Doctor Who_ The Awakening - Eric Pringle [20]
‘Precisely!’ He looked at her with a gleaming smile and said, ‘Think of it as a resurrection of an old tradition.’
Jane felt sick again. ‘I know the way you plan to celebrate it,’ she cried. ‘I know the custom of this village. I know what happens to a May Queen at the end of her reign!’
Ben Wolsey looked genuinely surprised. His gentle, ruddy, farmer’s face was as innocent as a baby’s. ‘We’re not going to harm her,’ he protested.
Jane shook her head. ‘ You might not, Ben. I’m not so sure about them.’
Sir George closed the subject. He brought the conversation to an abrupt end by marching to the table and snatching up his riding gloves. ‘The tradition must continue,’ he said, in a tone that was quiet, authoritative and brooked no opposition. It held something very like awe – even reverence – as he looked from one to the other of than and said, ‘Something is coming to our village.
Something very wonderful, and strange.’
Then he cleared a path for himself between Wolsey and Willow and left the room. They watched him go, Cavalier and Roundhead in an all too serious War Game. Sir George’s last remark hung cryptically in the air.
Wolsey, puzzled, said, ‘We must find Tegan,’ and made for the door.
‘You’re so gullible, Ben,’ Jane shouted. ‘You do anything he says!’ If she had hoped that would stop him, she was disappointed. Wolsey ignored her, and went out without a word.
Willow was left alone at last with this nuisance of a schoolteacher, who was using every possible opportunity to try to spoil the fun. Uneasily Jane saw how his lips tightened now, and the deliberate way he took off his gloves. As he looked at her, his irritation changed to fury.
Jane saw it happen. She saw the cloud move across his eyes and felt fear tingle the small of her back. Joseph Willow was a man on a short fuse, and the fuse was already burning. ‘Something is coming to our village,’ Sir George had said, but so far as Jane was concerned it was already here, and showing in Willow’s face – a kind of madness.
Suddenly she wanted to get away from him. ‘Right,’ she said, marching towards the door. ‘I’m going to the police.
I’ll soon put a stop to this.’
But Willow thrust himself between her and the door.
Roughly he pushed her away. ‘Shut up!’ he shouted as she staggered backwards. ‘Just be grateful it’s the stranger who is to he Queen of the May – it so easily could have been you!’
Jane recovered her balance and with all her strength slapped his face. Willow’s cheeks reddened. His eyes filled with hatred. For a moment Jane thought he was going to strike her back, but instead he smiled, a cold smile that was laden with threat. ‘It still might be you,’ he said, ‘if we don’t find her.’
And with a triumphant smirk Joseph Willow, iron-shirted Sergeant-at-arms to General Sir George Hutchinson, turned on his heel and left the room. He slammed the door shut behind him.
Before Jane could follow, she heard a bolt being drawn and a key turned in the lock. Willow had made her a prisoner.
‘There’s been a confusion in time. Somehow, 1984 has become linked with 1613.’
Sitting in a pew in the church, crouched forward eagerly with his feet on the back of the pew in front of him, the Doctor was thinking out loud. His mind raced as he focussed his thoughts on Will Chandler’s mysterious appearance and all the other strange events which had showered on them since their arrival in Little Hodcombe.
He was drawing on all his vast store of knowledge and experience -- and still coming up with blanks.
Tegan and Turlough, now recovered from their flight, sat in the pews too and waited for the Doctor to come up with some answers. Will Chandler lay flat out at the Doctor’s side; exhausted by his experience and bewildered by the Doctor’s theories, he had taken refuge in unconsciousness and sprawled on the unyielding seat, fast asleep.
Turlough looked at him, and considered the Doctor’s theory. A confusion in time? That left half the problems unanswered. ‘What about