Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [84]
Next the stranger spread the still-breathing victim out on the ground, and examined him at length. He’d unquestionably noticed the hostile figures around him, but didn’t appear at all concerned. It was only then that Émondeur decided his authority had been challenged enough, and demanded to know who the stranger was.
Ostensibly, the stranger explained that he was a doctor from England who was working for the French administration. (This is dubious. Lucien possibly misheard ‘the Doctor’ as ‘a doctor’, and probably just assumed that the man, as most Europeans did, worked for the administration.) At this Émondeur became angry, and began cursing this Doctor, insisting that this was Mackandal’s place and that enemies of Mackandal’s kin deserved their fate.
Then the Doctor calmly reached into his jacket and removed an envelope… an envelope which, with Lucien’s usual flair for macabre mis-remembrance, is described as ‘deepest red and dripping with blood’. The Doctor handed the envelope to Émondeur, who stared at it with his one good eye and clearly had no idea how to react.
With the wedding four months and an ocean away, the Doctor was making sure all the invitations were delivered correctly. It’s easy to believe that the Doctor, born traveller that he was, would have relished the chance to deliver the last few messages personally. And is it really coincidence that he should spend so much time away from the House, almost tactfully, so soon after finding out that Juliette was quite capable of having a life (and secrets) of her own without him?
It’s got to be said again, there is no evidence at all to prove that Lisa-Beth knew Juliette well before the arrival at the House. The link between Juliette and ‘Little Rose’ is purely speculation. The truth is, almost nothing is known about Juliette’s life. From her own recollections, shared with her friends, all that can be deduced is that she never knew her own parents: she had a sister, possibly a twin, although Juliette believed her to be dead. Juliette’s early years seem to have been spent abroad, it’s true, in the custody of an organisation whose name she never told. (This sounds unduly sinister. ‘Organisation’ doesn’t necessarily mean some arcane secret society. The eighteenth century was the early corporate age, when interests such as the East India Company would constantly ship what might be called ‘human resources’ between Europe and the east. There may have been laws against white slavery, but there were notoriously few laws regarding the rights of children, so corporate ownership wasn’t unknown.)
The question of what Juliette’s owners might have used her for remains unanswered. If she had indeed been present at the House of Dutt in India, then she may have been sold into service there. What’s more interesting is the question of how she came to England. Scarlette on more than one occasion claimed that she’d ‘summoned’ Juliette. This isn’t literally true, as Juliette was known to have arrived in England on a tea-ship, but Scarlette nonetheless felt she was responsible for Juliette’s arrival in Covent Garden. Perhaps Scarlette puts it best when she writes:
One must be so spectacular than none can resist one’s pull… remarkable people draw other remarkable people to them, by accident or will. Two years ago [1780] I opened up my arms and bid the world come to me, knowing what lay ahead and what companions I would need to complete the purpose. I called, and they came.
Grand words indeed. And is there the suggestion here that Scarlette believed she