Following Catherine's lead through the hidden passageway into the castle, with Theodore and Lila stumbling as they struggled to avoid the steep steps as they walked down into the chambers that led into the wine cellar, where Catherine said held countless casks of wine, Mary loved it enough that she has special shipments from France, but often tries to bargain for shipments from Spain.
If there's anything Catherine's certain about her cousin, Mary loved wine more than anything.
Would've made sense for Mary to trade Catherine for a cask of the finest wine, but that's just Catherine's seething anger towards her cousin bleeding through, as she led Theodore and Lila into the opened area with stacks of casks.
Dimly lit torches guided the three through the wine cellar, Catherine's hazel eyes lit by the torches as she walked past them, towards the spiraling staircase leading upwards into the first level.
Relying on Catherine, the two followed closely as she led them through the opened doorway, into a cobbled hallway, filled with tapestries hanging on the walls, portraits of the family and Catherine, and other heirlooms dotting the corners of the hallway as Catherine led them towards the deeper part of the castle, going towards Mary's chambers.
If there's any place she'd keep her secrets, her chambers' a good place to start with, nobody but Mary went into her chambers, she wouldn't needed to hide her misdeeds.
Lila pointed out that even if no one went into her chambers except her, Mary would've kept it guarded, and while that's true for most royalty, Catherine says she never had it guarded while they were younger.
"That was then, your grace. Her trying to usurp you, she'll be paranoid of someone finding out what she's doing," Theodore warns that things could've changed since they were children, now that they know Mary's after Catherine's spot as queen, she won't take risks.
Scrunching her round nose at the thought, Catherine tells him that she's sure that it hadn't changed, Mary never liked the guards near her chambers. Her father had to post them elsewhere because she refused to go into her chambers with them there.
"Why?" Lila asks her out of curiosity.
Scratching the side of her head, her red hair shimmering in the torches, Catherine responded that when they were younger, Mary had a devious side to her, always inviting boys to her chambers when her father wasn't in the castle.
A tale old as time.
"Well, when we get her dead to rights, you can use that against her," Lila suggested that when they have Mary where they want her, Catherine could use that knowledge against Mary, but Catherine adamantly told her that it wouldn't work.
When Lila asked her why, Catherine sheepishly tells her that Mary would throw it back in her face.
"But that doesn't excuse my own cousin trying to usurp my rightful place!" Catherine bashfully told Lila as her cheeks reddened.
Well, suppose it's good the princess knows the fundamentals of, "calling the kettle black."
His icy blue eyes slowly moving, Theodore surveyed the halls as they traversed, seeing the portraits of Mary and her family throughout their lives, even seeing portraits with Catherine in them.
Seeing the timeline as they walked, Theodore can tell that when Mary was in her teens, did she want to become queen, as it was when Catherine received news.
Even in the canvas, Theodore sees the desire in Mary's hazel eyes, the jealously that slithered behind them whenever she's depicted next to Catherine.
The drive to become queen so great, she'd do anything to cement her path, it's almost surprising that Mary didn't want to outright have Catherine killed for the chance, instead she wanted Cole to marry Catherine, send her away to his underwater kingdom.
Maybe Mary knew it'd be too on the nose that Catherine unexpectedly dies and she's the next in line, maybe in some way, Mary didn't want to hurt Catherine, simply wanted her out of the way, but the way of the worlds taught Theodore never expect it to be the one thing.
It's always possible that Mary knew that killing Catherine wouldn't help her chances, but she saw an opportunity with Cole, knowing that he's an alien, knowing what he is, everything premeditated, the fact that she coaxed Cole into exposing himself to Catherine's father, resulting in his accidental death, only sought to prove Mary's calculating mind.
"Must he do the eye thing, again?" Catherine complained about Theodore's eyes moving on their own as he's deep in thought.
Lila responded with, "He can't help it. It'll be like telling a dog not to wag its tail."
Arriving at Mary's chamber, Catherine went up to it, checking the door, finding it locked, and she looked around for a hidden key, but there wasn't anything.
Thankfully, a twist of the wrist and a blue light opened the door, and Catherine marveled at the Sonic Screwdriver as Theodore held it in his large hand.
"I use it to open the jars, myself," Lila teasingly said that whenever she had a stubborn jar, she just steals Theodore's Sonic Screwdriver, and they open without problem.
Snorting at her, Theodore warns that it's not a kitchen tool, but Lila fired back that Hammond wouldn't like to know how Theodore sometimes sneaks off in his favorite roadster whenever he wanted to go somewhere without using the TARDIS.
"Sh!" Theodore covered her mouth with his large palm, shushing her, before he insisted that he always put petrol in the tank before coming back to the library and it'd be best if Hammond didn't know Theodore took his roadster for his own uses.
Catching a glimpse of Catherine staring at them like they're insane, which, at this point, they're likely to be, the two settled, and they snuck into Mary's chambers.
Already, there's a faint aroma of her perfume, Catherine said she always wore perfume made from flowers like jasmine.
On her vanity, there's bottles of perfume from different areas of Europe, that Mary obtained from her travels with her father, or gifted by potential suitors who lusted for her.
Catherine mentioned that Mary preferred to toy with her suitors, getting them to spend countless francs, gold, whatever, on her, only to turn them away for whatever slight she found.
"That hasn't changed, by the way," Lila warned that what Mary done still remained relevant to their century, with only changes in how that worked due to the rise of technology.
Which, due to their numerous adventures, Lila hadn't seemed at all interested or much less impressed at the state of technology in their century, that even when Bill showed off her new Blackberry, Lila barely got out a compliment.
Splintering off, the three searched through Mary's chambers for anything written down or obtained that showed her guilt.
Figuring that Cole wouldn't known the language, they probably weren't looking for something written, so if there's anything out of place, Catherine would tell them.
They would've sought insight from Cole, but with neither David or Theodore experienced in his species, neither wanted to risk hurting him mentally, even for a moment.
Still, Theodore warned David that they're in Mary's chambers looking for something to prove her guilt and so far, David said he's got Mary wrapped around his fingers.
"You owe me for this!" David hissed in Theodore's mind that if this spurs another monarch, he's coming to Theodore for a favour.
Fair enough, but Theodore tells him that they're still looking, and if he can, covertly try and get Mary into revealing anything.
Which, David says that the plan's working, she doesn't think Catherine's around anymore, Cole put on a face, and convinced Mary that he brought Catherine to his underwater kingdom, where he's converting her into a hybrid for breeding after tracking her down.
"Right. She say anything more?" Theodore inquired as he went around the chambers, his icy blue eyes slowly scanning every corner while his large hands dug around.
David responded that Mary's thrilled that Catherine's gone, that she'll head to the family castle tomorrow morning and take her place as Queen of Scotland.
"We're having dinner with her as we speak, good food, grating conversation," David noted that they're having dinner in the dining hall while the three's in Mary's chambers rummaging around her things, while the food's good, the conversation wasn't.
Sighing, Theodore tells him to stay on his toes, and warn them if it looks like Mary's leaving the table to head to her chambers, which David assured him that if anything changes, he'll be the first to know.
"Hey, what's this?" Lila called out, picking up a hidden wrapped up object hidden underneath Mary's bed.
Wrapped in cream colored silk, she unraveled it, finding there's a black disc with engravings on it. It looked like the cloaking device that Cole carried with him, but different somehow.
Joining her side, Theodore stares at it, in his mind, cogs turned, and he suggested that it's some sort of a cloaking device that royal Saturnyn used. The way it's configured, Theodore hedged that when a royal Saturnyn used it, it can either turn itself or everyone in its "school" into humans, or turn off the cloaking.
"Why'd Cole give it to her?" Lila wondered why Cole gave it to her instead of keeping it for himself rather than use the normal cloaking device that he carried.
Studying it in his large hands, Theodore sees that the cloaking device's damaged, probably from the crash, but still intact.
Why Cole would give it to Mary, perhaps it's Mary's ploy in having blackmail against Cole should he reign on their deal.
"That indeed, is a good question," Theodore sighed as he turned the device on its other side, seeing the cracks in the shell shaped device.
In his head, he heard David calling him, when Theodore reached out to him, he heard David panicking.
"We require assistance!" David called out to him, panicked, Theodore quickly asked what happened and David said that Mary wants to kill him and Cole, to shut them up.
She doesn't want anyone knowing about the ploy and she's sending her guards after them, but David and Cole got away.
"Where are you?" Theodore internally gestured, only to hear thudding noises at the chamber door.
Lila gone over to it and opened it, with David and Cole piling in, dripping with sweat as they fled from Mary's guards who pursued them through the halls, running to Mary's chambers because it only made sense at the time.
"Your grace, please tell us, there's a way out of here," Theodore's icy blue eyes looked towards Catherine as she's shocked.
Her hazel eyes blinking several times before she snapped out of it, Catherine nodded, saying that she knows all the secret passages in the castle, she's stayed there more times than anyone.
Following her, she opened a hidden passage in the wall, with a staircase leading down, and the four followed her down as David closed the false wall behind them.
"I thought you had it in the bag!" Theodore chided David as they walked down the staircase.
Scoffing, David insisted that he did, but it didn't go the way he hoped, and he isn't sure why.
"Run it by me, why did she suddenly want to kill you?" Theodore gestured towards David as they carefully walked down the staircase while Catherine led them.
Shirking as he walked, David mustered that he played by the book as he always did, but something or another happened, and Mary decided that she was better off killing both him and Cole.
"I think you calling her a "pig-nose" might've been the cause," Cole coughed as he interjected what transpired during the dinner.
Glaring at him, Theodore silently accused David, and David insisted that he didn't mean it in that way, honest!
Pointing at him, Cole swore that David got agitated with Mary's attempts at "mating" with him and it came out mid-sentence.
Shushing him, David swore it didn't happen like that, Mary tried to explicitly flirt with him and he made it clear that he had eyes for someone else.
"Gentlemen, fish, please!" Lila shut them up as they reached the end of the staircase as Catherine found the passageway that led them into a different part of the castle.