Doctor Who_ The Stone Rose - Jacqueline Rayner [54]
‘I’m Rose,’ she told him, liking the look of his dark blue eyes and slightly embarrassed smile. ‘Rose Tyler.’
‘Crispus. Quintus Junius Crispus.’
A slave handed Rose a cup of wine, which she accepted but then had second thoughts about drinking – she remembered what had happened to her last time. So when Crispus suddenly said, ‘Ursus,’ she nearly fell off the couch.
Forcing herself to be calm, Rose said, ‘Ursus?
What about him?’
‘I heard he was making a sculpture of you. I would love to see that.’
‘Yeah, well, that’s probably not going to happen,’ she told him. ‘I’ve decided I’m not cut out for the life of a model.’
‘Oh,’ he said, clearly not understanding. ‘That’s a shame. I think Cornelia was quite eager to speak to you.’
Rose frowned. ‘Cornelia?’
He gestured towards the large woman in the butter‐yellow robe. ‘Cornelia. Ursus’s mother.’
Rose froze. That was not someone she wanted to chat with. But it was too late. The woman had seen her looking and was determined to seize this opportunity to make contact. She walked over, her less‐than‐dainty stride reminding Rose of a cowboy heading for a showdown. Ursus’s gaucheness obviously ran in the family..
‘You must be Rose,’ she said, holding out a hand.
Rose looked at the thick pink fingers and flashed back to those clumsy hands reaching out for her in the workshop… She couldn’t take this woman’s hand, she just couldn’t.
After a second, the hand was withdrawn. Rose wanted the ground to open up under her. Of course, if she said that out loud she’d probably find herself suddenly falling all the way to Australia – no, what would be opposite Italy – New Zealand?
Cornelia spoke, and recalled Rose to herself. ‘I am disappointed my son is not here,’ the woman said. ‘Between you and me, he was a disappointment to us for many years. It brings great joy that he has found success at last, even if it is as an artisan.’ She smiled appraisingly at Rose. ‘And how charming that he has been making a statue of you. I’m sure he could not resist immortalising someone so young and pretty.’
Rose made an ‘oh, no, not really’ face, still not trusting herself to speak.
‘I wish you would tell me all about it,’ said Cornelia.
A booming sound rang in Rose’s ears. The GENIE had heard! She opened her mouth to protest, but what came out instead was: ‘Your son drugged me and then turned me to stone using a power that had been given to him by a Genetically Engineered Neural Imagination Engine from the twenty‐fourth century, disguised as the goddess Minerva. My friends, the last of the Time Lords who now was never here and a girl from the future, restored me to life and we tracked Ursus to a ruined temple, where he petrified both of them and I caused him to fall on his dagger, fatally wounding him. His body was then absorbed by the GENIE, which is over there but currently looks to you like a monkey.’
Cornelia looked as though she were about to faint.
Rose was desperately trying to think what to do, when‐
Crash!
Rose knew she hadn’t wished – out loud – for a distraction, but one was provided anyway. There were gasps and cheers from the assembled Romans. The African dancers stumbled in their carefully practised routine, as their already skimpy outfits vanished altogether. The dancers hurried from the room, embarrassed. Rose suspected the two gentlemen with the dazed and incredulous expressions to be the wishing culprits in this case.
Crash!
The young girl with the discontented parents screamed. Her father had vanished, popped out of existence as if he’d never been. Her mother looked on, shocked but, so it seemed to Rose, delighted too.
Crash!
Where the old lady had been there was now a tiny baby, its childish cries muffled by the ginger wig which had fallen down over its head..
‘I think she might have wanted to be young again,’ Rose murmured. ‘Probably hadn’t planned on the nappy, though.’
Vanessa was looking panic‐stricken, holding the GENIE out at arm’s length.
Rose jumped up and hurried to her. ‘We’ve got to get out of here before it does any more harm,’ she