Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [38]
Vicki clung to Evangeline as the woman gently rocked her back and forth. 'Ask for a shoulder to cry on, you get a philosopher,' she muttered.
`Your aunt and uncle meant the world to you?'
`Yes,’ said Vicki, fighting back the tears. 'Literally. And the Doctor... They saved me from certain death.'
`Family does that,' Georgiadis said quickly, feeling somewhat left out. 'We shall be your family now.'
Evangeline brushed the wet hair from Vicki's eyes. 'Hush, little one. You have learned a harsh lesson this day. But you shall survive it.'
Some hours later, Vicki emerged sleepily from her bed to the smell of cooking. She found Evangeline up to her elbows in a huge stone pot mixing some sort of vegetable stew. It didn't look particularly appetising to Vicki, but the aroma, after a day of having eaten nothing at all, was enticing enough.
`Smells nice,’ she said in a croaky whisper. Her throat felt salty and tasted of the pain of loss.
Evangeline nodded and tapped the side of the pot with the wooden spoon she was using to stir the brew. ‘I had to find the biggest one that we possess. I am cooking for four mouths now.'
Suddenly, the vastness of the change in this family's life hit Vicki. There they were, perfectly balanced and static in their own narrow lives and along comes a helpless orphan who...
`Thank you,' she said, as the tears started again. 'Thank you for taking me into your home. I really appreciate it.
Sometimes, it might not seem like I do, but I do.’
Vicki ran to the door and stood, crying, on the threshold, looking out at the cobbled curved street where the Greek family lived. This was her new world and, grateful as she was to have shelter and food and a good chance of survival, she silently cursed that they had ever come to Byzantium.
Ian Chesterton had hardly slept either, though for vastly different reasons. Finding himself escorted to the Villa Praefectus by Drusus and having been given impressively lavish quarters. Ian was just settling down for the night when there was a soft but impatient knock on his chamber door.
And, before he had a chance to offer entrance, he was treated to the arrival of a middle-aged woman in a white silken dress with her hair piled up on her head in a towering bouffant She saw Ian lying naked in bed and her eyes widened.
`So, you are the Briton?' she asked, lustfully. 'Your arrival has caused something of a stir within this house.'
'Bad news travels fast,' Ian noted. 'Madam, it would seem that you have me at something of a disadvantage...'
The woman seemed to consider this for an age. 'I am the lady Jocelyn, the wife of the praefectus,' she said at last. 'And I am here for the sole purpose of seducing you.'
'Oh,' said Ian, matter-of-factly. 'That's nice.' He paused as the directness of her approach sank deeper. 'It's not that I'm ungrateful, or anything, I'm truly flattered, but...'
Joceyln inclined her head to one side, smiled, and then threw herself onto the bed at Ian's feet and began to crawl towards him.
Chesterton leapt from the bed like a scalded cat, almost falling as his legs entangled themselves in the bedding. He grabbed a robe as he freed himself and cowered in the corner, dressing, whilst the woman watched him with a look that was touching the torrid. 'It would,' Ian said, covering his dignity with some haste, 'be unseemly for a guest to take advantage of his host's hospitality before proper introductions had even been made. You understand, of course?'
`Humph,’ Jocelyn seemed to have become bored by the chase. She rolled off the bed and moved towards the door before looking over her shoulder and giving Ian an ice-cold stare. 'I usually get what I want,' she said, flatly.
Òh, I'll bet you do, missus,' Chesterton muttered as he scuttled after her and closed the door, standing with his back pressed against it for several moments before he finally went back to bed. He sat upright, shivering despite the balmy night heat. `This place is worse than Notting Hill Gate,' he noted before