‘I don’t know.’

‘Then don’t tell her. Do I call you Father?’

‘If you want. I haven’t heard that for a while.’

‘It doesn’t seem appropriate.’

‘No.’ The Doctor looked past August’s, or rather, Smith’s, shoulder.

Verity was standing there. ‘Doctor. Dr Smith.’

Smith spun round and gazed at her. ‘Verity. My dear.’

The woman smiled. ‘I’m flattered, John, that you regard me as an old flame. That was your interpretation of what I was doing in your memories. But I think you’re on rather dangerous ground. I’m one of the Doctor’s dreams, an icon, a female custodian of something that’s deep inside him. I was the only piece of himself that he left behind in his head. I’m important to him. He hardly listens to me, mind you. And he never returns my telephone calls.’

‘Do you want to tell me what you told John in the glade this morning?’ the Doctor asked. ‘What you were trying to whisper in his ear for so long?’

‘You still don’t know? I don’t see why I should tell you now. You employed me, after all, to defend and take care of your deepest memories, and then you failed to take heed of any of my warnings.’

‘I didn’t, you mean,’ Smith interjected.

‘There are things down there in my unconscious that even I don’t know about, memories from before I was born,’ the Doctor explained. ‘I couldn’t get rid of all of them and Smith was certain to start accessing some of it. I just thought that there ought to be somebody in there who knew who I was.’

‘Couldn’t she have appeared earlier and saved me all that bother?’ Smith asked.

Verity patted him on the shoulder. ‘I wasn’t allowed to. That was the frustrating thing. I couldn’t intrude into your consciousness. I could only appear when you’d got it sorted out for yourself.’

‘So what did you say to him?’ the Doctor asked.

‘That he believes in good and fights evil. That, with violence all around him, he’s a man of peace. That he’s never cruel, or cowardly. That he is a hero.’

Smith closed his eyes for a moment. ‘It felt good to hear it confirmed. Of course, that’s not a definition of me. That’s you, Doctor.’

The Doctor reached out and touched him on the shoulder. ‘As I believe you said, being me is a state of mind. Six other people apart from you and I have had a go. You were rather good at it.’

Smith looked at him again and managed a smile. ‘Perhaps I taught a few more would-be Doctors how to do it.’

‘Perhaps. But I wonder how many will remember when they grow up?’

Verity waved a hand between them. ‘Sorry to interrupt. Look who’s here.’