"How can that be George Carstairs? I remember him, swanning about the district in his carriage in the old days. He was a very handsome man, his Lordship must have paid off half a dozen girls before Miss Charlotte came along."
"Something's warped his genetic make up," the Doctor said. He pinned the struggling creature down with a hand on its throat and, to everyone's horror, deftly pushed a cotton swab up its left nostril. "I propose to find out what, and how."
He retrieved the swab and dropped it into a sealable plastic packet. He handed it to Alison.
"Thanks," she said with a grimace, holding the packet between finger and thumb at arm's length. "What do you expect me to do with this?"
He didn't pause in his work, padlocking a length of thin chain about the creature's throat, a flat grey plastic oval already threaded onto it like a dog collar.
"I need it analysed. I want you to run back to the Tardis for me and tell the Master to find out what's been done to human DNA to turn it into whatever it's been turned into."
Alison's first thought was that this meant going off to contend with the Master on her own again. Her second, close on its heels, was to look up at the shuttered windows, not a glimmer of light visible between the slats.
"Now? But it's night. Those things will still be out there, won't they?"
"Well, they don't generally seem to run in packs and Jenny apparently comes and goes unmolested during the hours of darkness. I imagine the lantern light puts them off. I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Ugh." She scowled grumpily but gave way. "And what are you going to be doing while I'm doing all this?"
The Doctor clicked a switch on the device attached to the parasite's neck.
"I," he said, "Will be tracking the signal our little friend is now emitting..." He drew a narrow, compact black plastic case from his pocket. "On this. He's had a scare. My guess is he'll instinctively head straight back to the nest. That's what I want to get a look at."
"Their nest?" She sighed tiredly. "Wouldn't it be more sensible to wait till morning?"
"Hardly. They're nocturnal. Right now they're scattered around the countryside looking for blood. In the morning they'll all be congregated back at the nest and that's going to make it an unhealthy place to be." He frowned at her, looking put out by her lack of enthusiasm. "Look, why don't you both go? Jenny, you don't mind going along, do you? Strength in numbers."
"Oh. Well..." The maid ducked her head guiltily. "Normally, of course. It's just that I really need to get some rest. It's only a few hours before I have to start cooking breakfast."
"Cooking breakfast?" repeated Alison. "Doesn't the cook handle that?"
"Oh, yes. Serving breakfast, I meant. I have to start serving breakfast."
In her kneeling position, Alison rocked back onto her toes.
"But you said cooking."
Her brow crinkled worriedly at the sight of Jenny's eyes darting from side to side like a trapped criminal.
"She has a point," the Doctor said, not looking up from final adjustments to his tracking device. "Just where is this cook I keep hearing about? Why doesn't anyone ever see her?"
Jenny straightened with an air of defiance.
"Well, that's just normal. She's down in the kitchens all day, working hard, no one expects to see her. As long as dinner's on the table, no one... no one..." She deflated with a fatalistic air and with lowered eyes spoke in the mumble of a cornered child. "She left two weeks ago. I've been taking both pay packets."
She waited edgily while the Doctor paused in his work and looked up for a moment.
"Oh," he said with a nod and went back to what he had been doing. Alison looked at the maid incredulously.
"You've been running this whole place by yourself for two weeks?"
"Yes, it's been very hard work." Jenny said this as if it were a revelation. "But I get double the money at the end of the week. It's the only reason I stay." She looked up with an appeal in her eyes. "It's not really fraud, they get fed just as if Cook was still here. You won't tell his Lordship, will you Princess?"
"'Course not." Alison gave her a comradely clap on the shoulder. "Sounds to me like you deserve every penny." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "And I'm not actually a real princess."
Jenny grinned at this.
"Yeah, I'd sort of gathered that. But his Lordship still thinks you are! It's brilliant."
They were interrupted by a heavy-footed progress down the stairs that heralded Carstairs' reappearance. He entered illuminated in the glow of an oil lamp.
"I think Charlotte will sleep all right now. Bess is sitting with her."
"I'm sure we're all relieved to hear that," the Doctor said, rising to his feet. "Right, we'll be on our way now. We'd like to borrow Jenny for a couple of hours if you don't mind. Might mean she's a little late bringing you your kippers in the morning."
"Jenny?" he frowned. "What do you want with her?"
"It's for me," Alison spoke up. "I want her to help me find the way back to our... er, carriage."
"Oh." Carstairs addressed the Doctor. "No, there's no need for that. I'll show the princess the way myself. Be much safer."
"Mm." The Doctor glanced momentarily over Carstairs' shoulder to see Alison making frantic throat-cutting motions behind his back. "Well, how can I put this delicately? We don't want your help because you're an idiot and you'd probably just get in her way."
Carstairs disbelieving gape didn't have time to turn into outrage before the Doctor spoke again:
"Why didn't you tell us you never found your son's body?"
The question stabbed home. Carstairs hunched his shoulders tensely and stiffened his features.
"That's my business."
"You wasted my time and endangered us all. It's everyone's business."
"I couldn't tell the truth!" Carstairs burst out resentfully. "There was no body, you understand? Nothing to give a decent burial. We thought he'd been devoured by those animals. There's a sarcophagus down in the family crypt with nothing inside but sacks of turf. How could I ever admit to that?"
"Of course." With a pinched look of disdain the Doctor heaved the bound creature onto his shoulder and started for the exit, ushering the two young women along in front of him. "I should have known it would be something petty."
"How dare you?" Carstairs boomed. "You have no right! You understand nothing! Not until you've seen your child murdered before your eyes!"
In the frozen moment of silence which followed Alison clenched her teeth and dug her nails into her palms as if she had just seen someone drive a nail into his own hand. The Doctor's deathly cold, immobile face whipped round at Carstairs, whose redcheeked anger trickled away, leaving his features drooping and weak. Flinty-eyed, the Doctor stared at him for a moment as if contemplating murder, and then with a twist of his lip hissed out:
"Chin up. The first twenty years are the worst."
With that he stalked out, hurling the main door open and vanishing into the night. After scrunching a little way down the gravel drive he was visible slicing open the creature's bonds with a pocket knife, sending it on its way with a kick and then striding off after it, his lantern swinging at his side.
"Oh, God." Alison turned to Jenny. "Look, I'd better go after him. Can you run this errand with the plastic bag yourself? You need to take it to a blue box in the middle of a little grove of trees just where the lane that takes you to this place forks off from the main road."
Jenny nodded quickly.
"I know it. What do I do when I get there?"
"Just bang on the door and keep saying the Doctor sent you." Alison was retrieving her cloak from a chair and backing towards the exit. "It may take a little while but our friend will open up sooner or later."
"All right. Is he a nice man?"
"Er, no." Alison pulled the garment about her shoulders and headed out into the dark. "But he's harmless. You'll be fine."