Doctor Who_ The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker [43]
The Doctor started off along the quay.
‘Come on, Bronwyn! No dawdling! We’ve got to try and get up to the rectory before the woods start crawling with nasty things again. Chop-chop!’
The old lady shook her head. ‘Goin’ home.’
‘What?’ The Doctor hurried back to her. ‘We’ve got to get up to Morton’s place. Rose is in trouble.’
Bronwyn shook her head again and there was real fear in her eyes. The Doctor put an arm around her shoulder.
‘I can’t leave you out here alone. It’s not safe.’
Bronwyn shook herself free angrily.
‘It should be safe! A woman shouldn’t feel frightened in the place she grew up in. We shouldn’t have to hide.’
Torn, the Doctor watched her hobble her way along the harbour wall. Every second he delayed gave him less chance of reaching the rectory and helping Rose out of whatever it was she’d got herself into, but he couldn’t leave Bronwyn out in the dark on her own. He called 102
after her, but she didn’t look back. So, with a sigh, he turned and hurried after her.
She was heading for the strip of beach and her ramshackle house.
‘Told him not to come back.’ She waved an angry finger at the Doctor.
‘Told him that no good would ever come of it and now look where he’s led us!’
Bronwyn’s voice was getting louder and louder the angrier she got. She was going to wake up all the children if she carried on like this!
The Doctor was about to say something but suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks.
‘Of course!’ He ran a hand through his tousled hair. ‘That’s it!’
He dashed forward, catching Bronwyn by the arm and spinning her around. ‘Bronwyn Ceredig, you are a genius. A grade-A certified genius!’ He planted a kiss on her forehead.
‘What has got into you?’ She slapped him away. ‘Are you mad?’
‘Completely! Totally! Mad as a hatter! Come on.’ He caught her hand, steering her back towards the pub. ‘I’m going to buy you a crème de menthe!’
Beth Hardy wiped tears from her eyes and glanced over at the door for what seemed like the millionth time. The mood in the pub was sombre and oppressive. On the other side of the bar Margo Evans was trying to comfort her two girls, while Jeff Palmer stood with his arm protectively around his son, Billy. Mervyn stood in the window with a face like thunder; he and Jeff had nearly come to blows. It had been nearly two hours since Billy and the two girls had slunk nervously into the kitchen of the pub. They had been wet and splattered with mud, but there was nothing unusual in that. Beth had tutted at them sternly and berated them for trailing muck across her nice clean floor, waiting for Ali’s mischievous face to poke around the edge of the doorframe at any moment.
Then Sian Evans had started to cry, and with a sudden cold chill Beth had realised that something was wrong.
They had managed to coax the story out of the three kids – Baz Morgan was already safely at home with his parents. Billy had told 103
them about their meeting with Rose in the woods, about how they had shown her the tunnel that led under the wall of the rectory and how Ali had been the one who had set off after her. They had waited as long as they dared, hoping that Ali or Rose would reappear, but as the last remnants of day started to fade and the dark of the woods started to close around them, the children had finally lost their nerve and run.
Mervyn had flown off the handle at Billy. He was the eldest. How dare he just run off and leave a ten-year-old girl out there on her own? Beth had thought he was going to hit Billy, and that’s when Jeff had waded into the argument to protect his son, and it had taken Bob Perry and several others in the pub to separate the two