Part 14 (2/2)

'How on earth did that get in here?' It was far too large to have been brought in through the door or the window. It looked solid, but perhaps it could be dismantled in some way.

'Well,' the Doctor said slowly as he rose to his feet, 'it certainly didn't materialise out of... ' He paused, half turned towards s...o...b..ld, a sudden look of perplexity and confusion on his face as if he had forgotten what he was going to say.

'Are you all right?' s...o...b..ld asked. The Doctor seemed pale, drawn.

'There's something... ' His face cleared as suddenly as it had clouded over and he shook his head. 'No,' he decided, 'it's gone. Never mind. Is there something I can do for you, Reverend?'

'What?' He was still looking at the box. 'Oh, yes. You have visitor. I'm sorry to disturb you. Downstairs.'

The Doctor was already on his way. 'Hardly unexpected,' he announced as he pa.s.sed s...o...b..ld. 'Which one of them is it?'

s...o...b..ld turned to follow. On the low table by the wash basin he noticed a dark lump, about the size of a billiard ball looked like something that had been burned was this the source of the strange aroma, he wondered? It was a husk, an empty sh.e.l.l. He reached out a tentative finger and touched it gently. At once the husk disintegrated. Charred slivers and fragments floated away on the draught from the open door, like burned paper escaping from a bonfire.

He was only half way down the stairs when he heard Lord Urton's raised voice.

'You, sir,' he was saying with considerable anger, 'yes, you sir. I demand an explanation, sir, for your wholly unacceptable behaviour.'

s...o...b..ld arrived in the hall to see Urton standing in the doorway from the drawing room where he had been waiting with Betty. The Doctor was at the bottom of the stairs, his hand on his chest in an innocent 'who, me?' gesture.

Urton barely paused for an answer before continuing. 'What, may I ask, is the meaning of your behaviour, sir? Tell me that.'

Still the Doctor said nothing. s...o...b..ld hesitated, then decided it was best to join them and try to mediate. 'Can I help?' he asked, keeping his voice quiet and calm. 'Is there perhaps a misunderstanding I can a.s.sist in explaining?'

'No misunderstanding, sir,' Urton said. His voice was shaking with anger, though his whole body was absolutely still as he spoke. Again he addressed the Doctor. 'You break into my house in the middle of the night and scare my poor wife half to death *'

The Doctor spoke for the first time, interrupting Urton's angry tirade with a tone that was almost mocking. 'Got her fingers burned, did she?' he asked, eyes wide, still playing the innocent.

At once Urton was silent. When he spoke again it was to s...o...b..ld. 'I see that there is no explanation or apology to be had here. May I ask that you reconsider in the strongest and most urgent manner the sort of house guests that you allow under your roof? As a man of G.o.d, you should hardly be playing the host to sinners.'

Again the Doctor's tone was light, as if engaging in after dinner banter with an old friend. 'Oh but surely that's exactly what he should be doing.' He raised a finger, in an instant becoming a theatrical preacher. 'There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents ' he began.

'I see no repentance here, sir,' Urton told him abruptly.

'Redemption, perhaps?' the Doctor said, his voice sterner now. 'Or is it to be the fires of h.e.l.l and d.a.m.nation for us all?'

Urton did not reply immediately. When he did, he was already on his way to the door, pus.h.i.+ng past the Doctor who sprang back out of his way, as if afraid of touching the man. 'I see that I am wasting my time. Good day to you, sir.' This last was aimed squarely at s...o...b..ld.

He waited until Urton was well on his way down the drive, visible through the open front door. A light breeze blew a flurry of powdery snow across the threshold. Betty appeared in the door to the drawing room, her expression neutral, and s...o...b..ld gestured for his daughter to leave them. She stepped back into the room and closed the door.

'I think you owe me an explanation, Doctor,' he said, trying to keep his tone neutral.

The Doctor was watching Urton's receding figure. 'I wish I had one,' he said absently.

'I think I am ent.i.tled, sir. You are a guest under my roof, as Lord Urton points out.' he was angry now, this man seemed to have no idea of civility, or social behaviour or, it now seemed, of the laws of the land.

'Yes. I do rather think that was the point, don't you?' The Doctor beamed at s...o...b..ld as he waited for his reply. 'He wanted to ensure I was no longer welcome here. He and Nepath hope I'll just give up and leave.'

s...o...b..ld fought to keep his voice level and calm. 'Doctor, I have asked for demanded an explanation. Yet you offer no excuse for your behaviour. Since you do not even deny it, I a.s.sume that Lord Urton is correct in his accusations?'

'Oh yes,' the Doctor agreed. 'Quite correct. Everything he said was true. As far as it goes.'

s...o...b..ld breathed deeply as he considered his words. 'I am not given to evicting guests,' he said. 'I do not intend to change that habit now, Doctor. But let me be clear, unless and until you can reasonably explain yourself or offer an adequate apology I cannot say you are welcome.'

As he listened to s...o...b..ld's words, the Doctor's face darkened and his features hardened. 'I have told you as best I can what is happening here. I have said time and again that there are forces that must be opposed if we are to survive the horrors that are almost upon us. I cannot be more specific, and for that for that alone I apologise.'

'I'm afraid that just isn't good enough,' s...o...b..ld said. He could feel his face colouring as he spoke, could feel the anger in him growing.

'Then perhaps Lord Urton is right,' the Doctor snapped back.

'Ah, so you admit ' s...o...b..ld began.

But the Doctor shouted him down. 'Perhaps it would be best if I gave up and left. Left you all to your fate.'

He did not wait for s...o...b..ld's reaction. Instead he turned on his heels and stamped out of the house.

s...o...b..ld watched the figure following in Urton's dark footsteps until he was out of sight.

'Was that the Doctor?' Dobbs's voice startled s...o...b..ld. The Professor was on the stairs behind him.

'Yes.'

'I thought I heard Lord Urton too.' Dobbs continued down the stairs and joined s...o...b..ld in the hall. He seemed oblivious to s...o...b..ld's anger. 'Yes,' Dobbs was nodding. He pointed out into the snow. 'You can see his tracks.'

s...o...b..ld had been about to ask Dobbs what if any involvement or knowledge he had of the Doctor's visit to the Grange. But there was something in Dobbs's tone that made him follow the old man's gaze out across the drive. He had not noticed before, in his anger, but now it seemed suddenly odd. Where the Doctor had walked, the snow was compacted, leaving indentations for footmarks.

But where Urton had trod both on his way to the Rectory and back down the drive again, the snow had melted away to leave a dark shoe*shaped hole down to the gravel beneath.

'Professor,' s...o...b..ld's voice was hoa.r.s.e and dry. 'Professor, would you please enlighten me as to what happened last night?'

Dobbs was aghast. 'The Doctor hasn't told you?'

s...o...b..ld shook his head. 'He was not in the mood for explanations.' A thought struck him and he looked away. 'I think he was asking me to believe in him, to take it on faith.'

But Dobbs missed this. 'You mentioned you have a collection of books on comparative religion,' he said. 'Myths and legends?'

'That is true. In the study.' s...o...b..ld found himself leading the way, smiling at Betty as she opened the drawing room door once more and watched them.

'I think,' Dobbs was saying. 'that we should do some research. Find out everything we can about fire demons.'

He was standing beside a gap in the hedge, looking through at the view of the moors beyond. The road was on a rise here, so it served as a vantage point. As Matthew s...o...b..ld approached, he could see the dark slash of the fissure cutting through the snow visible over the Doctor's shoulder.

The snow was falling again, quite heavily now, and Lord Urton's footprints were slowly filling up.

<script>