Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [25]
‘Certainly.’ He offered a chair.
‘Not here. Can we go back to my room?’
‘It’s much more comfortable here.’
‘I know.’ Her eyes darted at the shadowed corners. ‘But...’
‘And we shouldn’t be in your room without a nurse present.’ She looked at him for a moment in bewildered innocence. ‘Oh.’
She blushed. ‘There’s an orderly on duty in my hall. Mr O’Keagh. But I...’
‘He doesn’t have to overhear us. He can stand just outside the door, as long as we keep it open. I don’t mean in the least to insult you. The clinic has adopted this policy for reasons of both privacy and propriety.’
‘Yes, I understand.’
‘But it really would be much more pleasant for you here. I can summon –’
She shook her head firmly. ‘I feel safe there.’
‘Then that’s where we’ll talk.’
Chiltern recognised O’Keagh as one of the newer employees, a young Irishman with the build and face of a boxer. There was no sense pretending the violent ward didn’t occasionally need men like that. It would be good when Miss Jane could be moved. He and O’Keagh gave each other good evenings, and he followed Miss Jane down to her room, the only one whose door stood open, letting in light from the gas fixtures in the hall.
‘I wish I could have a lamp,’ she said as he came up. ‘Or at least a candle.’
‘I’m sorry. It’s difficult, I know. But we have to be careful of fire.’
She smiled crookedly. ‘Of patients setting fires, you mean.’
‘I’m afraid so, yes. The public rooms are illuminated till ten.’
‘It’s not the same.’
‘No,’ he agreed.
She made no move to go inside but simply stood looking up at him. In the gaslight, her brown eyes were very dark, almost black. ‘You’re a real gentleman,’ she said, ‘aren’t you?’ He smiled uncertainly, a bit embarrassed, and she ducked into the room. He followed her, and something heavy smashed into the back of his head. He cried out as he fell, and then cried out again when his assailant stepped forward into the light and he saw his face. The last thing he heard was a voice coming from Miss Jane, a high, wavering voice that said, ‘I’m sorry, Doc, but I had to do it. The silly bitch was going to kill herself!’
* * *
Chapter Five
After seeing the Doctor off to the railway station in the morning, Anji and Fitz had been left at loose ends.
‘I think,’ she said with some asperity, ‘that after all our time together he could be a bit more forthcoming.’
‘Well,’ Fitz observed, ‘it might not be that he’s keeping things back, it might just be that he’s hiding the fact he doesn’t know anything.’
Anji saw the logic in that.
‘All right, then.’ she said. ‘Sight-seeing day. I vote for the Crystal Palace.’ Fitz groaned. ‘Fine, Mr Tour Guide – what’s your suggestion?’
‘All this history,’ he complained, ‘it’s too much like school.’
‘Well, it all is history, as far as we’re concerned. That can’t be helped, can it?’
Fitz perked up considerably when he actually laid eyes on the building.
‘Disneyland ain’t in it,’ he pronounced, gazing in amazement at what seemed like at least a mile of glass walls, some of them blindingly bright in the sun.
‘Neither is Mies van der Rohe,’ murmured Anji, equally impressed. The building struck her as a bit mad in a giddy, enjoyable way. In spite of its symmetry it was more Frank Gehry than Mies, she thought as they entered – a fantasia on the possibilities of building materials. She and Fitz stared up. Three levels of galleries ran the length of the vast hall of sunlight they found themselves in, and live trees grew almost to the arched and soaring roof. The huge space was jammed with people and noise – a cacophony of shouts and laughter underscored by the hiss of steam, the grinding melody of barrel organs and the wailing, echoing boom of a calliope organ. The great glass vault was sheltering a funfair.
Anji clung to Fitz’s arm just to keep front getting separated as they squeezed through the crowd. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this!’ she shouted in his ear. He shook his head in mute agreement. The fair had