Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [19]
She looked up. There were tears on her cheeks. ‘I thought I had a gift,’ she said helplessly. ‘But I was just sick.’
‘Do you have family I can contact?’ She shook her head fiercely. ‘Anyone I can contact?’
‘Do I have to stay here?’
‘No,’ said Chiltern, after the briefest pause. ‘But you’re welcome to until you feel better.’
‘I feel better now.’
‘Forgive me, but I don’t believe that’s entirely true.’
She began to cry openly and noisily, like a child. The Doctor went and sat on the bed beside her and took her hand. She fell against him, sobbing. ‘I’m so sorry, so sorry, so sorry...’
‘What about?’ said the Doctor quietly.
‘Everything.’
Then she just wept for a while. The Doctor held her, as Chiltern watched awkwardly, not entirely sure this wasn’t a trespass in the name of therapy. Yet there was something impersonal in the Doctor’s kindness, and nothing sensual in his embrace. After a few minutes, Miss Jane pulled away, sniffling, and wiped her eyes on the shawl. The men waited. Finally, she said, ‘Did you meet her?’
‘The angry one?’ said the Doctor. ‘Yes we did. Does she have a name?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t think so.’
‘May I talk to her again?’
She sat up and stared at him in shock. So did Chiltern – this was rather pushing things! ‘Why?’ she asked.
‘I’d like to find out what she thinks she’s doing.’ The Doctor’s calm, his good will, were almost palpable.
She relaxed a little: ‘I... I don’t know how to... to bring her out.’
‘I can call her, if you’ll let me. There’s no danger,’ he said as she pulled back. ‘She won’t stay. Tell me,’ he took her hand again, ‘how long has she been coming out on her own, when you’re not in a mediumistic trance?’
‘I’m not sure,’ she whispered. ‘A few months. She... played some mean tricks on me back in Oneida. People began to say I was a fake. That’s one reason I came here.’
‘You’re not a fake,’ said the Doctor firmly.
She rose abruptly and glided to the corner of the room where she stood for a moment with her face to the wall. When she turned around, she was someone else. In spite of all his experience, Chiltern felt something creep down his spine. The Doctor seemed impressed too. He stood up.
‘Well?’ said the thin, wavering voice. ‘Here I am, boys.’
‘Hello again,’ said the Doctor.
‘Hello to you. You’re a pretty thing, aren’t you? Too bad.’ She sauntered over and curled up in the armchair. Chiltern could have sworn that her body itself had changed, grown fuller and more feminine. ‘What can I do for you gentlemen? One at a time, please.’
‘Why are you here?’ said the Doctor.
‘You wanted me, didn’t you?’
‘I mean in general. Why did you start coming out on your own?’
She looked uneasy. Her glance slid to Chiltern and she smiled. ‘Why don’t you come over here, honey?’
‘Dr Chiltern is fine as he is,’ said the Doctor. ‘How old are you?’
‘You should never ask a lady her age.’
‘Please answer the question.’
She stuck out her lower lip. ‘Twenty.’
‘And how old is Miss Jane?’
‘Twenty-six.’
‘Chief Ironwing?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said sulkily. ‘He came after me. I suppose you want to know all about it, about the trauma.’
‘No,’ said the Doctor, to both her and Chiltern’s surprise. ‘I don’t. I want to know about the last few months. What has changed?’
Chiltern almost spoke, but the Doctor shot him a bear-with‐me look and he kept his peace. Miss Jane, or whoever was in her body, poked sullenly at a ripple in the carpet with her toe. ‘What do you want to talk about that for?’
‘How are things different?’ The Doctor’s voice was soft, but there was something relentless in it.
She glanced at him irritably and shifted in the chair. ‘Everything’s happening at once.’
She was babbling, Chiltern decided, but the Doctor went right on, as if what she’d said were perfectly rational. ‘All the time? Now?’
‘Yes,’ she snapped. ‘Now. There’s too much of you and’, her head jerked towards Chiltern, ‘not enough of him.’
Chiltern looked at the Doctor in bewilderment, but his eyes were still on the woman in the armchair. ‘Why is that happening?’
‘How should I know? It just