“She was altogether colorless and severe, and still she managed to be beautiful. Not the way that girls are generally beautiful, but more like the way a knife catches the light, makes you want to take it in your hands.”

James describes his first glimpse of Charlotte. He compares her to a lethal weapon and is fascinated with her principally because of the danger she represents. James defines himself as commonplace and ordinary. In contrast, a lethal weapon, while dangerous, can be thrilling to contemplate.

“But I had never wanted to be her boyfriend. I wanted something smaller than that, and far, far bigger, something I couldn’t yet put into words.”

Many variations on the Holmes-Watson relationship have emerged from subsequent writers in the subgenre, but changing the gender of the detective raises the possibility of sexual chemistry between Holmes and Watson. While James admits his physical attraction to Charlotte, he recognizes that their relationship could never be as simple as “boyfriend-girlfriend.”

“If I was harboring any doubts about my part in this investigation—and to be honest, I’d had some Titanic-sized ones ever since we broke into Dobson’s room—seeing those well-thumbed books made me feel better. I belonged here, I thought, with her, as surely as anyone belonged anywhere.”

James is examining the contents of Charlotte’s lab. While he finds many of her experiments off-putting, he feels at home once he sees a copy of his ancestor’s books narrating the detective’s adventures. This is the role James inherited, and he embraces it wholeheartedly.