But Donna could sense there was something different about Anne Boleyn. Something unnatural. Something chilling. Her eyes were coal black and her face was too pale, and sometimes too menacing to even look at.
Henry VIII inspected the two captives writhing around on the floor, whilst Anne clung to him like a stick insect that was hungry for something. After some deliberation, he grabbed the Doctor by the scruff of his neck and pulled him to his feet.
"I am the King of England," he said in a calm voice, but there was poison concealed behind the coolness. "Therefore I can do anything, and that means I can do anything to you…" Smirking, he slowly released his grip from the Doctor's jacket.
"Take them to the tower. I never want to see their faces again. Alive at least," he added as an afterthought.
Donna started squealing. "Did you just say, the, err, tower? Well, what tower would that be now? Because I know what tower it shouldn't be, but I know it's probably the tower it will be!" She was fanning her face with her hands, obviously flustered, and small tears of desperation were appearing in the corners of her eyes.
"Doctor, we got to do something! I'm not letting my head be fed to the crows, because I'm telling yah I know which tower they mean," she nodded knowingly, and was pulled roughly to her feet by one of the guards.
"Yeah, Donna, number one it's pretty obvious which tower they mean, and, err, number two, the old man has a point you know," he indicated his thumb at the king, who was chatting flirtatiously to Anne as they walked arm-in-arm back towards the palace door. "He's the King of England."
The time travellers were marched around the perimeter of the palace, having been forced to wear shackles on their arms and legs, by at least twenty guards. Donna continued to beg the austere guards for last minute mercy, whereas the Doctor merely looked mildly interested at the prospect that they were going off to the Tower of London, probably to be executed.
"This is all YOUR fault," Donna hissed at the Doctor as they were loaded into a small wooden cart. "You and your filthy old BOX!"
The Doctor pretended to be fiddling with his sonic screwdriver as the back of the cart was slammed shut. Donna was purple in the face and, as the horse drawn cart pulled away from the palace, she attempted to break free from the metal shackles that were encasing her ligaments.
"I mean this is just GREAT isn't it? Henry VIII, a man that's been dead for god knows how long telling us what to do? Oh my god, I'm going to be killed by a dead person! There's something for the gravestone!" Donna continued to complain and scream and protest as the cart shuddered on the through the Tudor countryside, whilst the Doctor simply nodded at her objections and continued to fumble with his screwdriver.
"Are you listening to me? I HAVE family, Doctor!" she cried, banging her fist on the side of the cart. "How can I DIE before I'm even BORN? Tell me that!"
The Doctor looked up at her and sighed, "You know, that is a tricky one, Donna. But if you haven't realised, I've been free from these shackles for about an hour now…."
Donna, having started another aggressive lecture, stopped in mid sentence and glared down at the Doctor's arms and legs. She bit her lip and smiled bashfully.
"OH. Well, that's, good then," she said slowly. The Doctor nodded slightly and stretched casually back onto the side of the cart, running the sonic screwdriver through his fingers and smiling to himself.
"The screwdriver always helps," he said unconcernedly, suddenly aiming it at the metal ropes covering Donna and flicking it on. A blue ray of light suddenly glowed brilliantly at the tip of the screwdriver and all at once the shackles on Donna began to glow with heat, and thin trails of grey smoke began to curl upwards.
A few moments later the chains erupted in a cloud of sparks and fell flaccidly to the bottom of the cart. Donna rubbed the rashes on her arms and legs and then got shakily to her feet, stumbling over to the back of the cart and pulling the back open.
"Come on then, we've left a flying blue box in the middle of the King's lawn, you know!"
The Doctor beamed and leapt beside her, rubbing his hands together in a business-like fashion and. Together, they threw themselves onto the track below and rolled speedily over onto the tangles of grass growing on either side of the road. The cart trundled onwards and disappeared round a bend, leaving Donna and the Doctor totally alone in the middle of a darkening countryside….