The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [99]
and knowing that somehow she was telling the truth.
The violence of the storm passed at length, and Louisa’s sobs dwindled to a shivering intake of breath each time she spoke.
‘Oh, Sarah Jane, must everybody I love be taken from me? I know full well I cannot live without him. Indeed, if I do not follow him, I must surely die of sorrow.’ Her tears took over once more; but she was quieter now.
‘Listen to me, Louisa,’ said Sarah, sitting back. This was it, she thought. This was her chance to put things right.
‘Giuseppe is dead – but he died a long time ago. Many years have passed since then. Try to remember.’
Louisa’s little face turned up to her. ‘I do not comprehend your meaning,’ she said. But then she frowned and her eyes wandered away from Sarah’s face as if she were seeking the answer to a riddle. ‘And yet… And yet I…’
She continued uncertainly, ‘I know I left you but an hour ago – oh, my sweet Sarah, can you ever find it in your heart to forgive your treacherous friend? I have repented that I deceived you so this long age…’
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The wondering expression came back. ‘How can that be when it is but an hour since we talked together?’
Sarah leant forward and took the small white hands in hers. ‘Tell me what happened when the clock struck twelve.’
Her face crumpled like a little girl’s. ‘Must I?’
‘Please,’ said Sarah gently.
Louisa took her hands away and folded them in her lap as though she were about to recite to her governess a piece she had by rote. But she spoke as if her lesson had been imperfectly conned, in little rushes of words which trailed away in puzzlement.
‘My spirits were high, for Giuseppe was to… But never mind that; and indeed he…’
A pause…
‘But then the lightning came and…’
A longer pause.
‘And Giuseppe was…’
The tears were very close as she relived the experience in her mind’s eye.
‘And then I…’
As she stopped speaking, her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes opened wide as she remembered what she had done.
‘It’s true,’ said Sarah.
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Louisa rose to her feet and looked around the colonnaded yard ‘This is not Heaven, indeed it is not. And yet I – I remember that I…’ Again she did not finish.
She turned and her voice was a cry for help. ‘Oh Sarah, what shall I do?’
Sarah stood up, smiling with relief. ‘Come on, my lovely Louisa.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘You’ll soon find out.’
But still she hung back. Sarah held out her hand.
‘Trust me,’ she said.
347
Twenty-Seven
The Doctor might have said that it was synchronicity, thought Jeremy, though not serendipity, for it was hardly a happy accident that there were exactly as many fiends as there were unconscious bodies waiting to be taken over.
He and the others had watched with growing disquiet as each creature in turn found a host. What was going to happen now was anybody’s guess.
As the Brigadier pointed out in their sotto voce council of war, Max’s henchmen had been put to sleep at the moment when their one idea was to get into the castle and do as much damage to its occupants as possible. If they resumed their attack with all the power that they would gain from the N-Forms, it would be a walk-over; and the Brigadier couldn’t think of a thing to do about it. They couldn’t even consider a tactical retreat because of the Doctor and Sarah lying there helpless and unprotected.
The two of Max’s men nearest to them – the ones who still had their guns – were the last to wake up. One had a three-foot millipede with needle-sharp claws on its many feet tucked up inside him; and the other was host to a thing that was nothing but an ulcered eye, which had bounced along like an obscene football.
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As they uncertainly regained their feet, Jeremy suddenly felt again the delicious sense of certainty he’d experienced, albeit based on a misapprehension, during the attack by the ghost.
‘I know what we can do!’ he whispered excitedly to the Brigadier.
‘What?’
‘I said I know how to fix them,’ he said.
‘I heard you.