Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [105]
Of course, Anji had never met Sabbath. At Brighton, the Doctor had been careful to keep her ashore while Sabbath remained on the Jonah.
And then there was Emily. Accounts of Emily’s life are manifold (most concentrating on her later, more famous, years), but all the official versions contain gaps, and most of the gaps can be filled by her association with Sabbath. A connection between the two is easy to find. Charles Greville, who kept Emily as his mistress from late 1781, enjoyed showing her off to his society contacts… and Sabbath could certainly have been amongst them. Greville regarded Emily as living vertu, a piece of classical art and beauty, and with her wild flair for romance Emily would have felt bored and listless shut up in her Oxford Street home for his convenience. It’s easy to see how Sabbath would have recruited her to his cause, with his promises of adventure, of magic, of strange and exotic lands. She was intelligent, charming and (above all) attractive. She was, in short, exactly the kind of person Sabbath liked to use as an agent. He was ruthless when it came to exploiting the talents of his cat’s paws.
But Emily was no witch and no warrior. Sabbath must have known that she could never be his ‘right hand’, as Tula Lui had been. Besides which, in early 1782 Tula Lui had been alive and Sabbath hadn’t needed a replacement. All that had changed in July.
It’s not clear when Sabbath turned his attention to Juliette. As far as Scarlette and Lisa-Beth were aware, the two never even met before Juliette’s disappearance in September. Yet Sabbath knew everything that happened in the House, thanks to Emily. He must have considered, at length, the ritual wedding being planned by Scarlette’s clique. He must have decided that such a thing was workable, but not within the purview of a ‘failed elemental’ like the Doctor. And most of all, he must have known that he needed a new right hand. It’s tempting to think that he may even have been lonely after Tula Lui’s death, but it doesn’t pay to sentimentalise, especially not with Sabbath.
The modern reader can only imagine how the Doctor would have responded to the loss of Juliette. And, more importantly, how Scarlette would have felt. The only time Scarlette referred to it in her journals, shortly after the truth was uncovered, was in describing a conversation between herself and the Doctor. It took place one night in Scarlette’s own room, as the two of them lay together on the bed – fully clothed, Scarlette adds – in the flickering light of the lamps. Despite the subject matter, Scarlette describes the scene as being quite gentle, full of regret rather than anger. (The text has been simplified here.)
SCARLETTE: I did try to tell you.
DOCTOR: Yes. But I needed his help. We didn’t have a choice. I didn’t have a choice.
SCARLLETTE: I know. Whatever he touches, he burns. It’s his nature. DOCTOR: Do you really believe that? [Scarlette takes this as concern for Juliette.]
SCARLETTE: I know you worry. Nobody could fault you for that. I think of what he must have done, to make her believe in him.
DOCTOR: You’re angry?
SCARLETTE: Oh, God, yes.
DOCTOR: Just because of Juliette?
[Here, Scarlette notes: ‘He knows me so well’.]
SCARLETTE: No. I admit it, it’s not Juliette. It’s because of myself.
Whether this means that Scarlette blamed herself for what had happened to Juliette, or that she was angry at what Sabbath had once done to her, is unclear.
‘What he must have done, to make her believe in him.’ Indeed, Juliette’s motivations are a matter for some debate. Scarlette’s assumption was that Sabbath had brainwashed Juliette, and at first glance Juliette’s dream diary supports this. Sabbath poisoned her mind with strange vapours, subjected her to almost hallucinogenic experiences, trained Emily to say just the right thing at just the right time. However, as the dream diary reveals, Juliette already