Doctor Who_ The Massacre Part 14

'No, not tomorrow, we shall play tennis all day, until the next day, the Feast of Saint Bartholomew.'

With the Queen Mother white with fury beside him the King left the Council Chamber.

Steven was still badly shocked when he reached the cave.

He had turned over the probabilities and the possibilities that the body he had left lying on the floor was the Doctor's until rational thought was almost beyond him. He sat heavily at a table and put his head in his hands. Preslin came over to him.

'Where's the Doctor?' he asked. 'Is something wrong?'

Steven stared at him uncomprehendingly for several seconds, then a look of total astonishment came over his face as he jumped to his feet and hugged the bemused apothecary. 'He's alive!' he shouted. 'He's got to be alive!

The body didn't have the parchment on it.'

'Steven, what on Earth are you talking about?' Preslin asked, disengaging himself.

Steven tried to explain but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth in the proper order. 'It doesn't matter!' He was close to tears of relief. 'It really doesn't matter!'

But it did a little later when the Doctor arrived in a dog cart. 'You wicked old man,' Steven cried reproachfully, 'letting me believe that the body might have been yours.'

'My dear boy, how you could have thought that for one moment is quite beyond me,' the Doctor replied in surprise. 'You know my knack' he clicked his fingers 'for dominating a given situation.' Then he took the parchment out of his habit, called for a quill pen and some ink and sat down to work.

Two other encounters were taking place about the same time and neither was as pleasant as the Doctor's reunion with Steven. The first was between King Charles and the Queen Mother in his chambers at the Louvre and any form of royal protocol was dismissed out-of-hand.

'I gave orders to be left alone, rnother,' he said angrily as she marched into his room.

'It's become your notion of late to give orders without consulting me,' she snapped back.

'I happen to be the King of France, madame, you'd do best to remember it,' he retorted.

Catherine snorted with derision. 'A pale shadow of a King you make,' she taunted. 'Your younger brother, Henri, would be ten times the King you are.'

'Guard your tongue, mother, or you'll end your days in a convent,' he threatened.

'Child,' she sneered, 'you haven't the courage.'

He reached for the bell rope. 'All I have to do is pull this.'

'Do so, I beseech you. Summon your guards, have me arrested. But you will need a good reason for your Council and for the people of France who love me.'

'That I'll supply,' he answered categorically. 'The conspiracy by you, Tavannes, my brother and de Guise to a.s.sa.s.sinate Admiral de Coligny.'

'Don't forget the Abbot of Amboise,' she sneered, 'for all his pious words he had a hand in it as well.'

'I'll s s send you all to the block,' he stammered.

'For trying to rid France of a foe?' she mocked.

'The Admiral's my friend. You, madame, G.o.d help me, are the enemy.'

'Am I? I think not, my son. I care too much for my country to see it face ruin as de Coligny, every Huguenot would have it.' She paused for effect. 'You have a nest of vipers in your Court, Your Majesty.' She spat out the words. 'You even married your sister off to one, that Huguenot from Navarre, who'll usurp your throne as quick as look at you.'

The King tried to reply but suddenly his lungs were on fire and with the first rasping cough, blood welled up into his mouth. Any energy, any resistance he had, ebbed away as the Queen Mother drew his head to her bosom.

'There, little one, there,' she said and caressed his back.

The second meeting took place in the office of the late Abbot who still lay on the floor. Duval told his story of the the two Abbots to Tavannes, Anjou and de Guise all of whom listened attentively with an occasional glance at the body. When they had finished Tavannes slowly circled the corpse.

'How can you serve us in death,' he asked, staring down at it, 'better than you did alive?'

'We'll put about the story that the false Abbot's Huguenot secret agent entered the office and slew him', de Guise suggested.

'It's not enough,' Tavannes countered and pointed to the body. 'That must be used.'

'Throw it onto the streets, let the people see how treacherous these Huguenots are,' the Duke of Anjou proposed.

Tavannes chuckled. 'We'll take the words from Navarre's own mouth and blow up an incident out of all proportion to put Paris in a tumult. Even all of France.' He looked at the other men in turn, finally settling his eyes on Duval. 'Personally, my friend, I think you killed the right man,' he said and pointed again at the cadaver. 'Let it be found in the morning, more cruelly a.s.sa.s.sinated by the Huguenots, in revenge for the attempt on de Coligny's life.'

They left the office, locking it behind them as Duval with renewed courage told them of Anne's release.

'Get them back,' Tavannes ordered.

'I shall attend to it personally, Marshall,' Duval replied.

Lerans entered the cave as the Doctor was signing the parchment with the Abbot's signature.

'You were magnificent, Doctor!' he exclaimed.

'They learned whom I am not,' the Doctor replied, 'and Duval must've shown them the body by now.'

'Whose body?' Lerans asked and the Doctor told him all that had happened.

'Tavannes is wily,' Lerans said, 'and he'll turn it to his advantage, if he can. He dare not touch the Admiral but he will try to find a way to attack us. Where are we most vulnerable?' he asked.

'Anne Chaplet and her family,' Steven replied and briefly told Lerans how he had rescued them.

'Then we've no time to waste,' Lerans said. 'Come on, Steven, and you as well, David.' The three of them leapt into two dog carts and raced away.

Duval beat them to the house but only just and from their cover behind a wall they could see him with Colbert and four halberdiers who surrounded Anne, her brother and her aunt.

'Six of them to three of us,' David growled. 'Two to one, they're good odds.'

'No, six to four,' Lerans observed, looking at Anne's fourteen-year-old brother, Raoul. 'He's a likely-looking lad.'

'What's the plan?' Steven asked.

'Let Duval half-mount his horse and then we'll take them out.' Lerans replied as he drew his sword. David spat on his hands and rubbed them together before drawing his.

Steven unsheathed the rapier that hung at his side and hoped he hadn't forgotten the fencing lessons he had taken at the s.p.a.ce Academy.

'Now!' Lerans roared and they rushed out into the open and towards Duval and his men who were taken completely by surprise.

Duval almost fell as he tried to free his foot from the stirrup and Colbert fumbled for the hilt of his sword three times before he succeeded in drawing it. Raoul wrested one of the pikes away from a halberdier and began swinging it like a battle-axe which sent the other scurrying to safety before trying to return to the attack.

'That's my hearty,' David yelled as he grabbed a pike by the shaft, pushed it to one side and ran the halberdier through before turning to take on another. Lerans had gone straight for Duval and they faced one another for a moment before they began to fence. They cut, thrust and parried with great skill and fought with ferocity and verve.

Then one of Duval's thrusts ripped through the sleeve of Lerans's blouse and cut his arm.

'First blood,' Lerans observed, fighting tenaciously but his arm was bleeding badly and he knew he had to finish it swiftly or lose. Duval sensed the same thing and forced his attack with renewed vigour. Deliberately Lerans gave ground drawing Duval on and on whilst waiting for the mistake he was certain Duval would make: over-confidence.

Duval was fencing for the sword-arm and Lerans kept parrying it to one side until Duval's body was almost unprotected and Lerans saw his chance. He flicked Duval's blade aside again and, lightning-fast, threw his sword into his other hand and with two rapid advances thrust the injured arm forward until his sword was buried to the hilt in Duval's chest.

Steven's battle was less spectacular though he succeeded in holding Colbert at bay but the moment Colbert saw Duval fall to the ground he threw down his sword and took to his heels with the one remaining pike-less halberdier following him as fast as possible while the tocsin began to chime.

17.

Good Company All In the safety of the cave Lerans's arm was dressed and put in a sling while David recounted heroic deeds on everyone's part, not failing to mention young Raoul who beamed with pride. Then David pointed at Steven.

'But him, you'd've thought he was a wild Scot the way he was swinging his rapier like it was a claymore,' David shouted as everyone laughed. 'Poor fat little Colbert was scared out of his wits.'

Lerans went over to the Doctor. 'You'll be continuing your journey in the morning,' he said.

'Just before the curfew's lifted,' the Doctor replied, 'I have a few matters to settle first.'

'We shall never be able to express our grat.i.tude,' Lerans added.

The Doctor looked at him ruefully. 'You have nothing to thank me for, young man.'

'You are too modest, sir,' Lerans smiled and then his expression became wistful. 'I know it's not yet done here.

Between Catholic and Huguenot, the suspicions, the mistrusts, the deceits are so deep rooted they will take years to eradicate. Far beyond my time, I fear.'

The Doctor said nothing. Then suddenly Lerans's face brightened and he spread out his unslung arm. 'Ladies and gentlemen,' he cried aloud, 'let us be merry tonight, with good wine and good vittles, for we are of good company all.'

At the Cardinal's palace, a quivering Colbert reported Duval's and the halberdiers' deaths to Tavannes.

'So much the better,' the Marshall replied, 'let their bodies lie dumb witnesses to other lies we'll tell.' Then he left for his meeting with the Queen Mother who received him in her apartments.

'You have the King's consent, Your Majesty?' he asked immediately. She held out a piece of parchment which bore the King's seal.

'Having signed it with tearful blutterings, His Majesty announced that he would not quit his chambers until it was done,' she said with a venomous smile. 'The phrase His Majesty employed was quite poetic let no soul rest alive to reproach us.'

'Here is the list of those Huguenots who are to die,'

Tavannes held out a scroll which the Queen Mother threw aside.

' No soul alive, No soul alive, ' she repeated. The Marshall looked at her with horror. ' she repeated. The Marshall looked at her with horror.

' All All, Madame?' he asked.

'All,' she replied.

'And Navarre, your son-in-law... what of him?'

'He will pay for his pretensions to the throne.'

'Madame, Navarre must not die!' Tavannes exclaimed.

'Must not, Marshall?' She was outraged.

'Only pious tears will be shed for the ma.s.sacre of a few thousand Huguenots,' Tavannes argued, 'but a King's blood will bring about a Holy War, one we could not contain.'

'We owe no Huguenot an act of mercy,' the Queen Mother countered.

'Mercy, Madame, never. But as a political act,' Tavannes insisted, 'sparing him is imperative!'

The Queen Mother thought for a time before shereplied.

'Very well, Marshall, but he and our daughter must quit Paris,' she stated, 'and our son, Henri of Anjou, will escort them to safety. However, see that they are gone tomorrow for the gates of Paris will be closed before dawn on Saint Bartholomew's Day. And then not even we we could save him. could save him.

Tavannes glanced at the discarded scroll of names, bowed to the Queen Mother, and left, his duty to be done.

The Doctor awoke refreshed, stretched, splashed some water on his face and looked around the cave. He thought one end of it looked like kennels as there were several dog carts standing in a line.

'It will soon be sunrise,' Lerans said with Steven at his side, 'and I know you want to be on your way.'

'Hmm, yes,' the Doctor replied, collecting his thoughts before he called Preslin over.