It was a bright sunny morning in the normally gloomy winter of London. Holmes and I were sitting by the window enjoying the warm sunlight inside our room in 221 Baker Street.

"It is a beautiful day outside Watson."

"That it is Holmes. Fancy a walk up to the Rosalind garden?"

"Not now Watson. A client will be coming in any time now to see us."

"Were you notified about this?"

"No."

"Then how can you say?"

"Intuition, dear Watson. What better day than a rare sunny day for a person to get out of his home and land up on our doorsteps?"

Ten minutes later, a horse-drawn carriage was seen pulling up in front of our house. A woman dressed in an exquisite expensive-looking white dress along with an expensive light-brown fur coat slowly got out of the carriage. Her face possessed remarkable beauty with extraordinary finely crafted features. She quickly glanced in all directions suspiciously and then hesitated as if deciding whether to proceed towards our house or not. Minutes later we were welcoming her into our room.

"Pray tell us Madam. What brings you to our doorsteps?" asked Holmes.

"Mr. Holmes, my name is Lady Pendergast and my husband was the late Lord Pendergast of Dukesbury."

She was briefly interrupted by Holmes, "Late? But madam, I read all about Lord Pendergast's case in the newspaper. His sudden disappearance about two weeks ago left everyone astonished. I believe that the case is still under investigation, so how can you assume he is dead?

"Mr. Holmes the police do not know the whole truth. My husband collapsed suddenly one night and died on spot. Both of us had been playing cards with a friend when this happened. As soon as he died, the first thing that came to our mind was to bury him immediately, purely out of fear as to what trouble we would land into with the police. After all, who would believe us that a healthy man had passed away suddenly in the presence of two people. So we immediately took his body and buried him in a deserted area just behind the Pendergast mansion. My friend and I knew that we could not hide the Lord's disappearance for long, so I decided to report him missing to the police next day."

She grew quiet then and Holmes gently prodded her, "Madam, I have a feeling there is more to the story. Pray continue. Do not be afraid to tell us."

Voice drooping with anxiety, she continued, "Mr. Holmes, I have been hearing voices at night that resemble those of my husband. At first I dismissed them as nightmares but I know know that I'm fully awake when this happens. I cannot report this to the police for obvious reasons. I'm afraid I've landed myself in quite a mess."

"Madam, have you confided in anyone about this?"

"Yes sir, to my friend Mr. Bennet. He is the same person who was with me when my husband suddenly died. My husband and I had been acquainted with him for the past three years and we have always believed him to be absolutely trustworthy. I couldn't think of confiding about this to anyone else."

As her story came to an end, Holmes looked at her queerly and asked, "Madam, are you certain that you have you told us the whole story?"

"Yes, yes Mr. Holmes," she stammered, "I have to be going now. Pray tell me how you are going to proceed."

"Madam, tomorrow we will pay you a visit at the Pendergast mansion in the afternoon and we would also like to speak to Mr. Bennet."

"Very well, Mr. Holmes, I'll be going now."

When she left, Holmes remarked, "Watson, we'll surely head to Dukesbury tomorrow. It is not very far from here but what do you think of the Lady?"

"I believe she acted quite foolishly in the whole matter but is genuinely distressed now."

Holmes merely smiled at that.

As promised, we paid a visit to the Pendergast mansion the next day. The area around the mansion was fairly deserted with only three or four houses nearby. The mansion itself wasn't very huge as compared to some other mansions but still was of a considerable size. The front gate opened into a pathway in a garden, which led to the main door. The garden was enclosed with a six-foot wall all around. Before walking into the house, we walked around to the back of the garden and discovered a back door; however, there was no adjoining gate, so the only possible way to exit the mansion was to walk to the front gate.

When we walked into the house, we were greeted by Lady Pendergast and a handsome man, whom we at once knew to be Mr. Bennet. We were first shown around the house. There was a big living cum dining room just to the left of the main door. A library and a big party room were also located on the ground floor along with a small storage room. A grand stairway led up to the first floor where the Lady and Lord's bedroom was located, along with four other bedrooms.

We briefly took Mr. Bennet aside and questioned him in the library. He simply repeated what Lady Pendergast had told us earlier. After that we were left alone to carry out our own investigations. We first examined the Lady's bedroom. We did not find much, but just as we were about to leave, Holmes' eyes caught a shiny object just behind the Lady's dressing table. It was a small gift wrapped in a shiny dark-blue paper. We questioned the Lady about its odd location and she revealed that she was planning to gift it to her husband. "Day after tomorrow is our marriage anniversary. Each year my husband used to surprise me with a wonderful gift just as the clock struck midnight. So this year, I had planned to surprise him instead. I bought this gift three weeks ago and hid it behind my dressing table as the Lord was least likely to look behind that."

Holmes who had been listening quietly all the time, now gravely remarked, "Madam, I believe your life is in serious danger. It will be best if you make arrangements to stay elsewhere quickly and leave the rest up to myself and Watson."

We finished searching the rest of the house and the only other thing of interest that we found was a half-empty bottle of liquid insecticide in an obsolete corner of the storage room, which Holmes immediately pocketed.

Holmes and I had made arrangements to stay in a nearby inn. As nightfall occurred, Holmes told me that he wanted to go out alone. I did not object to this because I knew his eccentric ways. It was almost dawn when he returned to our room.

"Watson, I'm certain that I have solved this mystery. But there are certain missing links that will be completed only when we catch a potential murderer in action tonight at midnight."

"But Holmes, what did you find out?"

"I'll reveal everything tonight."

At night we quietly stole into the mansion at around 10, climbing over the wall so that we could slip in through the back door unseen. The back door had been left open as per our instructions and we softly made our way towards the Lady's bedroom. The house was pitch dark save for a faint yellow light lit in the living room downstairs. We both hid behind the dressing table (it was big enough to hide four people) and watched. Just around five minutes before midnight, faint footsteps could be heard approaching the bedroom. Just as the clock struck 12, the figure of a well-built man was seen entering the room. He made straight for the bed and caught hold of the dummy figure's neck that we had planted on the bed but soon realized the case and with a startled cry let go of the dummy's neck. We seized the moment and jumped out of our hiding place, armed with pistols, onto the man. Soon Holmes and I had overpowered him on the floor and shined a torch down on his face.

"Watson let me introduce you to Lord Pendergast."

The very next morning Holmes and I went to meet Lady Pendergast who had been staying with a girlfriend on our advice.

"Madam after hearing your story for the first time I had asked you whether you had told me everything. Your startled expression had told me there and then that you did not. When I met Mr. Bennet, I understood what you were trying to hide because the tender looks that you gave each other told me that you were lovers. It was further confirmed when you told me that the gift you had was for your husband when in fact it was for Mr. Bennet whose birthday incidentally fell two days after your anniversary. As soon as I saw the gift behind the dressing table, I noticed that even though there was a lot of dust behind the table, the gift had no dust on it at all. This implied that you had recently put it there but when I questioned you, you told me that you had put it there three weeks ago. Before leaving that day, I innocently remarked about your approaching anniversary to Mr. Bennet who not only confirmed your anniversary but also told me how sad he was that Lord Pendergast would not be with him on his birthday two days later. I then knew for sure that the gift was for Mr. Bennet and you were obviously trying to hide a relationship."

All this while Lady Pendergast had been staring silently at the floor. Her downcast eyes only confirmed what Holmes had been saying so far.

He continued, "But the most puzzling aspect of your story was your husband's sudden death and the way you clandestinely buried him. You were definitely hiding something. The same night that I had visited your house earlier in the day, I went to explore the place where you had buried Lord Pendergast. I was able to identify the spot just as you had described to me and on digging it, I discovered no body at all. Madam, this confirmed my suspicion that your husband is alive.

At this the Lady looked up in shock but Holmes was not finished yet. "Still there was an important link which I understood only when we caught Lord Pendergast yesterday trying to strangle the dummy we had planted on your bed. Madam, perhaps you recognize this."

With this, Holmes held up the bottle of insecticide that we had found in the storage room, seeing which, the lady immediately broke out in loud sobs and covered her face in her hands.

At that instant Lord Pendergast, whom we had left waiting outside, walked in and remarked in an accusatory but emotional tone what he had told us last night, "I knew for a long time that my wife's affections were no longer mine but Bennet's, yet I never stopped loving her. Lately I was not keeping well and when I consulted my doctor he said that my symptoms were very similar to those caused by slow poisoning. I knew then that my wife and her lover were trying to kill me. The very next day, the incident of my supposed death occurred. I had in fact only fainted because of my condition. However, my wife quickly assumed that I was dead. When I came to, I discovered myself buried in the ground. I had no problems coming out because the earth was very loose above me but I decided there and then that I would avenge my sufferings. Getting into the house at nights was not very difficult because the window of the library is a bit loose and opens easily from outside. I wanted her to first go insane with terror and guilt. Hence, I would haunt her every night. I finally planned to finish her off on the night of our anniversary. I have always loved her unconditionally but such terrible betrayal turned me into a villain."

At this point, Holmes expressed his sympathy for the Lord but explained that he would have to hand all three of them to the authorities.

With this, the extraordinary case came to an end and Holmes and I headed back home to Baker Street.