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Chapter 4

Clara Oswald had secrets, the Doctor knew that much. He had found her eventually, a seemingly ordinary teacher working at a seemingly ordinary school. But she was far from ordinary. And she hadn't always been a teacher. The false name. The visits to Churchill's bunker during the war. Clara Oswald had secrets and the Doctor was determined to find out what they were.

He knew very well that he could close this case right now if he wanted to. He had found her. He was standing outside her school, waiting for her to come out and walk some of her students to the orphanage, like she had done on the days before. He could call Danny Pink and tell him he had found his missing fiancé. But the Doctor didn't. He wouldn't until he had figured out what exactly it was that Clara Oswald was hiding.

She stepped out of the building, followed by her students from the orphanage and the Doctor sank deeper into the shadows provided by the building across the street. He had worn a different coat and hat every day, the chances of her recognizing him again were slim, and yet he still hoped for the cigarette smoke to cloud his face. He didn't want to risk being seen. Not yet anyway. Not by Clara. And not by the other man who sometimes followed her.

The Doctor had first taken notice of him on his third day of surveilling her and at first he had assumed it to be a coincidence. The other man, who constantly hid his face under a hat, had waited outside her school for her and the children to come out. At first the Doctor had thought him to be the father of one of the children, but then he had followed Clara to the orphanage and to her home afterwards, only to disappear behind the next corner once she stepped inside the tailor's shop. That man had appeared again two days later. And he was there today, lurking a few metres from the school doors, and following Clara as soon as she had exited the building. Whatever the man's intentions, he didn't seem eager to share them with Clara yet.

The Doctor watched as Clara delivered her students at the front door of the orphanage, saying goodbye to each of them personally. She seemed like a nice teacher, a nice person and he understood why Danny wanted her back so desperately, because she was also very pretty. He sometimes caught pieces of conversations exchanged between the children, broken English, English with a heavy accent, some German. These children were of Jewish origin, but some of them seemed a little young to have arrived here before the war. However Clara seemed to be taking very good care of them as a teacher, the Doctor could tell by the fondness with which they looked at her. Except for that one little bastard, a tall kid with impossible manners who constantly bullied the other children. Clara tried her best with him, but the boy wasn't intimidated by a teacher who was smaller than himself.

When he thought he had seen enough for the day the Doctor turned around and headed in the opposite direction before anyone could spot him. Maybe tomorrow he would find something new.

Clara headed straight home, hungry, cold and a little annoyed because Karl's behaviour seemed to get worse with every single day. When the headmaster had had no other suggestion than the too common flogging Clara had stormed out of his office, determined to find another way to get Karl to behave.

She drew the jacket a little closer around her body to protect her from the cold, already looking forward to a nice, hot bowl of soup at home when she thought she could hear steps behind her. There was absolutely nothing unusual about footsteps in a city like London, yet something about those made her blood run cold. She just knew she wanted to get away from whoever was behind her as soon as possible.

Clara turned around the corner, taking a shortcut to her home that lead through a small back street, hoping to get rid of the steps behind her. But they still followed. Furious now, Clara shot around and stared straight into the face of a strange man.

He smiled at her, but somehow it didn't make her feel even remotely better. There was something creepy about him, something sinister. She just wanted to get away, but she wouldn't let him see how scared she actually was.

"Hello Miss Oswald," the stranger said, still smiling that sly smile. It was almost disgusting.

Clara scanned his look from head to toe. "How do you know my name?"

He shrugged. "Your students called you that. I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear."

He didn't seem sorry about that at all, and he had followed her here from her school. All of those things told Clara she should get away from him as quickly as possible.

"You might not remember me, but I do. During the war-"

"Oh, you lived in Suffolk during the war, too?" Clara interrupted him nervously. If that man knew her from back then, he would know she was lying. She always lied about that time. To everyone. But if that man truly knew her, he was a danger to her.

"I noticed you," the stranger continued, "And I would like to take you out to dinner."

"Sorry," Clara shrugged, "But I've already got plans."

She turned around to leave and, out of the corner of her eye, saw that the strange man tried to reach for her arm. So she made a run for it.

Clara dashed around the nearest corner and along the next street as fast as she could until her lungs were beginning to sting. The man wasn't following her, but still she ran, desperate to get away as quickly as possible, desperate to get home, to safety.

Luckily the tailor's shop was still open and Clara almost jumped inside, closing and locking the door behind her before she finally remembered to breathe.

"Clara, what the hell is going on?" Amy asked her instantly. She had risen from her seat behind the sewing machine and was looking at her, the worry written all over her face.

"There was a man," Clara gasped, "He followed me from school."

She leaned back against the door and took a deep breath while Amy approached her, looking out of the shop window.

"I can't see anything," she said, "What did he want?"

"He said he wanted to take me to dinner," Clara swallowed. Her breathing was still too fast. "He was creepy. Tried to grab me, so I ran."

Amy looked at her for a long moment, obviously considering her words. "Maybe you should take a different route from school tomorrow. Just to be save."

Then her eyes suddenly wandered back to the shop window.

"You saw someone out there the other night, didn't you?" Clara asked her, "Was it a man with a hat?"

Amy scoffed. "London is full of men in hats. It could have been anyone," she tried to calm her, "But if it makes you feel better, I can tell Rory to pick you up tomorrow after school."

"No, it's fine," Clara replied. It probably would. He hadn't followed her further after she had started to run from him. She was sure it would be fine. Clara had dealt with worse in her life than a creepy stranger.