So for what season or circumstance was I built? My thumbs are useful, my appendix, which hurts sometimes as if newly made, is not. Sometimes it feels as if I’m bigger on the inside physically, too. Joan told me that the Latin I failed to understand referred to that. The school motto refers to the relative dimensions of books. I like that. If you could see information, a book would be like a pin-cushion in your hand.

Still haven’t found Gallifrey on the map. Maybe I made it up?

Excerpt from a letter written by Joan Redfern, date unknown

I’d forgotten. It was like a sleeping tiger, and it was suddenly awake and upon me again. And it was beautiful.

As darkness fell across the valley below, Benny and Constance were walking up a narrow lane, past badger sets and through thickets of stinging nettles that Benny had to swat aside with a stick taken from an old elm. They were climbing up to the wooded hillsides, Benny realized, heading in the direction of the statue of Old Meg.

During the walk, while Constance was silent, Benny had come close to despairing.

There’d been no sign of the aliens, if that was what they were. Perhaps the reason that the Pod was gone was that they’d found it and gone too.

She and the Doctor would be trapped here, and she’d have to find a way to survive when the money ran out. Perhaps Alexander would give her a job. At least she could sleep in the TARDIS. If the aliens had the Pod and hadn’t left, mind you, the only option was to get it off of them by force. Now, that would be really difficult.

‘Have you got arms dumps all over the place?’ she asked Constance.

‘Yes. Asquith doesn’t show any signs of budging, so we’re going to start blowing a few more things up.’ The young woman had struggled valiantly up the hill, hitching her skirts as they went.

‘What if a war starts and other people start blowing things up?’

‘A war? With whom? I mean, it looked as if the Germans were going to have a pop a few years ago, but that’s all calmed down. Churchill’s started to dismantle the Navy, and they’re doing likewise. No, it’s only now, now that there are no more wars to be fought in this world, that we can really do something about our situation. Asquith thinks he can sleep easy, bar Ulstermen or Anarchists, but he hasn’t reckoned with us.’

They’d reached the top of the hill. Benny helped Constance step over a stile, and they walked over to the statue. The old woman sat proudly on a stone chair, her bag clasped in her stone hands, looking down at the valley.