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Person

Laura Lyons

Also known as L. L., Mrs. Laura Lyons, Mrs. Lyons.

The one person on the moor whose initials are L. L., the name on a burned letter that drew Sir Charles to the moor-gate on the night he died. Dr. Mortimer identifies her: the daughter whom Frankland cast off for marrying an artist without his consent, then deserted by that husband and left to earn a hard living by a typewriting business in Coombe Tracey, helped to her feet by Sir Charles and other charitable neighbours.

Chapter XI. The Man on the Tor

Interviewed by Watson, she first denies, then admits writing to ask Sir Charles to meet her at the gate at ten o'clock, meaning to beg his help toward the cost of a divorce from the husband she abhors. But she swears that something intervened and that she never kept the appointment.

Chapter XII. Death on the Moor

Holmes tells Watson of a close intimacy between this lady and Stapleton, whom she takes for an unmarried man and counts on marrying, and names her the one person who, once undeceived, may complete their case.

Chapter XIII. Fixing the Nets

Confronted by Holmes with a York photograph that proves Stapleton a married man, her faith in him breaks. She pours out that he had courted her with a promise of marriage, dictated the fatal letter to Sir Charles, then dissuaded her from going and frightened her into silence.

Chapter XV. A Retrospection

In the full account she stands as Stapleton's unwitting tool: courted by a man posing as single, made to write and then to break the appointment that lured Sir Charles to the gate, and kept silent afterward by fear, though she had never dreamed of harm to her kindest friend.

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Laura Lyons