Doctor Who_ Ghost Light - Marc Platt [63]
Josiah reached out expectantly, but Redvers moved on past him towards Control, who rose hardly daring to believe. ‘Control’s proper ladylike now,’ she said, her voice trembling slightly. ‘Out to dinner. Take Control meeting Queen lady.’
Redvers’ handsome, grizzled features smiled at her, but a hand came snaking over his shoulder and Josiah’s voice crooned into his ear. ‘Redvers. We agreed. We hunt the Crowned Saxe-Coburg together.’
Redvers moved the envelope clear of the grasping hand and shook his head apologetically. ‘I gave up on Redvers long ago. All he ever talks about is himself!’
He looked into Control’s eyes. She was the first thing he had seen clearly for heaven knows how long. All the rest were phantasms and mirages, brought about by too long alone in the interior. ‘Here, Control,’ he said and gave her the invitation.
Ace saw Control take the envelope and Josiah lunge forward to tear it from her. ‘Give me that letter!’ he cried in anguish. Every move imprinted itself in detail on Ace’s mind, as if all time was slowly tumbling inwards on her.
She suddenly knew that something terrible would happen.
Control snatched the envelope clear, but the maids began to move in from the walls towards her. ‘It’s mine,’
she shouted, ‘or I burn it!’ With one movement, she swung round and held the battered invitation towards the fireplace.
Ace saw the flames reaching up, eager for the paper. Just a stray spark could set it alight, or a match thrown by a frightened kid, whose flame unchecked could flower into a blazing inferno. Fire would lick along dry frames and timbers; black, choking wood-smoke would fill the house and the stone’s would crack in the heat.
Josiah moved slowly towards Control. ‘You basest of creatures! You dare to defy me! I am a man of property!’
‘Then I burn whole house up!’ Control thrust the precious envelope over the flames. Josiah choked: he was unable to move lest it should drop.
Ace could hold back no longer. ‘No, Control! Don’t do it! That’s what I did in 1983! Please! Don’t do it again!’
The Doctor caught her in his arms. This was not what he had rehearsed in his head. ‘Ace. You didn’t tell me.’
‘You’re not my probation officer! You don’t have to know everything!’
Oh, how he sometimes wished that was true. ‘Ace.’ He cradled her gently.
‘The whole house was full of evil and hate left by him!’
She pointed at Josiah, whose eyes had never left the slowly singeing invitation. ‘This house! So I burnt it down! I had to!’ She buried her head in the Doctor’s embrace.
Control, absorbing every word of Ace’s confession as she met Josiah’s hateful stare, said simply, ‘It is wickedness,’
and dropped the envelope into the fire.
‘No!’ Josiah scrabbled in the hearth to retrieve the burning invitation, but a wave of radiance that filled the whole dining room carried it out of his fingers. It spiralled in the heat, away up the chimney.
The Doctor gently rocked Ace and hushed her tears.
‘It’s all right, Ace. That’s that. He only wanted to take over the Empire. At least he didn’t want to destroy the world.’ It was only then that he noticed the flow of radiance and the incessant, angry drone of Light’s aura.
Light stood at the head of the table in the host’s place, Like a golden, vulturine messenger of death seeking its carrion. For the moment, it seemed more concerned with the tureen of lukewarm soup than with the company assembled in its presence.
‘Light. I think I’ve solved your problem for you,’ the Doctor began optimistically.
‘There’s only one solution to the Earth,’ it intoned.
Ace, the thoughts of her own drama driven away by the extraordinary focus of the angel, again saw something glinting in the tureen. On some impulse, she saw her hand reach out and stir the ladle.
Josiah stepped obsequiously forward. ‘Light, the survey of this planet is complete,’ he fawned. ‘It is ready for your examination.’
Apparently Light did not hear. ‘I was going to reduce it to this,’ it said, watching as Ace raised the ladle.