Doctor Who_ The Awakening - Eric Pringle [12]
‘Well?’ Tegan shouted.
It was time for the Doctor to act: he knew the signs and was only too well aware of Tegan’s talent for jumping to conclusions and diving in at the deep end of things. He walked quickly towards her and held up his hands for restraint. ‘Now calm down, Tegan,’ he warned. ‘I’m sure we can sort this out.’
But Tegan was in the grip of her anxiety and in no mood for more talk. With a frustrated cry of ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ at the prevaricating fools around her, she made a dash for the door and was through it before anyone else even moved.
The Doctor was the first to react. He called, ‘Now Tegan, come back!’ – but even as the words rang out he knew it was useless, and in the same instant he turned to his other companion and shouted, ‘Turlough! Fetch her, would you? Please?’
Turlough reacted quickly this time. He was fast on his feet and had hurled himself through the door before Willow’s hand reached the pistol on the table.
But now Willow snatched it up and pointed the barrel right between the Doctor’s eyes, in case he should have any thought of following his young friends. ‘You!’ he screamed, ‘Stay where you are!’ He was furious with himself for allowing the escape; anger twitched the skin of his cheek, and his finger hovered dangerously over the trigger.
The Doctor looked into the round, ominous tube of the barrel, and raised his hands in surrender.
3
The Body in the Barn
Tegan ran blindly out of the farmhouse into dazzling sunlight. Propelled by fear for her grandfather’s safety, and bewildered that such events could be happening in a supposedly peaceful English village, she didn’t care where she was going so long as she got away from Willow and the troopers. She could make some firm plans later. So now, clutching her scarlet handbag, she stumbled over the uneven farmyard and raced towards the shelter of some buildings on the other side, hoping to reach them before anyone came out of the house to see which way she had gone.
She dived around the corner of a barn, and stopped. She was gasping for breath and leaned against the barn wall for support, beside its open doorway. The bricks, warmed by the sun, burned against her back.
Tegan pressed the handbag against her forehead to feel its coolness, but no sooner had she done so him it was roughly snatched out of her fingers, and with a shock she saw a hand disappear with it into the barn.
She thrust herself off the wall and into the doorway, but the deep shadow inside made her pause. It looked solid as a wall, black and still – she could see nothing in there ‘What are you doing?’ she shouted. The shadows soaked up her voice like blotting paper. ‘Give me that back!’ she called again.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward into the velvet darkness. It wrapped itself around her like a cloak.
After the glare outside it took a moment or two for Tegan’s eyes to grow accustomed to the gloom. Then she saw a floor stretching away into even deeper shadow, littered with farm produce, implements, sacks and bales of hay. A rope hung from a hook on the wall and a rickety wooden staircase led up to a dark gallery above.
Everything was still. There was no sound, and no sign of the person who had snatched her handbag. He had simply disappeared. Unless... Tegan approached the stairs. The thief might be above her head at this moment, crouching up there in the dark gallery, waiting quietly for her to give up. But Tegan was not about to give up – she decided she had been pushed around enough for one day.
It was a basic fact of Tegan’s nature that her emotions sometimes drove her to take risks. That was part of her courage. Now her frustration and anger were coming to a dangerous head and she was quite prepared to venture where others would fear to tread: with a glance at the inky blackness above, and knowing full well that there was probably something nasty up there waiting fine her, she began to climb the steps.
But when she was only part way up the staircase the big door of the barn slammed