Doctor Who_ The Roundheads - Mark Gatiss [15]
He was a dashing, handsome young man with huge brown eyes and a thin, aquiline nose. His dimpled chin showed a suggestion of beard.
‘Have a care, sir,’ he warned Stanislaus in a whisper. ‘This is no pleasure cruise. And no pirate’s endeavour. You will obey my orders. And mine alone. Is that clear?’
Stanislaus smiled his shark’s smile and then, without a word, turned on his heel and went back to his cabin.
A freezing fog was rolling over the banks of the Thames, lending its muddy, derelict embankment an air of unexpected romance.
The Doctor and Jamie emerged from out of the haze like spectres and, while Jamie shivered, the Doctor seemed inspired, gesturing expansively towards the unseen river.
‘Such a majestic old thing, the Thames, don’t you think, Jamie?’
Jamie threw a cursory glance towards the river. ‘Aye.’
The Doctor sniffed and pulled a face. ‘Of course, it pongs a bit. Always has.’
He turned to his companion but Jamie didn’t seem to be listening. In fact, his face had assumed a rather solemn expression.
‘Are you all right, Jamie?’ asked the Doctor concernedly.
Jamie gave a little smile. ‘Aye, aye.’ Then he looked down at the snowy ground. ‘Well, I suppose so.’
The Doctor put his hand on Jamie’s arm. ‘What’s the matter?’
Jamie shook his head and avoided the Doctor’s gaze. ‘I’m not sure, Doctor. I’m just finding all this is making me a wee bit... giddy.’
‘All what?’ asked the Doctor, frowning.
Jamie shrugged, his boyish features crumpling into a hurt expression. ‘You know. Travelling through time. It takes some getting used to, you know.’
‘Of course,’ soothed the Doctor. ‘Of course it does. And you mustn’t worry if you feel a little disorientated.’
He crossed his hands over his chest. ‘There’s a thing people call “culture shock”. That’s what you get if you’re exposed to a foreign way of life totally different from your own.’
Jamie nodded.
‘Well,’ continued the Doctor, ‘for us in the TARDIS, culture shock is more than that. We don’t just visit different countries, we visit different planets, alien places that would make the most... the most boundless imagination reel.’
Jamie shrugged. ‘Aye. It’s not that though, really. It’s just that sometimes Ben and Polly make me feel a bit daft. Like they’ve been at it for ages.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Oh, so that’s it. I thought as much.
That’s why I suggested we all split up. Sometimes people’s little jokes can cut very deep, can’t they?’
Jamie nodded silently.
The Doctor looked up thoughtfully. ‘Mm, Well, they have been “at it” a little longer than you, Jamie. But not much. And things were very different when they first travelled with me, I can tell you.’
Jamie seemed cheered by this. ‘Really?’
The Doctor chuckled. ‘Oh, yes. Polly was just as unsure as you are. And Ben was such a headstrong fellow. Insisted I take him back to his ship because he’d be late. I kept telling him he was two hundred years early!’
Jamie laughed, his dark eyes twinkling.
‘And it was all new to me once, you know,’ said the Doctor, looking out over the fog-shrouded Thames. ‘But that was a very, very long time ago.’
The Doctor’s reverie was interrupted by a sudden burst of incoherent shouting and the unmistakable sound of a scuffle close by. Jamie whirled round.
‘What’s that?’
He and the Doctor ran through the snow drifts towards a knot of young men who were clustered together like spectators at a cockfight. Dressed in the plain tunics and aprons of apprentices, they appeared to have a grievance against something in their midst and, at first, the Doctor thought it might be a dog, or even a bear.
As he came closer he realised with horror that the youths were attacking an old man.
They were taunting and kicking at his crouched form and he was gamely lashing out with gnarled old fists.
Without a second thought, the Doctor waded in, bellowing like a beast. His cloak ballooning impressively behind him.
With Jamie bringing up the rear, the young men began to scatter.
Jamie grabbed at the ankle of one of them and pulled him to the ground, then landed a punch on his jaw.