Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor was holding a CD, when I walked into the console and showed him my outfit. I was wearing tight black pants, my black thigh high boots, red tank top and black leather jacket.
"What do you think of this?" I asked him.
"For the late 1970s? You'd be better off in a bin bag. Hold on, listen to this." he said grinning at me while putting the CD into the player and 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick' by Ian Dury and the Blockheads blared out. "Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Number One in 1979." he said and I laughed.
"You're a Punk!" I told him as he sang.
"It's good to be a lunatic-"
"That's what you are. A big old Punk with a bit of Rockabillly thrown in." I said.
"Would you like to see him?" he asked me.
"What? In concert?" I asked him.
"What else is a TARDIS for?" he asked me grabbing my hand and dancing with me a little. "I can take you to the Battle of Trafalgar... the first anti-gravity Olympics... Caesar crossing the Rubicon... or... Ian Dury at the Top Rank, Sheffield, England, Earth, 21st November, 1979. What do you think?" he asked him.
"Sheffield it is!" I told him giving him a kiss.
"Hold on tight." he said pulling a lever and we both lurched forward as the TARDIS shuddered and spun through the Vortex. The Doctor whacked the console with a hammer to the beat of the music and screamed. The movement stopped and we both fell on the floor, laughing our heads off.
"1979. Hell of a year!" he told me while helping me up. He grabbed his jacket and we bound toward the doors.
"If I remember right, China invades Vietnam... The Muppet Movie! Love that film. Margaret Thatcher... urgh..." I said.
"Skylab fell to Earth... with a little help from me... nearly took off my thumb." he said opening the doors and walking out with me behind him. "I like my thumb. I need my thumb. I'm very attached to..." he and I noticed we were surrounded by soldiers on all sides, guns raised. We slowly put our hands up and started at them. "... my thumb. 1879. Same difference." he said looking at me.
"Bit different." I told him before turning back to the soldiers.
"You will explain your presence. And the strange dress of this girl." the man told us and I rolled my eyes.
"Are we in Scotland?" The Doctor asked in a Scottish accent. I guess we were playing Scottish for now.
"How can you be ignorant of that?" the man asked us.
"Oh, I'm- I'm dazed and confused. I've been chasing this... this woman over hill and over dale. In't that right, ya... timorous beastie?" he asked me and I gave him a look.
"Aye! I've been making my husband chase me, test him a bit." I told them in my own Scottish accent.
"Will you identify yourselves, sir?" the man asked us.
"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon. From the... Township of Balamory. This is my wife Ashlee. Eh... I have my credentials, if I may..." he gestured toward his pocket and the man nodded for him to get the psychic paper. We lowered our hands while he fumbled in his pocket and showed it to them. "As you can see, a Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Doctor Bell himself."
"Let them approach." A woman from a carriage said.
"I don't think that's wise, ma'am." the man told her.
"Let them approach." she ordered again. The Doctor gestured towards the carriage and the man had no choice but to let us approach.
"You will approach the carriage. And show all due deference." he told us. The Doctor did an 'aye aye, Captain' sort of signal, and he and I approached the carriage. One of the footmen opened the door to reveal an older woman in a black dress.
"Ashlee- might I introduce her Majesty Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith." the Doctor introduced her to me.
"Ashlee McCrimmon, Ma'am. And my apologies... for being so strangely dressed." I said bowing to her slightly.
"I've had five daughters. It's nothing to me. But you, Doctor... show me these credentials." She ordered him. The Doctor obligingly handed the psychic paper over, and the Queen studied it for a moment. "Why didn't you say so immediately? It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my Protector." she said handing him back the psychic paper and he looked at it.
"Does it?" he asked reading the paper. "Yes, it does! Good! Good! Um.. then let me ask - why is Your Majesty travelling by road when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?" he asked her putting his paper away.
"A tree on the line." she told us.
"An accident?" he asked her.
"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Everything around me tends to be planned." she answered.
"An assassination attempt?" I asked her.
"I'm quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun." she told me.
"Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence. We'll send word ahead, he'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Balmoral tomorrow." the man on the horse told us.
"This Doctor and his wife will come with us." she ordered.
"Yes, Ma'am. We'd better get moving - it's almost nightfall." the man said.
"Indeed. And there are stories of wolves in these parts. Fanciful tales intended to scare the children. But good for the blood, I think. Drive on!" she ordered and the door to the carriage closed. We followed behind them on foot.
"It's funny though, 'cos people say 'assassination' and others just think of Kennedy. Not her." I told him.
"1879 - she's had... oo... six attempts on her life? And I'll tell you something else: we just met Queen Victoria!" he told me excitedly.
"I know!" I said grinning at him and holding his hand.
"What a laugh!" he said.
"She was just sitting there!" I told him.
"Like a stamp." he commented with another grin.
"I want to hear her say 'we are not amused'. I bet you five quid I can make her say it." I told him.
"Well, if I gambled on that, it'd be an abuse of my privileges of traveler in time." he told me.
"Ten quid?" I asked.
"Done." he told me.
One of the footmen opened the door of the carriage and helped Queen Victoria down. A man emerged from the doorway and approached her, his servant behind him. The Doctor and I stood off to the side with her guards.
"Your Majesty." the man said before bowing to her.
"Sir Robert. My apologies for the emergency. And how is Lady Isobel?" the Queen asked him.
"She's... indisposed, I'm afraid - she's gone to Edinburgh for the season. And she's taken the cook with her - the kitchens are barely stocked... I wouldn't blame Your Majesty if you wanted to ride on." Sir Robert told her. I glanced at the Doctor when he glanced at me before we turned back to Sir Robert. He would rather the Queen stay away but why?
"Oh, not at all! I've had quite enough carriage exercise. And this is... charming. If rustic. It's my first visit to this house. My late husband spoke of it often. The Torchwood Estate. Now, shall we go inside?" The queen asked cheerfully. "And please excuse the strange garb on the woman."
"Sorry." I apologized.
"She's a feral wife. I took her off her fathers hands, her brother wasn't too happy so..." The Doctor said cutting off.
"Thinks he's funny but I'm so not amused." I said. "What do you think, Ma'am?" I asked her.
"It hardly matters. Shall we proceed?" she asked and both her and Sir Robert made their way into the house.
"So close." I told the Doctor.
"Makerson and Ramsey, you will escort the Property. Hurry up." The Captain told two of his men.
"Yes, sir." They both said and one of the soldiers took a small wooden box from the carriage and carried it carefully to the house.
"What's in there, then?" The Doctor asked them as it passed us.
"Property of the Crown. You will dismiss any further thoughts, sir." the man told the Doctor. The Doctor pulled a face to me and I smiled. "The rest of you go to the rear of the house. Assume your designated positions."
"You heard the orders. Positions, sir." One of the soldiers said and they left to get into their guarding positions. The Doctor nodded his head toward the house and we followed the others inside.
Sir Robert entered what looked like an Observatory, followed by the Queen, the Doctor, three of his servants and me. There was what looks like an enormous telescope in the middle of the room looking into the sky.
"This, I take it, is the famous Endeavour." The Queen said looking at the device.
"All my father's work. Built by hand in his final years. Became something of an obsession - he spent his money on this rather than caring for the house or himself." Sir Robert told us.
"I wish I'd met him, I like him. That thing's beautiful - can I um...?" The Doctor asked him gesturing towards the machine.
"Help yourself." Sir Robert said and both the Doctor and I went to examine it.
"What did he model it on?" the Doctor asked Sir Robert.
"I know nothing about it. To be honest, most of us thought him a little... shall we say, eccentric." Sir Robert told us and the Doctor and I shared a laugh. "I wish now I'd spent more time with him. And listened to his stories." he said glancing at the Queen.
"It's a bit rubbish." the Doctor said looking through it to the sky and I grinned at him. "How many prisms has it got? Way too many. The magnification's gone right over the top, that's stupid kind of a— am I being rude again?" he asked the last bit to me quietly.
"Yep." I told him while nodding.
"But it's pretty! It's very... pretty." he told them and I held back my laughter.
"And the imagination of it should be applauded." The queen said looking at it.
"Mm, yes! But I thought you might disapprove, Your Majesty. Stargazing. Isn't that a bit fanciful?" I asked her.
"This device surveys the infinite work of God." she told me, smiling. The doctor shook his head at me with a smile on his face. "What could be finer? Sir Robert's father was an example to us all. A polymath. Steeped in astronomy and sciences, yet equally well versed in folklore and fairytales."
"Stars and magic. I like him more and more." The Doctor said wandering around the telescope to examine it some more.
"Oh, my late husband enjoyed his company. Prince Albert himself was acquainted with many rural superstitions, coming as he did from Saxe Coburg." The Queen told me before turning to Sir Robert. "When Albert was told about your local wolf, he was transported."
"So, what's this wolf, then?" the Doctor asked Sir Robert.
"It's just a story." Sir Robert told us.
"Then tell it." I told them. Sir Robert glanced behind him slightly
"It's said that-" he started saying but was stopped.
"Excuse me, sir. Perhaps her Majesty's party could repair to their rooms. It's almost dark." one of the servants suggested.
"Of course. Yes, of course." Sir Robert said and I glanced between the two of them.
"And then supper. And... could we find some clothes for Mrs. McCrimmon? I'm tired of nakedness.
"It's not amusing, is it?" I asked her. She glanced at me before turning back to Sir Robert.
"When should I expect the 10 quid?" he asked me.
"This isn't over yet." I said pocking him in the chest.
"Sir Robert, your wife must've left some clothes. See to it. We shall dine at seven. And talk some more of this wolf. After all... there is a full moon tonight." The Queen said excitedly.
"So there is, Ma'am." he said bowing to her as she walked out of the room with us behind her.
I went to one of the wardrobes in the bedroom they'd provided the Doctor and I and opened the door, finding a brown dress which I held up to myself in the mirror. I almost immediately put it back with a face. I held a white dress up to myself, laughed, and put it back in the wardrobe. I then held a pretty dark red dress up to myself and twirled around a bit. I placed the dress down on the bed, crossed the room and opened another wardrobe door. I screamed at the sight of a young maid crouched inside, breathing heavily with fear. I offered her a hand and pulled her to the bed.
"Tell me what happened." I told her.
"They came through the house. The incitements, they took the Steward and the Master. And my Lady." she told me and I squeezed her hand comfortingly.
"Listen - my husband, he's called the Doctor - together he and I will come up with a plan to help you. You've gotta come with me." I told her.
"Oh, but I can't, Miss." she said.
"What's your name?" I asked her.
"Flora."
"Flora, we'll be safe. There's more people arrived downstairs - soldiers and everything, and they can help us. I promise. Come on." I said grabbing her hand and going to the door. I peer cautiously out of the door and saw that the coast was clear. I led Flora down the corridor and saw a body just around the corner.
"Oh, Miss. I did warn you!" she told me, fear coming through clearly in her voice. I knelt and felt for a pulse.
"He's not dead... he must be drugged or something." I said looking at the other one. I stood up and checked for his pulse also. Same. I turned in time to see someone grab Flora and her scream. I stood and went to go to her when someone wrapped an arm around my waist and a hand over my mouth. The person who held me then dragged me away to a cellar. There was a man sitting quietly in a cage across from a group of people they connected both myself and Flora with.
"Don't make a sound. They said if we scream or shout, then he will slaughter us." a nicely dressed woman told me. She must be Sir Robert's wife, Isobel.
"But... he's in a cage. He's a prisoner. He's the same as us." I said looking from her to him.
"He's nothing like us. That creature is not mortal." she told me with fear lacing her voice. The man in the cage raised his head slowly and opened his eyes, which were completely black. Lady Isobel and her staff whimpered as I stared at him. I stood up and started walking to him slowly. "Don't, child." she said but I ignored her. I edged slowly towards the man, chains rattling slightly, until I was as close as they would allow me. I knelt down before I started talking to him.
"Who are you?" I asked him.
"Don't enrage him." a man behind me told me.
"Where are you from? You're not from Earth. What planet are you from?" I asked him.
"Ohhh... intelligence..." he said slowly.
"Where were you born?" I asked him again.
"This body... ten miles away... a weakling, heartsick boy. Stolen away at night by the brethren from my cultivation. I carved out his soul and sat in his heart." he told me.
"All right... so the body's human... but what about you? The thing inside?" I asked again.
"So far from home." he said.
"If you wanna get back home, we can help." I told him.
"Why would I leave this place? A world of industry, of workforce and warfare. I could turn it to such purpose." he told me.
"How would you do that?" I asked, wanting more details of his place.
"I would migrate to the Holy Monarch." he told me and my eyes widened.
"You mean Queen Victoria?" I asked.
"With one bite, I would pass into her blood. And then it begins. The Empire of the Wolf! So many questions..." he said before suddenly lunging forward, making us jump and gasp. "Look! Inside your eyes! You've seen it too!"
"Seen what?" I asked him.
"The Wolf! There is something of the Wolf about you!" he told me.
"I don't know what you mean." I told him defiantly.
"You burnt like the sun, but all I require is the moon." he said. The doors leading to the outside were suddenly thrown open and the moonlight flooded in, over the man's cage. He pressed his face against the bars with a blissful smile on his face. "Moonlight..." I stood up and moved back to the others as he shed his cloak with a mysterious wind blowing through the cellar.
"All of you! Stop looking at it! Flora, don't look - listen to me. Grab hold of the chain and pull!" I said as I pulled on the chain. "Come on! With me! Pull!" I told them as growling sounds were coming from the man. "I said pull! Stop your whining and listen to me! All of you! And that means you, your Ladyship! Now come on - pull!" They all stood up and helped me pull on the chain, trying to free it from the wall. The man was slowly transforming into a wolf, screaming in pain that turned into growls. "One... two... three... Pull!" We all pulled on the chain, desperately trying to free ourselves. "One - two - three - pull! One, two, three, pull!" Finally, the chain came free from the wall as the door burst open revealing the Doctor and Sir Robert. "Where the hell have you been?" I asked him as he came down the stairs. He turned and looked at the werewolf with wide-eyed awe as it grabbed hold of the bars of the cage.
"Oh, that's beautiful!" he said as it began to bend and break the bars, throwing the cage off.
"Get out!" Sir Robert said and I turned to the others to watch them all clamoring to get out of the room.
"Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Come on." The Doctor said grabbing my hand and leading me out of my room. He shut the door behind him and locked it with the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor then turned to me and started using the sonic screwdriver to relieve me of my handcuffs. "It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths - did it say what it wanted?" he asked me.
"Anything and everything to do with the throne." I told him. We both turned when we heard a thumping of the cellar and we both look around to it. The Doctor and I ventured out into the corridor to investigate only to see the wolf at the other end of the corridor. We stared at the wolf for another few moments before it growled and I grabbed the Doctor's arm and pulled him back into the room and we ran behind the line of men with guns poised and ready.
"Fire!" They all shot at the wolf, who stumbled back a few steps. "Fire!" I watched as the room was filling with smoke due to the guns firing repeatedly. There was no sign of the wolf when if finally cleared.
"All right, you men, we should retreat upstairs, come with me." I told them.
"I'll not retreat. The battle's done. There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault." a man said.
"I'm telling you, come upstairs!" I said angrily at him.
"And I'm telling you, ma'am, that I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." he said while striding across the room to look down the corridor, checking for the wolf. I watched him, anger seeping through my being. The Doctor held my hand in concern, trying to calm me down. The man walked back to us looking mildly triumphant. "Must've crawled away to die-" Suddenly he was lifted through the ceiling and we heard him being devoured by the wolf.
"There's nothing we can do!" the Doctor said pushing me from the room with him as we heard the men being attacked. We were joined by Sir Robert and we ran into a room with the Doctor slamming the door behind us and locking it with his sonic screwdriver.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Sir Robert called out for the Queen.
"Sir Robert! What's happening?" She asked coming down the stairs to us. "I heard such terrible noises."
"Your Majesty - we've got to get out." I said looking around for the Doctor who'd popped off somewhere.
"But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?" Sir Robert asked the Queen.
"Captain Reynolds disposed of him." she told us and I gave her a look.
"The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut. Pardon me, Your Majesty - you'll have to leg it out of a window." The Doctor said after he came back from checking the doors. He gestured through a door and the Queen obliged with her head held high. Sir Robert followed her and we found ourselves in another room.
"Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first, the better to assist Her Majesty's egress." Sir Robert said moving in front of her to the window.
"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh." she said.
"Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" The Doctor asked them. Sir Robert climbed onto the window sill and had to immediately dodged out of the way as he was shot at by the Monks standing outside. We stared out the window, our eyes wide.
"I reckon they want us to stay inside." I said staring at them.
"Do they know who I am?" The Queen asked and I turned to her.
"Yeah, that's why they want ya. The wolf's lined you up for a biting." I told her.
"Now, stop this talk. There can't be an actual wolf." she said right before we heard a howling ringing through the house. We spun around alarmed, and left the room hurriedly. We ran into a hallway and the wolf was battering on the door.
"What do we do?" I asked him pulling out a gun.
"We... run!" The Doctor told me.
"What? That's it?!" I asked him, giving him a face.
"You got any silver bullets?" He asked motioning to the gun in my hands.
"Not on me, no!" I said after checking the rounds.
"There we are then, we run. Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigorous jog." He said while jogging on the spot to demonstrate. "Good for the health. Come on!" He grabbed the Queen's hand and led her from the room with us behind her. We ran as fast as we could up the staircase with the wolf behind us. "Come on! Come on!" We ran to the top of the stairs and through the corridors with the wolf close on our trails. I looked behind me to see it ready to pounce and raised my gun and shot at the wolf. I'd heard another gun go off and looked out of the corner of my eyes to see Captain Reynolds. I looked forward to see the wolf reeling backwards down the corridor. The Captain and I ducked behind the corridor where the others were standing and I reloaded.
"I'll take this position and hold it. You keep moving, for God's sake! Your Majesty - I went to look for the property, it was taken. The chest was empty." Captain Reynolds said.
"I have it. It's safe." The Queen told him.
"Then remove yourself, Ma'am. Doctor, you stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert - you're a traitor to the crown." The Captain said cocking his gun.
"Bullets can't stop it!" I told him.
"They'll buy you time. Now, run!" The Captain said positioning himself at the end of the corridor, gun held ready. Queen Victoria and Sir Robert left first, running in the opposite direction, before the Doctor and I followed them. I stopped outside the library they'd run into and watched as Captain Reynolds shot at the werewolf as it bounded to him. It pounced on him and ripped him apart. I held my gun at the ready and shot at it as it ate him.
"Hunter!" I heard the Doctor call out before I started shooting it. He grabbed me around my waist and pulled me into the room in time to slam the door shut. Sir Robert, The Doctor and I barricaded the doors with chains and bits of wood.
"Wait a minute, shh, shh, wait a minute..." The wolf howled in the silence after the Doctor spoke. "It's stopped." He stood on a chair and pressed his ear against the door and listened. "It's gone." he said walking back to us. I then heard footsteps padding around the outside of the room.
"Listen..." I told them and we stood in dead silence as we followed the wolf's progress around the room. "Is this the only door?" I whispered to Sir Robert.
"Yes." he said before his eyes suddenly widened. "No!" He dashed to the other door with the Doctor and they barricaded it shut.
"Shh!" I said silencing them. We all looked around uneasily as we heard the sounds the wolf was making - and then it stopped. "I don't understand. What's stopping it?" I asked.
"Something inside this room." The Doctor told me. "What is it? Why can't it get in?" He asked and I put away my gun and walked to him.
"I'll tell you what, though..." I said.
"What?" he asked turning to me and looking me over for any injuries.
"Werewolf...!" I said smiling.
"I know!" He said grinning. He hugged me tightly spinning me a little before kissing me. "You all right?"
"I'm okay, you?" I asked him.
"I'm great." he told me, his grin never leaving his face.
'I'm sorry, Ma'am. It's all my fault." We turned as Sir Robert's voice to see him sitting on a chair. "I should've sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong, I... thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?" he asked us.
"Well, they were bald, athletic... your wife's away, I just thought you were happy." the Doctor told him and I gave him a look.
"I bet you're not amused now, are you Ma'am?" I asked her, still trying to win the bet.
"Do you think this is funny?" she asked me.
"No, Ma'am." I said.
"What, exactly, I pray someone please - what exactly is that creature?" she asked looking at the two of us.
"You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's a more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform." The Doctor told her.
"And should I trust you? You who change your voice so easily? What happened to your accents?" she asked looking at the two of us.
"Oh... right..." I said suddenly remembering the accents we'd used when we first met them. "Sorry-"
"I'll not have it. Not you... not that thing... none of it. This is not my world." she said firmly.
"Welcome to our world." I said and she gave me a look. I saw the Doctor touch a carving of mistletoe on the door.
"Mistletoe... Sir Robert, did you father put that there?" The Doctor asked the other man.
"I don't know, I suppose..." Sir Robert told him.
"On the other door, too... a carving wouldn't be enough... I wonder..." The Doctor then licked the woodwork and I rolled my eyes. "Viscum album." he said.
"The oil of the mistletoe?" I asked him.
"It's been worked into the wood like a varnish! How clever was your dad? I love him!" The Doctor and I looked to the other two to see their confused faces.
"Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins." I told them.
"And the wolf's allergic to it?" Sir Robert asked us.
"Well, it thinks it is. The monkey monk monks need a way of controlling the wolf, maybe they trained it to react against certain things." The Doctor told him.
"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, Doctor." Sir Robert told him.
"Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?" The Doctor asked him.
"Your being rude again." I told him.
"Good. I meant that one." He told me while striding to the book shelves.
"We need weapons." Sir Robert said and I gave him a look.
"You want weapons? We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world." The Doctor said winking at me. "This room's the greatest arsenal we could have." he told us before chucking some books at me. "Arm yourself."
All of us, minus Queen Victoria, flicking through the books, talking over one another.
"Biology, zoology... there might be something on wolves in here..." I told them and the Doctor chucked me a book.
"Hold on, what about this?" The Doctor asked.
"... some form of explosive..." Sir Robert said flicking through his book.
"Hmm, that's the sort of thing. Ooh..." The Doctor jumped down the the ladder he'd been sitting on while holding his book. He walked to the table with the two of us behind him then placed the book on the table. "Look what your old dad found. Something fell to Earth." We looked at the page to see an illustration of something falling to Earth from the sky.
"A spaceship?" I asked him.
"A shooting star." Sir Robert said before he began to read the page. ""In the year of our Lord, 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit." That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the Monastery."
"Three hundred years ago." I said looking at the picture.
"What's it been waiting for?" Sir Robert asked.
"Maybe just a single cell survived. Adapting slowly down the generations. It survived through the humans. Host after host after host." I said thinking of what the wolf had told me.
"But why does it want the throne?" Sir Robert asked again.
"The Empire of the Wolf." I told him.
"Imagine it... the Victorian Age accelerated... starships and missiles fueled by coal and driven by steam... leaving history devastated in its wake..." the Doctor said.
"Sir Robert!" The Queen said suddenly. Sir Robert went to her while the Doctor and I watched. "If I am to die here..."
"Don't say that, Your Majesty." Sir Robert told her.
"I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me. But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself." She said opening her bag.
"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables." The Doctor told her.
"Thank you for your opinion. But there is nothing more valuable than this." she told him pulling out a large diamond.
"Is that the Koh-I-Noor?" I asked staring at it in amazement.
"Oh, yes... the greatest diamond in the world." The Doctor told me as we walked to the Queen.
"Given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die." The Queen told us.
"Well, that's true of anything if you own it long enough. Can I...?" The Doctor held his hand for the diamond and Queen Victoria gave it to him after a moment. He pushed his glasses down his nose to look at it closely. "That is so beautiful."
"How much is that worth?" I asked.
"They say... the wages of the entire planet for a whole week." The Doctor told me.
"Good job my mum's not here. She'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that thing." I said smiling at the thought.
"And she'd win." The Doctor said and I laughed.
"Where is the wolf?" Sir Robert asked walking away. "I don't trust this silence."
"Why do you travel with it?" The Doctor asked the Queen
"My annual pilgrimage. I'm taking it to Helier and Carew. The Royal Jewellers at Hazelhead. The stone needs recutting." the Queen said.
"Oh, but it's perfect." I said gazing at the diamond.
"My late husband never thought so." she told us.
"Now, there's a fact - Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-I-Noor cut down. It used to be forty percent bigger than this. But he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting." The Doctor said taking off his glasses and putting them away.
"He always said... the shine was not quite right. But he died with it still unfinished." she told us.
"Unfinished... oh, yes!" The Doctor said with realization in his voice. He tossed the Koh-I-Noor back to the Queen, who caught it. "There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research - your husband, Ma'am, he came here and he sought the perfect diamond - hold on, hold on - all these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected! Oh, my head, my head! What if - this house, it's a trap for you - is that right, Ma'am?" he asked her.
"Obviously." she said and I caught on to what he was saying.
"That's what the wolf intended. But! What if there's a trap inside the trap?" he asked and I smiled.
"Explain yourself, Doctor." the Queen ordered but I took his place.
"What if his father and your husband weren't just telling each other stories. They dared to imagine all this was true. And they planned against it. Laying the real trap not for you... but for the wolf." I told her as a fine sprinkling of plaster fell from the ceiling. We all looked up, and the wolf was walking over the glass dome above our heads, looking down at us.
"That wolf there…" The Doctor said pointing up at it. The glass had started to crack and we threw our books down and we all ran to the door. "Out! Out! Out!" We ripped the barricade down as the wolf crashed through the glass. We had just managed to run into the corridor. The Doctor and I took one last look at the wolf before slamming the doors shut. The four of us quickly ran down the corridor trying to get away from the wolf as fast as possible. "Gotta get to the observatory!" The Doctor told us as we careened around a corner, the wolf close behind. I quickly stopped and turned around and shot at the wolf, trying to slow it down. Just as the wolf was on me some water passed next to me and onto the wolf. I turned to see Lady Isobel holding a pot staring at the creature as it bound away.
"Good shot!" I told her.
"It was mistletoe!" she told me as the Doctor followed the wolf a way down the corridor.
"Isobel!" Sir Robert said running to his wife. I followed the Doctor to make sure the wolf was gone. The Doctor and I returned to them as Lady Isobel left with the maids and there was a look in Sir Robert's eyes, wondering if he'll ever see her again. I knew that look.
"Come on!" The Doctor called and we set off at a run again down the corridor.
"The observatory's this way!" Sir Robert said and we followed him. We reached the central staircase and hurried up it as fast as we could.
"No mistletoe on these doors, your father wanted the wolf to get inside! Get inside I just need time! Is there any way of barricading this?!" The Doctor asked quickly.
"Just do your work and I'll defend it." Sir Robert said
"If we could bind them shut with rope or something!" The Doctor said trying to ignore the suggestion.
"I said I'd find you time, sir." Sir Robert said again. "Now get inside."
"Good man." The Doctor said before he shut the doors. "Your Majesty, the diamond."
"For what purpose?" she asked him.
"The purpose it was designed for." he told her. She handed the diamond from her bag to him. The Doctor and I ran over to the mechanism for the telescope. "Hunter!" he called and I ran. "Lift it! Come on!" We struggled to turn the wheel, but the cogs started to shift and the telescope to rise.
"Is this the right time for stargazing?" I asked him.
"Yes, it is." he told me. We could hear the screams of Sir Robert as the wolf devoured him.
"You said this thing doesn't work!" I reminded him.
"It doesn't work as a telescope because that's not what it is! It's a light chamber! It magnifies the light rays like a weapon. We've just got to power it up!" he told me.
"Moonlight!" I said putting it together.
"Come on!" he said as the Light Chamber finally started to align with the moon. "Come on!" we moved it until it was properly aligned. We stepped away from the gears as the wolf broke through the door and the light spewed forth from the end of the light chamber onto the floor far short of the wolf. The wolf advanced on the Queen but the Doctor dived across the floor and threw the Koh-I-Noor into the beam of light. A fantastic, prismatic beam of light hit the wolf and he was lifted off the floor and hung there, caught in the wash of moonlight. The wolf started to retake human form in front of our eyes.
"Make it brighter. Let me go." the man said/ The Doctor walked across to the light chamber and he flicked a switch. With a final howl from the wolf form, the creature vanished and the light shut off. I breathed a sigh of relief and hugged the Doctor tightly. We looked to the Queen to see her staring intently at some wound on her wrist.
"Your Majesty? Did it bite you?" The Doctor asked her.
"No, it's... it's a cut." she told him.
"If that thing bit you…" I started saying but she cut me off.
"It was a splinter of wood when the door came apart." she told us and I glanced at the Doctor.
"Let me see." he said grabbing her hand.
"It is nothing." she said putting her arm down but neither of us believed her.
The Doctor and I stepped forward and knelt before Queen Victoria. Everyone was present including Lady Isobel and the maids.
"By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee: Lord Doctor of TARDIS." She said tapping him on each shoulder with a sword. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub the: Lady Hunter of the TARDIS." she tapped me on each shoulder with the sword. "You may stand." We rose with large smiles on our faces.
"Many thanks, Ma'am." The Doctor said.
"Thanks! My family will never believe this." I told her.
"Your Majesty, you said last night about receiving a message from the great beyond; I think your husband cut that diamond to save your life. He's protecting you even now Ma'am, even from beyond the grave." The Doctor told her and I smiled.
"Indeed. Then you may think on this, also: that I am not amused." The Queen said and the Doctor groaned while I laughed at him. "Not remotely amused. And henceforth... I banish you." she said and I stared at her stunned.
"I'm sorry..?" The Doctor asked her.
"I rewarded you, Lord Doctor, Lady Hunter. And now you are exiled from this empire, never to return. I don't know what you are, the two of you, or where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars - and magic - and think it fun. But your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death and I will not allow it! You will leave this shores and you will reflect, I hope, on how you managed to stray so far from all that is good. And how much longer you will survive this... terrible life." she said before stepping away from us angrily. "Now leave my world. And never return."
The Doctor and I hitched a lift on the back of a farmer's cart to the TARDIS, or close to it.
"Woah!" we jumped off the back of the farmer's cart and waved him off.
"Cheers, Dougal! You know, the funny thing is, Queen Victoria did actually suffer a mutation of the blood! It's historical record haemophiliac. It used to be called the Royal Disease! But it's always been a mystery because she didn't inherit it. Her mum didn't have it her dad didn't have it - it came from nowhere!" The Doctor said.
"What, and you're saying that's a wolf bite?" I asked him.
"Well, maybe Haemophilia is just a Victorian euphemism." he suggested.
"For werewolf?" I asked.
"Could be!" he said.
"Queen Victoria's a werewolf?" I asked with a smile.
"Could be! And, her children had the Royal Disease. Maybe she gave them a quick nip." he said.
"So, the Royal Family are werewolves?" I asked.
"Well… maybe not yet. I mean, a single wolf cell could take... a hundred years to mature... might be ready by… oooh… early 21st century...?" he told me.
"Nah! That's just ridiculous! Mind you… Princess Anne...!" I said thinking about the Royal family in my sister's time.
"I'll say no more." he told me.
"And if you think about it... they're very private. They plan everything in advance. They - they could schedule themselves around the moon - we'd never know!" I said laughing with the Doctor as we reached the TARDIS and opened the door. "They like hunting! They love blood sports!" I said as we started the sequence to dematerialize. "Oh my God, they're werewolves!" We howled with laughter before actually howling as we left 1879.