Chapter 6 (Sydney Rook)
Sydney Rook was a thin, tall man with wispy white hair and very bushy sideburns. He wore a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, a black top hat and a dark blue velvet jacket.
Ever since he had been a boy he had been interested in all manner of things relating to time. He had taken a degree in physics at Cambridge, but nothing he had done there had ever helped him to examine the world of time. It was always going to be a theory to everyone else, but Rook believed it to be more than a theory. He believed it to be a possibility.
He had heard about an incident in 1867 where a scientist had created a time portal to another era. To another world. But anything to do with those particular experiments had been lost when the house - belonging to Theodore Maxtible - had been burnt down.
But still he strove on until one day he met with William Fieldgate.
William had helped him out. He had lost a lot of money and was forced into selling his house. William had offered to buy it from him and rent him out a few rooms to live and work in. It seemed like a decent enough deal for Rook. It was the only way he was going to be able to keep a roof over his head.
William had been living 30 miles away in Thornsby when he had decided to hand his orphanage over to a new owner and had decided to convert Happerby House into a new, more large orphanage, taking his old maid Hazel Pinter with him.
But Rook always suspected that there was something else that William was after. William had seemed much too interested in his time travel theories.
And then William had explained it all to him late one night over a brandy…
Rook walked through the front gates to the grounds of his old house, briefcase in his right hand. He stood before the house for a few moments, breathed in the clean, fresh air and closed his eyes. It was nice to be away from London and all the smog and pollution. This would always be his home, even if he did have to share it with a few dozen children.
“Evening, Mr Rook,” said Hunter who had been walking one of the dogs - Egor - along the inside of the outer wall.
“Hunter,” said Rook, his voice full of warmth, “it’s good to see you.”
“How was your trip?” asked Hunter as the two men began their walk down the main path.
“Oh, so, so,” said Rook. He lifted up and tapped the briefcase. “I got what I went for, at least.”
“Excellent news,” said Hunter.
“Is Fieldgate back?”
“Yes, came back late last night.” Hunter stopped Rook and touched his arm. “He’s not in the best of moods though.”
“Really?” said Rook, as they continued their walk. “That doesn’t sound like Fieldgate. He’s been so jovial just recently.”
“I think it was the trip back to Thornsby that took it out of him,” said Hunter, shaking his head sadly. “That and he’s missing the children.”
The children had been gone for a week now. William had paid for them all to spend a fortnight down in Brighton as a special treat. It was rare that the kids ever got the opportunity to go further than Happerby, but William had an ulterior motive for getting them out of the orphanage for two weeks anyway.
“Well, he’s going to miss them a whole lot more if his plan works,” said Rook. “I hope he’s prepared for that.” He turned to Hunter. “And I hope you’re prepared for the responsibility.”
Hunter nodded. “I’m sure between myself, Olive, Hazel and the Wragby’s we can keep this place going.”
“Good man,” said Rook.
“Oh, there was one other thing,” said Hunter, before he turned off to head back to his cottage.
“What’s that?”
“There were three intruders here last night.”
“I beg your pardon? Intruders?” Rook looked concerned and held his briefcase closer to him.
“Yes. A man and two, young women. Said they found their way accidentally through a hole in the fence.”
“A hole in the fence? Good God, man, how did that happen?”
“Well that’s just it,” continued Hunter. “Reg and I have checked the perimetre and there’s no sign of a hole in the fence. The walls and fences are nine foot high so there’s no getting over them, and the front gate was secure.”
Rook frowned.
“It looks like they just…appeared out of thin air.”
“I had a cat called Sydney,” said Holly as they made their way back down the road leading to Happerby Orphanage. “He was ginger with white socks.”
“Cats don’t wear socks,” said Lilly.
“White feet, Lils, white feet.” She looked across to the Doctor, who was walking at some speed with his hands in his pockets. “What’s his problem?”
“He’s just in a bad mood.”
“He’s been like it since we left Heliatos though,” said Holly. “I thought he would have cheered up by now.”
Lilly sighed and kept her voice down, just in case the Doctor could hear her. “I asked him back in the TARDIS. Apparently when Uncle Joe probed his mind he made him remember a place called Jacarthia. It turns out Jacarthia was a town…I don’t know where…that he tried to help, but it all went wrong. I couldn’t get much more out of him other than that.”
“He likes to keep his secrets locked up, doesn’t he?” said Holly.
“There’s more to him than I’ll ever know,” said Lilly. “Caleb told me that he left Gallifrey all that time ago because he was on the run from something.”
“From what? Something he’d done?” asked Holly, suddenly starting to feel a little afraid of the Doctor.
“I have no idea. Caleb never got a chance to tell me,” she said, sadly.
“Keep up, you two,” said the Doctor, turning back to them.
“Doctor,” said Lilly, jogging up to join him, “how exactly are we gonna get back onto the grounds?”
“We stand outside the gates and shout,” he said, crouching down to examine a daisy that was sticking up out of a crack in the road.
“But Mr Fieldgate told us not to return,” said Holly.
“Then we apologise,” said the Doctor, getting back up and continuing towards their destination. “I probably overreacted when I first met him.”
“You think?!” said Lilly.
“It touched a nerve.”
“But what do you think he’s up to?” asked Holly. “Do you think he’s trying to get back to Caroline?”
“I have no idea, but if Rook is conducting time experiments -”
“How do you even know that?” asked Lilly.
“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? And if he is then it’s a safe bet that William has him doing it for that very purpose. The get back to Caroline, I mean.”
“Then why not let him?” asked Lilly. “Let them be reunited.”
The Doctor stopped, turned to face the two girls and looked from one to the other. “Caroline moved on with her life. It took her a long time to get over it, but when I said goodbye to her she was in a happy, stable place with a child to look after. It was the first time in years that she felt comfortable. I can’t have William going in there and disrupting that.”
“How do you know that’s not what she wants?” said Holly. “If she loved him that much-”
“Because I already told her what happened to him. I read his history. He lived a full and happy life working with the children in an orphanage and died a good, old age. His history has been told. At no point in that history did it have him disappearing or marrying Caroline. Nowhere.”
“Time can be rewritten,” said Lilly.
The Doctor looked at her. There was darkness behind his eyes. “So what’s to stop me going back and saving Caleb from being murdered?”
Lilly was taken aback. She was that shocked that she almost staggered backwards. He had never used the M word before. It had always been ‘accident’ or ‘mistake’
“That’s uncalled for,” said Holly, noticing Lilly’s face turn pale.
“But tell me what’s to stop me doing it?” he asked. “What’s to stop me going back and fixing all my problems by changing time?”
“It’s just two people in love,” said Holly, putting her hand on Lilly’s shoulder to try and bring her back into focus.
“No,” said the Doctor, “it’s just a reckless man thinking he can play about with time however he likes.” He shook his head and then turned to walk away. “And it’s not going to happen.”
“I’m sorry he said that,” said Holly, looking down at Lilly. “That was uncalled for.”
“It’s true though,” said Lilly. “I murdered him.”
“It was an accident.”
“You don’t know the full story,” said Lilly.
“Then tell me.”
“I…can’t,” said Lilly. “Not yet.” She turned to go and then looked back at Holly. “I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of him,” she looked at the Doctor.
“He’s a good man, though, Lilly. Even if he does say the most stupidest things sometimes. Why would you be scared of him?”
“Because when he gets passionate about something,” said Lilly, looking at the Doctor disappearing over the rise, “then he gets unpredictable.”
“Hey, you have me,” said Holly, taking her hand. “Don’t be scared.”
Lilly gripped Holly’s hand tightly.
“We really need to go with him though,” said Holly. “We’re nearly there.”
“I know,” said Lilly, nodding. “Let’s go.”
Instead of heading towards the gate the Doctor guided Lilly and Holly around the outer wall. Once they were further away from the gate he took them through a dense copse of bushes where the Doctor threw over a small, rope ladder that hooked to the top of the wall.
“I thought we were going through the gate,” said Lilly.
“I am,” said the Doctor. “You two aren’t. I need you two to go and investigate that strange father and daughter couple - Eleanor and Reginald. But I need you to be quiet about it.”
“While you go through the front and talk to William?”
“Whilst I go through the front and talk to William,” confirmed the Doctor.
“Scaling walls,” said Lilly. “Fun!”
“Take care, you two. If you’re caught head straight for the gate and go back to the Inn. I’ll meet you there.”
“And if we don’t get caught?” said Holly.
“Then once you’ve done some digging head back to the Inn anyway.”
Lilly turned to climb up the ladder when the Doctor touched her arm. “I’m sorry,” he said gently.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Lilly, glumly.
“No, really I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” said Lilly. And then she smiled at him. “You can owe me back with a pint at the Gallows tonight.”
“A pint of water? You’re on,” smiled the Doctor.
They went their separate ways as Holly and Lilly struggled, in their dresses, up the rope ladder. They finally reached the top and managed to drop down the other side.
“I’m sure I was a cat in my previous life,” said Holly, brushing the mud off her dress. “Do we even know where this cottage is?”
“Somewhere in the grounds towards the east, I believe the Doctor said, but he has been known to get things wrong.”
They made their way through the trees, careful to make sure they stayed concealed behind any foliage they could.
On the other side of the wall the Doctor had returned to the large iron gate. It didn’t take him long to get Norman Hunter’s attention as he strolled on by with one of the dogs.
“What are you doing back here?” said Norman, looking at him with disappointment through the railings.
“I need to speak to Mr Fieldgate,” said the Doctor. He looked down at his feet. “I need to apologise.”
“Mr Fieldgate doesn’t need your apologies,” said Norman. “I suggest you leave.”
“Please, Norman - may I call you Norman?” the Doctor smiled.
Norman frowned back at him.
“I’m afraid I was a little hasty last time. But there are reasons for that.”
“I’m sorry, Dr. Galloway, but I can’t let you in.” He turned to go.
“Tell him that I’m the Doctor,” said the Doctor, desperately, his face pressed up to the railings.
Norman turned around. “He knows you’re a doctor.”
“Not a Doctor. Tell him I’m the Doctor.”
Norman frowned.
The Doctor looked away and sighed. “Tell him I’m the same Doctor that used to know Caroline Parker.”
The Doctor was only waiting five more minutes when Norman returned - minus the dog - unlocked the gate and guided the Doctor inside.
“How did he take the news?” said the Doctor, as he followed the grounds man up the long front path towards the house.
“He just told me to let you in. Looked a little confused to be honest - like someone had just stepped over his grave.”
“Thank you, Norman.”
“You better be able to explain yourself to him though. Mr Fieldgate is forgiving, but he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and anybody who gets between him and Miss Parker…well, they don’t get in his way again.”
The Doctor glanced towards the east side of the grounds, hoping that he didn’t spot Caroline and Lilly anywhere. He needed to find out more about the Wragby’s, and what he didn’t need is William’s trust in him to be shattered by the discovery of the two girls.
“You alright, old boy?” said Norman.
“Yes,” said the Doctor. “Tell me,” he said, trying to keep Norman focused, “what do you know of Mr Fieldgate and Professor Rook’s plans?”
“Not much really,” said Norman, as they climbed the terrace. “I don’t claim to understand what he’s doing, but I understand why he’s doing it. I lost my wife three years ago.”
“I’m sorry,” said Norman.
Norman nodded as they reached the front door. “If I could get back to her - change what happened - I would do.” He let the Doctor inside. “We never got a chance to do everything that we wanted to do together. I miss her.”
The Doctor placed his hand on Norman’s shoulder and nodded. “But you have to cherish those moments that you did have with her.”
Norman nodded sadly.
“Thank you for this.”
“You may not thank me when you speak to Mr Fieldgate.” Norman shut the door behind them. “He’s in the drawing room.”
“I’ll make sure I’m careful,” said the Doctor.
“Good luck,” said Norman.
The Doctor walked across the large entrance hallway and glanced up at the portrait of Caroline. Her eyes seem to stare down at him with curiosity.
“Oh, Miss Parker, what’s your old man been up to now?” he said to it.
He made his way into a wood-panelled room. On one side of the room was a large, bay window which overlooked the front of the grounds. The far wall was dominated by hundreds and hundreds of books and near to the bay window was a desk. Placed in front of the bookcase were two, large, leather armchairs. In front of them was a small, two foot high coffee table and a wooden, dining chair set in front of that, facing the two armchairs.
Sat in the chairs was William - a brandy in his hand and looking rather pensive - and Sydney Rook, looking more relaxed, with his hands clasped together in front of him.
“William,” said the Doctor.
“Please, sit down,” said William, indicating for him to sit on the wooden chair.
The Doctor obliged and sat down. There was silence for a good thirty seconds, and then Rook spoke. “So, you claim to be the man from another time.”
“Yes. Well, sort of,” said the Doctor. His eyes flicked to William who betrayed no emotion.
“Well, my name is Sydney Rook, and I could do with your help.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I could do with your help in perfecting my own time machine.”
To be continued...
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