Bernice found them in the morning, Ace breathing slow and steady as her body healed itself, the Doctor asleep next to her, their hands gripping tightly above the covers.
When Ace woke up, the burning was gone, inside and out.
The Doctor was sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing a strange little pair of spectacles and reading a small book. There was a bit of red ribbon hanging down from it. When he saw that she was awake, he carefully marked his place with the ribbon and closed the book. 'How do you feel?'
'Sane,' she said.
'Right then, we'll be off.' He slipped the book into his pocket.
'Doctor, I '
He raised a hand, sharply, between them. 'Sometime today this whole building will be ablaze and they'll be shooting women at random in the streets.'
Ace was struggling out of bed. 'We have to '
'Ace,' said the Doctor agitatedly, 'there's no time. Benny's already aboard the TARDIS, let's go.'
'Doctor, I '
'No, no, don't '
'But you '
'Just '
They stopped, stared at one another for a long moment.
'I want you to have this,' said the Doctor.
He handed her the book.
197.
'This is your 500 Year Diary,' said Ace.
'I'll be starting a new one,' he said.
They embraced, awkwardly. Ace closed her eyes, trying to imprint the memory of him into her brain, so she would never forget the fabric of his jacket, the soft, alien smell of his hair.
'Go and keep going,' she whispered. 'Don't stop for anything.'
Slowly, very slowly, he let go of her. Slowly, very slowly, he turned away and went into his TARDIS.
A moment later, Benny came running out, clutching a denim bag. 'You're staying! You're crazy! You haven't even got a toothbrush!'
Ace tucked the Doctor's diary into her jacket. 'I managed Ancient Egypt, I'll manage Paris. When I was a kid I always wanted to be in Paris in the 1880s.'
She grinned. 'Wicked frocks!'
'You haven't had a fight? He hasn't done something or something?'
'No.' Ace laughed. 'Nothing like that.'
'You can't stay,' said Benny. 'You can't stay here. You'll be killed.'
'I can't leave and let all these people be shot.'
'But you can't change history.'
'I don't want to change it, I just want to be part of it.'
'But the Commune's about to collapse. What's the point?'
'Benny,' said Ace, 'what's the point of any of it? Anybody we save just gets to die later on. The whole universe eventually dies.'
She saw Benny not quite recoil, but she was taken aback. Not the same little girl, she was thinking, seeing Doctor stuff in Ace's eyes. 'I can't stop the Versaillais, but I can ease the suffering and save a few lives. I've already made plans with the Women's Battalion.'
'Why stay and be a soldier?' said Benny softly.
'No, no. I'm not a part of anyone's machine.' She folded her arms, suddenly awkward. 'The Doctor told me a story once, about this general trying to teach the King's courtesans to be soldiers '
'Sun Tzu?'
'Oh, you've heard that one. Well, I kind of see why he told me it now. I'm not taking anybody's orders any more. I want to fight for something I I believe in. That's what these people are doing.' believe in. That's what these people are doing.'
'They'll do crazy things,' said Benny. 'They're already setting the city on fire.
You'll be killed.'
'I'll be alright. Hey, I survived Heaven and Olleril and Belial and Peladon and Antykhon, right? I even survived Perivale.'
Suddenly they were both laughing, laughing like sisters. 'Some things,' said Benny, pushing the bag into Ace's arms. 'Just some clothes and things, Ace.'
'It's Dorothy, actually.' Ace put the bag down on the bed. 'Thanks anyway.'
198.
'My God! I can't believe you're going!'
'Hey,' said Ace. 'I got used to being on my own when I was in Egypt. Besides, it's not just the Commune. The rifts can't be repaired. Somebody's got to stay and keep an eye on them.'
'How are you going to do that?'
Ace grinned hugely. 'The basement's full of time machines.'
Benny grinned back, despite the lump in her throat. 'Look after yourself. I'll try to look after him. He needs someone to look after him.'
'Does he?' said Ace. She shook her head. 'Don't let him stuff you around.'
'Don't get into too many liaisons dangereuses liaisons dangereuses, okay?'
They clasped hands. 'Watch your butt, Summerfield. It's a tough universe.'
'With you loose in it,' said Benny, 'it had better be.'
The Doctor stood in the brilliant light of the Console Room. His face was shadowed. 'I knew she was going to leave.'
Benny sniffled. 'The sorceror's apprentice. Someone's got to keep an eye on those rifts. Someone who's been out into the universe. Earth needs its champion.'
'No,' he said. 'I knew she ended up here, all along. I traced her family tree long before we went to Whitby.'
'Remind me,' said Benny tiredly, putting an arm around his shoulders, 'never to try and throw you a surprise party.'
'Will she be alright?'
'I've never seen her look so alright.'
He shrugged his injured shoulder, wincing. 'I suppose the wound will heal quickly.'
'I suppose it will.'
199.
Chapter 18.
The New Adventures
I hate quotations.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson, May 1849) Place: Paris Date: 5 October 1815 Ace's age: Twenty-eight Baron Vivant Dominique Denon was sixty-eight years old. At the moment, he was feeling every minute of those sixty-eight years. He was writing his resignation as Directeur-General des Musees Imperiaux Directeur-General des Musees Imperiaux.
They'd managed to keep the British out of the Louvre for months. He'd written letters of protest and personally confronted the soldiers who turned up on the museum's steps. Finally Wellington had sent a Lieutenant-Colonel around to order Denon to surrender the art treasures he'd watched over for so long.
Well, ha! He'd given that Anglais Anglais a piece of his mind. He had twenty-five guards, and instructions to defend the museum to the last, and that had been exactly what he'd meant to do. a piece of his mind. He had twenty-five guards, and instructions to defend the museum to the last, and that had been exactly what he'd meant to do.
Even now, he felt he should have done something more to save the collection. It broke his heart to imagine it scattered over Europe or carted back to England for the glory of the Empire. He'd faced worse dangers than stony-faced Grenadiers, bayonets fixed or not. He'd prevented Napoleon himself from burning Louvre paintings. He'd survived the Reign of Terror and the invasion of Egypt. Why, he and Mlle Summerfield had put paid to rougher ruffians than cocky British soldiers.
He smiled at the old memory. Whatever had become of that woman? Something extraordinaire extraordinaire, no doubt, something magique magique. He hoped she was still having wild adventures somewhere. While he had nothing left to do but to grow old gracefully.
There was a knock at his door. ' Oui? Oui? ' '
' Il y a une jeune fille qui est venue vous voir, Il y a une jeune fille qui est venue vous voir, ' said his housekeeper, with just a hint of amusement in her voice. ' ' said his housekeeper, with just a hint of amusement in her voice. ' Une Anglaise, je crois. Une Anglaise, je crois. ' '
201.
'Please,' said Denon, pushing his half-finished letter away. 'Show her in.'
He didn't know the woman no, she looked familiar, but he could not place her. Nor was he feeling particularly well-disposed to the English. 'What do you want, Mademoiselle?'
'Well,' she said, in London-flavoured French, 'I just thought I'd let you know that Bernice is alright.'
It took him a moment to work out what she was talking about. 'Mlle Summerfield?'
'Yeah. She told me about having to leave you without saying goodbye properly.'
' Extraordinaire, Extraordinaire, ' said Denon. 'Please, sit down. How do you know her?' ' said Denon. 'Please, sit down. How do you know her?'
'That's complicated. I know she couldn't tell you very much about where she came from, who she was. But I do know that without your help, she would have died or have been trapped, with no way of returning to her friends.'
Denon merely inclined his head. 'I cannot help but think I have seen you somewhere before.'
'Wellington took a painting of me from the Louvre. It will end up on the wall of Windsor Castle.'
Denon's mouth opened slightly. ' Jeune fille avec fleur? Jeune fille avec fleur? ' he said. 'But that was painted last century!' ' he said. 'But that was painted last century!'
She smiled, put a finger to her lips. 'I wanted you to know that, even if your collection has been broken up and scattered, the works themselves will survive. That particular painting will still be in Windsor in a century and a halfs time.'
' Extraordinaire, Extraordinaire, ' muttered Denon again. He shook his head. 'It is as though you and Mlle Summerfield can see into the future.' ' muttered Denon again. He shook his head. 'It is as though you and Mlle Summerfield can see into the future.'
'And the past,' smiled his visitor. 'I predict you're going to open a famous studio, M Denon, and that people will flock to see your collection of antiquities and art objects.'
'But those are my very thoughts, my very intentions. When I was seventeen, a Gypsy woman told me I would go to court, that I would be beloved of women, that a beautiful star would shine upon me. Perhaps she also could see the future; two of those predictions have certainly come true. But now my precious Louvre is being sliced up by the British, and I have failed to stop them.'
'You won't be forgotten,' said the woman. 'Remember that.'
Denon sighed deeply. 'In the end,' he said, 'that is all any of us can hope for.'
202.
Place: Glebe, Sydney Date: 14 July 1993 Ace's age: Thirty-seven 'Well,' said the Doctor, 'if it hadn't been for your timely arrival, the population of the Earth would have been destroyed by the Voltrana plague.'
'One to the good guys,' laughed Dorothee. 'Though I reckon you probably would have escaped from that dimensional bubble after a while.'
'A Klein sphere,' he said, 'solid on the inside, invisible on the outside, so that you just walk into it without even noticing it's there. A nasty little trap, typical of the Voltranons.'
She drained the last of her vodka and Coke. The cafe was just as she remembered it, from half a dozen planets. 'Now they're gone,' she said, 'it's good to have a moment to catch up with you.'
'How's Count Sorin?'
'We see a lot of each other.'