Doctor Who_ Foreign Devils - Andrew Cartmel [18]
Zoe began to feel the same terrible embarrassment that attended witnessing any live performance go horribly wrong. Across the room, Carnacki was watching Celandine with a tense, concerned look. Only the girl herself seemed unconcerned, standing there in front of the piano, pale with concentration.
Pemberton Upcott was wearing the expression of a man who was beginning to wonder if he had made a terrible mistake. He glanced around at his restive guests, came to a decision, and took a step towards Celandine.
It was at that exact moment that the piano began to play, all by itself.
Pemberton froze in mid stride. All muttering and coughing died instantly. Besides the eerie stridency of the piano, the only sound in the lounge was the crackling of the fires. And despite the heat emanating from the two huge hearths, the room suddenly seemed distinctly chilly.
The music emanating from the piano was like nothing any of the guests had ever heard before, a strange stiff-fingered syncopation that nonetheless possessed a lilting, infectious melody.
'Oh listen,' cried the Colonel, drunk and boorish and resolutely unimpressed, 'A squirrel has got into the piano. In fact, a bunch of squirrels. In fact, a bunch of tone deaf squirrels.'
'Be quiet!' hissed a woman standing next to him. 'It's the spirits!'
'Well the spirits need to loosen up their jolly old finger joints and learn some proper music instead of that ugly jungle jabbering!' bellowed the Colonel, delighted at the felicity of his own wit. But not everyone found the music strange. Zoe had unconsciously begun swaying to the unusual rhythms. 'How odd,' said the Doctor, listening closely. 'Thelonious Monk. 'Crepuscule for Nellie'. There's
definitely some kind of temporal displacement afoot.'
The tune came to a plangent conclusion and the piano fell silent. Throughout the incident Celandine had kept her eyes shut and shown no awareness of what was going on. Now, as hesitant applause began among the awed guests she opened her eyes briefly and gestured for silence, returning to her pose of stillness and meditation.
'Well, that was jolly,' bawled the Colonel. 'Shall we break out the port now and let those poor squirrels free?' Several people shot him irritated looks but no one said anything and his comments died strangely in the silent room. Everyone was looking at the piano, expecting it to begin playing again. But when the next incident happened, it took place somewhere else completely.
Along the north wall of the lounge, the wall facing the driveway, there stood a large teak dresser with a display of silver and crystal and a number of candelabra burning on it. It was a heavy slab of furniture and, along with the silverware on top, and presumably inside of it, it must have weighed close to half a ton. Now the dresser began to move.
At first no one noticed. Then the people standing closest to it realised what was happening and moved hastily away. A woman shrieked. Everyone in the lounge turned to see what was happening and there was a unanimous awestruck gasp from the crowd. The big teak dresser had risen up off the floor and was now visibly floating six inches above the floor, its stubby feet hovering over the carpet trailing tatters of dusty cobwebs.
'The cleaning staff are in for a severe reprimand,' murmured the Doctor, grinning. Zoe was staring in shock at the dresser. 'How is she doing it, Doctor?' she whispered. The Doctor turned to her, a fierce gleam of interest on his face. 'As I said, she appears to be the genuine article.'
The dresser kept on rising and the crowd had now backed away from