Chapter 7 The One with the Accent
Hi hi hi, back with the 10th Doctor! It's going to be a little longer before the Nine turns up, I want Florence to be more used to jumping and the Doctor's mad world before confronting a much angrier version of him. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
Again, I own nothing!
Florence shakily got to her feet, patting the blue wood fondly, and noticed that she had landed behind the TARDIS, so made her way around to the front doors, looking at the empty plains laid out in front of her. She heard voices and turned her head with a smile to greet the Doctor, only to stop in her tracks when she saw the rifles aimed straight for her. She immediately threw her hands up in surrender.
"Please don't shoot!" Her eyes widened at the scene in front of her, at least twelve soldiers dressed in red military uniforms were watching her suspiciously, Steve held their rifles while the rest stood guard over the carriage in the background, while another pointed his pistol from atop his horse.
"Explain your presence." He demanded in a Scottish accent, Florence presumed she was likely in the highlands.
"I'm lost." She told him quickly. "I'm just looking for someone!" He didn't seem satisfied with her answer.
"Is this your police box?" He interrogated, and Florence shook her head urgently, hands still raised. "Quickly, girl."
"No. No no no no. It's not… I can't quite explain it's-" She was cut off by the creaking of the doors opening behind her and the familiar babbling of her skinny suited Doctor,
"And I like my thumb. I need my thumb. I'm very attached to…" he trailed off at the sound of the rifles being cocked at their presence, Florence looked round and saw him and Rose, who was dressed in a short dungaree dress and pink T-shirt. "Florence! Oh, 1879… same difference." Despite the rifles he grinned at her, but she merely scowled.
"Where the hell have you been." She muttered to him, arms aching with holding them up for so long.
"You will explain your presence, and your co-conspirator. As well as the nakedness of this girl." The captain demanded from the Doctor, who surprised the two girls by slipping into a Scottish brogue with ease,
"Are we in Scotland?" His question surprised the redcoats, who became more suspicious of the strangers.
"How can you be ignorant of that?" The Doctor pulled a face,
"Oh, I'm, I'm dazed and confused. I've been chasing this," he nodded his head in Rose's direction, "this wee naked child over hill and over dale. Isn't that right, ya timorous beastie?" Florence couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at the accent, she was pretty impressed at his commitment to it. Rose nodded and spoke in what Florence thought was the most over the top Scottish accent she could muster.
"Och, aye!" She agreed. "I've been oot and aboot." She looked at the Doctor and Florence for encouragement but the latter gave her a wince while the former shook his head at her.
"No, don't do that…"
"Hoots mon." Rose tried again, and Florence would have laughed if it weren't for the guns that were still in their faces.
"No really, don't do that." The Doctor whispered to her. The captain jutted his pistol in Florence's direction,
"And your lady companion? Can you account for her whereabouts?" The Doctor looked at Florence, pausing in thought for a second.
"Oh, my companion here had, stepped out the back, for a breath of fresh air. You know women folk and travelling long distances." Florence shot the Doctor a glare but the captain seemed appeased by the answer.
"Will you identify yourself, sir?" The Doctor pulled the leather wallet Florence had seen him use in New Earth out of his overcoat and flashed the curiously blank paper at the armed men.
"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon, from the township of Balamory. Here are my credentials, if I may." He waved the paper about, never lingering too long on one man but enough that it didn't seem suspicious. "As you can see, a Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Doctor Bell himself."
The captain opened his mouth, presumably to interrogate them further, but was cut off by the sound of an upper class British voice coming from the carriage, sounding peculiarly out of place in the Scottish highlands.
"Let them approach." The female voice called, but the captain hesitated.
"I don't think that's wise, ma'am."
"Let them approach." The woman insisted, and the Doctor pulled a face as if to say 'well?' before the captain reluctantly allowed them past.
"You will approach the carriage, and show all due deference." Florence finally lowered her hands as the rifles around them lowered, following the Doctor as he led the way to the carriage. A footman opened the door and the three gathered at the step, inside was the last woman Florence expected to see in the highlands.
Queen Victoria.
The bloody queen.
The fucking Queen of England.
Her mouth dropped open, and she grabbed the Doctor's arm in barely concealed excitement. She could hardly believe she was being transported to different periods of a time travelling alien's life, jumping from planet to planet, fighting aliens and monsters with only mild hesitation, but this... Florence was really experiencing history in the making, she was in the presence of royalty, and not just the 26th in line to the throne who tells girls that fact at parties to hook up. She looked away from the Queen and up at the Doctor, who was watching her excitement with a smile on his face. He raised his eyebrows, before turning and giving Rose a similar smile, before motioning to the monarch in front of them.
"Florence Jensson, Rose Tyler, might I introduce her Majesty Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith." Florence mutely bobbed herself down in a courtesy and noticed Rose do the same out of the corner of her eye.
"Ma'am." She greeted. "And my apologies for being so naked." The Queen didn't make any indication as to being bothered by her 'nakedness'.
"I've had five daughters. It's nothing to me. But you, Doctor. Show me these credentials." The Doctor obeyed, handing his leather wallet over to the woman in the carriage, who studied it for a moment before handing it back to him. "Why didn't you say so immediately? It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my Protector." The Doctor seemed surprised by this title,
"Does it?" Florence tried to get a glance at it over his shoulder but he slipped it back into his pocket. "Yes, it does. Good. Good. Then let me ask - why is You Majesty travelling by road when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?" Florence couldn't get enough of his accent, it made her want to get him to say everything in it. She supposed she hadn't thought about the fact that for an alien he both looked human and had a British accent, it hadn't crossed her mind until that moment.
"A tree on the line." The Queen replied simply, and the Doctor quirked an eyebrow.
"An accident?" He seemed doubtful, and the Queen returned the sentiment.
"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Everything around me tends to be planned."
The Doctor nodded in understanding, "An assassination attempt." Rose looked at the Doctor in shock at that,
"What, Seriously? There are people out to kill ya?" Florence hummed slightly.
"JFK wasn't the first assassination, Rose."
"I'm quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun." The Queen told them simply.
The captain interrupted them, whether because he was tired of their conversation with Her Majesty or because he was in a hurry to get moving, Florence couldn't quite tell. "Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence." He told the Queen. "We've sent word ahead. He'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Balmoral tomorrow." The Queen nodded once at his suggestion before looking to the trio in front of her.
"This Doctor, his lady companion and his timorous beastie will come with us." She told the captain, and under no uncertain terms was he to deny her request.
"Yes, ma'am." He conceded. "We'd better get moving - it's almost nightfall." The Queen looked amused at the concept.
"Indeed. And there are stories of wolves in these parts." She had a twinkle in her eye, which made Florence smile at the humour she exhibited, despite the obvious historical quote suggesting otherwise. "Fanciful tales intended to scare the children. But good for the blood, I think." She turned away from the outsiders and looked forward once more. "Drive on!" She instructed the driver, and the door in front of them was shut and the carriage began to trot onwards. The Doctor, Rose and Florence were expected to walk alongside it, and with the excitement of the day already, none of them really minded. Rose laughed a bit at the position they found themselves in,
"It is funny tho, because you say assassination and, like Florence said, I just think of Kennedy and stuff. Not her." Florence shrugged a bit,
"Think you'd find pretty much every prominent political figure has had an attempt at least once in their lives." The Doctor nodded.
"1879?" He thought for a second. "She's had, oh, six attempts on her life?" He paused and bent slightly to the girls on either side of him. "And I'll tell you something else. We just met Queen Victoria!" Rose squealed slightly while Florence shook her head,
"The bloody queen." She briefly grabbed the Doctor's arm in excitement and looked up at him. "This is amazing!" Rose laughed from the other side.
"She was just sitting there!"
"Like a stamp!" The Doctor agreed, making the three of them laugh. Rose skipped slightly and poked him on the arm.
"I want her to say we are not amused. I bet you five quid I can make her say it." The Doctor hummed and shook his head half heartedly,
"Well, if I gambled on that, it'd be an abuse of my privileges as a traveller in time." Rose grinned up at him wickedly at that,
"Ten quid?"
"Done." He shook both their hands and Rose clapped her hands together, excited for the games to begin. However, Florence had one more thing on her mind.
"Question. Why do they all keep saying lady companion like that?" The Doctor rubbed the back of his head slightly at that, letting spout a long breath.
"Well… They think you're very much, well my not wife." Florence looked at him with a raised eyebrow at his explanation. "My, uh, paramour of sorts." Rose let out a cackling laugh and Florence looked ahead with a deep blush covering her face.
"Oh I'm going to kill you."
The touring group arrived at a beautiful greystone estate in the middle of nowhere, Florence tried not to the of the implications of being stranded and tried to enjoy the walk with Rose and the Doctor, where she had managed to establish her place in their timeline - they had just been ice skating on a ring of a distant planet as part of the Doctor testing out his new body and its reflexes, and Florence prided herself in reacting very casually to the talk of 'new bodies', but no mention of Krillitane. Rose had been teasing the Doctor about his 'gangly limbs' but stopped short upon seeing the grand house in front of them, complete with a large observatory visible from the courtyard. As they entered the courtyard, the master of the house came out to meet the travellers, behind him were a group of bald men wearing black suits, clearly the household staff. Something about them gave Florence the creeps, she tried to ignore it but there was something about the look in their eyes, it was cold and menacing.
The clean cut owner of the estate greeted the Queen with a stiff smile. "Your majesty." He bowed softly and the Queen inclined her head towards him.
"Sir Robert. My apologies for the emergency. And how is Lady Isobel?" She asked politely, and Sir Robert cleared his throat lightly.
"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." Florence peered up at the Doctor at the suggestion, and he caught her eye with a similar frown on his face as she had, something seemed dodgy about this place. The Queen either didn't notice or thought nothing of Sir Robert's attitude, and smiled politely at him.
"Oh, not at all. I've had quite enough carriage exercise." She looked around the courtyard she stood in. "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?" She motioned her guards to bring her bags while she began to lead the way into the house. "And please excuse the naked girl." Rose bit her lip at the attention drawn to her clothing.
"Sorry." She apologised and the Doctor smiled slightly at Sir Robert.
"She's a feral child." He explained. "I bought her for sixpence in old London Town. It was her or the Elephant Man, so…" He trailed off and Florence hit him lightly with the back of her hand, causing him to wink down at her. Rose shook her head, a playful twinkle in her eye at her next comment.
"Thinks he's funny, but I'm so not amused." She looked the Queen directly in the eye. "What do you think ma'am?" The monarch gave her the barest glances.
"It hardly matters. Shall we proceed?" She turned and continued her way into the house, and Rose sighed dramatically.
"So close." She told the Doctor and Florence, who patted her on the shoulder.
"But no cigar." Rose rolled her eyes with a smile on her face, ready to follow the queen inside. However they were distracted by two foot soldiers taking a small locked box from the carriage and into the house, the Doctor nodded at it,
"So what's in there, then?" He asked, he is so nosy, Florence thought, watching him almost bouncing on his toes looking in the direction of the box.
"Property of the Crown. You will dismiss any further thoughts, sir. The rest of you go to the rear of the house. Assume your designated positions." The captain quickly responded, and Florence and the Doctor pulled faces at each other at his sharpness.
The group of travellers were escorted by the master of the house to visit the observatory that Florence had seen poking out the facade of the estate from the courtyard. It was a beautiful exposed brick room encircled by pillars and candlelight with a large bronze telescope pointed out at the window covered ceiling that showed the beautifully clear dusk sky. Florence smiled as they entered the room, "Wow…" she whispered to herself when she looked up and around her. The Queen focused her attention on the telescope with a small smile.
"This, I take it, is the famous Endeavour." She asked Sir Robert, who nodded.
"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." The Doctor, too, couldn't take his eyes off of the magnificent, ahead-of-its-time telescope.
"I wish I'd met him. I like him. That thing's beautiful." He began to walk over to it but paused briefly for permission. "Can I?"
"Help yourself." Sir Robert told him, and it was all the Doctor needed to shove his glasses onto his face and begin poking round the object, while Florence and Rose eyed it appreciatively from a distance.
"What did he model it on?" The Doctor asked, and Sir Robert shrugged.
"I know nothing about it. To be honest, most of us thought him a little, shall we say, eccentric. I wish now I'd spent more time with him and listened to his stories." Florence smiled sadly at him, hearing the regret in his voice, but was drawn away from him by the Doctor's scoff as he pulled himself away from his new toy.
"It's a bit rubbish." Florence closed her eyes in exasperation, she guessed the oblivious rudeness was a constant trait in the Doctor, no matter the body. "How many prisms has it got? Way too many. The magnification's gone right over the top. That's stupid kind of…" He turned on his heel and whispered slightly to Florence and Rose. "Am I being rude again?" Rose nodded slightly,
"Yep."
"Massively." Florence agreed, and the Doctor changed tactics.
"But it's pretty! It's very pretty!"
"And the imagination of it should be applauded." The Queen told them all, and Rose took her chance.
"Hmmm, thought you might disapprove, Your Majesty. Stargazing. Isn't that a bit fanciful? You could easily not be amused, or something?" She quietened slightly at the Queens unmoving expression. "No?"
"Poor attempt, Rose, 2/10 from effort." Florence muttered in her ear, and her friend nudged her away.
"This device surveys the infinite work of God. What could be finer?" The Queen responded. "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."
"Oh he sounds wonderful." Florence commented. "Stars and myths? No that's my kind of science."
"I like him more and more." The Doctor agreed, causing the Queen to crack a true, soft smile.
"Oh, my late husband enjoyed his company." She told them. "Prince Albert himself was acquainted with many rural superstitions, coming as he did from Saxe Coburg. When Albert was told about your local wolf, he was transported." Florence frowned.
"Local wolf?" She asked.
"What about this wood, then?" The Doctor also questioned, but Sir Robert seemed reluctant.
"It's just a story."
"Then tell it." The Doctor prompted, and the owner tried to find the words.
"It's said that-" Before he could begin, one of the bald manservants interrupted.
"Excuse me, sir. Perhaps her Majesty's party could repair to their rooms. It's almost dark." The Doctor and Florence shared a look at the interruption, the mysteries in the house deepening.
"Of course." Sir Robert agreed. "Yes of course."
"And then, supper. And could we find some clothes for Misses Tyler and Jensson? I'm tired of nakedness and leisurewear."
"It's not amusing, is it?" Rose tried again, but even to her seemed unnatural, and the two girls had to stifle their smiles.
"Sir Robert, your wife must have left some clothes. See to it." The Queen told him, before addressing the other. "We shall dine at seven, and talk some more of this wolf. After all, there is a full moon tonight." She looked excited at the prospect of telling supernatural stories under a full moon, and Florence was unsure whether the unsettling feeling in her stomach were nerves or excitement at the idea.
Florence was lounging on a bed while Rose perused the wardrobe of the room they had been given to find something to wear, she laughed at the hat Rose pulled out and tried on, giving her a thumbs down for the choice. The hat was dropped onto her own head as the blonde continued her search. "So where were you meant to be then?" Rose rolled her eyes and tore her gaze from the dark blue dress she had been looking at,
"1979. The old secret punk was meant to be taking me to an Ian Drury concert." Florence laughed at the hundred year difference.
"God, he clearly never gets better at piloting the old girl..." Rose laughed less enthusiastically than she had been previously. "What?" She shook her head slightly.
"Nothin'."
"Rose?"
"I just," the young woman took a deep breath, fiddling with the lace of the dress she held, "I know I'm not meant to ask, so I won't but it's just, I want to ask about his… my future…" Florence smiled slightly, guiltily.
"I'm sorry." Rose waved her off a bit. "No, I am. But if it's any consolation, I'm still pretty young, I have barely any idea if what I'm doing is the past or future."
"I guess…" Rose muttered, looking unconvinced. She turned away from Florence and, inevitably, the conversation and carried on searching.
Florence felt guiltier than she had done the whole time she had been jumping through the Doctor's timeline, she had completely forgotten a crucial fact of time travel. This moment that she was in was the present for these people. For Queen Victoria, for Sir Robert, for the captain of the guard, this was their life and time was moving forward, linearly, for them. Even for the Doctor and Rose, who for all intents and purposes didn't belong to this specific present, every moment they spent in 1879 was propelling them forward in time. But for Florence, she wasn't moving linearly to the Doctor, she was flitting in and out of his life and in and out of the lives of his companions. She got to know these people who at one point of another she would never see again. One day she would jump and Rose would be gone, and not just for the moment until she jumped again, but she would use up all the days of the Doctor's life with her and that would be the end of Florence's time with her too. And she couldn't tell her. How could she? How could she tell Rose that she had just come from a period in the Doctor's life where a ginger Scot had become so engrossed in his life that he had to destroy her faith in him in order for them all to survive? She knew why Rose would want to ask her about the future, and she knew why the future Florence had made it abundantly clear that she could not and would not talk about it. It didn't make it any less painful to see the uncertainty in her friend's eyes.
She felt the velvet of the dress Rose had held out to her to give an opinion on, almost to convince herself that it was all real once again. Rose held a dress up in the mirror before casting it aside and walking over to the other cupboard in the bedroom, she opened it and all Florence saw was her quickly cover her mouth and muffle a scream. She jumped up to see what Rose had found to discover a handmaid curled up in the corner of the small closet, hand also covering her own mouth to prevent a scream from escaping.
"Oh my god!" She whispered, crouching down at the girl's level. "Are you okay? What's your name?" The handmaid looked terrified but lowered her hand slowly.
"I'm.. I'm Flora." Florence smiled softly at her.
"Hi Flora, I'm Florence and this is Rose. What happened to you? And the rest of the household? We can help, I promise." She held her hand out to help the girl climb out of the closet. "Come on let's sit somewhere more comfortable." She and Rose directed young Flora to sit on the bed in between them and prompted her to tell them what had happened.
"They came through the house." She began, nervously. "In the excitement they took the Steward and the Master, and my Lady."
"Who did, Flora?"
"The monks." She whispered, confirming Florence's hesitation about the strange bald men who seemed to be in charge of the house. "They, they brought that thing in with them. So I hid before they could take me too."
"Listen." Rose told her gently, grasping her hand. "We've got this friend, he's called the Doctor. He'll know what to do. Come with us." Flora shook her head firmly.
"Oh, but I can't, miss."
"Flora, we'll be safe." Rose promised her. "There's more people downstairs, soldiers and everything, and they can help us. I promise." Florence nodded and stood, nodding to the door,
"Come on. Okay? Come on." The three girls left the room and turned right down the hall in the direction Rose and Florence had been escorted from. Florence stopped when she saw what looked to be boots poking out from around the corner and her companions gasped when they saw the soldier crumpled on the floor in front of them.
"Oh miss!" Flora cried, "I did warn you." Florence bent and put her fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse.
"He's not dead." She told them. "He must be drugged or something." She turned when she heard shuffling in time to see the white gloves of the bald men she had had her suspicions of grab at her and place a cloth over her mouth and nose. She struggled before breathing in and inhaling a strong chemical smell, before her vision went dark.
Florence woke up with a start, her hands, cheek and the bare skin of her exposed stomach pressed against a cool stone floor with small areas of hay tickling her nose. She sat up quickly and looked around at the dark cellar she found herself in, her hands were shackled together and the right one was connected to another that held Rose's slender wrists. Rose caught her as she lightly swayed from trying to sit up, the chloroform clearly still in her system.
"It's fine. You're fine." The blonde told her. Florence looked and saw that Flora had been chained up too along with what looked like most of the household staff, as well as a well dressed woman that Florence assumes was the lady of the house. The staff barely glanced her way, uninterested in the newcomer, focusing instead on the figure sitting further away from them. Florence turned her head slowly and saw a large wooden cage in the middle of the room containing a small young man dressed in brown tatty monk robes.
"Who is that?" She whispered to Rose, but the Lady hushed her urgently.
"Don't make a sound. They said if we scream or shout, then he will slaughter us." Rose frowned at the unnerving man in the cage.
"But he's trapped in there. He's a prisoner. The same as us."
"Unless he's not…" Florence whispered, still unsettled by his lack of movement since she had woken, and the Lady agreed with her.
"He's nothing like us. That creature is not normal."
As though he had sought a cue from them, the young man opened his eyes and looked up, eyeing arose and Florence with what could only be described and curious hunger. She felt the eyes burn directly into her soul, and she found herself unable to look away from them. They were completely black.
Ooooo mysterious… I had to have Florence taken with Rose, her jeans and crop top would look way too out of place even if I did want her in the dinner scene! And the accent! I love DT's natural accent in this ep wooooah!
Okay, this one feels super short, so I'll most likely post the second part later this week tbh as a little treat for anyone still reading hahaha!
See you (soon) for chapter eight! xo