Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [34]
Was a rogue Service agent responsible for this affair, then? The Countess and the Lord must have suspected as much, even before they managed to extract from the unfortunate Marquis the name by which his employer was known. The information didn’t come easily, as the Marquis was under the impression that if he said too much then other agents of his employer would hunt him down to the ends of the Earth.
But surely, both Jersey and the Lord would have understood the significance of the name ‘Sabbath’.
Back at the House, the Doctor was certainly beginning to. In the wake of Lisa-Beth’s triumph over the Service, the Doctor spoke privately to many of the women in the House, giving each of them instructions and advice (but never actually orders) as to how they might prepare themselves for the challenge ahead. Now that she’d demonstrated her loyalty to Scarlette’s faction, the Doctor seems to have opened up a little more to Lisa-Beth. It was only now, for example, that she started to understand the true significance of the marriage ceremony planned between the Doctor and Juliette. It had always been quite clear to her that it wasn’t a bond of true love, although there’s no doubt that the Doctor had the greatest affection for Juliette and that Juliette had the greatest respect for him. The Doctor spoke in hints, apparently always distracted by other matters, but gradually Lisa-Beth began to understand the symbolic significance of the wedding. She did, however, insist on referring to it as ‘the virgin sacrifice’.
The dreams of the House’s women also began to intensify. There were further visions of the realm of the beasts, particularly (no surprises here) during that time of the month when the House en masse was visited by the Prince. Sometimes human beings would be seen in the dreams, rendered limb from limb by the claws of hungry, demented apes. A throne was glimpsed, obviously made out of the stacked skulls of feeding-victims, and on it was perched a figure so dark and bloated that it became impossible to properly envisage. On one occasion the sky over the doomed city grew quite black, as if something dark and truly monstrous were gazing down on it. There was the general feeling that the apes were watching them, judging them, ready to impose their own bestial law on the House and its occupants.
Many of the women, Juliette especially, came to think of the Doctor as a tragic figure: an elemental cast out of his own world, trapped at the House perhaps as a kind of penance. It was as though he’d been removed from his place of power, and had the uncomfortable sense that he was interfering in things which were now none of his business. It’s probably true to say that he often wondered whether Scarlette, with her fragments of ancient lore and her determination to pull the House together, could have done the same job without him. But Scarlette obviously felt she needed him around, perhaps because he was the best justification she had, the best proof that her tradition still had power.
Yet ironically, he still had to move behind Scarlette’s back on occasion. The morning after Lisa-Beth’s victory, the Doctor went to the top of the House to speak to Juliette in private. The exact conversation is lost to time, but they must have discussed many things, including their forthcoming marriage. Later, Juliette would tell Emily of the conclusion.
There was, said my friend, a certan man who was wanted by Doctor _____. Scarlette knew of the appearance and history of this man, but her hart was sore from it and it would do her no good to speak of it. It was the Doctor’s thinking that this man had a certan knowlege of the terrible apes, but how or why he could not say. It was the task of my friend to use all her talents to find this man, who had many agents that mite have