Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [117]
It was in the final hours of All Saints’ evening when Scarlette realised she simply couldn’t go on this way. Ever since the Doctor’s collapse, the survivors of the House had just been hoping for the best, trying to convince the wedding guests to stay until December without any real plan. But that night, as she sat by the Doctor’s side and listened to his breathing while he slept, Scarlette finally made her big decision.
Yet the other members of the clique were still under the impression that it was all over. On the next morning, the dying Doctor was attended by all his associates for the very last time. By eleven o’clock they were all gathered round his bed. Scarlette sat by his side, where she’d been throughout the night. Fitz and Anji hovered nearby. Arranged around the foot of the bed were the three women, Lisa-Beth, Rebecca (how did she come from the House so quickly?) and – visiting for the first time in weeks – Katya. Dr Nie Who was also present, lurking at the back of the room, head bowed and eyes hidden under his Mandarin-style hat. Somebody, probably Who, had hired a band of the island’s local musicians to provide music for the occasion: the visitors were therefore treated to the unusual sight of six followers of obeah, assembled in the corner of the white room, instruments at the ready. The locals never seemed put out by anything the strange foreigners did, and they don’t seem to have found the Doctor’s rooms at all perturbing. The band played The World Turned Upside Down as the Doctor’s friends entered, a wilfully ironic choice of tune.
It’s doubtful the Doctor ever knew they were there. In a later moment of semi-lucidity, the Doctor would ask Scarlette about the ‘seven surgeons’ who had come to visit him that morning. He was under the impression, even after the event, that these surgeons had come to dissect him following his execution but had arrived early. He believed there was something inside his body they’d wanted for research purposes, and even went as far as saying that they’d started to cut him open. But at the time those present in the room only noticed that the Doctor’s eyes were fixed on the painting at the end of the bed, even when the three red-and‐black guardians of the House stepped forward, one after the other, to kiss him on the forehead. When the three women had finished, they stood back, at a respectful distance. All fell silent, with only the music softly playing in the background, waiting to see if the Doctor would manage to speak.
He didn’t. The party left the room in silence, gazing at their shoes at they went, and as the last of them departed Who quietly informed the band that the performance was over. It was hardly the grand goodbye that some of them might have hoped for.
By now, the island was crawling with representatives of witch-lodges from around the globe. After the Americans and the Maroons had come the British factions, the Masons and the Servicemen. The island’s natives reported seeing a ‘man with a skirt of colours’ around town, unquestionably a member of one of the Scottish Masonic lodges, who claimed descendancy from the Bruce and insisted on the traditional regalia even though it was deeply unfashionable. The Service officially denied sending anyone to the island, but it’s known that a rat-catcher was present, posing as an innocent bystander safe in the knowledge that everyone would know damn well who he was. An individual with a French accent made a big impact on the locals by walking around the town, loudly