Dead of Winter - James Goss [57]
Despite the gathering storm and the rain, a warm glow spread through me, like a cup of hot chocolate on a crazy cold day. I gave an experimental cough. No rattle. Nothing bad. Just a cough. And my head was clearing of fog. I felt amazing.
I turned around to the other patients, sat dozing next to me on the beach. ‘Do you hear that?’ I cried, ‘I’m cured! I’m cured!’
A couple of them nodded, but they didn’t really stir.
Amy tutted. ‘Poor dears, it’s taking a lot more to cure them. You know how it is.’
‘Er… Why is that?’
‘Well, I suppose there’s no harm in telling you, now you’re all better.’ Amy smirked. ‘You… Well, you only had it a little. A tiny weeny little bit. Just enough…’
The lovely warm glow went. ‘Just enough to make me trust you.’
Amy nodded. ‘Sorry, hon.’
‘But that’s… Dr Bloom wouldn’t…’
Amy stroked my hair, ‘He had no idea.’
‘So whose idea was it?’
And that’s when a rather fussy, amazingly dressed figure glided out of the mist. It was Prince Boris, no longer in pyjamas but in a full Prisoner of Zenda military outfit. He strode towards me and bowed, clicking his heels. ‘It was my idea,’ he said, his voice warm and fruity. ‘I suggested to Kosov that he give it to you.’
He turned sharply to Amy. ‘Have you learned everything you need from him?’
She nodded, dully. There was something odd about the way she looked at him, fearful. ‘We have learned a lot. He has been beyond this world. He has travelled through time.’
Prince Boris laughed. ‘How utterly wonderful!’ He looked at me with something like sneering respect. ‘How novel! The Doctor mentioned something in small talk, but I am fascinated to know exactly how?’
‘Not telling,’ I said.
‘In a blue box called TARDIS,’ said Amy dully. ‘He has no idea how it works. The only person who knows is the Doctor.’
‘Ohhhhh,’ said Boris, laughing again. ‘How interesting. How very interesting. What about the girl?’
Amy shrugged. ‘She is very important to this man. He worries she loves the Doctor.’
‘Oi!’ I cried. ‘It’s more complicated than that.’
Amy turned back to me and winked. ‘No it isn’t, babes.’
Prince Boris smirked. ‘So you are jealous of your wife?’
I tried very, very hard to be brave. ‘Well, who isn’t?’
‘Interesting,’ sighed Prince Boris.
He grabbed hold of the thing that looked like Amy and kissed her, long and slow, watching me all the time. I hated him.
‘Fun! Of course, if your wife cared for you at all, she would be here. But where is she?’ He looked up and down the beach, like a pantomime villain, and then shrugged. ‘Oh dear, my friend Rory, I don’t think you’re very important at all. Your companions have abandoned you…’
Tell me about it, I thought, miserable.
‘They have abandoned you to me.’ He grasped hold of the fake Amy, and twirled her around, laughing as they danced. ‘I tell you, Mr Williams, these creatures have made me amazing! And they do respond ever so well to a strong mind. I’m just off to have a word with them. Tell them who is boss. Goodness me – what a waste I’ve made of my life. I’m making up for lost time!’
‘What?’ I narrowed my eyes at him. ‘I thought you were nice!’
Prince Boris tutted and clucked his tongue at me, like an old lady in a sweet shop. ‘No, not nice. Merely incredibly polite. Anyway, if you will excuse me…’
He made to go away, but Amy stopped him, resting a hand fondly on his shoulder.
‘Yes.’ He was irritated. ‘What is it?’
‘Now we have cured Mr Williams, can I release him and return to The Sea?’
Prince Boris shook his head. ‘No, drain him dry.’
And with that he walked off into the mist.
Dr Bloom’s Journal
7th December 1783
A fine, dreadful pickle, made all the easier by just how wonderful Perdita is to me. She squeezed my hand by the aspidistra. ‘It will all be all right, my darling,’ she said.
Sometimes her good mood infuriates me. I gestured to the corridor. ‘How can it be? Prince Boris has taken over! He’s ruined everything. The man’s mad. I thought I just had to deal with the Doctor, but now this! I mean, look at it – my patients!