The Winter of Our Discontent, Part III.ii: My Kingdom for a Doctor (3/3)
Jack never had been one for sulking, but the Doctor could occasionally be perceptive. They'd barely been crashing around on the craft the alien claimed to be able to drive when he looked over at Jack and said, "You made the right choice."
"I only wish it felt that way."
"It will," the Doctor assured him. "Give it time."
"I guess that's something I have plenty of," Jack agreed with something he meant to be a laugh.
The Doctor studied him for a very long time. "Yes, that you do." But before he could say more, the TARDIS jerked violently, throwing Jack against the wall. The Doctor scrabbled frantically for the controls, muttering under his breath as the ship finally shuddered to a halt. "Well," he finally said, "that was strange."
"Not to mention painful," Jack muttered, rubbing his shoulder. "When are we, do you think?"
"I'm not sure..." The Doctor peered at the several screens, brow furrowing. "Something called the TARDIS, which narrows down the options a bit. Not just anything can do that. But which one was it? Well," he all but skipped to the door, "only one way to find out!"
Despite his misgivings, Jack followed him through the door into a massive, darkened room. Moonlight filtered in from windows set high in the walls, but Jack could barely make out anything. At the sudden noise from somewhere in the darkness, they both swung round, Jack once again regretting having left his gun in the TARDIS.
"So you did come, Doctor. I didn't think my mother's wits had wandered, but it was a bit difficult to believe."
Jack, startled by the familiar-sounding voice, was ashamed to admit that he jumped, his elbow colliding painfully with the TARDIS. "Ned?!"
"Captain, you cannot imagine how much I wish I were." With a humourless laugh, he stepped into the light, a man shorter than Ned with dark hair and dark circles beneath his eyes. "My brother died some three months ago, though it seems a lifetime."
"Richard of Gloucester," the Doctor's voice rang out loud and harsh, "or should I say Your Majesty?"
He flinched visibly. "I had no choice, Doctor. If you are as I remember, you will already know why."
"There's always a choice," Jack said without thinking.
"Is there?" Richard all but spat. "Vae tibi terra cuius rex est puer.8 They always say that--woe unto the land when the king is a child."
"I've always wondered why you did it," the Doctor said, his tone deceptively lazy. "Your record was impeccable. The loyal younger brother, always doing as he was told. Then, out of the blue, away with the nephews and now you're king."
"It was too dangerous. Another three, four years at the most, and the boy would have found a way to kill me," he protested, though he did not meet the Doctor's eyes. "What else would you have had me do, Doctor?"
Before the Doctor could answer, Jack butted in. "He was a kid. You're not telling me you couldn't have influenced him."
Richard laughed again, harshly. "Not Edward. They'd had him too long, his mother's family. Poisoned him against me. Ned should never have married that woman."9
Jack barely restrained himself from giving a violent snort. "That's right! Blame the woman."
"With all due respect, Captain, you haven't met her." Turning back to the Doctor, Richard took a deep breath. "Do you know why I asked you here, Doctor?"
"I think I have a hunch. You don't, incidentally.10 I should let Will know, although I can't promise that'll change anything." The Doctor stepped forward, hands in his pockets, and Jack realised he was grinning like a lunatic. "The princes."
"I'm not sure why that makes you so happy, but, yes," Richard said, looking decidedly cautious. "Ned told me what he'd asked you to do before Towton. I'm asking you to do the same for my nephews."
"You won't be able to tell anyone," the Doctor told him, solemn again. "You do know that. And you know what your enemies will say."
"What they say matters not. Nobody with any sense would believe them."
Jack stared at Ned's brother. It was unsettling to think of him as the rather sweet little boy who had thought the TARDIS was a dragon.
It had suddenly occurred to him that the nephews they were talking about must be the Princes in the Tower who had disappeared so mysteriously.
"I'm not a man of stone, Doctor. I have no desire for the boys to spend their lives being tossed from one conspiracy to another. My brother trusted you with our lives; I am trusting you with those of his sons."
"It didn't have to be this way," the Doctor said, still stony. "Of course, I'm going to say yes. You knew that before you summoned me."
"No, perhaps it didn't," Richard acknowledged, "but I can't change that now. It's gone too far already. Hastings--" he cut himself off, pain flashing across his face, "--Hastings made certain of that."
"Hastings?" Jack blurted out. "What did he do?"
"Betrayed me.11 They played on his loyalty to Ned--of that I have no doubt--but he knew better. And, before you ask," he added, looking directly at the Doctor, "I do not regret it. I regret the means, the circumstance, but not the act itself. To have done otherwise would have been too dangerous."
"Dangerous," the Doctor echoed. "Tell me, is it any less dangerous to be a usurping king?"
"Doctor, I was with Ned when he was banished from his own kingdom.12 I of all people know how dangerous it is to be a usurping king." His voice was implacable. "I did what had to be done."
"Let that be your epitaph, then," the Doctor told him, equally implacable.
Richard flinched, but held the Doctor's gaze. "I can take that risk. Now, come. I'll take you to the boys." He vanished into the darkness for a few moments before revealing a doorway to a torchlit corridor. "We haven't much time."
"You'd be surprised," Jack muttered as they followed him, earning a half-smile from the Doctor.
When they emerged into the night, Jack realised they were in the Tower of London. Richard walked briskly across the courtyard, torch in hand, and unlocked a small, thick door set in the wall of one of the many indistinguishable towers. Once inside, he handed the torch to Jack. "Can you make your way back alone?" At the Doctor's nod, he stepped aside. "I suggest you not mention me. I have given them no reason to trust me."
Jack, who was finding it less and less difficult to dislike the man Richard, said without bothering to lower his voice, "You can say that again."
Richard smiled unexpectedly--the expression so like Ned's that Jack's heart lurched--and placed something in the Doctor's hand before stepping out into the night. The Doctor looked down at what Jack realised was a mobile telephone, and slipped it into his pocket. "I gave my word to a lady," was all he vouchsafed in response to Jack's unasked question.
They made their way up the stairs, where a door stood unlocked. The Doctor knocked before pushing it open, and they found themselves facing a towheaded boy, ten or eleven at the oldest, who was settled on a window seat with a book. Wide-eyed, he took in the Doctor, before asking in a breathless whisper, "You're the Doctor, aren't you? Papa told me all about you. He said you had funny hair."
Sounding ever so slightly hurt, the Doctor said, "The word is great. Great hair."
"That was only ever Rose," Jack advised, trying to stifle his laughter without much success.
"And you're Captain Harkness!" The boy scrambled down from the window seat. "I've heard about you too. Papa said you were just like Sir Gawain. Are you here to rescue us? Ned will be happy to hear that, but only if you're going to make him King again."
Jack looked across at the Doctor in mild confusion, hissing, "Remind me, which one was Gawain?"
"The one who slept with any and every damsel he could find."
"He was one of the greatest of Arthur's knights," Ned's son protested, frowning at the Doctor. "You should know that. He told me you were Merlin in disguise."
The Doctor rolled his eyes at Jack but smiled at the boy. "You must be Richard. Named after your uncle?"
"Yes." He shuffled his feet. "Ned hates him. Mama does too. I didn't hate him when Papa was alive, but he was nicer then." His eyes, Jack noticed with a shiver, were the same clear blue as his father's. "Are you here to rescue us, Doctor?"
"We are," the Doctor replied. "You should wake your brother." Richard dashed off through a door on the far side of the room. Watching him, the Doctor murmured, "I'm not surprised you thought he was nicer then."
"He didn't exactly mellow with age, did he?" Jack murmured. The room wasn't exactly dungeon-like--actually, it was surprisingly nice--but, even so...He couldn't get it out of his head that it was a prison. For the guy's own nephews. Ned's sons.
Richard came back into the room, carrying a small bag, into which he thrust his book and a small stuffed animal Jack couldn't identify. Behind him, an older boy entered, peering at the Doctor and Jack through suspicious, slanted grey eyes--beautiful and cold came to Jack's mind at the same time. Despite his colouring, he didn't resemble his father at all, and Jack nearly whistled under his breath when it occurred to him what Ned's wife must look like.
"Do you come from my mother, sirs?" he asked, a slight tremble in his voice. Jack suddenly felt overwhelming pity for another child who had to grow up far too fast.
The Doctor looked at him, that horrible compassion in his eyes that Jack knew all too well. "We were friends of your father's, Edward. From a long time ago."
The boy smiled faintly. "Richard says you're the Doctor. I don't believe in fairy tales, sir. Please tell me--what do you want with us?"
"I'm here to take you both away from London. We--the Captain and I--have been charged with your safety. But we haven't very much time at all, so you'll need to hurry."
Edward was visibly struggling to keep his composure. "How do I know you don't come from my uncle to murder us?"
"You don't, Edward. You need to decide whether or not you trust us." Jack could have killed the Doctor for that, but instead continued to watch the boy who had so nearly become king.
Richard grabbed his brother's arm. "They want to take us outside, Ned. If they were going to kill us, they'd do it here. Like they did with Mad Harry the Sixth."
Edward considered this, and, very slowly, nodded. Richard bounded back to the other room, presumably to retrieve more of the boys' scant belongings--scant, as far as Jack could see, that is. Grinning widely, the Doctor led the way back down the stairs and across the courtyard to the massive room where they had left the TARDIS.
Quietly enough--he hoped--that the boys wouldn't hear, Jack asked, "Congratulations, Doctor. Now what?"
"Can't you let me enjoy the moment?" the Doctor hissed back, the mad grin still twinkling in the moonlight. "One of the greatest enigmas in English history, and the answer is me! It's absolutely brilliant!"
"Yeah, right," Jack agreed flatly, haunted by the memory of a face wreathed in exhaust fumes, "brilliant. You're the cleverest man in the world. Universe, even. Can we talk about what these boys' lives are going to be like now?"
"I thought Torchwood would know exactly what to do in a situation like this. I considered taking them to Burgundy, but there's that whole Perkin Warbeck mess and who wants to get mixed up in that?13 These boys need to go someplace where they can't be traced. Where better," he turned back to Jack, "than Cardiff? Nobody would think to look there. And you do owe their father."
Jack flinched, wondering as so often whether the Doctor intended to be cruel. He felt like any moment Ned might appear at his shoulder, golden and larger than life.
He didn't, of course, but Jack's stomach burned with longing. "You know I'll do it. But...I just want to be sure this is the right thing. Like you said, they're Ned's kids."
"They're far better off with you than they are here, that's for certain," the Doctor said briskly, as he unlocked the doors of the TARDIS. "I don't think he'd kill them. He cared too much for his brother, and, more importantly, he's got nothing to gain by it. But there are enough people with greater means and fewer scruples."
"Yeah," Jack sighed. "I thought it'd be like that. It's just...their whole world, Doctor, and it's ending. And--" He broke off, Ned's smile seeming etched on his retinas. "--there should be more that I can do."
The Doctor placed one hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "I think you'll find, Jack, that they're more resilient than you think. Especially the clever ones--they'll be so caught up in discovering a new world that they'll be able to live with the loss of the old."
Richard barrelled past them to run round the TARDIS in fascination. "But it's so much bigger on the inside. How did you do that?"
"Oh, it's a bit like magic, I suppose," the Doctor replied with a grin. "Come on, want to drive?"
Jack hesitated, and realised Ned's namesake had paused beside him. "We're not coming back, are we?" he asked, those rather unnerving eyes intent on Jack.
"No," Jack said, following the Doctor's lead in telling him the truth. "You and your brother are in danger, you know that. If you stay here, there'll be a reason for you to die. Sooner or later."
Edward nodded, his mouth a tight line. "I will come back, though. I can't let him win. It's not his throne, it's mine."
"That's not very likely," Jack felt bound to tell him. "Where we're going, you can't come back."
"But I heard you talk about Cardiff," Edward protested. "I've been there--I grew up in Ludlow, Captain."
"Jack, hurry up!" the Doctor's voice echoed from within. "Edward, are you coming?"
"Come on, Edward." It cost him some effort not to say Ned, oddly enough. For all the boy didn't look like his father, there was more than a little of the King in his manner.
"I..." At the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS' engines, Jack grabbed the prince's arm and dragged him through the door, slamming it shut behind them. "But Captain, you didn't answer--"
The world outside the door dissolved and Edward's eyes widened in horror. "What sorcery is this? What have you done?"
"Saved your life, Edward of York," the Doctor informed him sternly. "It may not be the life you imagined, but it's better than nothing."
"But I'm the king! Take me back, Doctor! I order you to take me back!"
"Too late for that. As far as they're concerned, you and your brother disappeared without a trace." The Doctor studied him with as much expression as a statue. "Everyone assumed your uncle was responsible. Would it make you happy, Edward, to know he died two years later?"
"I hope he burns in Hell!" Edward shouted, before clamping one hand over his mouth as if shocked at his own words. After a few seconds, he asked very slowly, "How did he die?"
"The Battle of Bosworth Field. He didn't have your father's luck." The TARDIS hummed and clanked, filling the silence as the Doctor set their course. "You'll have a whole new world to explore, both of you. How many people get that chance?"
Although Edward opened his mouth to reply, nothing emerged. Instead, he turned back to the window, staring into the darkness as the TARDIS spun onward through five hundred years and came to a halt.
Jack glanced over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at the Doctor. "You still owe me Chaucer, you know."
The Time Lord grinned. "Once I track him down. He still owes me for The Book of the Duchess."
The first thing Jack saw as they stepped into Roald Dahl Plass was a bright red car zipping past. Driven by a blowfish.
The two blond boys turned, their jaws hanging open. Jack sighed. "Welcome to Cardiff."
FINIS