Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [97]
Nonetheless, nobody had wanted to tell the Doctor the news.
It goes without saying that the vote hadn’t gone in Scarlette’s favour. But what’s surprising is the degree by which she’d lost. The three ‘non‐tantrist’ women had expected both Lisa-Beth and Rebecca to vote with a red feather: the vote really hung on Katya, who’d done her best to remain loyal to the House despite trying circumstances. Yet when the feathers had been tipped out on to the salon’s one remaining table, five of the feathers had been black and only one had been red.
Who, then, had stayed loyal? Or rather, who’d been disloyal? It was in the nature of the secret ballot that nobody asked, although uneasy glances were thrown. Had Lisa-Beth voted black? She’d appeared angry when the votes had been revealed, but then, it could have been a bluff (her journal fails to make the matter clear). Had Katya? Had one of those who’d been expected to stick with Scarlette – Lisa-Beth and Rebecca – voted black in the belief that Katya would vote red, hoping to escape the House and let everyone think Katya had been to blame?
There’s no way of knowing the truth. But in the days that followed, Rebecca seemed deeply uncomfortable with the events that unfolded. It wasn’t that she had any problem with Scarlette, or with the Doctor – she was too much the visionary to think that they were wasting their time in their battle – it was just that Rebecca was a demi-rep, and had been all her adult life. She’d been in America right up until the bloody purge. She can hardly have wanted to see it all happen again, here in England. So despite the result of the vote, she stuck around as long as she could, saying nothing but (presumably) wishing it were all over.
The truth about the ballot didn’t begin to emerge until the afternoon of September 6. On leaving Sabbath and returning to the House from Dr Who’s, the Doctor ordered a meeting of all the House’s ‘personnel’ in the salon. The numbers were thin. Lisa-Beth was there. Katya was there, although Lisa-Beth noted that she looked anxious, as if ready to take flight at a moment’s notice. Fitz was also there, looking tired and ill-shaven after having reappeared on Henrietta Street at four o’clock that morning. Nobody bothered asking him what he’d been doing.
And that was it. Nobody had seen Anji or Juliette since the previous day. The same went for Scarlette. The Doctor was concerned by this, but despite some nervous looks the three remaining ‘working women’ failed to tell him the reasons. Nonetheless, the Doctor began to brief them. The good Chinese doctor, he explained, was preparing a ritual which would ostensibly make everything all right again. They were to gather together at midnight, on the banks of the Thames near St Paul’s Cathedral. Once they were there…
It was during this briefing that Scarlette arrived. Although Lisa-Beth maintains that Scarlette appeared her usual self, in her costume of red with her boots clacking on the boards, Lisa-Beth also mentions that there was a ‘terrible atmosphere’ when the Mistress of the House walked in. She’s said to have nodded, quite curtly, to the Doctor: to have virtually ignored everyone else. Her face was frozen, without any expression. Lisa-Beth believed this was because she’d heard news of the vote, perhaps from one of the three women who’d already departed.
In fact, it was because Scarlette knew what was going to happen next and knew just what kind of devil the Doctor would have to deal with. Because she’d visited Dr Who in Soho nearly a whole day before the Doctor had, and five minutes after Sabbath had left the shop she’d received a full report from the proprietor. Who was not a discreet