Ruby was relieved as she descended the staircase. She was glad to be away from Thomas Seymour, but at the same time she was curious. "Doctor?"

"Yeah?"

"Didn't Seymour seem a bit too…" she searched for the right words.

"Calm?" the Doctor finished her sentence for her.

"Yeah." Ruby stopped and leaned against the fabric-lined walls. She ran her fingers through her hair untangling her bun and letting her hair fall around her face. The doctor was amazed how perfectly her ever-changing hair framed her face. "Any normal person would have been stressed out, or in denial, or…something!"

"Well," He leaned against the wall as well and looked straight at her without a blink. "I don't think we should press it any further."

Ruby stared right back. "Doctor? Are you lecturing me?"

He was exhausted when it came to reasoning with her. He wanted to grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her. "Listen, if we delve farther into this it can land us in a lot of trouble. Normally I'm all for snooping around, but in this case something really bad could happen. We can't cross into established events."

Curiosity smacked Ruby in the face once more. "Who's "we"? Who did you mean when you said we?"

The Doctor pushed his head back in puzzlement. "I didn't say that, did I?"

Ruby would have noticed the rather attractive look on his face if it weren't for the pulsing headache that she felt at the base of her skull. Instinctively her hand went to touch it and she let out a wince. "Yeah, I guess we should forget about it. I'm starting to get a major headache."

Suddenly, a man ran down the steps of the staircase screaming to get the hall's attention. "Everybody! Princess! Everybody!" The Hall quieted down and every set of eyes was gazing upon this strange man. His breathing was fast and his mouth lipped silent words as his voice temporarily left him. Once he caught his breathe he shouted to the entire room the news that neither Ruby nor the Doctor wanted to hear. "The prisoner…He has…" after a long exasperated gasp he exclaimed, "The prisoner has escaped!"

At that moment there was a heat in the room that couldn't be explained. The Princess was positively fuming and at that moment her eyes locked with the Doctor's.

Ruby noticed it as well. "Oh no! Do you think that she noticed us coming down the stairs?"

"I don't know, but I'll tell you what. She's got to have some reason for walking this way." He looked over and Princess Elizabeth was making a beeline toward the Doctor. He straightened up and stared right back at her, but never made an attempt to walk closer to her. Ruby thought that a bold move, because as far as she was concerned the future queen of England had higher rank than the Doctor.

When Elizabeth stood in front of the Doctor it was almost comical. They seemed to be staring each other down waiting to see who would make the first move. It was a game of Chess. Each player was trying to think of which pawn to set forward, while trying to predict the other's next move.

With a sharp glare, that wasn't exactly threatening, the Doctor spoke. "Hello, Princess." He only slightly bowed his head resembling the smallest amount of respect. "My name is the Doctor and this is my friend Ruby." And the pawn moves forward.

Ruby took after the Doctor and gave the Princess something that could hardly be called a curtsy, but either way the woman couldn't complain. "Good evening." Ruby quickly turned on her British accent like a light switch.

"Good Evening to the both of you. I saw the two of you coming down the stairs several moments ago. Under that circumstances I must ask what you were doing up there." Gees! For a 16 year old, Princess Elizabeth was a hell of a lot more mature than Ruby expected her to be. Little things, such as her posture and just the way that she held herself told Ruby that she was not a force to be reckoned with.

"Well," The doctor started, but paused to find the proper words that wouldn't set this woman of royalty off. He had his reasons to stammer, for he know that in a decade or so he would run into Elizabeth as a Queen and she would be wanting his head for reasons unknown to him. "You see, it's like this…"

Ruby saw that the Doctor was stuck and stepped in front of him. "Oh, don't pay him any mind. He doesn't exactly think straight when he hasn't had enough rest." The Doctor gaped at her, amazed at how easily she pulled the Princess's attention away from him. "Now, why else would anyone go up those beautiful stairs?" She looked at the Princess trying to engage her in conversation.

"I don't know."

"Oh, open your eyes, Elizabeth. Not everyone is royalty. Seeing a staircase as grand as that, would just mean that the rest of the castle is just as beautifully furnished." Ruby then gave a quick glance to the Doctor. "My husband and I are naturally curious." The look on his face was absolutely priceless. "We couldn't help ourselves. We have, but a humble home. You can understand that, can't you?"

Elizabeth smiled and said, "Of course. I'm sorry to interrogate you like this, but you can never be too sure who to trust."

He couldn't believe it. Ruby had earned the Princess's trust. He was utterly baffled. How had she done that with only a few sentences? She was truly a perplexing creature. Something about Ruby wasn't completely human, but it wouldn't make sense if she were alien. It just wouldn't. She looked completely human and he could hear her heart beating. She was human all right. Human with something extra. But what was that extra something that made his mind go berserk.

His thoughts were interrupted by a wild yell that rang throughout the Hall. It made the doctor spin around causing his shoulder to knock over one of the candelabras. Within moments the walls were catching and it took the guests no time to notice. Before long there were people running in every direction and screaming. They were breathing in the smoke and panicking. They were panicking.

They were all panicking and she was trapped. She was no longer in the castle but on the floor of a bathroom. She could feel her own terror building, while people were unaware of her screams, for there were so many other screams that filled the building. She couldn't do anything, but claw at the door until her fingers bled. As the smoke filled her lungs her screams were barely audible and she started to crawl to the other end of the bathroom and with her mind becoming clouded she couldn't remember where she was. But the ice-cold floor felt like heaven against her fingertips. With constant coughing she curled herself on the floor and pressed her face into the tile. She tried as hard as she could not to feel horrible for not being able to remember why there were screams outside and whom they belonged to. Her vision started to fail. She wasn't going to make it. Her friends wouldn't even recognize her body after this was all over and done with. That's what scared her the most. The death itself.

The bathroom swirled out of place and she was back in the castle of Princess Elizabeth. But her lungs were still filling with smoke. She looked around and no time seemed to have passed. Without a second thought Ruby ran up the staircase as everyone else ran down ignoring the screams of fright and the Doctor's frantic shout. "Ruby! Come back."

As she ran she couldn't help but feel immensely frustrated by him. Someone had just screamed from upstairs and he wasn't worried that if they were hurt. The flames could trap them. It had happened to her and she didn't want it to happen to anyone else. Well, she thinks that it had happened to her.

It was considerably quieter once Ruby traveled down the hallway. Running down the hallway she wasn't really sure what to do. Checking each and every room would take too much time and time was something that she didn't have. All of a sudden she heard a scream. It was the same scream that had been heard before. Ruby kicked off her shoes and ran toward the only door in that specific hallway. She expected it to be locked but when she tried the knob it easily squeaked open. Stepping in the room Ruby felt her mind grow uneasy. Something wasn't right. The room looked empty until she walked farther into the room and heard the heavy door close and lock.

She spun around and saw the last man that she wanted to be locked in a room with. Thomas Seymour.