Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures [035] - Set Piece by Kate Orman

Author:Kate Orman
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426204367
Publisher: Doctor Who Books
Published: 1995-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Raiders of the Lost Akhetaten

Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.

(G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1908)

M Thierry’s house was a modest twenty-eight room affair near the Bois de Vincennes, a little outside Paris. It was separated by a wide lawn and a pond from the orchard, with its rigidly defined rows of trees stretching off into the distance.

The lawn had not been cut for months, and weeds grew thickly between the trees. There was a crater of dried earth and grass where a stray shell had come down. The pond was slick with decay. ‘I’ve eaten the fish,’ commented Thierry dryly, leading them in through the servants’ entrance.

The kitchen smelt of must and dust. ‘My servants have left me to fend for myself,’ joked the tall Frenchman. ‘There is plenty of room for visitors, as there are only the three of us.’

As if on cue, the littleboy came through the kitchen door. He was holding a mouse-trap, turning it over and over in his hands, looking up at them with pale, incurious eyes. Thierry watched the Doctor watching the child. ‘Won’t you come and have some déjeuner?’ he said. ‘I’m afraid a shell hit the dining-room.’

Kadiatu steered the Doctor around the littleboy and to the kitchen table.

From somewhere, a skinny woman in a grey dress emerged; despite the summer warmth, she had a black shawl wrapped around her narrow shoulders.

She brought cutlery, glasses, the remains of a leg of lamb. Kadiatu started removing great slices of meat from it while their hostess set down plates and a bowl of apples.

M Thierry did not bother to introduce his wife. ‘This poor old farmhouse has taken more shells than my other home in Paris. Whole trees blown up, pan!’

He made the explosion with his hands. ‘I’m sometimes not certain whether we’d be safer with Mlle Lethbridge-Stewart inside the walls of Paris. I remain here to try to continue running my business, but I sleep in the cellar with the wine!’

He patted Kadiatu on the hand. ‘I’m pleased you’re here. I feel a little guilty leaving you to the mercy of the Communards – or at least I did before today. I think you would eat the rogues alive.’

The littleboy was playing with his mouse-trap, pulling back the killing bar and letting it snap against the bait.

‘It’s the Doctor’s safety I’m worried about now,’ said Kadiatu. ‘The Ants found him so easily.’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor, ‘it makes you wonder why they waited for me to wake up first.’

Kadiatu threw him a sharp glance. ‘They would have ways to locate my ship,’ she explained to Thierry. ‘Anything from another time.’

‘There is nothing like that here,’ said their host reassuringly. ‘The worst we have to fear here is one army or other marching through my orchard in their big boots.’

‘Well, then,’ said Kadiatu, ‘what are we going to do?’

Life in Egypt was one long party. If you had the money. And the King’s parties were the best raves of all.

Ace stretched luxuriously, feeling muscles rippling below her tanned skin.

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