I awoke very early one morning in April 1883. Sherlock Holmes and I were living together. I looked at the clock and saw that it was only seven. Usually Holmes liked to sleep in late, but he was already dressed, hovering over me. I looked up at him in surprise.
“What is it, Holmes?” I asked. “Is there a fire?”
“No, there is woman here. I think it is a case. I know you will want to hear everything from the beginning, Watson,” he said.
I quickly got dressed and went downstairs with Holmes. We saw a lady in the sitting room. She immediately stood up when we entered the room. She was dressed in black and her expression was very grave.
“Good morning! I am Sherlock Holmes and this is Dr. Watson. He is my dear friend and associate,” Holmes said. “We would like to hear everything.”
We all sat down.
“I am Helen Stoner. I am living with my stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott,” she explained. “The Roylotts have lived at Stoke Moran for centuries, but now my stepfather is the last living Roylott. The family was once very wealthy.”
Holmes nodded. “I know the name,” said he.
Miss Stoner went on. “However, because of a long line of terrible men, the family fortune is all gone. There is only the little land and the two-hundred-year-old house left. My stepfather knew that there was no money for him to live on. So he studied to become a doctor and then went to India. When my mother met Dr. Royloot there, my father had only been dead for one year. Julia, my twin-sister, and I were only two years old at that time.
“Your mother had some money, perhaps?” asked Sherlock Holmes.
“Oh, yes. She had about one thousand pounds per year. My mother changed her will when they married. She left all her money to him, but she did say in her will that he must take care of Julia and me.”
“We eventually returned to England but our mother died soon after. We all went to live at Stoke Moran. We had enough money but Roylott changed after our mother died. She was killed in a railway accident eight years ago. He is surly and fights with anyone in our neighborhood. Everyone is scared of him because he is strong and crazy. The only people he talks to are some gypsies who live on his land. He keeps some wild animals, too. There is a cheetah and a baboon which he brought back from India. They run freely around the place.
“You can imagine from what I say that my sister and I had a hard time. Because everyone is afraid of my stepfather, no one will work for us. We have to do everything. Sadly, Julia has already died. She was only thirty at the time of her death, but her hair was already going gray. My hair is becoming gray too.”