Doctor Who_ The Stone Rose - Jacqueline Rayner [17]
Vanessa might have replied, but just then the studio door was flung open by Ursus. He scowled as he saw her – probably not the sort of greeting someone like Kate Moss would get, but she could take it. She stepped inside, Vanessa close behind.
‘Get her out of here,’ Ursus growled, nodding his head towards the slave girl. ‘I keep telling you and your doctor friend, I don’t allow an audience while I’m working – even slaves.’
Rose put on an imperious air. ‘So who’s gonna look after me, then? What if I need someone to fix my hair, or get me a drink or something?’
Ursus stumped over to a table and picked up a jug. He slopped some wine into a goblet and held it out to Rose. ‘There. There’s your drink. Your hair’s fine. Now get out!’
This last was to Vanessa, who fairly fled out of the door. Rose was half tempted to follow her. But this was all part of her destiny, wasn’t it? She had to pose for the statue. And the Doctor was relying on her to investigate Ursus too, in case he knew anything about Optatus’s disappearance. She gulped down the bitter wine – she still couldn’t bear the taste, but it might help her to relax a bit.
Ursus walked through to the next room and Rose followed. There was no Tiro there today, which gave Rose a slight pang of disappointment.
‘So, how d’you want me?’ she asked, but Ursus ignored her. He moved over to a table and started sorting through his tools.
Rose sat down on a bench, awaiting instructions. She looked around the room – there was one thing different from how it had been the day before, a tall, covered shape in the corner. A work in progress? She hoped Ursus wasn’t spreading himself too thin, because she wanted to get this over with and she really, really hoped it wouldn’t take too long. She had a horrible feeling, though, that it would. Days, maybe weeks. Was it really worth it – even for a sort of immortality?
She smiled slightly. She had a sort of immortality already, in a roundabout way. Even if she died, here and now – which, obviously, she wasn’t planning on doing for a moment – in just under 2,000 years she’d be back on Earth, wandering about London, growing up. Almost 200,000 years after that, she’d be on a space station, defeating the Daleks. More years than she could comprehend after that, she’d be watching the Earth die.
But although that was the future, it was her past.
And right now she should be concentrating on her present. What was happening to her?
She suddenly jerked herself awake. She hadn’t been asleep exactly, but she’d got totally caught up in her thoughts, started to drift off. That wine must have relaxed her a bit too much! She remembered that time with Shareen, when they were both kids, when they’d planned to sneak out to Danny Fennel’s party and had half‐inched a bottle of wine from her mum’s kitchen cupboard to get them pepped up ready. Except after a glass each they’d fallen asleep, and they not only missed the party but got the ticking‐off of the century from Jackie as well.
Rose blinked. She wasn’t ten any more, and it’d take more than a glass of Lambrusco to make her nod off these days. So why was she suddenly feeling so sleepy?
She forced her head up and caught sight of Ursus.
He was sitting on a bench just watching her, and his expression made her feel all hollow inside. Suddenly, it was Silence of the Lambs time. How could she have been so stupid? They’d had suspicions he was a nutter, hadn’t they, and yet still she had merrily stepped into his fly‐trapping parlour because of some stupid idea about having to avoid the paradox that would occur if the statue was never made.
Ursus rose and approached her. He eased the wine cup from her unresisting hand and Rose realised the truth as he waved it in front of her face. He’d drugged the wine. And she’d made it all so easy for him. She felt a sudden sick fear inside.
Ursus put down the cup and fetched a spear from the pile of godly odds and ends in the corner. Was this it? Was he going to stab her to death? Rose made a desperate effort to move, but her limbs had gone totally numb.