Teaser Tuesday

(unedited)

Holmes just finished toweling his hair dry when someone knocked on the door. His heart soared at the thought of a quality tea service. He hadn’t been denied tea for as long as he could remember. In this, he was lucky to have Mycroft as an older brother. Between him and his brother, they brought their parents around to cater to their peculiar tastes easily. It helped that Mycroft held a very lucrative patent at the age of nine. He hadn’t received his first patent until ten, and Mycroft never let him live it down.

He opened the door and let in one of the servers from Mycroft’s club.

“Put the tea over there. Thank you,” Holmes said before sitting to watch the server unveil his treasure. When the server was almost finished setting the service, he thought to ask, “Do you clean too?”

“No, sir. Your brother told me to tell you to clean your own apartment. That shouldn’t be hard.”

Holmes snorted. Leave it to Mycroft to anticipate his actions. He thought himself so clever.

“Ah, thank you for the message. Please give this message to my brother. It is fortunate for this family that I am not a criminal. His murder would be first on my list of depraved deviance.”

Without blinking, the server answered, “Yes, sir.”

If nothing else, Holmes had to hand it to his brother. He always manages to find the best workers. Holmes often wondered if he bribed them or blackmailed them somehow for their loyalty. Mycroft was anything but a charismatic leader