Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [81]
Juliette’s dream diary is equally disturbing in places, but often just downright odd. For example, on the night of August 12 Juliette claims she was awoken from her sleep by the same smell of smoke that had awoken her once before. Again she crept downstairs, but this time the salon seemed normal, if dark and empty, and she was on the cusp of believing that she was actually awake when she noticed a piece of paper which had been left on top of the House’s pianoforte (if this was a dream, perhaps it was inspired by the memory of the Doctor’s GONE TO FRANCE note, which had also been left on the piano… the Doctor was certainly nowhere near London on August 12). On unfolding the note:
I found that the paper was plain but for a single word and that word was _____ [symbol incomprehensible]. At this I felt a great flush over me such as I had not felt except in the dream of myself being in the cold grave. I felt some excitement as I read the word out loud. I did not know what it meant but as I said it there was a burning in my blood and the smell of salt water. For a moment I believed I was drowning and then there was a sudden rush and I was gone.
This is curious, particularly given what Anji experienced on that same night, an experience she later shared with others at the House. Anji claimed that she was woken in her bed by a sound from the salon, which she thought sounded like somebody shouting but which at the same time made her feel ‘uneasy’. She also noticed that Juliette’s bed was empty. Anji apparently didn’t think enough of this to go downstairs and see what was happening, but it later transpired that one of the other women in the House felt the same thing and did take a look into the salon. Nothing was happening; nobody was there.
Given his usual concern for Juliette, one might expect that when the Doctor returned to the House (in late August) he’d be worried about these stories. But it seems not, and by that stage he’d already been told a thing or two about Juliette’s past. He may have realised that his and Scarlette’s control over her had become too tight, that he was expecting unrealistic things from her, that his plans for her were too close to the kind of ruthless manipulation practised by Sabbath. He may have believed that if Juliette was becoming restless, if her thoughts were becoming intense and her interests increasingly esoteric, then it was part of puberty and he should leave her well alone.
If the speculation about the connection between ‘the Flower’ and ‘Little Rose’ has any weight, then one can only wonder whether the Doctor ever questioned Juliette about her own integrity. Scarlette states repeatedly that the Doctor was a perfect gentlemen, but then again he was a man who often seemed to misunderstand basic human feelings and therefore to act with what appeared to be a lack of tact. True, Juliette was to be the ‘Virgin of Spring’, the physical representation of the raw and unaffected Earth. But did the Doctor really attach that much importance to that aspect of the ritual? Would it really doom the whole process if one little detail was wrong?
Besides, the Doctor had other things to worry about. He fretted about the wedding invites, some of which still hadn’t been delivered and most of which hadn’t been answered. He constantly asked Scarlette where she’d obtained the two silver rings, which everybody was assuming would be used in the wedding ceremony itself. Undeniably, the Doctor had been slightly tactless in harping on about Sabbath so much in Scarlette’s presence, and some noticed Scarlette becoming a little… frosty with him. Indeed, at one point Anji took the Doctor to one side and tried to warn him that she didn’t trust Scarlette at all.
‘Just look what’s happening to Juliette,’ Anji’s supposed to have said. ‘Where do you