Doctor Who_ The Massacre Part 8

'The soldiers came by early yesterday evening, looking for them, I suppose, but they went away empty-handed,'

she replied.

'Was one of the three men elderly, wearing a cloak and carrying a silver-k.n.o.bbed cane?' Steven asked.

'He was the one who came asking for Monsieur Preslin in the first place. But why don't you go in and look?' she suggested. 'It's never locked.'

Tentatively, Steven tried the door and it swung open.

'Thank you, madame,' he said and, taking Anne by the arm, went inside. They searched the house thoroughly but found nothing to give Steven a clue that the Doctor had been there.

'They must have made good their escape before the soldiers arrived,' Steven said as they stood in the bedroom which was a shambles with Preslin's clothes strewn everywhere.

'And the neighbour didn't see them leave, sir?' Anne sounded dubious. 'A busybody like her'

'Then can you explain it?' Steven replied irritably.

'No, sir, I can't,' Anne said.

'But I must find him', Steven was emphatic.

'Best not in those clothes, sir,' Anne suggested, 'they're a bit funny and you'd soon be recognised if anyone were to see you.'

Steven smiled wryly. 'I think you're right, Anne, but what else have I to wear?'

'His things, sir,' Anne pointed to Preslin's clothes.

'By the look of them, we're not the same build,' Steven replied.

'There's plenty of people in Paris who wear ill-fitting clothes, sir.' Anne scratched her head and smiled. 'So many you don't even notice them. I'll wait for you downstairs.'

Steven looked with dismay at the hose, the doublets, the buckled shoes and the plumed hats lying on the floor and the bed. He knew Anne was right but everything, apart from the hat, was too small. He sighed and changed, then he bound his clothes up in a bundle which he slung over his shoulder and went downstairs. As soon as Anne saw him, she had a fit of the giggles.

'n.o.body would ever know it was you, sir,' she said, her shoulders jiggling.

'That's a relief,' Steven's voice had an edge to it. 'But stop calling me sir all the time. My name's Steven.'

'Yes sir er Steven, sir,' Anne replied.

He smiled. 'Where does your aunt live?'

'In the rue des Fosses Saint Jacques rue des Fosses Saint Jacques. It's not far from here,'

Anne said.

'Saint James's Ditches,' Steven translated. 'I'll take you there.'

'Very handsome you look, very handsome indeed, sir,' the neighbour said as Steven and Anne left the house.

Steven gave her a sickly smile. It did occur to him to say that he would eventually return Preslin's clothes but he decided against it.

As they made their way through the streets Steven discovered two things: the first was that Anne was right, no one paid any attention to him, and the second was that his borrowed shoes pinched. But the third discovery when they reached the aunt's modest home was much more serious. A neighbour came in tears to say that Anne's brother and her aunt had been abducted on the previous evening by Catholic soldiers.

At approximately the same time Roger Colbert presented himself at the Admiral's house and asked to see Nicholas Muss. Nervously intertwining his plump fingers the young man explained that Duval would he willing to exchange the relatives for the wench.

'Your master places considerable importance on retrieving this er wench, as you call her,' Muss said calmly from behind his desk, 'and for the life of me, I cannot think why.'

'She has a contract of employment which she has broken', Colbert replied, untwining his fingers to tap one set on the back of the other hand. 'A situation, sir, which I am sure you would not tolerate in this household.'

'Indeed not,' Muss smiled, 'it would mean instant dismissal.'

'That is not our way,' Colbert returned the smile, 'After an appropriate reprimand the offender is given a second chance.'

'In the true Christian spirit,' Muss retaliated.

'Perhaps the girl should be allowed to decide for herself?' Colbert suggested.

'Her return against her relatives' release. That's hardly the same spirit, is it?' Muss shook his head and then pointed at Colbert. 'Go back and tell Simon Duval to free her family and come here himself with a guarantee on his honour that they will not be abducted again.' Muss leant forward, put his elbow on the desk and raised his forefinger towards the ceiling. 'At that point, I will have Anne Chaplet summoned here' he reversed the direction of his finger 'to make her choice.'

Colbert inclined his head slightly and left the room.

After a few moments, Muss rang the small bell on his desk and asked his secretary to fetch Anne. When he learned she was missing he sent for Steven, only to be told that he, too, had disappeared. In exasperation he hit the desk with the his fist.

'Find them, find them before the Catholics get wind of this!' he ordered.

The Doctor had returned to the cave and, whilst he changed into his own clothes, Lerans listened to his account of the meeting with Tavannes.

'So now Catherine's with them and the Admiral's on his way out,' Lerans summarised when the Doctor had finished.

'That's how it appears,' the Doctor confirmed.

'The Queen Mother's equivocation I can understand,'

Lerans replied. 'She's always tried to maintain a balance between Catholic and Huguenot. But getting rid of de Coligny is more difficult to understand because he's the King's man.'

'You're forgetting that Charles is tied to his mother's ap.r.o.n strings,' the Doctor pointed out.

'Not since she forced him to marry Elizabeth of Austria,' Lerans answered. 'Since then he's tried to be his own master.'

'But he's sick,' the Doctor emphasised.

'Yes, I know, and his little brother, the Duke of Anjou, the heir to the throne, is no friend of ours,' Lerans added and then asked the question the Doctor dreaded: 'But how do they intend to get rid of de Coligny?'

'I don't know,' the Doctor lied and changed the subject.

'Where's Steven?'

'Safe and sound at the Admiral's house,' Lerans replied confidently and returned to his own question. 'Obviously, the Queen Mother must know. Anjou, Tavannes and Guise would not dare move without her consent.' He paused and then smiled at the Doctor: 'We'll arrange an audience as soon as possible with her for you, my Lord Abbot, to find out.'

The Doctor looked at him with lugubrious eyes and sighed in resignation.

Duval was furious when Colbert told him about Muss's reaction to the exchange.

'No, I will not free them,' he shouted and hammered on his desk. 'Not until the girl is here. Go back and tell him that.' There was a knock on the door. 'What is it?' he snapped as a sentry came into the office with a sealed note which he handed to Duval. Duval broke it open with a small knife and read the message. Then he roared with laughter and crumpled the parchment in his hand. 'He's got her out of there! He's done it! Quickly, Roger, go and find them.'

'Who sir?' Colbert was completely confused.

'The young man, the Abbot's agent, and the wench,'

Duval replied excitedly. 'Reach them before the Huguenots do.' He took Colbert by the sleeve. 'There's a promotion in it if you succeed.'

Colbert scuttled from the room.

Steven stood on the street and tried to think. He was stuck with Anne as she had nowhere to go. But neither had he.

The auberge was out of the question as both sides would look for him there and he had no idea where the Doctor was.

Finally he realised that, without papers, there was only one safe refuge for him; the rubbish dump where the TARDIS stood, but he was obliged to take Anne along.

Dressed as he was, a carriage was out of the question so they made their way back across the city as quickly as Steven's blistering feet would allow. On the way they saw patrols of Catholic soldiers and groups of men who looked suspiciously like Huguenots on a similar mission to find them. Steven squeezed Anne's shoulder in appreciation as they walked unrecognised through the streets. He did not relish the idea of waiting for the Doctor among the putrescence, as the latter had described it, but he seemed to have no choice.

Some distance from the dump, Steven saw the crowd and, with a sinking heart and in spite of his feet, increased his pace towards it. He knew what had happened. Someone had opened the door to the rubbish dump and had seen the TARDIS.

Steven forced his way through to the front of the crowd.

The door had been knocked down as well as most of the front wall and the rubbish cleared away. The TARDIS was surrounded by halberdiers and over it were three stout tree trunks strapped together to form a triangular support for the pulleys and ropes which made up the primitive crane that was secured to the TARDIS and hoisting it, centimetre by centimetre, into the air so that the horse drawn cart waiting to one side could be backed in under it and take it away.

10.

The Hotel Lutece Lerans was angry and perplexed when Muss told him that both Anne and Steven had disappeared. He wanted to know how and why.

'The how I can answer,' Muss replied. 'She must've shown him the rubbish tunnel which was unguarded.'

'So, he's gone looking for his friend, the Doctor, but why did he take the girl with him?' Lerans demanded.

'Surely, he knew the risks they'd be running'

'I'd've thought so,' Muss poured some water from a pitcher on his desk into a gla.s.s and sipped it. 'Both sides are out looking, let's hope we find them first. But what do we tell the Doctor?'

Lerans stood up and leant on the desk with his fists to face Muss. 'Nothing. Not a word until the royal audience is over, until we know what's proposed as de Coligny's fate.'

'When will Catherine receive our our Abbot?' Muss asked. Abbot?' Muss asked.

Lerans turned away from the desk and spread out his arms as he walked over to the window. 'When I know their their Abbot's plans for tomorrow, then I'll prepare ours. But count on it for tomorrow.' Abbot's plans for tomorrow, then I'll prepare ours. But count on it for tomorrow.'

Steven and Anne mingled with the crowd following the cart with the TARDIS loaded on it.

'Is that something to do with you?' Anne asked. 'Is that why you took me there?' Steven nodded. 'But what is it?'

she continued.

'A special type of carriage.' He kept his voice down.

'Where are the wheels?' Anne's curiosity was aroused.

'As you can see. it doesn't have any,' he replied.

'So it has to be pulled around like that,' Anne said, sounding derisory. 'Not very fast, more funny, I'd say...'

'It's... different,' Steven conceded and wonder where the TARDIS was being taken to.

An hour later the motley procession entered a Iarge square with a forbidding fortress in the middle of it.

'Where are we?' Steven asked.

Anne looked at him in surprise. 'You are a stranger to Paris,' she exclaimed. 'That's the Bastille prison and very few who go in alive come out in the same condition, I can tell you.'

Steven stared in horror as the horse-drawn cart reached two huge wooden doors which opened to receive the TARDIS and then closed behind it as the crowd dispersed.

'I'm hungry, Steven, aren't you?' Anne asked perkily.

'Yes, yes, I suppose we should eat something,' Steven mumbled, his mind elsewhere.

'We've got to think about the curfew,' Anne reminded him, bringing up yet another problem.

They found a small inn near the square and ordered wine, fruit juice, bread and cheese. Anne drank the juice and munched her food with pleasure whilst Steven barely touched his wine and nibbled distractedly at the wedge she had prepared for him. Finally, she reached out with a hand and touched his arm.

'Don't look so worried, Steven', she said gently.

'There are questions to he answered,' he replied, 'where my friend, the Doctor, is and, when I find him, how we'll reach the carriage, but most immediately, where you and I can spend the night without being arrested.'

'That's no problem, at all,' Anne replied. 'There are some very good hotels in Paris.'

'You need papers to stay in one,' Steven protested, 'believe me, I know.'