The Doctor and I are sat at the Torchwood house Dining Room with Queen Victoria, Father Angelo and Captain Reynolds. "Your companion begs an apology, Doctor. Her clothing has somewhat delayed her," Father Angelo tells the Doctor.
"Oh, that's all right. Save her a wee bit of ham," the Doctor says.
"The feral child could probably eat it raw," the Queen says.
"Very wise, Ma'am! Very witty!" Captain Reynolds laughs.
"Slightly witty, perhaps. I know you rarely get the chance to dine with me, Captain, but don't get too excited... I shall contain my wit in case I do you further injury," the Queen says, staring at him.
"Yes, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am," Captain Reynolds apologises.
"Besides, we're all waiting on Sir Rober! Come, Sir! You promised us a tale of nightmares," the Doctor says.
"Indeed. Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction," the Queen smiles.
"You must miss him," I tell Victoria, smiling a little but not a lot.
"Very much," the Queen says, looking at me and she seems to be lost in her thoughts, very sad. "Oh, completely. And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, hat's just for children, bu the... hope of some contact with the great beyond."
The Doctor and I look at her intensely. "We all want some message from that place... it's the Creator's greatest mystery that we are allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent. And we must wait," she continues. She shrugs herself out of this line of thought, but the Doctor looks down as he is probably remembering his people. "Come! Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters!"
"The story goes back three hundred years. Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. The next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and... devoured," Sir Robert begins.
"Tales like this just disguise the work of thieves. Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that," Reynolds says comfortably whilst the Queen looks mildly irritated at this.
"But sometimes a child goes missing. Once in a generation. A boy will vanish from his homestead," Sir Robert continues his story.
"Are there descriptions of the creature?" the Doctor asks.
"Oh yes, Doctor. Drawings and woodcarvings. And it's not merely a wolf. It's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal."
"A werewolf?" I ask, leaning forwards, intrigued.
**********
"My father didn't treat it as a story. He said it was a fact. He even claimed to have communed with the beast, to have learned its purpose," Sir Robert tells us. Father Angelo's attention is caught by something outside the window and I turn my head to look at it. "I should've listened," he continues. "His work was hindered... he made enemies. There's a Monastery in the Glen of Saint Catherine. The Brethren opposed my father's investigations."
"Perhaps they thought his work ungodly," Victoria says.
"That's what I thought. But now I wonder... what if they had a different reason for wanting the story kept quiet?" he asks. "What if they turned from God and worshipped the wolf?"
"And what if they were with us right now?" the Doctor asks, watching Father Angelo with me.
**********
Father Angelo is still stood by the window, chanting. The room is chaos. "What is the meaning of this?" the Queen asks.
"Explain yourself, Sir Robert!" Reynolds yells, pointing a gun at Sir Robert.
"What's happening..." the Queen trails off.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, they've got my wife," Sir Robert wails.
"Rose! Where's Rose? Where is she?!" I ask, yelling at the top of my lungs.
"Sir Robert, come one!" the Doctor says and the three of us run from the room and Captain Reynolds points his gun at Father Angelo.
The three of us run down a corridor and come to a stop when we reach a door. I kick down the door to the cellar. "Where the hell have you been?" Rose asks. I run over to Rose whilst the Doctor turns and stares at the werewolf with wide-eyes as it grabs hold of the bars of the cage. "Oh, that's beautiful!" he smiles.
"Get out!" Sir Robert yells, at his wife I think. The wolf begins to bend and break the bars, throwing the cage off. The household staff are all clamouring to get out of the room. The Doctor remembers the urgency of the situation and turns back to us. "Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" he yells, ushering everyone out.
"Come on..." Rose says, pulling me out of the room.
**********
The Steward hands guns to all the men which I find ridiculous. How's a gun going to help this situation? Unless they've got silver bullets in them but they wouldn't. Along with this, guns are a fools choice in a weapon. No one should carry guns. "Arms... and your strife... right everyone?" the Steward asks before turning to Lady Isobel. "Take the girls. Get them out through the kitchen."
"I can't leave you. What will you do?" Lady Isobel says approaching her husband.
"I must defend her Majesty. Now, don't think of me, just go," Sir Robert says. Lady Isobel kisses him then gathers her maids. "All of you at my side, come on!"
She pulls them through to the kitchen. The Doctor is using the sonic screwdriver to relieve Rose of the handcuffs. "It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths. Did it say what it wanted?" the Doctor asks talking very quickly.
"The Queen, the Crown, the throne... you name it," Rose tells us.
There is a thumping sound from the direction of the cellar and the three of us look around. The Doctor ventures out into the corridor to investigate before running back into the room, grabbing both Rose's and my hand and pulling us behind the line of men with guns poised and ready. "Fire!" the Steward yells and they shoot at the wolf, who stumbles back a few steps. "Fire!" he yells again and I flinch along with Rose as they fire. The room with the firing squad is full of smoke and there is no sign of the wolf. "All right, you men, we should retreat upstairs, come with me," the Doctor says, pointing to the men.
"I'll not retreat. The battle's done. No creature on God's Earth could survive such an assault," the Steward rejects the Doctor demand.
"I'm telling you, come upstairs!" the Doctor growls at them angrily.
"And I'm telling you, sir, that I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall," the Steward says, striding across the room to look down the corridor, checking of the wold. We watch him, the Doctor looking extremely angry and concerned. Seeing nothing, he strides back looking mildly triumphant. "Must've crawled away to die..." he says before he is lifted clean through the ceiling by the wolf and we hear him being devoured. "There's nothing we can do!" the Doctor says, grabbing Rose and my hand again and pushing us from the room with him. Some of the firing squad stand frozen, and through the wolf's eyes, we see them being attacked.
The Doctor, Rose, Sir Robert and I hurry into a room. The Doctor slams the door behind us and locks it with his sonic "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Sir Robert yells.
"Sir Robert! What's happening?" the Queen asks, coming down the stairs. The Doctor dashes somewhere. "I heard such terrible noises."
"Your Majesty, we've got to get out. But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?" Sir Robert asks.
"Captain Reynolds disposed of him," the Queen says.
"The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut. Pardon me, Your Majesty, you'll have to leg it out of a window," the Doctor apologises, coming back into the room. He gestures through a door and Queen Victoria obliges with her head held high. Sir Robert follows and we find ourselves in another upstairs room. "Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first, the better to assist her Majesty's egress," Sir Robert says.
"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Rleigh," the Queen says.
"Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" the Doctor asks impatiently.
Sir Robert climbs onto the window sill and had to immediately dodge out of the way as he is shot at by the Monks standing outside. The Doctor stares out of the window, eyes wide. "I reckon the monkey boys want us to stay inside."
"Do they know who I am?" Victoria asks.
"Yeah, that's why they want ya. The wolf's lined you up for a... a biting," Rose shudders.
"Now, stop this talk. There can't be an actual wolf," the Queen dismissed. The words are no sooner out of her mouth than howling rings through the house. We all run into a hallway and the wold is battering on the door. "What do we do?" I ask the Doctor.
"We... run!" he hesitates before finishing the sentence.
"Is that it?" Rose asks.
"You got any silver bullets?" the Doctor asks Rose and me.
"Not on me, no!" Rose and I both deny.
"There we are then, we run. Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigorous jog," the Doctor says, jogging on the spot to demonstrate. "Good for the health. Come on!"
He grabs the Queen's hand and leads her from the room. We run as fast as we could up the staircase. It begins chasing after us, up the stairs. "Come on! Come on!"
Having reached the top of the stairs, we run through the corridors, the wold close on our tails. It's nearly upon us, ready to pounce when Captain Reynolds appears holding a gun. He shoots and the wolf reels backwards down the corridor. The Captain ducks behind the corridor where we are standing, out of breath. "I'll take this position and hold it. You keep moving, for God's sake! Your Majesty, I went to look for the property, it was taken. The chest was empty," Reynolds informs the Queen.
"I have it. It's safe," she tells him.
"Then remove yourself, Ma'am. Doctor, you stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert, you're a traitor to the crown," Reynolds says, cocking his gun.
"Bullets can't stop it!" the Doctor warns him.
"They'll buy you time. Now, run!" Reynolds orders up before he positions himself at the end of the corridor, gun held ready. Queen Vicotria and Sir Robert have already started running in the opposite direction, followed by the Doctor, Rose and finally by me as I stare at Captain Reynolds in dismay for a few seconds. The Doctor, Queen Victoria, Sir Robert and Rose run into the library but I stop outside the and watch Captain Reynold shoot at the werewolf as it bounds down the corridor towards him, pounces upon him and then rips him apart. I stand there frozen in horror. "Lexy!" the yells at me. He rushes out into the corridor, grabs me around the waist and pulls me back into the room just in time to slam the door shut.
**********
Sir Robert, Rose and I help the Doctor barricade the doors with chairs and bits of wood. "Wait a minute, shh, shh, wait a minute..." the Doctor trails off. The wolf howls into the silence. "It's stopped."
He stands on a chair and presses his ear against the door. "It's gone," the Doctor says. Footsteps can be heard padding around the outside of the room. "Listen..." I trail off. The Doctor climbs quietly down from the chair and there is dead silence in the library as they follow the wolf's progress around the room, absolutely terrified. The Queen is shaking violently. "Is this the only door?" the Doctor asks whispering.
"Yes. No!" Sir Robert says. He dashes to the other door with the Doctor and they barricade it shut. "Shh!" Rose silences us. We look around uneasily as we hear the sound the werewolf is making, and then it stops. Footsteps pad away into the distance. "I don't understand. What's stopping it?" Rose asks.
"Something inside this room," the Doctor says. Sir Robert sits on one of the chairs barricading his door and puts his head in his hands. "What is it? Why can't it get in?" I ask.
"I'll tell you what, though..." Rose trails off.
"What?" the Doctor asks.
"Werewolf...!" she cheers, whispering.
"I know!" the Doctor grins with glee. Rose half laughs and both of them throw their arms around each other. "You all right?" the Doctor asks me, hugging me and I nod my head. "I'm okay, yeah!" I nod my head. Queen Victoria stares at us, eyes wide.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. It's all my fault. I should've sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong, I... thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?" Sir Robert asks.
"Well, they were bald, athletic... your wife's away, I just thought you were happy," the Doctor says.
"I'll tell you what though, Ma'am, I bet you're not amused now," Rose says to the Queen.
"Do you think this is funny?" the Queen glares at Rose angrily
"No, Ma'am, I'm sorry," she apologises meekly.
"What, exactly, I pray for someone please, what exactly is that creature?" the Queen asks.
"You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform," I tell her.
"And should I trust you, Ma'am?" the Queen asks me, snappily. "I'll not have it. No, sir, not you... not that thing... none of it. This is not my world."
**********
The Doctor touches the woodwork. There is a carving of mistletoe on the door. "Mistletoe... Sir Robert, did your father put that there?" the Doctor asks Sir Robert.
"I don't know, I suppose..." he trails off confused.
"On the other door, too... a carving wouldn't be enough... I wonder..." he says before licking the woodwork. "Viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe, it's been worked into the wood like a varnish! How clever was your dad? I love him!" he tells them before turning to me and Rose. "Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."
"And the wolf's allergic to it?" Rose asks.
"Well, it thinks it is. The monkey monk monks need a way of controlling the wolf, maybe they trained it to react against certain things," the Doctor says.
"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, Doctor, and we still don't possess an actual weapon," Sir Robert says.
"Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?" the Doctor asks.
"Being rude again," Rose informs the Doctor.
"Good. I meant that one," the Doctor informs Rose before he strides towards the bookshelves. "You want weapons? We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world."
He puts his glasses on. "This room's the greatest arsenal we could have," he says, pulling some books off the shelf and chucks some to both Rose and me. "Arm yourself."
**********
Rose, the Doctor, Sir Robert and I are frantically flicking through the books, talking over one another. "Biology, zoology... there might be something on wolves in here..." she mutters to herself "Hold on, what' about this?" he asks, chucking a book to me.
"... some form of explosive..."
"Hmm, that's the sort of thing. Ooh..." he says, jumping down from the ladder, holding a book which he puts down on the table. On the open page, there is an illustration of a rock falling to Earth from the sky. Rose, Sir Robert and I gather around. "A spaceship?" Rose asks.
"A shooting star," he corrects. "In the year of our Lord, 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit. That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the Monastery."
"But that's over three hundred years ago. What's it been waiting for?" Rose asks.
"Maybe just a single cell survived. Adapting slowly down the generations. It survived through the humans. Host after host after host," the Doctor suggests.
"But why does it want the throne?" Sir Robert asks.
"That's what it wants. It said so, the... the Empire of the Wolf," Rose tells us.
"Imagine it... the Victorian Age accelerated... starships and missiles fueled by coal and driven by steam... leaving history devastated in its wake..." he says.
"Sir Robert!" the Queen exclaims, standing back up and Sir Robert goes to her. "If I am to die here..." she begins.
"Don't say that, Your Majesty," Sir Robert interrupts.
"I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me. But that's no matter. I ask that you find someplace of safekeeping for something far older and more precious," she says, opening her bag.
"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables," the Doctor says from the table.
"Thank you for your opinion. But there is nothing more valuable than this," the Queen nods towards him. She takes the Koh-I-Noor from her bag and holds it in the palm of her hand.
"Is that the Koh-I-Noor?" I ask, amazed.
"Oh, yes... the greatest diamond in the world," the Doctor says and we shuffle forwards for a closer look. "Given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die," Queen Victoria tells us.
"Well, that's true of anything if you won it long enough. Can I...?" he asks, holding out his hand for the diamond. Queen Victoria hands it to him. He pushes his glasses down his nose and looks at it closely. I prod it, eyes wide. "This is so beautiful."
"How much is it worth?" Rose asks.
"They say... the wages of the entire planet for a whole week," I tell her.
"Good job my mum's not here. She'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that things," Rose snickers.
"And she'd win," the Doctor agrees. I shake my head, sitting down on a chair, pulling my handbag over my front and pulling my notebook out, beginning to look over the last thing I wrote in the book. The next thing I know is that I'm being pulled out of the room by the Doctor. "Your Majesty!" Sir Robert yells. The Doctor slams the doors shut once he takes a last look at the roaring wolf that has now appeared in the room.
We run down the corridor, getting away from the library. "Gotta get to the observatory!" the Doctor yells as we run around a corner, the werewolf close behind. I turn around and I'm transfixed by the wolf. Just as the wolf is on me, I scream and Lady Isobel throws the pan of mistletoe water onto the wolf. I scream again but the werewolf bounds back down the corridor away from them. "Good shot!" the Doctor cheers.
"It was mistletoe!" she exclaims. The Doctor follows the wolf away down the corridor. "Isobel!" Sir Robert exclaims, kissing Lady Isobel as the Doctor makes sure the wolf has gone. "Get back downstairs."
"Keep yourself safe," Lady Isobel says, kissing him again.
"You go."
Lady Isobel and the maids go past Sir Robert and make their way back to the kitchen. "Girls, come with me. Down the Back stairs, back to the kitchen. Quickly!" Lady Isobel urges the maids. "Come on!" the Doctor exclaims and we set off back running down the corridor.
"The observatory's this way!" Sir Robert tells as we reach the central staircase and hurry up it as fast as we can. We finally arrive at the observatory, the Doctor in the lead. "No mistletoe on these doors, your father wanted the wolf to get inside! Get inside. I just need time! Is there any way of barricading this?" the Doctor asks.
"Just do your work and I'll defend it," Sir Robert tells the Doctor.
"If we could bind them shut with a rope or something!" the Doctor suggests, seeming to ignore Sir Robert.
"I said I'd find you time sir," Sir Robert tells the Doctor again. Rose, the Queen and I all stare at him. "Now get inside."
The Doctor stares at him for a second. "Goodman," he says. Sir Robert close the door and I roll my eyes before standing next to Rose. "Your Majesty, the diamond."
"For what purpose?" the Queen asks.
"The purpose it was designed for," the Doctor says. The Queen hands over the diamond from her bag and the Doctor runs over to the mechanism for the telescope. "Rose!" the Doctor yells over to Rose and she runs over the Doctor. "Lift it! Come on!"
"Doctor? What should I do?" I ask the Doctor, yelling over to him.
"Stay there and look after Queen Victoria," he yells back at me and I roll my eyes.
"Yes. Because that's the thing I can do best. I could help, you know." I think to myself but as soon as I think that, my head begins to hurt so I grab onto my head and lean forwards. "Ow," I mutter to myself.
Open me. Open me.
"Are you alright?" the Queen asks me and I shake my head.
"Not at all, Your Majesty. My head's hurting badly but I'll get over it soon. I always do," I tell her, standing up straight and massaging my temples. "Are you sure, Mrs McCrimmon?" she asks and I nod my head.
"I'm quite sure, Your Majesty," I tell her and she nods her head.
**********
The Doctor and Rose struggle to turn a wheel whilst screaming can be heard from outside of the observatory. The Queen holds up her crucifix whilst the werewolf batters at the door. The gears continue to grind whilst the Queen murmurs a prayer under her breath and I stare at the door. "You said this thing doesn't work!" Rose yells towards the Doctor.
"It doesn't work as a telescope because that's not what it is! It's a light chamber! It magnifies the light rays like a weapon. We've just got to power it up!" he tells her.
"But there's no electricity!" Rose fires back. The Doctor grunts and turns to the light chamber. "Moonlight! But it needs moonlight! It's made of moonlight!"
"You're seventy per cent water but you can still drown. Come on!" the Doctor says. The light chamber starts to align with the moon. "Come on!"
At last, it is properly aligned. Rose and the Doctor step away from the gears as the moonlight bounces off the prisms. The werewolf finally makes it into the room and the Queen and I stand there, staring at it. The werewolf advances on the Queen before it's lifted into the air and hangs there, caught in the wash of moonlight. The werewolf retakes human form. With a final howl from the wolf form, the creature vanishes and the light shut off. I just stand there, my mind going crazy so that I can't process anything. "Your Majesty? Did it bite you?" the Doctor asks, snapping me out of my train of thought.
"No, it's... it's a cut," the Queen denies.
"If that thing bit you..." the Doctor begins.
"It was a splinter of wood when I the door came apart," the Queen cuts the Doctor off.
"Let me see," the Doctor presses on but the Queen pulls her hand away sharply.
"It is nothing."
The Doctor just stares at her, not believing her. "Anyway, you should be more concerned about your wife. Her head's hurting."
"Galaxy?" the Doctor asks me and I just shake my head.
"I'm fine, Doctor," I tell him, shaking my head.
"Are you sure?" he asks me.
"I'm fine!" I snap at him before walking out of the observatory.
**********
The Doctor, Rose and I step forward and kneel before Queen Victoria. Everyone present including Lady Isobel and the maids. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub the: Sir Doctor of the TARDIS," she says, tapping him on each shoulder with a sword. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub the: Dame Rose of the Powell Estate," she says, tapping Rose on each shoulder with the sword.
"By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub the: Dame Galaxy of the Powell Estate," she finishes, tapping me on each of my shoulders with the sword. "You many stand."
The three of us stand and I nod my head at the Queen. "Many thank, Ma'am," the Doctor says.
"Thanks! They're never going to believe this back home," Rose grins and I shale my head.
"Your Majesty, you said last night about receiving a message from the great beyond; I think your diamond cut that diamond to save your life. He's protecting you even now Ma'am, even from beyond the grave," the Doctor tells her.
"Indeed. Then you may think on this, also: that I am not amused," the Queen tells them and I frown whilst the Doctor groans whilst Rose looks jubilant. "Yes!" she exclaims.
"Not remotely amused," the Queen says. Rose makes an effort to wipe the smirk off her face. "And henceforth... I banish the two of you," she says looking at the Doctor and Rose.
"I'm sorry...?" the Doctor asks confused.
"I rewarded you, Sir Doctor. And now you are exiled from this empire, never to return. I don't know what you are, the two of you, or where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars, and magic, and think it fun. But your wold is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death and I will not allow it! You will leave this shores and you will reflect, I hope, on how you managed to stray so far from all that is good. And how much longer you will survive this terrible life," the Queen tells them angrily before stepping away. "Now. Leave my world. And never return."
**********
The three of us, Rose, the Doctor and I, have hitched a lift on the back of a farmer's cart when it suddenly comes to a halt. "Woah!" the Farmer exclaims. We jump off the back of the farmer's cart back in the highlands near the TARDIS. "Cheers, Dougal!" the Doctor thanks the farmer and we walk away as the farmer drives off. "You know, the funny thing is, Queen Victoria did suffer a mutation of the blood! It's historical record haemophiliac. It used to e called the Royal Disease! But it's always been a mystery because she didn't inherit ut. Her mum didn't have it, dad didn't have it, it came from nowhere!"
"What, are you're saying that's a wolf bite?" Rose asks.
"Well, maybe Haemophilia is just a Victorian euphemism," the Doctor shrugs.
"For werewolf?" Rose asks.
"Could be!" the Doctor exclaims.
"Queen Victoria's a werewolf?" Rose asks.
"Could be! And, her children had the Royan Disease. Maybe she gave them a quick nip," the Doctor tells us.
"So, the Royal Family are werewolves?" Rose asks in disbelief.
"Well... maybe not yet. I mean, a single wolf cell could take... hundred years to mature... might be ready by... oooh... early 21st century...?" the Doctor says as a question.
"Nah! That's just ridiculous! Mind you... Princess Anne...!" Rose denies.
"I'll say no more," the Doctor says.
"And if you think about it... they're very private. They plan everything. They, they could schedule themselves around the moon, we'd never know!" Rose exclaims as we reach the TARDIS and the Doctor opens the door before we enter the console room. "They like hunting! They love blood sports!" Rose laughs with the Doctor but I don't because I don't find it funny. The TARDIS starts to dematerialize but I can still hear them. "Oh, my God! They're werewolves!" Rose howls with laughter along with the Doctor. They cackle over the sound of the TARDIS engines until it had completely vanished. I shake my head at this before walking out of the console room and head to my room to get some sleep.