Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [12]
‘Oh dear.’ Mrs Hemming started for the cabinet. Chiltern and the Doctor were on their feet. Beside Fitz, Anji stood up, so he did too, and they both hurried forward. Inside the cabinet, the song turned into a cough and the cough into gasps. Mrs Hemming grasped the handle just as the gasps became a shriek, and when she jerked the door open, Constance Jane, only the whites of her eyes visible, swayed and fell forward unconscious into Fitz’s arms.
* * *
‘Good catch,’ Anji murmured later when they were all back in the front room. She and Fitz were standing in the corner of the parlour, while Chiltern tended to Miss Jane, who lay unconscious on the chaise. William the poet had swiftly and rather queasily made his departure, and Aunt Helen had dragged the unsympathetically curious Phylemeda away. Mrs Ainsley, apparently almost as overcome as Miss Jane, had collapsed in a chair and was cooling herself with a little jet-and‐rose-silk fan, the draft from which made the plume on her turban bob back and forth. Beside Anji the Doctor, face thoughtful, watched Chiltern gently bathe Miss Jane’s face and wrists with a damp cloth while Mrs Hemming hovered anxiously.
‘Her pulse is almost back to normal,’ Chiltern observed to Mrs Hemming.
‘Thank heaven!’ exclaimed Mrs Ainsley, her plume fluttering. Chiltern glanced at her bewilderedly, then returned his attention to Miss Jane.
Remembering her guests, Mrs Hemming brought over a tray with the heavy crystal decanter of sherry. Her hand shook slightly as she tried to pour, and the Doctor gently took over the serving duties. ‘Oh, thank you,’ she said apologetically. ‘I’m ashamed to be so all to pieces. But nothing like this has ever happened before.’
‘No?’ said Fitz, genuinely surprised. ‘I’d have thought it would be an occupational hazard.’ Mrs Hemming seemed puzzled by the phrase, and Anji shot him a warning look. ‘I mean,’ he faltered, ‘if it’s your profession to, you know, be possessed, then –’
Mrs Ainsley unexpectedly came to his rescue.
‘The spirits from the Outer Circles,’ she intoned faintly. ‘One of them must have Come Through!’
Mrs Hemming nodded gravely, as if this explained things. ‘Thank heaven Dr Chiltern is here. He’s one of our most respected alienists, you know. His clinic is renowned all over Europe.’
‘Alienist?’ Fitz said uneasily.
‘Psychiatrist,’ the Doctor translated, as Mrs Hemming hurried back to the chaise.
‘Doctor,’ Anji said in a low voice, ‘what happened in there?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘She read Fitz’s mind. She has to be a telepath.’
‘Yes. Certainly a help in the medium business.’
‘If she made that tambourine move she’s more than just a telepath,’ said Fitz.
‘Mm, yes,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’d like another look at that tambourine.’
He slipped quietly into the hall, and, after exchanging puzzled looks, Anji and Fitz followed.
Even in the summer night, the back parlour was slightly chilly. Anji shivered in her silks. The Doctor lit the lamp and held it up. The chairs were in disarray, the cabinet door still open. The tambourine lay innocently on the floor. Anji lifted it. ‘Seems all right.’
The Doctor was at the cabinet. ‘Bring the light over.’
But the cabinet revealed nothing except its bare walls. Undeterred, the Doctor returned to the table and climbed up on it. He ran his fingers over the branches of the unlit gas chandelier. ‘Ah ha.’ He held out something invisible to Anji. When she swiped at the air below his hand, her fingers encountered a thread. In the dim lamplight, she still couldn’t see it. She passed it to Fitz.
‘How’s this work, then?’ he asked.
‘The thread is thin enough to be manipulated through the crack of the cabinet door,’ the Doctor said, still checking the chandelier. ‘Run it over this lighting fixture and loop it though the tambourine, then hold both ends of the string in your hands. If someone moves to investigate, let go of one end and pull the thread back to you. In this case, she didn’t have time.’
‘She seemed