The case was called to mind just once more, when Lady Templeford came again, this time at ten in the morning. Her mood was one of jubilation. "I must speak with Mr Holmes at once!" she cried, as if announcing her intention to the street, and pushed past me on her way upstairs, as though I were a ghost and she had intended to pass right through me. She met him on the floor above. "Happy news indeed! They have arraigned the blackguard and his mistress, and my son is preparing to commence divorce proceedings. None of this could have happened without your help."

At the foot of the stairs, I trembled for what I was about to say. My sense of justice was strong, but so was the conviction that I would be going against generations of wealth and class. A woman of my position cannot afford to make mistakes.

"Mr Holmes," I called out, "I must speak to you plainly."

"Mrs Hudson." My lodger was taken aback. "You must see that I am entertaining a most distinguished visitor."

"What I have to say concerns her too," I ventured, standing my ground, although there was a quaver in my voice. "I fear you have been deceived."

"What is this imposition?" Straight-backed and frowning, Lady Templeford drew herself up to her full imposing height and faced me upon the stair. I took an involuntary step back.

"On the night Lady Templeford arrived in distress, a smell clung to her fox-fur coat, something a mother would recognise. It was the smell of a baby. But there was something else, a chemical stronger than that secreted by an infant. When she returned, the second smell still emanated from her pocket. While this lady was in your rooms, I glimpsed something in the jacket she gave me."

"Really, this is too much!" Lady Templeford protested. "Mr Holmes, why do you allow your staff to behave in this unseemly fashion?"

"Laudanum, Madam," I cried, forgetting the correct form of address. "Every woman of the working class recognises its smell, a drink cheaper than gin and sadly in just as much use. An opium-based painkiller prescribed for everything from a headache to tuberculosis, fed to infants by their nursemaids in order to keep them quiet � often with fatal results. I hear the drug has found popularity among even the grandest ladies now. You cannot deny it � the bottle was in your pocket." I had seen the octagonal brown glass and smelled its contents. "It is my conjecture you paid one of your son's servants to remove the baby from its cradle and deliver it to your lodgings in Mount Row. But there are many apartments around you whose occupants might hear an infant cry, so you silenced the poor mite with laudanum. Shame upon you!"

"The woman is mad!" cried her ladyship. "I shall not countenance such an accusation."

"Then this will do it for you," I told her, raising the bottle so that Mr Holmes could see it. "Your name is written upon the label. Your doctor will verify the prescription, I am sure." No man can survive without the influence of women. But we live in a world that belongs to men. Even our own dear queen has withdrawn completely from British life, her strength brought low by the memory of her husband. What hope can there be for other women without her?

The truth did indeed come to light, although I do not know whether justice will be done. It is not my business to know. Certainly, Mr Holmes was not best pleased. How could he be in his position? Still, I look up to him. And he must look down upon me.

To him, I will always be the lady downstairs.