Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [7]
‘We’re a few years too late for that.’
‘Deadwood?’
He shrugged. ‘The people there are very rude. . . ’
‘How about. . . Tombstone, Arizona? The gunfight at the OK Corral!’
‘Been there, done that.’ He gestured around. ‘Anyway, what’s wrong with this place? What’s wrong with, um. . . ’ The man turned and spotted Jenny walking behind them. He gave her a wan smile. ‘Hello there! This might sound like a silly question, but, uh, where are we?’
Jenny coloured a little, feeling slightly embarrassed about listening in on their conversation. ‘This is Redwater. You’re new to the town, then?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said the man, grinning. ‘Very new. Brand new, even.’ He offered her his hand and she shook it. ‘Hello! This is my friend Martha Jones, and I’m the Doctor.’
She smiled back. The man’s open manner was infectious. ‘Miss Jenny Forrest, at your service. A pleasure to meet you, Miss Jones, and Doctor, uh –’
‘Just Doctor,’ he replied. ‘Redwater, is it? Splendid! I love the place names in this part of the world!’
Her brow furrowed. ‘I didn’t know we had new arrivals. The stagecoach from Dekkerville isn’t due for another week or so.’
‘We, uh, rode in,’ said the girl. ‘In a manner of speaking.’
‘Of course.’ She studied the man. ‘Doctor, while it is always stimu-lating to have someone of learning visit our township, I must confide to you that if you’ve come having heard of our epidemic, your journey has been wasted.’
‘Epidemic?’ Martha’s smile froze.
‘Really?’ replied the Doctor, shooting a quick glance at the girl. ‘And why is that?’
16
‘The sickness was cured.’
Martha eyed her. ‘What sickness would that be, then?’
Jenny held the books closer to her chest. ‘Why, the smallpox, of course.’
Being a gentleman about things, the Doctor offered to carry Jenny’s books for her and she took them to the clapboard schoolhouse at the far end of the street. The teacher insisted on making them both a cup of tea as a thank-you, and when she was out of earshot Martha leaned close and spoke in an urgent whisper. ‘Smallpox?’ She was all business now, the carefree traveller part of her put away and the trainee medical doctor at the fore. ‘If there’s been an outbreak here, these people could be in serious trouble.’
‘But she said it was cured.’ The Doctor’s doubt was clear in his tone.
Martha shook her head. ‘Uh-uh. Smallpox doesn’t get eradicated for almost another hundred years yet.’ She shuddered. As part of her training, Martha had been educated on how to identify and diag-nose infectious diseases, including ones that were technically extinct.
She remembered the pictures she had seen of victims of the virus –scarred by lesions all over their bodies, blinded or partly paralysed.
And those were the lucky ones, the ones who had survived exposure.
‘Vaccinations weren’t very widespread around now. . . ’
‘No,’ agreed the Doctor, thinking. ‘Not at all.’
‘So the disease might not be gone. This could just be a lull, an incubation cycle.’ She thought of the bodies at the undertakers. If the infection was still lurking in them. . .
‘Smallpox was a deadly killer in the nineteenth century,’ he noted.
‘Outbreaks were quite common. . .
Sometimes whole communities
were wiped out by it.’ He jerked his head toward the schoolhouse’s window and the town beyond. ‘But this place doesn’t look like somewhere in the aftermath of a plague, does it? No funeral pyres, no mass graves or houses burnt down to stop contamination. It’s just. . . ’
‘Too normal?’
He nodded ‘Yeah.’ The Doctor’s smile snapped back on as Jenny returned with cups of strong black tea. ‘Oh, thank you.’
17
The schoolmarm sat with them and untied the bundle of books. ‘It’s the least I can do for visitors. Tell me, do you have lodgings? I can recommend Mrs Lapwing’s boarding house just over yonder.’
‘Thanks,’ smiled Martha.
The Doctor helped Jenny with the books, sorting through them. ‘Ah, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea!’ He waved a volume in the air. ‘This is a great one.’
The teacher cocked her head. ‘Indeed? I have not read it, but I have found Mr Verne’s other scientific