Today it only took me fifteen seconds to tell John I loved him.
That’s faster than most of the second-class telegraph clerks in London, certainly faster than all of the women. Almost as quick as the bolt of lightning that killed him. Every morning I transmit the same message, my fingers like a damselfly skimming over the water, tapping quick and light against the bed we used to share, in the Morse Code he taught me.
But London, my job as a telegraph clerk, my marriage—all of that’s over now. My days are filled with caring for my six younger siblings and widowed mother. Any extra time goes to hunting for a job in the small town where I grew up or drowning in the pity of my neighbors. Jobs that pay well enough to save our cottage are rare for women in Sherrinford, unless I give in and become a servant. A job I swore I’d never take again. Not after what happened to my father. I’m never going back to Sterling Place.
Except my choices are running out. Food, housing, medicine, we don’t have enough of anything, and my brother’s turned to thieving to make ends meet. The last time he was caught, Inspector Goodwin made it clear. All my problems would go away if I marry him. Goodwin may have been my first kiss, but there’s a reason he wasn’t my second or third. I’m giving myself one more week before I’m that desperate.
Because there’s one job left—lady’s maid to Lady Violet Holmes of Musgrave Hall. It’s in service, but at least it’s not at Sterling Place. This job, though, it’s a long shot because I’m no expert on the latest hairstyles and cosmetics. In fact, I have no experience at all. But rumor has it, Lady Holmes is different, eccentric. She performs experiments, and her younger son, Sherlock, blows things up. It’s no wonder she’s just lost her third maid this year.
So, maybe she won’t mind that I know about telegrams, and Morse Code, and charity scams instead of how to be a lady’s maid.
I may not have been able to fake my way past that awful liar of a housekeeper, even though I was only trying to warn her. But I have another chance. I’ve been summoned to see Lady Holmes herself. Something I said during my interview must have caught her attention. That or my big mouth is finally going to land me in jail. Well, then I really will be desperate enough to marry Inspector Goodwin.
There has to be more to life than barely scraping by while others live high on the hog in their big fancy houses.
And I can’t say no. Not to her offer of thirty pounds. And not to her dangerously green eyes.
THE LAST TELEGRAM OF MRS HUDSON
Series: A Lady Holmes and Hudson Investigation Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release: September 2026
Format: Digital, Audio, Print (January 2027)
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bloomsbury
The first in a new mystery series that reimagines Sherlock Holmes’s mother and her lady’s-maid-turned-investigative-partner.
‘Some problems simply merit solving, Mrs Hudson’
Heartbroken, widowed, and penniless, Katherine Hudson never intended to become a lady’s maid; especially not to the eccentric Violet Holmes, mother of a precocious seven-year-old named Sherlock. But to keep her family out the poorhouse, Hudson is forced into a life of service.
But she quickly discovers that working for Lady Holmes demands far more than polished manners. Instead, she engages in a most scandalous and unladylike activity: solving crimes. When a village boy goes missing, a forged signature links Hudson to the case. And, when a body is discovered on the Holmes estate, suspicion swiftly turns her way.
To clear her name, protect her family, and uncover a dangerous secret from her past, Hudson must investigate – while resisting her growing feelings for Lady Holmes.
Meet the author
Mattea is a recovering academic and current mystery writer, author of The Last Telegram of Mrs. Hudson (Bloomsbury/Head of Zeus) and the forthcoming sequel A Most Remarkable Forgery (Spring 2027). Her short stories have appeared in the anthologies Transcendent from Transmundane Press and the Agents of the Abyss from Padwolf Publishing, Toil & Trouble Literary Magazine, and Witch House Magazine. She lives in upstate New York with her partner, their three kids, and any number of disreputable cats, where she writes full time.