Doctor Who_ The Massacre Part 4

'The tale you've told him', retaliated David, 'but I know your face.'

'As I do,' the red-haired man said as deep laughter began to rumble up from his belly. 'He's not a spy, he's much more than that.'

'Then who is he?' David cried and the red-haired man beckoned him over and whispered in his ear.

'I knew it!' David shouted in exultation, looking at the Doctor with undisguised hatred. 'I'll despatch him now.'

'No,' the red-haired man ordered. 'We can put him to better use.'

'Who is he?' Preslin asked. Before David could answer the red-haired man hushed him and then beckoned Preslin to his side and whispered in his ear. Preslin looked at the Doctor in disbelief and dismay as one man whispered to the next. Then they all drew their swords and stared at the Doctor.

'Whosoever you think I am, I am not,' the Doctor said in exasperation. 'Now kindly allow me to leave as I have an important rendezvous by Notre Dame at Vespers.'

All the men hooted with laughter ad Preslin went over to the Doctor.

'It is one, I fear, you will not keep, my lord,' he said gently but with venom in his voice. 'So pray, be seated.'

The Doctor looked around, took the situation into account and did the only thing possible. He sat down.

4.

Double Trouble In spite of the disagreeable confrontation with Lerans and his companions at the auberge, Simon Duval sat at his desk in the Cardinal's palace and was not dissatisfied with his day's work so far. He had despatched troops to round up the dissident Huguenot apothecaries in accordance with the Abbot of Amboise's orders and he had prepared a brief doc.u.ment for his new master's perusal on the presence of the two strangers he had encountered in the auberge.

But by mid-afternoon his day had taken a turn for the worse. The Captain of the Guard, accompanied by a flabby young man whose name was Roger Colbert, came to report Anne Chaplet's flight and rescue by, of all people, Viscount Lerans. Duval was livid with rage.

'You dolt, you blundering imbecile, to permit him to make a fool of you, of all of us,' he ranted.

'There were too many of them,' the Captain bl.u.s.tered, 'we'd've been killed.'

'Perhaps a better fate than that which may lie in store for you,' Duval snarled, then took a deep breath and spoke with icy calm. 'Why did the wench run away?'

The Captain exchanged a nervous glance with Colbert before clearing his throat. 'It may have been because she overheard something we said.'

'But couldn't possibly have understood, sir,' Colbert hastened to add while rubbing his plump, sweaty hands together.

Duval looked straight through him and said, 'If she didn't why did she run?' He turned back to the Captain and asked him what it was they were discussing that could have frightened her. The Captain shook his head and was at a loss for words.

'Oh my life, I can't say, sir,' he confessed.

' For For your life, try harder,' Duval replied and leant back in his chair, linking his hands and putting his forefingers to his lips. your life, try harder,' Duval replied and leant back in his chair, linking his hands and putting his forefingers to his lips.

'The celebrations?' the Captain half-asked Colbert, glancing at him nervously.

'Yes, yesterday's celebrations,' Colbert mumbled.

'Nothing to frighten the wench there,' Duval tapped his lips gently with his fingertips, 'so you must've said something specific. What was it?'

The Captain rubbed his forehead for several seconds before replying hesitantly: 'One of us may have mentioned Wa.s.sy.'

'I er I remember the er town being er referred to,' Colbert stammered.

'There's nothing to fear in that,' Duval began and stopped abruptly before continuing in measured tones, 'unless, of course, she's a Huguenot.'

The Captain licked his lips and Colbert hung his head.

'Is she?' Duval whispered before exploding. ' Is she Is she?' he roared, jumping to his feet. 'In the Most Ill.u.s.trious Cardinal's palace, a Huguenot wench!'

Both the Captain and Colbert took a step backwards.

'I have never been aware of her religious inclinations, sir,' the Captain burbled.

'You, the Captain of the Most Ill.u.s.trious Cardinal's personal guard, are not aware of the religious att.i.tudes of his staff. Then I shall tell you. Yes, she is a Huguenot, she must be a Huguenot for why else would Lerans defy you to defend her?' Duval rose from behind his desk, walked to the front of it and prodded the Captain's chest with his forefinger. 'You are dismissed, reduced to the ranks,' he shouted, 'and your first duty as a common soldier will be to provide me by five of the clock this afternoon with a detailed report on the wench, naming any family or relatives and where they may be found. Now, get out, both of you!'

After they had fled the room, Duval walked over to the window and stared down at the courtyard below. The girl had to be located and recaptured, if possible, by the time the Abbot was installed. Then he remembered the landlord at the auberge and, grabbing his jacket, hurried out of the palace.

Antoine-Marc's memory needed a little monetary jogging before it recalled that Anne had been taken by two of Lerans's companions to the Admiral de Coligny's house for safekeeping. Duval was furious, knowing that it would be difficult to prise her out of there, but his rage almost knew no bounds when he returned to his office and learnt that not one dissident Huguenot apothecary had been taken in the afternoon raids. As the Commander put it with a shrug of his shoulders, they had all simply disappeared.

'I send you out to arrest twenty-three men and you come back empty-handed!' Duval shouted. 'Why didn't you bring in their wives or their children as hostages?'

'They'd gone too,' the luckless Commander replied.

Duval threw himself into the chair behind his desk and drummed his fingers on its surface before dismissing the Commander with the wave of a hand. Once he was alone he took stock of the situation. It was not satisfactory, far from it. He would be forced to report that not a single Huguenot apothecary was behind bars and, knowing the Abbot's reputation as a disciplinarian, he directed his thoughts to a matter of much greater importance saving his own skin.

He was still struggling with the problem when at five o'clock the ex-Captain of the Guard reported that Anne Chaplet's only family and this from hearsay among the kitchen staff was a brother, Raoul, and an aunt, name unknown, both of whom lived in Paris.

'Find them and arrest them,' Duval ordered, 'and the sooner the better.' The former Captain of the Guard saluted him and left hurriedly.

Duval buckled on his sword and put on his plumed hat to attend Vespers at Notre Dame where he would meet the Abbot of Amboise. At least, he tried to convince himself, he was going with something favourable, however slight, to report.

Steven had pa.s.sed away the afternoon visiting the Louvre but his pleasure had been marred by a nagging concern for the Doctor. It wasn't anything he could put his finger on and he had tried to push it out of his mind but it was still there as he made his way back across le Grand Pont le Grand Pont amongst the crowd, pushing and jostling its way towards the Cathedral. A carriage squeezed Steven with a lot of others to one side and inside it he recognised Simon Duval. amongst the crowd, pushing and jostling its way towards the Cathedral. A carriage squeezed Steven with a lot of others to one side and inside it he recognised Simon Duval.

The Vespers Bell began to clang out its call to prayer and Steven found himself being swept past the auberge towards Notre Dame. He tried to fight against the human tide but it was impossible and he was carried along with it to the square in front of the Cathedral. Soldiers armed with pikes held back the crowd to leave a path along which the carriages of dignitaries attending the service could approach the Cathedral steps.

Trumpeters and heralds stood on either side of the doors and as each carriage drew up at the foot of the steps, the occupant would be greeted with a fanfare befitting his rank. Several drew shouts from the crowd. 'Tavannes,' they cried to one who waved his plumed hat in recognition.

'Guise,' to another, a name which Steven already knew, and then 'Anne, Anne,' to a middle-aged woman whose two handmaidens daintily lifted the front of her full, embroidered skirt so that she would not trip as she mounted the steps.

Steven spotted Duval standing by the doorway with two of the three clergymen he had seen in the Cathedral earlier the rotund priest with the booming voice and the cadaverous one, still clutching his cross, as they inclined their heads to the dignitaries entering the Cathedral.

Then the crowd fell silent as the last carriage rumbled into view. It was a four-wheeled open wagon drawn by four grey horses hand-led by liveried lackeys. On either side walked six acolytes swinging thuribles filled with smoking, perfumed incense. An ermine-trimmed, silken canopy, laced with golden thread sheltered the ornate throne that sat on the lavishly carpeted floor of the wagon.

On the throne sat the Abbot of Amboise in his black and white robes with the cowl thrown back off his head.

He was looking from side to side, making discreet signs of the cross to the crowd who stood silently in awe.

But Steven and Duval gawped at the Abbot in incredulity, scarcely able to believe the evidence of their eyes.

There was no mistaking the Abbot's features. Simon Duval was staring at the white-haired old man whose gla.s.s he had taken in the auberge, while Steven's attention was riveted on the Doctor.

5.

The Proposition During the Vesper's service Steven stood on the Cathedral square in a state of shock. What was the Doctor playing at?

he asked himself. So absorbed was he in his search for an answer that he was unaware of the soldiers pushing back him and the crowd to clear a path to the Cardinal's palace where the Abbot would be taken when he came out of Notre Dame.

The service ended and the Abbot stood on the steps in front of the Cathedral to bless the crowd before being helped up to the throne on the wagon. As the liveried lackeys led the horses past Steven, he tried to catch the Doctor's eye but to no avail and the procession pa.s.sed him by.

On the other hand, Simon Duval was stunned with admiration by the Abbot's audacity to seek out, in disguise, Lerans and Muss, the right-hand men of the two most influential Huguenots in France, King Henri of Navarre and the Admiral de Coligny. When Lerans and Muss saw the Abbot again, Duval decided, they would laugh on the other side of their faces at their jests against the Princess.

But more important to him, hadn't the Abbot observed how he had defended Princess Marguerite's honour at the auberge and had he not refilled the Abbot's gla.s.s courteously afterwards? The failures of the afternoon, the apothecaries and the wench, were not of his making, others had failed him and so, with a sigh of relief, he realised he had nothing to fear from his first official encounter with the Abbot of Amboise.

There were others in the crowd who watched the proceedings with cold, curious eyes recording the names and rank of those who, as a mark of obeisance to the Abbot, attended the service. It was information which would be pa.s.sed on swiftly to their masters in the English, Dutch and Spanish Courts.

As the crowd dispersed Steven made his way back to the auberge and waited for the Doctor until Antoine-Marc came over to his table and whispered that it was time to leave.

'But I'm waiting for my friend,' Steven protested, 'we agreed to meet here.'

'Can't help that,' Antoine-Marc murmured. 'I'm about to shut so you must go.'

Steven thought for a moment. 'This is is an auberge?' he asked. an auberge?' he asked.

'It is,' Antoine-Marc muttered.

'Then I'll take a room for the night,' Steven replied.

Antoine-Marc hesitated and then smiled, 'I'll need your papers,' he confided, 'it's the law.'

Instinctively Steven felt his pockets. 'I don't have any with me,' he admitted, adding that where he came from people weren't obliged to carry them.

'Things are different here,' Antoine-Marc's whisper had a note of menace, 'and no papers, no room.'

'But I'm sure my friend will arrive soon,' Steven said, trying to convince himself as much as Antoine-Marc.

'In which case you'll meet him on the street,' Antoine-Marc muttered with finality.

Steven shrugged, stood up and went outside to wait.

The door shut behind him and he heard the bolts being slid into place. He watched as the window shutters were closed and then, with a sigh, he leant against the wall. He could go back to the TARDIS but he hadn't a key and he certainly didn't fancy spending the night waiting for the Doctor on a rubbish dump.

The heat of the day had gone, it was still light and the evening air was balmy so Steven decided to walk to the riverside. As he did, the bells from the Cathedral clanged out again which made him curious about the service as no one was on the streets.

Suddenly he realised he was alone. Where he and the Doctor had been jostled and shoved during the day, not a solitary soul was in sight. And the bell still rang out. Then the truth struck. The bell must be a tocsin, a warning, and the empty streets told him there must be a curfew. As he had no shelter he decided to wait under one of the archways near the bridge which gave him cover and a view of the auberge in case the Doctor should arrive.

It grew dusk and Steven, leaning against the side of the archway, rapidly became bored. He had given up trying to figure out the Doctor's game and why he should choose to impersonate the Abbot of Amboise but he knew he would not see him before morning and the night stretched endlessly ahead of him. Then the point of a pike p.r.i.c.ked the small of his back.

'What are you doing here?' he was asked gruffly.

'Holding up the arch,' Steven replied nonchalantly as he braced himself.

'Don't be funny with me,' the voice replied as the pike prodded Steven's back. The soldier's arms are extended, Steven thought, and he swung one arm in a downwards and sideways stroke to knock the halberd away from his back a split second before he spun around to grab the shaft and pivot it upwards to hit the soldier on the side of his head.

Caught off balance by the blow, the soldier hit the other side of his head against the wall and, releasing the pike, slumped to the ground. Steven s.n.a.t.c.hed the pike and held it like a staff in front of him as two other soldiers ran at him from the shadows. He fended off their initial attack with seesaw blows of the staff, disarming one of them. The other soldier came back to the attack as Steven switched his grip on the pike to hold it by one end and swung it violently like a pendulum which sent the soldier's pike flying from his hands.

Steven heard applause behind him and he turned around to face four more pikemen with a young officer, his sword cradled in his elbow as he clapped his hands.

'Prettily done, sir,' the officer said, taking his sword by the hilt. 'I admire your mettle but I think you'd find us too many.' Steven heard the soldier behind him picking up his pike so he threw down the one he held which was quickly grabbed by the other soldier scrambling to his knees.

'Now, tell me what you are doing here?' the officer asked.

'I was sheltering,' Steven replied and explained about being refused a room at the auberge.

'And you have no papers?'

Steven shook his head and the officer turned to the soldiers.

'Take him to the prison at the Cardinal's palace,' he ordered and smiled at Steven. 'You'll find a room there.'

The Doctor had sat fuming for too long. He was sick to death of being stared at and being the b.u.t.t of some secret joke as every protest he made was received with hoots of derisory laughter. Then to his astonishment a small carriage with a driver and drawn by two Alsation dogs came into the room.

'What happened?' Charles, the bearded, red-haired man demanded as the driver stepped out of the carriage and glanced nervously at the Doctor.

'He he was there,' the driver stuttered.

'How could that be when he's here?' David roared, pointing at the Doctor.