Enola was born in July 1874, years after her elder brothers had left home. Her mother’s late pregnancy caused her to be shunned by Victorian society. Not that Mrs Holmes cared much as an avid suffragist.
Enola’s first encounter with her elder brothers was brief at the age of four when the Holmes boys attended their father’s funeral. Mycroft became the head of the family’s finances, making sure money was sent monthly to care for the Holmes estate, his mother, and his younger sister. Growing up Enola was raised as a suffragist. She learned to draw from her mother and had a hiding place in a hallowed out tree in the yard where she kept many of her sketches. Her mother taught her many things, from reading to ciphers to botany.
On her 14th birthday her mother disappeared. The sudden disappearance brought her elder brothers home briefly. They had no idea where their mother had gone or what to do with a 14 year old girl. Since it was not Sherlock’s responsibility he returned to London. Mycroft attempted to search for a proper boarding school for Enola, but once she learned of his plans she ran away.
And in order to outwit her brother she headed to London, knowing that would be the last place they expected to find her. Soon she set up shop with funds her mother had kept hidden for her. She opened up a business of finding missing people under the assumption she was “Dr Leslie T Ragostin’s” assistant.
A few cases brought her into Sherlock’s path, but each time she avoided capture through disguise. She is fond of Sherlock, even if all she knows of her brother is from Dr Watson’s writings. As for Dr Watson she finds him fatherly and enjoyed the company of Mrs Mary Watson.
Enola fears boarding school for many reasons. These schools were finishing schools which required corsets. Corsets at this time were seen by men as something a woman wore without a second thought, but they were often worn tightly preventing the wearer from breathing properly or even breaking ribs. Her choice to avoid such schools was almost a life or death choice. Enola does wear a corset as it has it has saved her life on one occasion. She does not tighten it fully and has found a way to hide a dagger in one of the corset ribs.
Enola is highly skilled at sketches of people, of creating ciphers (as this is how she and her mother communicate through the personal ads in papers), she also knows a fair amount about the language of flowers higher society women use and she has a fair amount of knowledge on the gypsies. Upon coming to civil terms with her brothers she states she would like to attend university and study literature, chemistry, and higher mathematics.
