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toast could be seen clinging to his well-trimmed beard. The guest would formally introduce himself, and the Doctor would brightly apologise for his garb, but explain that he was a bit under the weather at the moment. Small talk would often be exchanged, though whenever the subject of the wedding would be raised Scarlette would step in and hurriedly change the subject. Some would notice that at times like these, Mr Kreiner and Miss Kapoor would exchange worried glances. The Doctor, however, would appear quite unaware of anything strange going on. A few noted that there were four empty chairs arranged by the bedside, and on each one a set of clothes had been folded. Four dresses, almost like uniforms for women, in red and black. There was a certain air of finality in the way they’d been left there.

By the evening of November 29, each of the wedding guests had visited the white room for a formal introduction. That night, once the last of the visitors had left and the Doctor’s elemental assistants had retired to their own lodgings, Scarlette found herself alone with the Doctor for the first time in some days. She records that he was sleepy, unable to keep up the pretence of good health any longer, and when she asked him how he was he closed his eyes and mumbled that he needed rest before the ceremony to come. Scarlette agreed with him, kissed him once, and left him in peace.

At least, this is the way she’d have the evening remembered. It’s quite possible that it was then, as she lowered the lights in the white room, that she finally told him her plans for the wedding. If so, then it’s impossible to say whether he argued with her, or even whether he would have been able to.

The next morning, the last of November, the hunters gathered at the edge of the forest for the final day of the Revels. At noon Scarlette herself addressed the crowd, as they waited impatiently by the TARDIS for the day’s apes to be called. She made another of her speeches, with all those present noticing a certain nervousness in her: some later joked that this ‘maiden’ was beginning to get scared that her consort might make an honest woman of her. Scarlette thanked all those assembled for the ‘great works’ they’d accomplished during the Revels, before turning to face the TARDIS – somewhat wearily, a few said – and speaking the word that would set its lantern flashing.

It’s worth recording that on the final day, no apes at all were caught or even seen in the forest. The hunters were obviously disgruntled, and Scarlette, too, was disturbed that day. It was the day before the planned ceremony, the same day, ominously enough, that the British government finally acknowledged the independence of America. When she attended the white room in the evening, the Doctor was asleep, but she noticed something amiss about the chamber and it took her a while to realise what it was. One of the four empty chairs had been disturbed. The red-and‐black uniforms of the House had been left there, neatly folded, perhaps in the hope that the Doctor might see them and realise the truth of what was happening around him. But as her journal records, Scarlette found that one of the four dresses was no longer arranged quite as neatly as it should have been. It was as if somebody had crept into the room during the previous night, worn the clothes for a while, then removed them again. Almost, as Scarlette concluded, as if the intruder had wanted to give the Doctor a chance to see her in the colours of the House one final time before he died.

Scarlette, of course, didn’t record whose dress had been moved. No doubt she would have claimed that she had more important things to record in her journal. After all, less than twenty-four hours later she’d be standing before the altar.

* * *

10

The Kingdom of Beasts

Last Rites

In the early hours of the morning, on December 1, 1782, Scarlette was to be found perilously close to the edge of the forest where the apes had been set free during the Revels. Witnesses describe her actions as ‘erratic’, by which they actually mean that she