Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [11]
The Doctor looked disappointed again.
‘Knights and castles,’ she chuckled.
‘Pardon?’
‘My name’s Castle, the man I ran over was Mr Knight. And you and I are both chess players. It’s only a coincidence, but it’s like something off That’s Life.’
The Doctor was turning the white king over and over in his hand, watching it intently.
‘The game’s afoot,’ he said. Then he looked up. ‘At least, I think it is.’ He studied the board.
Mrs Castle looked down at the board, at the remnants of the Doctor’s game. A white queen, a few pawns, a couple of bishops, a couple of castles. Ranged against them were the black knights and castles, and the king. No pawns, at least few to speak of.
‘What’s that?’ she asked. There was a large piece she didn’t recognise, one that seemed to come from another set.
The Doctor picked it up, moved it, captured a white knight with it. ‘I’m not sure,’ he concluded.
He placed the white king firmly in the centre of the board.
‘I’d better get going,’ Mrs Castle said. ‘Look, why don’t you come to chess club on Tuesday night – four o’clock at the school? There’s a team coming from Vale Mill. We’ll play that game.’
The Doctor grinned. ‘That would be good. I’ll see you there.’
* * *
Chapter Three
The Girl with Two Hearts
Mrs Castle got home safely, and the snow kept falling for three more nights and days, but she didn’t mind so much any more.
All that time, as she prepared and taught her lessons, she thought about the Doctor and how he had helped her. It was a simple, kind act, but the more Mrs Castle thought about it, the more complicated it became. Who was he? How long had he been living all alone in the farmhouse? How did he make a living? What did he do with himself all day?
She tried to work out how old the Doctor was. She could remember seeing the crows’ feet around his eyes, and she thought he had a couple of grey hairs, but Mrs Castle found it very difficult to guess. She decided that he was older than he looked, but she couldn’t decide how old he looked. She found herself looking forward to Tuesday night, and the chess club. The Doctor was a fascinating man, and she had the feeling that the answers to her questions would be even more intriguing than not knowing. Whatever the case, the answers were bound to be more interesting than her ordinary life, with its routine of schoolwork and living with Barry.
On Tuesday, around half three, as the sun set over the hills, and her pupils began packing up, she began to worry the Doctor wouldn’t come. The snow was inches thick, now, and although the roads had been gritted it was still a hazardous journey. This time of the year, it was already night when the school day ended.
The school secretary put her head round the door and told Mrs Castle there was a phone call for her. Mrs Castle trudged over to the main building, leaving her class to pack up under the watchful eye of the secretary.
* * *
Mrs Castle thought the phone call must be from the police, wanting to talk to her yet again about the accident. The last time she’d been to the station, the desk sergeant, who had a couple of sons at the school, assured her that she wouldn’t be charged: Arnold agreed that it was his fault for running out into the road. But that hadn’t stopped an endless pile of paperwork from mounting up.
But it wasn’t the police: it was Mr Moxon, the teacher from Mill Vale Primary who ran their chess club. He told her the snow was coming down, and their team had been hit by the flu. He was sorry for the late notice, but he was going to have to cancel.
Mrs Castle put down the telephone, disappointed.
She walked back through the playground to her classroom block. Greyfrith Primary School was a collection of Portakabins huddled around a small playground. The only permanent structure was the Victorian main building she had just left, a wet, grey, slate-and‐stone building which had the assembly hall, the headmaster’s office and the small library. The cabins were meant to be a temporary solution to the expanding school roll, but they’d been saying that