told the Czarevich it was nothing so deducible.
It was Sunday and the three royals were seated in a closed bullet-proof carriage, a gift from Napoleon III of France.
They were travelling to the Mikhailovsky Manège, the riding academy, as they did every Sunday for the military roll call.
The carriage was accompanied by six Cossacks sworn to protect the Czar, first in the processional, followed by two sleighs.
Among the open sleighs’ inhabitants were the chief of police and the chief of the emperor’s guards.
The route, as always, was via the Catherine Canal and crossing the Pevchesky Bridge.
The people of St. Petersburg lined the sidewalk for miles along the narrow passage.
“I signed a draft decree to establish a democratically elected parliament,” the Czar stated nonchalantly, as if he had just announced the name of his new tailor rather than the drastic alteration of a government which had been in place for centuries—since 1547 under Ivan IV.
Adding a democratic branch to a heretofore totalitarian government.
Is the Czar mad?
Many an aristocrat thought so, and his son and heir apparent was not far behind.
Alexander II had initiated even more reforms than Peter the Great.
But this went far beyond reform.
Alexander II had freed twenty-three million serfs, little better than feudal slaves, from their bondage to the landowners.
And he had wrested eight-five percent of Russia’s land from private landowners.
In the Czar’s mind that land belonged to all the Russian people, not only to the select few.
Alexander III almost choked.
“You signed a duma?” he asked, disbelieving.
“The first step towards a constitutional monarchy?”
“I did,” the Czar stated without apology.
“Who else will help the Russian people?
This is what we were born to do.”
No, Father.
We were born to rule.
“The people they are very poor,” the Czar continued.
“It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below.”
“What do you mean ‘from below’?” Alexander III asked.
“An uprising.
An insurrection,” Czar Alexander II replied.
“
And it will happen, son
, if changes are not instigated.
Attempting to control will never work; you must give the people their freedom, and they will choose to follow if you are a just and good ruler.”
“And is that how it has worked, father?” Alexander III asked, attempting to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
He would never consider being anything but respectful to his father.
“Regrettably, no,” Czar Alexander II shook his head.
“And how have the people repaid the Czar for his unfathomable kindness which has earned him the hatred of the aristocracy?”
Alexander III asked in his quietest voice because he was never to question the Czar.
But he could hold his tongue no longer, a duma was madness.
“And the earlier reforms, father?
What have they achieved?
The peasants are angrier than ever.
There have been five attacks on the Czar’s life in the twenty years since the Emancipation of the Serfs was signed the first of March, eighteen hundred and sixty one.”
“But I will correct the mistakes I have made.
Hence, the duma.”
“
Your
mistakes?”
Alexander III sighed.
“Why do you help the people when they hate you?
I know that you mean well, father.
But the peasants don’t appreciate anything you have done for them, as always happens when people do not earn their own reward.”
The Czar’s expression remained resolute.
“Freeing the serfs backfired.
The landowners held onto the best land, while the serfs had to buy back their land from the nobles at an inflated price.
The majority were unable to afford the cost.
The peasant, freed from serfdom, was no better off than he was before.
I see this now.
And I waited much too long to correct it—twenty years.
Everything can generally be reduced to the basic principles of economics:
the serfs are no better off, so they think the emancipation was all a trick and that I am not to be trusted.”
“I agree with you that they do not know the heart of the Czar,” the Czarevich muttered.
“It is the day of my enlightenment, so to speak, and everything will be different henceforth.
You will see, son.”
What next?
A
democracy
?
In spite of his shock, Alexander III saw one benefit to a democracy:
no elected official could have done such a thing as freeing twenty three million serfs and given away the noble’s land—he would have been tarred and feathered and run out of town.
Only a monarch could get away with such a thing.
A monarch could be true to his own principles.
An elected official must answer to the powers that be.