Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [88]
Australian Aboriginals in puberty perform the ritual called ‘walkabout’, in which they’re left to wander the desert outback with nothing but their wits to help them survive, an initiation designed to put the adolescent ‘in tune’ with his world through painful experience. Here on the streets of London, Juliette was undergoing her own, very English, kind of walkabout. Little wonder that Anji believed this was part of some secret witchery, which the Doctor didn’t – couldn’t – know about.
Halfway along Cranbourn Street, Juliette was stopped by a man whom Anji describes as looking ‘shifty’. He seems to have been of the professional classes, though not overly rich. Anji ducked into the doorway of what she took to be a closed shop, and was too far away to hear the conversation: a pity, because it might have revealed much about Juliette’s intentions. All Anji could report was that they talked for a few moments, apparently in a civil manner. There didn’t seem to be any argument between them, but after a while the man simply walked away. Juliette, Anji claimed, spent some time staring after the man once he’d left her. As if considering a lost opportunity.
As far as Anji knew, Juliette was supposed to be a model of pure and unsullied virtue… and as far as Anji was concerned, the girl was obviously trying to make extra money by putting herself on the streets, proof that something funny was going on. If she’d been more forgiving, Anji might have considered that this impulse could have come from Juliette herself rather than being part of somebody’s secret training. The subtext of Katya’s rant at Scarlette had been, why are you spending money on clothes for that girl when she doesn’t even earn her keep? For followers of Rousseau’s cult of sensibility, there was no greater sin than failure to live up to the ‘natural’ work ethic.
It’s also worth noting that after her meeting with the gentleman on the street, Juliette returned home, Anji running ahead of her on the way back. But there would be other nights.
Anji couldn’t report all this directly to the Doctor, because the Doctor still hadn’t returned to London. Throughout August he took full advantage of his access to Sabbath’s ship, which meant that he didn’t take the direct route either to or from Hispaniola. At one point he and Sabbath even ended up in Vienna, at the Doctor’s insistence, where they attended the premiere of (appropriately) Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. The Doctor reportedly paid rapt attention throughout, while Sabbath declared that although he saw ‘potential’ in the work the narrative structure was diabolical. Both of them were nonetheless irritated by the hissing that was heard from several quarters during the performance. The Doctor attempted to get backstage after the premiere, and into the company of Emperor Joseph II himself, but this time even the Doctor’s famous charm failed him. He later admitted he was sorry to have missed the after-opera soiree, as he wanted to know whether the Emperor really did bluntly tell Mozart that the work had ‘too many notes’ as later rumours claimed… although it’s not known whether the Doctor said this before or after the rumours began to spread.
So, back in London, Anji had nothing to do but keep watching. And watch she did. On another four occasions, Juliette stole out of the House and into the cold, drizzle-scented streets of London. As Anji’s surveillance is only mentioned by Lisa-Beth’s journals, it’s never stated whether any of these later excursions resulted in Juliette being, as it were, better appreciated by the gentlemen of the city. The only one of Juliette’s walkabouts that’s properly described is the fourth and final one, the reappearance of the Woman in Black.
On the night of August 29 – the day the Royal George was lost, possibly an omen – Juliette took her usual route through the half-light of Covent Garden. She passed Charing Cross Road and headed into Cranbourn