Til raise some heat,’ said Bel, heading for the stove.

Amy was rubbing her hands together briskly. As Bel moved away, she leaned close to the Doctor.

‘Really?’ she asked quietly. ‘No sense in running around the countryside? Not even to, I don’t know, get away from here?’

‘We’re safe enough.’

‘And not even to look for my husband?’

‘Rory’s safe enough too,’ said the Doctor. ‘He’s probably sitting in the TARDIS right now, making a cup of tea.’

‘I don’t believe you sometimes,’ said Amy.

‘Trust me, Pond,’ the Doctor replied, flashing an impish smile. He began to look around the spare and simple room. ‘Something’s going on here, and it requires attention.’

Bel returned from banking up the stove. A rumour of heat began to infuse the room.

‘Everything’s hand-crafted,’ mused the Doctor, looking at the furniture and the construction of the house itself. ‘Beautifully made, but old. A lot of wood.

Local timber, I’d guess, and expertly cut and finished.

And the nails and handles, you see? The screws?’

‘Shipskin,’ said Bel. ‘Not much of that left now.’

‘Shipskin,’ the Doctor echoed. ‘Of course it is.

Shipskin.’ He looked at Amy. ‘Hull metal,’ he said,

‘salvaged from the vessel that brought the Morphans here.’

‘Earth before and Hereafter,’ Bel said.

‘And how long have you lived here, Bel?’ asked the Doctor.

‘All of my years,’ she said.

‘I meant, how long have the Morphans lived on Hereafter?’

‘Twenty-seven generations,’ she replied. She paused, and stared at the Doctor. ‘Guide help me, why would you ask that?’ she said. ‘You cannot be a Morphan and not know that, but there is no one else on Hereafter who is not a Morphan.’

‘There is now,’ said the Doctor. ‘Arabel? Bel? I know it’s a lot to grasp, but you have to keep trusting us. Think of it this way. Guide sent us to help when you needed us most. Tell me this, Bel, why were the men who found us armed?’

“They were searching for Vesta,’ Bel began.

The Doctor shook his head.

‘The Morphans have no weapons, no firearms or anything,’ he said. ‘They had to grab makeshift weapons… axes and pitchforks, that sort of thing. Why would men do that to go looking for a missing girl?

Why would they arm themselves when they’re not even used to bearing arms?’

‘They…’ Bel began. She stared down at the old kitchen table as she thought about her answer. ‘We…

we have lost livestock. Just this winter, never before.

Something has been feeding on sheep and goats. We think maybe it is a dog that has got out and run feral.

Maybe from another plantnation.’

‘It would have to be that, wouldn’t it?’ said the Doctor. ‘Because there are no other animals here. Only the ones that you Morphans brought with you.

Hereafter has no indigenous animals that could kill a sheep.’

‘I don’t know what that word means,’ said Bel, ‘but the men took staves and axes because they were afraid that…’

‘That whatever’s doing the killing might have gone after bigger prey,’ said the Doctor.

Bel nodded. Her lip trembled.

‘How long has there been trouble here, Bel?’ asked Amy.

‘Life here is always hard,’ said Bel, with forced lightness. ‘But three years ago, the winter started going white, and worse each year. Then we really started to struggle. Not enough food, not enough fuel to get by.

We used to see people from the other two plantnations quite regular, particularly at festival time, but not since travelling got hard. It’s not just that the winters are cold, it’s what the cold winters mean.’

‘They mean it could all be failing,’ said the Doctor.

‘The entire terraforming programme.’

‘The Terra Firmers will never fail,’ said Bel emphatically. ‘It’s part of our duty to maintain them.

Our plantnation is called Beside because it is beside the Firmers. That is the great task Guide has given to us.’

‘Now, you told me,’ said the Doctor, ‘that Guide tells you that can happen sometimes. That sometimes the winters get worse before they can get better.’

Bel nodded again. ‘That is what Guide says.’

‘But you don’t believe it, do you?’

Bel shrugged. ‘We must trust in the Elect and the council, but I don’t think Bill Groan believes it either.

It is hard to trust that things will get better when they get worse.’

‘There’s more to it, though, isn’t there?’ asked the Doctor.

‘There have been signs. The livestock dead. And some say they have seen people in the woods around the plantnation. The shadows of tall men, watching us.

No one has seen them clearly, but they are big. And they cannot be men, because all men from Beside are accounted for.’

She looked at the Doctor.

‘Until today,’ she said.

‘Yes, but I came and said hello, so it can’t have been me,’ said the Doctor.

Bel sat down at the table and rested her nose against her clasped hands as though she was praying.

‘I told Vesta not to go about alone,’ she said quietly.

‘I told her. She said there were no giants in the woods, and she could scare off any rogue dog. But I had seen the stars, and she had not.’

‘The stars?’

‘It was the other sign. Stars that go by at night, overhead. They make no sound. I’ve seen them, and a few others have. Old Winnowner says that the stars are an omen. The worst of all the signs. They warn us that the world is in turmoil, and that despite all our patience, the Morphan effort is in danger.’

‘You said something just now,’ said Amy quietly.

The Doctor and Bel looked at her.

‘You said you were only letting us out to help your sister, because you didn’t want her to die too. Who else has died?’

‘Our mother died years ago,’ Bel replied. ‘Then we lost our dad four years ago to a fever. I won’t lose another Flurrish, I swear to Guide, I—’

She stopped abruptly.

‘Oh Guide help me!’ she cried, looking at the Doctor and Amy in dismay. ‘I think I know where she went! I think I know!’

‘Where?’ asked Amy.

‘I had forgotten the day,’ said Bel, scraping back her chair and getting up. ‘Vesta remembers these things, I don’t. It’s the anniversary of our father’s death. She…

she would have gone out early to lay flowers on his grave. She would have gone up to the memory yard before the start of labour.’

‘Then that,’ said the Doctor, ‘is where we should look first.’

Out of breath, Rory slithered to a halt. He tried to get his bearings from the three mountains that the Doctor had said weren’t mountains at all. He could see them through the trees, pluming steamy white clouds against the perfect blue of the winter sky.

It felt like it was past midday. The air was clear and the sun was high and bright, but it was still as cold and hard as glass.

Rory had a stitch, and his legs ached from bounding through the snow. Panting, he turned in a full circle, checking the trees around him.

He heard a sound. A crunch of snow. A footstep biting into the soft fall. Surely, after all that running, he’d outdistanced those dreadful lumbering figures?

He edged forward, listening intently. The woodland clearing was silent, the light bouncing off the snow so bright it made him squint.

Another crunch.

He took another step, his heart beating very fast.

A figure stepped out in front of him. He was big, but he looked scared too. He was holding an axe.

Rory recoiled. ‘Oh, hello,’ he said in surprise.

‘Who are you?’ the man asked, his voice thickly accented. He took a step forward and the axe rose a little.

‘Listen,’ said Rory, ‘listen to me. There’s something in the woods. These… figures. Very, very big figures…’

He glanced from side to side. Other men dressed like the bearded man with the axe were emerging from cover, surrounding him. They carried an assortment of picks, mattocks and pitchforks.