As the Doctor said he would, he and Taylor arrived back at the Williams residence within a timely matter, curiosity in their respected eyes, as they see Arthur waiting for them at the bottom of the staircase.
"Mr. Williams, I thought it was clear that you would stay in your study," Paul brought up that he told Arthur explicitly to remain in his study, but Arthur told him that he hadn't any choice.
There's an odd sound coming from behind the walls of his study and he's sure that it wasn't mice.
Uncle Irvine had a unique system where he was systematic at eliminating their kind before the rest finally caught on, fleeing for their lives.
Coupled with what Ethel and the cooks claiming to have seen, well, that should be enough reason for him to suspect whatever responsible in the walls of his home.
"Are you sure you don't want to be taken anywhere else, Mr. Williams?" Taylor asked Arthur if he's sure about his decision staying here in his home with the odd occurrences, but Arthur insisted that he stay.
This has been his home since he lost his parents, and he wasn't afraid of whatever's lurking in the walls.
"It's amicable, Mr. Williams, but you don't know what's going on," Paul reminded Arthur while he and Taylor moved through the home with Arthur following them.
Shaking his head, Arthur responded with, "For all we know, it's an animal. The only reason I've called you, is because it's only logical I get a second opinion from the Doctor, correct?"
Taking it in a logical sense, Arthur didn't want this situation overblown anymore it needed, as he pointed out there's a logical reason for his employees' maladies.
"Has this happened before?" Taylor inquired as she and Paul guided Arthur somewhere safe.
Pondering this, Arthur goes, "No, nothing like it, that's why it perturbed me. Probably a curse at my expense."
Pragmatic, Arthur viewed the whole thing as a slight against him, for whatever reason, and that's why everything's happening.
Which is a damn shame, Arthur hoped Paul would like the choices he picked for the party.
Paul assured him that whatever he picked, it would have been delectable, but for now, for them to focus on the situation at hand.
Paul and Taylor took Arthur to the dining room, after Paul checked it over twice, afterwards Taylor stayed with Arthur while Paul went upstairs.
"You take this serious," Arthur noted how both Paul and Taylor treated this like a life-or-death situation, despite not knowing how it'll turn out.
Sheepish, Taylor admitted that she and Paul liked being thorough about everything, there'd be dire consequences if they weren't careful in their work.
"I see. By your tone, miss, I would say you and the Doctor have an… unconditional bond, am I wrong?" Arthur inquired if Taylor and Paul were more than they appeared.
As she sat beside him, Taylor mulled over answering him before admitting that the two been dating for a few years, now.
She knows it sounded unusual, especially in the time they're in, but Taylor didn't know how else to describe her relationship with Paul.
It certainly gotten looks from people before, a woman who lost everything in a tragic fire ending up with a man she met under unusual circumstance, but it happened.
Not the most unusual set of circumstances, Taylor reasoned.
Arthur seemed understanding.
Though, he doubted he'll have the same luck as Paul and Taylor, without the unusual circumstance part.
"I'm sure there's someone for you, Mr. Williams," Taylor tried cheering him up, reminding him that there's someone out there that'll love him regardless of his blindness.
Arthur didn't seem sure, mentioning with his luck, he'll be robbed, and he wouldn't noticed until he's hoisted out of his only home by two brawny men and thrown into an asylum until his passing.
"Never say never, Mr. Williams," Taylor tried encouraging him not to stay in the mindset, but Arthur remained adamant.
Minutes passed, Paul hadn't returned from the first floor, yet, and Arthur started feeling hungry, wanting to grab something from the kitchen.
Taylor agreed to go with him, and he took point as he led her towards it.
He insisted on it, refusing to give off the appearance of being helpless.
Guiding her through the corridor, Arthur points at the closed kitchen doors.
"I'm not sure if they locked it or not," he tells Taylor that with his cooks quitting on him suddenly, he isn't sure if one of them locked the kitchen door on their way out in fear of whatever's in the closet.
Don't know where they'd put the key, if not taken with them out of sense of urgency or mania.
Can't tell Taylor which, to be honest.
"It's okay, Mr. Williams, if it's locked, I can still get it opened," Taylor assured him with a smile as she went to check the doors.
Locked, as Arthur suspected, but Taylor wasn't deterred by this, as she reached into her coat pocket, bringing out a kit that she procured a while ago.
A gift from Paul.
She'd gotten better at picking the locks, something incredibly useful during their adventures whenever access to the Sonic Screwdriver became limited for whatever reason.
Arthur heard the doors opening with ease, Taylor commenting that most locks in homes tended to be simple.
This factoid made Arthur comment, "I should phone a locksmith in the morning!"
With the kitchen doors opened, Arthur went through the doorway with Taylor following behind him.
Her emerald eyes see the kitchen left as it was when the cooks took leave immediately after the incident.
A tray left out with a serving plate that would've had a plate of Arthur's lunch served, but bare, and Arthur's lunch hardly edible as it wasn't finished cooking, left in a state of limbo that even if Taylor were try a trick, wouldn't be safe to eat.
"Oh, careful, Mr. Williams!" Taylor's quick to warn Arthur that a cook left one of the knives with the blade pointing upright where Arthur reached for the unused teapot to make himself a pot of tea to go along with his supper.
Turning his head, Arthur assured her, "I know my way around a kitchen, Miss Taylor."
She meant well, but Arthur isn't a stranger to the dangers in the kitchen.
The cooks normally kept it tidy, and all the knives put up for this occasion, but since they've gone and quit, it wasn't the case.
Still, Arthur isn't worried about hurting himself, at all.
Maneuvering around the kitchen, Arthur grabbed the teakettle with unused water still inside, gone cold hours ago, lit the stove on his own, and sat the teakettle on the blue flames.
He asked if Taylor wanted a cup as she fetched him the sugar and cream left on the counter.
Mulling it over, Taylor accepts Arthur's offer for a cup of tea as the teakettle began boiling.
Looking over to the doors, Taylor frowns as she hadn't heard from Paul, he hadn't said a word in her mind, and she's tried to contact him.
It's not like him keeping quiet like this, something must've happened, but she didn't know what to do, as Arthur's stubborn about leaving his home.
Arthur must've sensed it, he called out to her as he fetched the steaming teakettle if anything's wrong, and Taylor didn't know how to respond to him without raising alarm.
"I'm sure he's fine, Miss Taylor," Arthur tried assuring her that Paul would've alerted them someway if anything was wrong.
As he brought over the teakettle to pour into the awaiting cups with teabags set at the bottom, steam pillared as Arthur skillfully poured the boiling water over the teabags.
Within seconds, the water changed into an amber colour as the tea leaves soaked, the smell hitting Taylor's nose as Arthur took two sugar cubes from the holder and poured a teaspoon of cream into his cup, with a spoon he stirred the mixture together while Taylor done the same with her cup.
A little more cream and a few more sugar cubes.
Mother always complained Taylor had a bit of a sweet tooth, but she couldn't help herself.
"If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been blind?" Taylor asked Arthur as they sat at the long kitchen island while waiting for the sandwiches cooking on the skillet.
Frowning, Arthur described that he been blind for almost four decades.
He wasn't always blind, but his vision started degrading early on when he was a young boy until he couldn't tell Taylor what even a cow looked like, anymore.
Taylor offered her sympathies, but Arthur tells her that it wasn't needed, though he thanked her anyway.
He came to terms that he'll never see, again.
From what he described, it sounded like Arthur suffered from an inherited retinal disease, though Taylor wasn't sure unless she had his family history in front of her and a magnifying glass to study everything.
Given the time they're currently in, there wasn't much that could be done to help Arthur, and with him older now, there's simply nothing they can do to help him, the best anyone could do was making sure he had sunglasses or shades to protect his eyes from the sunlight.
"You learn a lot when you're blind," Arthur found solace in his blindness as he flipped the sandwiches, "you find out early on who're your friends and who're not."
Believe him, he went through the pain of finding out just who's exactly his friend and who had something on their mind that wasn't making sure he wasn't locked in a walk-in freezer somewhere.
And even though he's limited in friendships, Arthur found that being blind had its perks. Not being woken up when Ethel opened the blinds so early in the morning, for example.
Though, admittedly with his hearing becoming sensitive because of his blindness, it subjected Arthur to Ethel's shouting.
You win some, you lose some, he supposes.
The sandwiches were flipped, pressed, until sliding off into small plates, Taylor helped cut them in halves.
As she did, she's startled when there's a sound coming from the spice closet.
Almost cut herself because of it, but she managed avoiding that as she quickly wielded the knife in her hand as she shot up from her spot at the kitchen island.
She quickly got in front of Arthur as her emerald eyes narrowed on the door to the spice closet.
Wielding the knife, Taylor heard the noises of something moving throughout the spice closet, shuffling footsteps, the sounds of something crashing and braking, as her senses heightened.
"S-stay behind me, Mr. Williams," she tried to tell him.
TO BE CONTINUED…
"Family Matters"