King of Terror, The

Author:Keith Topping
Format: mobi

Chapter Thirteen

Strange Town

‘Poor Mark,’ Natalie said to Tegan as they approached Geoff Paynter’s hospital room. ‘He was the sweetest man. You’d never think of him as a soldier. Kind, thoughtful, a humanitarian. Always trying to help others. Not to mention being drop-dead gorgeous.’

‘Not perhaps the most appropriate phrase,’ said Tegan as they reached the door.

Natalie flung a hand up to her mouth. ‘I’m such a dimwit,’ she said, embarrassed tears filling her eyes.

‘Come on,’ said an irritated Tegan, grabbing the UNIT woman’s shoulders.

‘You don’t want to let that sexist windbag Paynter see you like this?’

‘Captain Paynter’s a complicated man,’ Natalie replied, with a faint smile.

‘But he does pinch my bum with monotonous regularity.’

‘The swine,’ mocked Tegan. ‘He must be stopped!’

They found Paynter sitting up in bed wearing the worst pair of hospital pyjamas that Tegan had ever seen. He was smiling, but this obviously belied the way he was truly feeling.

‘Hello girls,’ he said brightly. ‘You didn’t manage to sneak a bottle of Jack Daniels under the radar by any chance did you?’

‘’Fraid not,’ replied Natalie. ‘And we didn’t bring you any grapes either.’

‘Every cloud has a silver lining,’ noted Paynter.

‘How are they treating you?’

‘I should be getting out tomorrow,’ he replied. His false jollity was evident in the awkward silence after he stopped talking.

‘I’m sorry about your friend,’ said Tegan, sick of the pointless small talk.

‘I’ve seen someone close to me die and I know what you’re going through if that’s any consolation.’

Now she saw another side of Paynter, briefly. A deeply hidden side. ‘It’s like having a part of you ripped away,’ he said softly. The shattering loss was clearly there, inches beneath the surface. He hid his feelings well, she gave him credit for that much, but the veneer was in danger of peeling away and allowing the world to look at the vulnerable, confused, hurt man beneath.

She could almost have hugged Paynter at that moment.

Almost, but not quite.

‘I know,’ said Natalie sympathetically, sitting on the side of the bed and stroking his arm. ‘But life goes on.’

‘And we, however reluctantly, have to go on with it,’ added Tegan. She was thinking of Aunt Vanessa now. How had she coped with that? By getting in a time machine and being kidnapped, that’s how.

‘I know all that,’ noted Paynter. ‘It’s not the first time I’ve had this happen to me. But that doesn’t make it any easier. You’d think it would, but it doesn’t.’

Natalie kissed him and stood up. ‘You poor thing,’ she said as she began to cry again.

Tegan was visibly appalled.

Thankfully, Sergeant Milligan arrived at that moment, looking furtively around him as he came into the room.

‘All right Dave,’ said Paynter, brightly. ‘Surely you brought me some booze?’

Milligan triumphantly produced a bottle of Jack Daniels from beneath his overcoat and thrust it into Paynter’s hands.

‘Hide it quick,’ he said. ‘There’s a twenty-stone nurse following me about. I think she’s got alcohol sonar.’

‘Nice one,’ said Paynter with a cheeky grin, slipping the bottle beneath his bedclothes. ‘How you doing?’

Milligan was forthright.

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