Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [13]
She went into the Portakabin, tuning at the slick of water in the corridor. The heating had been turned off, despite her asking the caretaker not to. Every week the caretaker forgot about the chess club and left them shivering. She wondered if the man genuinely forgot, or whether her constant requests and badgering had left him with some ill-formed grudge against her.
She braced herself to tell the children her bad news and opened the door.
The chess club were all sitting at their desks, heads down, trying to figure their next move. But they were all sitting on their own. The chair opposite each of them was empty.
The Doctor was sitting on the edge of her desk. He turned at the sound of her entering and beamed at her. Mrs Castle felt elated – she remembered what it was like when a teacher praised her work.
‘I hope you don’t mind. I came up with a little challenge of my own.’
She looked again and realised.
‘You’re playing all of them? Ten games at once?’
‘Eleven,’ the Doctor said simply, moving aside. There was another board set up on her desk. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’
Mrs Castle smiled, and picked up a white pawn and a black pawn, hiding one in each hand.
‘Black,’ the Doctor said, picking her left hand. His mouth twitched into a smile when she opened her hand to reveal the black pawn.
Mrs Castle put the pieces back and opened by moving her king’s pawn.
‘Be with you in a moment,’ the Doctor said. He stood, and walked around the room. He stopped at the first board, made his move and quickly moved on to the next one. He drummed his mouth with his fingers, then slid the castle up the board. Lee clearly hadn’t expected the move, and it left him deep in thought. The Doctor was already up to the fifth board. Mrs Castle watched him scratch his head, purse his lips, strut about. He returned to her within a minute.
‘Incredible,’ she told him.
‘Early days yet,’ the Doctor told her. ‘Anyone can do this and lose eleven games. A couple of them will give me a run for my money.’
‘You can tell that already?’
‘Oh yes.’ He moved his king’s pawn, nodded happily at some secret joke and began his circuit of the room.
‘Check!’ Stephen announced, delighted.
The Doctor sat down hard on the tiny chair opposite his opponent, shook his head, then took the offending piece with a pawn. ‘Check!’ he echoed. Stephen slumped.
‘You’re trying the king’s gambit,’ Daniel announced.
‘Am I?’ the Doctor said. Mrs Castle wasn’t sure whether the surprise in his voice was feigned or not. He looked Daniel straight in the eye. ‘So, what move should I make next?’ he asked the young boy. Mrs Castle smiled – Daniel had ordered a book on chess openings for the school library, and had kept it out on permanent loan ever since it had arrived. He had it memorised, but couldn’t always put what he had read into practice.
Daniel told him what he should do, and the Doctor obliged.
A few minutes and a few circuits later, the Doctor was at Mrs Castle’s desk again.
He chuckled. ‘Thought so,’ he told her, ‘you’re castling early on. Quite apt, given your surname.’
‘Gordon?’ she asked, before remembering that her surname now was ‘Castle’. ‘Is there a Doctor’s defence against it?’ she asked.
He checked the board, a puzzled expression on his face.
‘No need to pretend with me,’ she assured him.
‘Um...’ the Doctor replied, feigning innocence.
‘I can see what you’re doing – you don’t really need to think it through.’
‘No?’
‘No. I know you don’t want to make beating the kids look too easy, and I appreciate it, but there’s no need to spare my feelings. Especially not this early in the game.’
He moved a knight out.
Mrs Castle opened up the drawer in her desk and rummaged through the confiscated Smurfs for her packet of Polos.