Sarah Jane's arms closed reflexively around the child and she looked over Ricky's head to meet Luke's grave stare. "What? They're all dead – all the Cavaliers?"
Her eldest son's answer was to turn back to the supercomputer. "Mr Smith, play that footage again."
Obligingly, the computer obeyed and Sarah Jane's arms tightened even further around Ricky as she watched the news item play back. The weather was beautiful, as was the stately presence of Blenheim Palace in the background, but the sight of the sad little corpses on the ground robbed the scene of its charm.
"What happened?"
"They don't know." Maria's eyes sparked with fury and grief. "They were talking to the Duchess and she was crying. She said that while most of them – ten, I think she said –"
"Ten of those dogs?!" Clyde repeated.
Maria ignored him. "Ten of them are hers, like Luke said, because of the family history and she still breeds them. The other seven or eight just appeared out of nowhere. She wants anyone missing a Cav in the area to contact her."
Sarah Jane shook her head and guided Ricky to the sofa before she turned back to the teenagers, her arms folded. "You still haven't answered the question. Why did they die?"
"The Duchess doesn't know," Luke said. "She said that one minute they were fine, then they wanted out, and then – poof! They just collapsed." He looked at his mother. "Mum, can't we go and talk to her? Just in case Maria and Clyde are right and it is aliens?"
Ricky perked up at that. "You mean the little dogs aren't really dead?" he asked hopefully.
Maria went to him and put an arm around him. "You never know." She ruffled the red-gold locks. "Don't expect too much though. You know what Luke's been on about. P'rhaps they all just – died."
The attic door closed softly and everyone looked at Ned, who was standing with Amber in his arms. "I heard." The hand that bore the amber ring caressed the puppy's head, but the blue eyes that Ned lifted to his foster-mother were flinty. "I think that Luke has the right of it, my lady. We must go and seek answers of my lady of Marlborough."
"Who's the Duchess of Marlborough anyway?" Ricky muttered. "I don't recognise the name. Do you, brother?"
"Never mind history now," Clyde interrupted impatiently. "We'll be here all day if Luke gets started. Google it if you really want to know."
Ricky grinned and Ned looked bemused. Sarah Jane hid a grin of her own as her gaze went to each of the young faces before her. "All right," she said at last. "Mr Smith, do you have anything to add to what they've said?"
"Scanning for further reports now, Sarah Jane," the computer responded, and everyone watched with bated breath. "There are no new reports at this time – wait!" A second news item came up, and Sarah Jane and her rag-taggle bunch of teenagers leaned forward eagerly.
"'This is Kate Thompson reporting live from Woodstock. This morning we told you of the mysterious deaths of twenty Cavalier King Charles Spaniels at Blenheim Palace. Thus far no explanations are forthcoming. Nor are they the only casualties. We've just heard that a further seven dogs have died in the surrounding area – two more Cavaliers, a King Charles Spaniel, three Papillons, and a Maltese. Vets can find no connection, but all dog owners in Oxfordshire are advised to keep their animals indoors…'"
"Thank you, Mr Smith." Sarah Jane looked at Maria, Luke and Clyde. "Well, it seems you're going to have your wish, you three. We're going to Blenheim." Rather to her surprise, Clyde's face fell, and she quirked an eyebrow at him. "What's the matter?"
"We won't be able to come with you, will we, Maria and me? 'Cos I mean, your car's titchy, Sarah Jane. There's no way you can fit all of us in there and it'd take us forever to get to that palace thing by train."
Sarah Jane and Luke exchanged a grin. "That's all you know," Sarah Jane told him. "Luke?"
Her son reached into his pocket and tossed something that resembled a rubik cube at his friend. Clyde caught it, almost automatically, and Sarah Jane saw Maria flinch. She smiled at the girl in reassurance and watched her visibly relax; evidently the shape of the cube had reminded her young friend of the Verron soothsayer's gift.
Meanwhile Clyde was examining the cube closely, and even Ned came to look at it, Amber tucked under his arm. "OK, you've lost me," he said at last. "It's not a puzzle box," with a quick glance at Maria and Sarah Jane, "but what is I've no clue."
"Can't you do better than that, Clydey-boy?" Luke teased. "C'mon, think. What's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?"
Clyde's eyes grew wide. "You haven't!" He looked at the cube with some awe. "Does this thingy turn Sarah Jane's car into a TARDIS?"
Sarah Jane laughed. "I wish. No, unfortunately that's impossible. However, Luke has worked with Mr Smith and K9 and between them they've scanned many different alien technologies for something that will have a similar effect. This," she indicated the cube, "is a molecular compressor. Once it's plugged into the engine of my car it will work like the TARDIS to all intents and purposes."
Clyde eyed the cube with some distrust. "Hmm. Not sure I like the sound of that. I like my molecules the way they are."
"In that case you can take the train," Maria told him sweetly before heading out of the attic with everyone else trailing behind her. "I think it's marvellous. Well done, Luke!"
Needless to add, Clyde refused to be left behind and almost caused an accident on the narrow stairs by pelting down them so fast that he tripped and was only saved by Ned grabbing him back with a strong hand. "Be careful, Clyde," the former king warned seriously. "Had I not been here you would have fallen on top of my lady, and mayhap done her a grave injury."
Sarah Jane turned to smile her thanks at him as they emerged onto the landing. She patted Clyde's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm not that breakable. Ned's just over-protective."
Clyde's sheepish grin faded to be replaced by a smirk. "Nah, he's right, isn't he? After all, can't have you falling down the stairs at your age. We'd never get anywhere then!" Rightly judging discretion to be the better part of valour, he followed Maria, Ricky and Luke down the main stairs, leaving Sarah Jane gasping and Ned glaring.
"He is rude, my lady," Ned said severely.
Sarah Jane laughed up at him. "He's not rude, Ned. That's just Clyde. He doesn't mean anything by it. Now," she went on as she linked arms with him and proceeded down the stairs in a more stately manner than the others had managed, "what are we going to do with Lady Amber there?" She indicated the contented puppy in his arms.
Ned looked anxious. "May we not bring her with us? I am loath to leave her here lest ill should befall her."
"I'm not sure that would be wise," his foster-mother observed as she collected her coat and keys and handed him his jacket. "I don't know how long we'll be and there may be more danger there. If I were you I'd leave her here. She'll be fine in her pen and I'll get Maria's dad to check on her if we're not back in a couple of hours."
Reassured, Ned consented to put the puppy into her pen along with the requisite water dish and 'nappy' as Clyde termed the puppy pads. Amber was clearly not impressed at being left, and her yelps followed them out to the car. Fortunately, the others yelled at Ned to hurry up and see for himself how well Luke's molecular compressor worked, so they were able to get off without further delay.
The car journey did not take long, although Sarah Jane often found herself wincing as the noise level rose in the back as Luke and Clyde argued over whether the radio should play the latest chart hits or the news. Maria effectively shut them both up by speculating over the kind of alien that could cause mass canine death, and Sarah Jane exchanged a quiet glance of amusement with Ned as the guesses quickly delved into the realm of absurdity.
"-it's the food, I'm telling you," Clyde argued. "Have you seen that stuff? It looks like rabbit sh - poo."
"What's rabbit shpoo?" Ricky asked.
"Er –"
"Clyde Langer, you're a bad lot," Maria said as well as she could for laughing. "Take an impressionable medieval kid and expose him to you and what do you get?"
"A very confused kid with a dirty mouth," Luke responded cheerfully. "Ricky, don't use any of the words Clyde teaches you. Mum might threaten to wash your mouth out and you never know, she probably has something nastier than normal human soap."
Clyde grinned. "Ew. Just think, imagine Sarah Jane washing your mouth out with glooped Slitheen. Ew, ew, eeew!"
"I'm sure I can think of something worse than that," Sarah Jane assured him as she turned the car into the long driveway that wound its way through the Blenheim estate. "Now listen to me, you people," she said, becoming serious again, "I don't know how well the Duchess will take us coming like this. She might very well tell us to clear off."
"Will you sonic her if she does?" Clyde asked in his usual irrepressible fashion
"Clyde!" Sarah Jane protested just as Ricky said, "Oh Mamere, please don't. You might have your head cut off if you do."
"Aw, bless," Maria said as the boys laughed again. "Ricky, honestly, you don't need to worry. No-one gets their head chopped off anymore."
"Besides, they'd never get close enough to Sarah Jane to try," Clyde declared. "Have you seen how fast she is with her sonic lippy? She's more likely to nobble them than they are to nobble her – Hey! Are we here yet?" He leaned forward to hand between the front seats and grin at Sarah Jane and Ned just as they drew up in front of the great pillared front door.
Sarah Jane rolled her eyes as she pushed down on her brakes and the car came to an abrupt stop. "We're here. Remember what I said, you lot!" she called out as the teenagers began to tumble out of the car at their normal high speed.
"That is some house!" Clyde announced once they were all standing in a row in front of the great palace that has been part of the Spencer-Churchill family since they early eighteenth century. "Imagine havin' all this!"
Maria slipped her arm through Ned's. "Is this the kind of place you lived in?" she asked with real curiosity. "Only older, of course."
"Not like this," Ned said softly. "I have never seen brickwork such as this except in pictures of ancient Rome and Greece."
"That's exactly what it's from," Sarah Jane told him as she finished checking the car. "Palladian architecture was inspired by the buildings of the ancient world." She put an arm around each of them. "It's wonderful, isn't it?"
Before either Maria or Ned could respond, a tall thin woman with tightly permed hair and a tweed suit came scurrying towards them. Sarah Jane pressed their shoulders before casting the others a warning glance and stepping forward with her hand extended.
"Hello there, I'm Sarah Jane Smith," she began cordially before the other woman could get word in. "I'm a journalist and I'm here with my young researchers. We're checking up on the story about the dogs –"
"No further comment!" the permed woman snapped. "The Duchess is distraught. She cannot be troubled again today."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Sarah Jane said as she saw Luke and Clyde slip away out of the corner of her eye. "It affects us personally as well. You see, my sons found a Cavalier puppy abandoned by the roadside last week, and of course we've adopted her. We couldn't leave the little thing to die, could we. People are so cruel." She pretended to wipe her eyes as she spoke, but watched the other woman closely and saw her visibly relax.
"How dreadful! Such people should not be allowed to have dogs," the tweeded one said firmly. "We would never dream of doing such a thing – oh, Duchess! I hope we did not disturb you?"
The slender woman of Sarah Jane's age who had come up to them shook her head. "No. I could not rest if I wanted to," she said with some bitterness. "Twenty dogs dead! It seems impossible."
"Were they ill?" Sarah Jane asked gently.
The Duchess seemed to see her for the first time and her impeccably groomed eyebrows went up. Her secretary – or at least that was who Sarah Jane assumed the tweeded one to be – became flustered. "I'm terribly sorry, Your Grace. Miss Smith – it is Miss Smith, isn't it? – is a journalist and she's interested in knowing more about your poor little furbabies."
Sarah Jane heard Maria smother a choke of laughter and could hardly blame her. 'Furbabies' indeed!
"-she's not like the others," the other woman was saying. "She understands, Duchess. Only last week she got a Cavalier of her own."
The Duchess's startlingly blue eyes narrowed. "Did you indeed, Miss Smith. I hope you know what you're doing."
"She was a rescue," Sarah Jane explained hurriedly. "We're very aware of the breed's health issues. My sons between them have agreed to cover Amber's insurance costs."
"Your sons, Miss Smith?"
Sarah Jane ushered Ned and Ricky forward and prayed that the modern haircuts and clothes would disguise their likeness to a certain fifteenth century English king. "These two, Ned and Ricky, and their brother, Luke. Where's Luke?"
"He's gone off wandering again," Maria said quickly. "You know what he is, Miss er, Smith. Hates staying still for any length of time."
The tweeded one looked disapproving. "Really, Miss Smith! Three sons!"
"They're adopted," Sarah Jane told her sweetly, inwardly wishing that she could sonic the other woman's improbably solid perm into something altogether more hair-raising. "Well, Ned and Ricky are," she improvised. "Old family friend. Luke's my nephew. Parents died in a road accident. Very tragic."
The disapproval melted, but before the secretary could say any more, the Duchess took a hand. "All right, that's enough, Muriel. Did you get in touch with Brown about this weekend's fishing parties? You didn't? Well, see to it at once, please."
The secretary flurried away and there was a moment of awkward silence before the Duchess said in a rapid low voice, "You want to know how they died. It was very sudden. One moment they were all fine, and they next they were hysterical – even for Cavaliers." She smiled sadly. "Then they all made the most awful, utterly ghastly sound and – and seized, I suppose. When the tremors stopped they were - dead."
"How horrible," Maria gasped. She looked sick. "How absolutely horrible. Did you see it all yourself?"
"Yes," the Duchess said quietly. "And you're right. It was – horrible." She shuddered. "I've bred these dogs for forty years, and I've seen them die in all manner of ways. But I've never seen anything like this."
At that point Luke and Clyde came back, their eyes nearly popping out of their heads. Sarah Jane tried to wave at them to indicate that they should be quiet, but they were too full of what they had to say to notice.
"Mum, you've got to see –" Luke began excitedly.
"They're glowing, Sarah Jane," Clyde insisted. "Honestly. Glowing, I tell you."
"Clyde and Maria were right," Luke went on, ignoring Maria's frantic cutting motions across her throat. "It is aliens!"
At that, the Duchess's face drained of all its colour and she crumpled gracelessly to the ground, leaving Sarah Jane and her 'team' staring.
