While Clara waited for the guy she fancied and his father to come up to meet her, she was doing her governess duties, including tucking in Francisca and Digby.
Francisca looked over at Clara. "Am I going to have the nightmare again tonight?" she asked.
"Definitely not," Clara said.
"How do you know?" the young girl asked. "Because some people are coming to help." "Who?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Is it one of your stories? Your "definitely true" ones?" "All my stories are true."
"Like how you were born behind the clock face of Big Ben?" Digby asked. "Accounting for my acute sense of time," Clara said.
"And you invented fish," Francisca said. "Because I dislike swimming alone," Clara said. "So what's this one?" Digby asked.
"There's a young man called the Professor. And he has a father called the Doctor. They live on a cloud in the sky, and all they do every day is to stop all the children in the world from ever having bad dreams," Clara explained.
"I've had bad dreams," Francisca pointed out. She was beginning to like this story and wanted to know more about the Doctor and the Professor.
"Now, the Doctor has been on holiday. But I am confident he has now returned to work. And in fact, their family is right here," Clara said as the door opened in the room. A draft of chilly air blew in, making the candle flicker. Impeccable timing, Clara thought. "Aren't you, Doctor?" Clara asked. There was no answer. "Professor. Are you there? Right?"
However, it wasn't the Doctor. Nor was it the Professor. The door opened fully, and a woman made of ice stood in the doorway. The children screamed. It looked like their former nanny.
"Bloomin' hell!" Clara exclaimed, using her other voice. Her normal voice. "The children have been very naughty," the Ice Governess said.
"Get back. Now. Quickly," Clara said, ushering the two children behind her. "You're doing your other voice," Digby said, noticing Clara's voice had changed. "Yes, love, did you notice?"
"Naughty, naughty children," the Ice Governess said again.
"Run!" Clara ordered, and she went with the children to the next room. The schoolroom. Standing in the back of the room, Clara knelt beside Francisca.
"Frannie, Frannie, imagine her melting," Clara said.
"What?" Francisca asked. She had no idea what Clara was on about. "In your head," Clara told her. "Melt her."
"I can't."
"I'm getting impatient!" The Ice Governess said, forcing the door open. "You have been very naughty!"
"What about that family? You said a family was here. The cloud family," Digby said. "Well, he's not, is he?" Clara asked frantically.
"Where are they? The Doctor and the Professor?"
"I don't know!"
"Doctor? Doctor? Doctor who?" A Punch puppet said, aiming a sonic screwdriver at the Ice Governess, making it shatter to the ground. The Doctor popped his head out from the puppet box and said, still in Punch's voice, "That's the way to do it." Punch then kissed the Doctor, and he said, "Oi. Ow."
The Professor and Belle stepped out from their hiding place – the long curtains by the window – and walked over to the others. "Hello again," the Professor said, hugging Clara tightly, who hugged back with a smile. She was glad that they were there.
Francisca spoke up and asked. "Where did she go? Will she come back?"
"No, don't worry. The Ice Governess is currently draining through your carpet. New setting. Anti-freeze. And you're very welcome, by the way," the Doctor said.
"I'm very grateful. I knew you guys would come," Clara said.
"No, you didn't, because I don't. Because this isn't the sort of thing I do anymore. Next time you're in trouble, don't expect me to."
"Well, I would have come to help you," the Professor said. "I'll always protect you. Always help you."
As the Professor talked, the Doctor was distracted by his reflection in the mirror, which Clara had noticed. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Sorry, it's just … didn't know I'd put it on," the Doctor said as he straightened his bowtie, not noticing the ice growing on the windows. "Old habits..."
"It's cooler," Clara started to say once she felt the temperature get colder. "Yeah, it is. It is very cool. Bow ties are cool."
"Uh, Doctor..." Belle started to say. "I don't think that's what she meant." Everyone turned around as a bulge began to form in the middle of the carpet. "She's coming back!" Digby exclaimed.
"What's she going to do? Is she going to punish me?" Francisca asked.
"Er, er. So, the Ice Governess has learnt not to melt. But, of course, she's not a governess. She's just a beast. She's going to eat you," the Doctor said.
"Way to reassure a child, dad," the Professor said, a hand resting on Digby's shoulder.
"Well, we should run then," the Doctor said as he led everyone out of the bedroom door. The Doctor took a right down the stairs, to which they bumped into Captain Latimer.
"Children, what is the expla-" Then he saw the Doctor, the Professor and Belle. "Who the devil are you three? What are you all doing in my house?"
"It's okay. I am the father of your governess' gentleman friend. They've been upstairs kissing, and I needed to take him home. With the help of my, uh ... sister-in-law..." the Doctor said, gesturing to Belle. "It's a very, very complicated family. I don't rather understand it myself."
At that moment, Alice ran past them, exclaiming, "Captain Latimer. In the garden. There're snowmen. And they're just growing out of nowhere, all by themselves. Look!" She went to the front door to open it and show everybody the growing snowmen when she met Madame Vastra at the door with Jenny.
"Good evening," Madame Vastra greeted. "I'm a lizard woman from the Dawn of Time, and this is my wife." She gestured to Jenny.
The shock at seeing Madame Vastra – a green woman with scales – made Alice scream, and she ran into the house again, where she met Strax.
"This dwelling is under attack. Remain calm, human scum," Strax said. Alice screamed again and then fainted.
Captain Latimer didn't know what to make of all this. Snowmen growing out of nowhere. Green women with scales. A half-baked potato. It was all too much for him. So, he decided to focus on a more straightforward subject. He turned to Clara. "You have a gentleman friend?"
The Doctor sighed and pushed past the others to get to the bottom of the staircase. "Vastra, what's happening?"
"The snow is highly localised and, on this occasion, is not naturally occurring," Madame Vastra said, scanning the area with her device. A device that was an unseen sight in the Victorian age.
"It seems to be coming from the cab outside the gates," Jenny added. Belle looked over at her. "What cab?"
"The one from the Institute," Madame Vastra answered. "We followed him from there to here." "So, he'll want the lady made of ice," the Professor remarked. "Suppose it makes sense."
"Sir," Strax said, looking over at the Doctor. "One Pulver grenade would blow these snowmen to smithereens."
"They're made of snow, Strax," the Doctor said. "They're already smithereens." He turned to Clara. "See, Clara? Our friends again."
"Clara? Who's Clara?" Captain Latimer asked. He still didn't know what was going on or who these people were. No matter how hard he tried to understand.
"Clara is the name of your governess," the Professor began to say. "And from my resources, a former barmaid…."
But, before he could finish, the Professor was interrupted by the shrill sound of another's voice. "That's the way to do it!" The Ice Governess exclaimed as she strolled to them down the hall.
"Oh, and your previous governess is now a living ice sculpture that has taken a fancy to Punch." The Professor looked back at the Ice Governess and then at the others. "I think I may have an answer."
Rolling up his left sleeve, the Professor exposed his vortex manipulator. Lifting the leather flap, the Professor began to type some coordinates into the device and soon disappeared in a blue flash. Then, a few seconds later, he reappeared. But the Professor was not alone. He had brought the Mother Superior of the Convent of the Sisters of Saint Meissa with him. Or, as others knew her, the Blue Fairy. Who now wore a magic bracelet, like Belle.
The Professor turned to face her. "Blue. Now's your time to do your stuff."
Mother Superior nodded and took out her blue fairy wand. Standing in front of the others, her wand began to glow. Then, it shot out a magic beam, creating a forcefield between the Ice Governess and the others – trapping her on the second floor.
The Doctor looked over at his son. "Couldn't you have done that?" he asked her.
"She's a fairy. I can't do fairy magic. She can do stuff that I cannot even do," the Professor answered.
Coming back from searching the entire ground floor of the manor, Strax approached the Doctor. "Sir. I have found the appropriate room," he said, pointing towards the doorway on his right "One observational window on the line of attack and one defendable entrance."
The Doctor nodded and ushered everyone to where Strax had said. "Right, everyone in there. Now. Move it." He then pointed to Alice's body. "Someone, carry her."
"Let me," the Professor said as he picked up the body of Alice and poofed them into the next room in a whirl of blue smoke.
Madame Vastra smiled as she approached the Doctor. "Nice to see you off your cloud and engaging again." The Doctor turned his attention to the lizard woman at her comment. "You missed this, didn't you?" she continued.
The sound of the Ice Governess pounding against the barrier grew louder. "Shut up," the Doctor said.
