The Doctor folded the cloth away slowly. "I have talked about many things to contrast the place I chose to leave with the place I chose to come to," she said, with a deliberateness equal to that she gave the folding away of that cloth.

"I'm sure nothing we could do would be good enough for the lady's high standards," Duke Ulresile said, with what sounded like bitterness, perhaps even contempt. "She has made that clear enough."

The Doctor gave a brief, small smile like a wince, and said to the King, "Sir, may I be excused now?"

"Of course, Vosill," the King said, with a look of surprise and concern. She turned to leave, and he held up his gloved hands as a servant brought forward the silver and gold inlaid staff he would fight the false monster with. In the distance, horns sounded and a cheer went up. "Thank you," he said to her. She turned back briefly to him, bowed quickly and then walked away. I followed.

My Master knows already what took place when the surprise that the old Duke Walen had spent most of a year preparing was finally visited upon the Doctor, but I shall say something of the event, in the hope of completing the picture he will already have.

The court had been back at Haspide for only two days. I had not yet finished unpacking all the Doctor's belongings. There was to be a diplomatic reception in the main hall, and the Doctor's presence had been requested. Neither she nor I knew who had made this request. She went out early that morning, saying that she was going to visit one of the hospitals she had paid regular visits to before we had left on the outer part of the Circuition earlier that year. I was instructed to stay behind and continue with the process of getting her apartments in order again. I understand that my Master had one of his people follow the Doctor, and discovered that she did indeed go to the Women's Hospital and attend some of the sick and confined there. I spent the time removing racks of glassware and vials from straw-packed cases and making a list of the fresh ingredients we would need over the next half-year for the Doctor's potions and remedies.

She returned to her apartments at about a half past the morning's third bell, bathed and changed into more formal wear, and then took me with her to the great hall.

I cannot recall there being any great air of expectation in the place, but then it was a crowded scene, with hundreds of courtiers, foreign diplomats, consular people, nobles and traders and others milling about, all no doubt concerned with their own business and quite convinced that it was more important than anybody else's and merited, if it would help them, the particular attention of the King. Certainly the Doctor seemed to have no premonition that anything strange or untoward was about to happen. If she seemed distracted it was because she wanted to get on with the matter of getting her apartments, her study and workshop and her chemical machinery back together. As we made our way to the hall, she had me note down several ingredients and raw materials she suddenly realised she would be needing in the near future.

"Ah, my dear Doctor," Duke Ormin said, pressing his way through an exotically garbed knot of incomprehensibly jabbering foreigners. "I'm told there's somebody here to see you, ma'am."

"Is there?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes," Ormin said. He stood straight for a change, and looked out over the heads of the crowd. "Our new Duke Walen and, ah, Guard Commander Adlain said something." He squinted into the distance. "Didn't catch it all and they seemed… Ah, there they are. Over there." The Duke waved, then looked at the Doctor. "Were you expecting anybody?"

"Expecting anybody?" the Doctor repeated as the Duke led us to one corner of the hall.

"Yes. I just… well, I don't know…"

We approached the Guard Commander. I missed whatever the Doctor and Duke Ormin said next because I was watching the Guard Commander talk to a couple of his guard captains, two intimidatingly large, stern-faced men armed with double swords. As he saw us approach, the Guard Commander nodded to the two men. They stepped away to stand a few paces off.

"Doctor," Guard Commander Adlain said in an open, friendly manner, putting his arm to one side of the Doctor as though to grasp her far shoulder, so that she had to turn to one side. "Good day. How are you? Unpacked? Are you happily reensconced?"

"I am well, sir. We are not yet quite fully settled in. And you?"

"Oh, I'm…" The Guard Commander looked behind him, then a look of some surprise came upon his face. 'Ah. Here's Ulresile. And who can this be?"

He and the Doctor both turned round to face Duke Ulresile and a tall, bronzed-looking man of middle age dressed in strange, loose-fitting clothes and a small tricorn hat. Duke Ulresile was smiling with a curious eagerness. Behind him stood the new Duke Walen, his head down and his dark eyes looking half closed.

The bronzed stranger had rather a prominent nose, and perched upon it was an odd framework of metal with two coin-sized pieces of glass set in it, one in front of each eye. He took this off with one hand as though it was a hat (that was left on) and made a deep bow. I half expected his hat to fall off, but it appeared to be held in place by three jewelheaded pins.

When he straightened, the fellow spoke at the Doctor in a language quite unlike anything I had ever heard before, full of strange gutturals and odd tonal shifts.

She looked at him blankly. His friendly expression seemed to waver. Duke Walen's eyes narrowed. Ulresile's smile broadened and he took in a breath.

Then the Doctor grinned, and reached out and took the stranger's hands in hers. She laughed and shook her head and out of her mouth rattled a stream of sound that sounded very like the sort of sound the stranger had produced. In amongst all this expeditious blabbering I caught the words «Drezen» (though it sounded more like "Drech-tsen'), "Pressel', «Vosill» and, several times, something that sounded like Koo-doon. The pair of them stood beaming huge smiles at each other and talking in a continuous stream of sound, all the time laughing and nodding and shaking their heads. I watched the smile on Duke Ulresile's face fade slowly, withering like a cut flower. The sullen, hooded expression on the new Duke Walen's face did not alter. The Guard Commander Adlain looked on with a fascinated expression, his gaze flitting to Ulresile now and again, a tiny smile playing around his lips.

"Oelph," I heard the Doctor say, and she turned to me. "Oelph," she said again, holding one hand out to me. She was still grinning broadly. "This is gaan Kuduhn, from Drezen! Gaan Kuduhn," she said to the foreigner. "Blabber blabber Oelph," (well it sounded so to me) she said to him. I recalled that the Doctor had told me that a gaan was some sort of part-time diplomatic rank.

The tall, bronzed man took the wire contraption off his nose again and bowed to me. "I ham press to meet yore, Welph," he said slowly in something resembling Haspidian.

"How do you do, Mr Kuduhn," I said, also bowing.

She introduced Duke Ormin too. The gaan had already met Walen, Ulresile and the Guard Commander.

"The gaan is from an island in the same group as my own," the Doctor said. She looked quite flushed and excited. "He was invited here from Cuskery by the old Duke Walen to discuss trade. He took a quite different route to mine but it seems to have taken him just as long. He has been away from Drezen almost as long as I have so he has little fresh news, but it is just so good to hear Drezeni spoken again!" She turned her smile to him again as she said, "I think I shall see if I can persuade him to stay and found a proper embassy." She started blabbering to him again.

Ulresile and Walen looked at each other. Guard Commander Adlain looked up at the ceiling of the great hall for a moment, then he made a small tutting noise. "Well, gentlemen," he said to the three Dukes. "I think we are somewhat surplus to requirements here, don't you?"