The Case of the Missing Marquess

The narrative point of view shifts to 14-year-old Enola Holmes’s first-person account of her birthday. Enola’s mother, Eudoria, goes out for the day, leaving presents behind at their home, Ferndell Hall, for Enola to open at teatime. Initially, Enola doesn’t feel worried about her mother being gone, because Eudoria often goes out to paint in the mornings. She opens her presents, which include a book about the traditional meanings of flowers and a handmade cipher book. She is not very excited about the cipher book, because ciphers are Eudoria’s interest, not Enola’s, but she is touched that her mother wrote and bound the small book herself.

On the following morning, when Enola learns that her mother has still not returned, she grows concerned. She goes outside to look for her mother on the grounds of their estate, but finds no trace of her. As Enola’s father has already died, she is panic-stricken at the idea that something may have happened to her mother, as well. She returns to the house. Mrs. Lane, the housekeeper, brings her stationery so that she can write a note about her missing mother to the police and telegrams to her two older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, who both live in London.

Although Mrs. Lane offers to have her son Dick take Enola’s missives to the village, Enola does not trust Dick with such an important task. She rides her bicycle into Kineford, stopping along the way to ask the lodge-keeper, Cooper, whether he saw her mother on the previous day. He says he did not, which tells Enola that her mother did not leave the estate by the gate. In the village, she sends her telegrams and drops by the police station before beginning a thorough investigation, stopping at all of the local shops to ask whether anyone has seen Eudoria.

She notes the disapproval of some townspeople that she wears her brothers’ old clothing instead of a ladylike skirt. Enola is uninterested in what other people think is appropriate for women. She feels that obeying social conventions would not get her very far, anyway, as her very existence is already shocking to people, because her mother was disgraced by having her so late in life. She continues her investigation even though people are clearly gossiping about her as she visits businesses “where ‘nice’ females seldom set foot” (17).

Despite her hard work, she learns nothing helpful. She returns home and decides to go into her mother’s rooms, even though her mother forbids it as a rule. She finds her mother’s painting supplies and realizes that her mother could not have gone out the morning before intending to paint. She is also puzzled to see that her mother’s usual walking outfit is present, and she wonders what her mother had on when she left. She finds a strange, puffy item made of horsehair and takes it to Lane, the butler, to ask him what it is. They are both mortified when he has to explain that it is the stuffing from a bustle, an “indelicate” item of women’s clothing (23). From Lane, Enola learns that when her mother left the house, she was wearing uncharacteristic clothing, including a tall hat and a dress with a bustle.

That evening, a telegram arrives saying that Mycroft and Sherlock will arrive via train on the following morning and need to be met at the station. The next morning, Enola sets out very early on her bike because the train station is in Chaucerlea, ten miles past Kineford. She dresses herself as respectably as she can, hoping to make a good impression on her brothers. Sherlock and Mycroft are substantially older than Enola, and she has not seen them since she was four years old at her father’s funeral. She recalls how the local children taunted her that her father died from embarrassment over her existence as a late-in-life child. She believes that Mycroft and Sherlock have not seen her or Eudoria in 10 years because they were embarrassed about Enola’s existence and because their lofty positions in the world—Mycroft’s as a government official and Sherlock’s as a world-famous private detective—would be compromised by associating with Eudoria and Enola.

Despite her brothers’ estrangement, Enola has read about Sherlock’s exploits in a book written by his assistant, Dr. John Watson. She’s very curious about London from this book and views Sherlock as a larger-than-life hero. When she compares her own skills and abilities to those of Sherlock, she feels humiliated.

Her brothers do not recognize her at first when she greets them at the station, mistaking her for “a street urchin” (32). They express shock that she came herself instead of simply sending a driver. Confused, she explains that they do not maintain a stable or employ a driver. Mycroft is outraged to learn that he has been sending funds every month for the upkeep of stables, and the money has been used for some other purpose. He is further angered to realize that the money he has been sending for ladylike clothing for Enola is also not being used for its intended purpose, and he and Sherlock are openly critical of her appearance. They blame Eudoria’s feminist beliefs for Enola’s supposed deficiencies. The siblings take a hired carriage back to Ferndell. Mycroft is furious at the state of the grounds, realizing that he has been sending money for groundskeepers in vain.