Doctor Who_ The Bodysnatchers - Mark Morris [43]
'You two look cosy,' Sam said, her tone more truculent than she would have liked.
The Doctor looked up, but gave no indication he had heard either her words or the manner in which she had spoken them. 'Ah,' he said, and took the blanket from Sam. He encouraged Emmeline to sit up, then wrapped the blanket around her so that only her head was visible. Emmeline hardly seemed to notice what he was doing. She continued to stare ahead, white-faced.
The Doctor instmcted Sam to place the bowl of water on the floor, the towel beside it. Then he took the tray from Litefoot, poured cocoa into the cup from one jug, added hot milk from the other, and sweetened the mixture with sugar. As he held the cup to Emmeline's lips, imploring her gently to drink, Sam could not help but appraise the new arrival. Physically, she and Emmeline could not have been more different. Whereas Sam was small and wiry, almost boyish, with cropped blonde hair, Emmeline was tall and willowy, her dark hair long and lustrous. Sam watched as Emmeline took dainty sips from the cup, and she found herself wondering how this girl would have reacted to the creature in the basement of her father's factory.
She would probably have thrown a screaming fit or dropped to the floor in a dead faint, she told herself, ashamed of her vindictiveness even as the thoughts crossed her mind.
The Doctor put the cup aside and pulled the bowl of warm water towards him.'Emmeline; he said, his voice soft as velvet,'are you able to tell us what happened?'
Emmeline gave a slight nod and began to tell her story, speaking in an oddly detached voice as if the cold force of her shock had frozen solid her emotions. As the tale unfolded, Sam found her capricious resentment evaporating, to be replaced by compassion, horror, and not a little self-loathing. As the girl described how she had slammed and locked the front door with the slavering, burning-eyed creature that was masquerading as her father mere inches behind her, Sam clenched her teeth and had to repress an urge to move forward, put her arms around the girl and comfort her as the Doctor had done.
'I fled into the night,' Emmeline said. 'I barely knew what I was doing.And then I recalled the card you had given me, Doctor, and without even thinking about it, the address simply sprang into my mind. I knew this street to be less than half a mile from my own home, and so I ran here without looking back. Even now I am uncertain whether that creature was pursuing me.'
There was a moment of silence, then Litefoot said,'Astonishing. You ran all this way with nothing on your feet?'
Emmeline looked down at her bare feet, which the Doctor was now tenderly bathing with warm water. 'I suppose so,' she said. 'I'm afraid I don't recall. I was overwhelmed by panic and confusion.'
'Of course you were, my dear,' Litefoot said, and then inadequately added,'Try not to upset yourself.You've undergone a most appalling ordeal.'
As if he had reminded her of something she had momentarily forgotten, Emmeline said quietly, 'I cannot comprehend what has happened. Mama is dead, Father is lost to me...'
'There, there,' the Doctor soothed. 'We'll look after you. You can stay here with us. Can't she, Professor?'
'What? Er... oh yes, of course.Though I rather think it's time we called the police in to deal with this sordid - not to say perplexing - affair.'
'You're not thinking clearly, Professor,' the Doctor said. 'Who's going to explain to them about the cyborg, the aliens?'
Litefoot looked momentarily nonplussed, then said, 'But surely, Doctor, they won't be able to dismiss the evidence of their own eyes? Even if the creature itself is no longer present in the factory, we can still show the police the peculiar artefact in the basement.' He leaned forward, lowering his voice.'And then, of course, there is Miss Seers's poor, unfortunate mother. I'm sure her corpse -'
'Will have disappeared by now,' the Doctor interrupted. 'And I guarantee, if we went to the police with our story we wouldn't even