Patricia Holm - Relationship With The Saint

Relationship With The Saint

Beginning in the next book, 1932's The Holy Terror, Charteris returns to using Patricia Holm in the same way in which she made her debut in Meet - The Tiger! - as a willing and loyal partner to The Saint, who is willing to do almost anything (within reason) to help Templar achieve his goals. Templar reaffirms his love for Holm several times in The Holy Terror, even going so far as to considering proposing marriage, but Holm replies that she has no interest in marrying, fearing it would spoil her unique relationship with Templar.

Considering that these early adventures were written in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the relationship shared between Holm and Templar was progressive for its day. In Meet - The Tiger! they make love not long after their first meeting, and in Enter the Saint it is suggested they may be living together; by the time of The Holy Terror there is no ambiguity at all that they share the same flat in London. Although such co-habitation between unmarried partners is commonplace today, it was rare (and in some areas, even illegal) in the 1930s. The two also appeared to have a somewhat "open" relationship, with Holm accepting (or, at least, tolerating) Templar's occasional dalliances with other women. For example, in the short story "The Bad Baron" (in the collection The Brighter Buccaneer), Templar briefly goes off with another woman (and steals a kiss from her); Holm's response is to simply ask if Templar has started a new romance; in Prelude for War, in which Holm plays a major supporting role, Holm refers to Lady Valerie (the lead female character in the book who Templar briefly woos) as the latest addition to Simon's harem.

The novel Getaway sees Templar and Holm taking a European vacation, although they soon find themselves battling Prince Rudolf, who had been the power broker behind Rayt Marius in The Last Hero. At one point, Holm and another colleague, Monty Hayward, are left to fend for themselves and Holm reveals that Templar has been training her in the ways of crimefighting, and she takes charge of the situation from Monty. Holm dons several disguises during this adventure, and at the end of the book safely escapes a police station shootout with Templar. Soon after (in the novella "The Gold Standard" in Once More the Saint), she and Templar return to London by separate ways. Templar is apprehended for questioning by Scotland Yard Inspector Claud Eustace Teal; while Templar is in custody Teal receives word that a petty crook has himself been robbed at gunpoint in another part of England. The robber left behind a copy of Templar's trademark stick figure-with halo calling card. Templar claims that someone is impersonating him, a charge Teal initially believes; later, the reader learns that this second "Saint" was in fact Patricia Holm, who committed the act in order to provide Templar with a handy alibi (that an impersonator is responsible for the crimes attributed to him).