Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [12]
„I should sit down, vetter George, and tell to us the story,‟
said Emmeline, gesturing back at the dining-room door.
„Some breakfast would do you good also.‟
„Rather,‟ said George, and allowed himself to be led off.
Harry, although unsure as to what would be the polite thing to do, nevertheless followed. If there were trees attacking round here, on top of wolves and whatnot slaughtering innocent girls, then he needed to know about it. The likelihood of anyone else in the area having experience of such bizarre goings-on was slight, and he may very well be needed. At the very least he should gather what intelligence he could; when the Doctor turned up - his Doctor, that is, not that other velvet-jacketed fellow, nice as he was - to rescue Harry, he would almost certainly want to get involved.
Harry and Lady Hester resumed their seats at the dining table. Emmeline planted George in a chair, and went off to the sideboard to fetch him a piled plate.
George didn‟t remark Harry‟s presence, addressing him as part of the group in general. Perhaps in his addled state he foiled to realise that Harry wasn‟t an old and valued member of the house party.
„Well, I went out last night,‟ said George. „You know that.
Watching over flocks by night, like the song says. Rallying round the locals in their time of need, or what they thought was going to be their time of need, although up till last night I suspected they were a tad mistaken.‟
„Potty, you said at dinner yesterday,‟ added Lady Hester helpfully.
„Let‟s not dwell on that now, mother, thank you. Anyway, there I was, shepherding like the best of them, and wishing I‟d remembered to fill my flask beforehand.‟ He took a gulp of brandy. „They‟d lit a lot of fires to scare the thing off, but it was still exceedingly chilly. And I was a bit worried that there were a few too many fires a bit too close to the woods, but reasoned that these chaps of the soil would know all about that sort of thing and it would be fine.‟
„Anyway, I never before realised quite how efficacious that
“counting sheep” thing is until I was watching the dratted things for hours on end. Any more boring creatures on God‟s good Earth I cannot imagine. But there we are, middle of the night and my thinking it‟s all a no-show - all for the good, of course, and just as I expected - and I... well, I decided it wouldn‟t hurt to rest my eyes just a bit. Not sleep, you understand, just taking the brain off full alert so it would be all the more effective when called into service.‟
„And it was. Called into service, I mean. Next thing I know, there‟s a storm of farmers running past waving pitchforks in the air like a lot of rustic devils. So I scrambled up to follow, but what should I see out of the corner of my eye but a flash of grey. Fur, don‟t you know. And I thought to myself, hello, there‟s all the chaps chasing off in one direction, and there‟s the thing they‟re after right off the other way. So I called out
“Hi!” a few times, but they were obviously too busy waving farm implements and shouting to hear me. And I was a bit worried about there being just me between this thing and its mutton dinner, but thought I‟d better get to it, and raised the old shotgun. Did I say I had the old shotgun? Seemed rather a better idea than a pitchfork, to my mind, not that I had a pitchfork of my own anyway, though I‟m sure someone would have lent me one had I been so inclined.‟
„But, well, for some reason, I couldn‟t bring myself to shoot, Thing wasn‟t attacking me, you know, or having a go at the sheep even. It just sort of looked at me. And you can‟t shoot something that‟s just sort of looking at you. And a wolf is really like a big fox, you know, and obviously it goes against every grain to shoot a fox, maybe that had something to do with it. And then it did a sort of growling thing, and believe it or not simply turned on its heel - paw, I should say - and trotted off. So, I weighed up the pros and cons vis a vis guarding the sheep from near or far, and came down on the side