Rory sighed and shut the bus door behind him. Amy and the Doctor had been thrown out of yet another place. Lucky he still had his mobile phone. He kept it with him out of habit. At least in England around his own time it should work.

As he moved away from the minibus, he could hear the whole busload of elderly people joining in the song. ‘It may be an hour, it may be a week, it may be fifty years. But I know we will find loving hearts still entwined, on the day we meet again.’

The wartime song always made him think of Amy. He’d waited nearly 2,000 years for her. Fifty years was nothing compared to that. The song told the truth, though. Even after all that time, their love had still been strong.

Rory smiled.

Chapter Five

THEY MET IN Trafalgar Square.

‘There was a VE Day party here,’ Rory told the Doctor and Amy as he sat down beside them. He was still thinking of the two old ladies, Mrs Collins and Mrs Hooper.

The Doctor nodded. ‘Eighth of May, 1945. Thousands gathered here. Churchill made a speech and they played it over loudspeakers.’

‘Good old Winston,’ said Amy. ‘What?’ she cried as Rory gave her a look. ‘I can namedrop too! It’s not just the Doctor who’s been everywhere and met everyone.’

‘I wasn’t at the VE Day party,’ the Doctor pointed out. ‘I just heard about it from other people.’ He sighed. ‘One happy day. One great big happy day for them all. Then real life got them again. Japan was still fighting the war. Everyone had lost loved ones. Homes had been bombed. There were no bananas.’

‘They were there,’ said Rory. ‘Those two old ladies. They were at the Trafalgar Square party on VE Day. Strange to think of it, really. More than sixty-five years ago. They’d just have been teenagers, and they were dancing right here. Maybe on this very spot.’ He smiled. ‘Poor old dears. I couldn’t really follow what they were saying. I tell you what was weird, though. They were called Kylie and Amber. You don’t think of old people being called Kylie or Amber, do you?’

‘Hang on,’ said Amy, looking shocked. ‘Doctor...’

The Doctor stiffened. For a moment he didn’t say a word, then started leafing through the pile of posters beside him. He picked out the one he had shown Amy earlier, and another of a blonde girl. He held them up so Rory could see them.

MISSING: KYLIE DUNCAN. MISSING: AMBER REYNOLDS.

Rory frowned. He took the poster of Amber Reynolds and stared at it. ‘I don’t understand...’

‘That’s because you missed the end of the show,’ said Amy. ‘We’ve got a lot to tell you. Sammy Star is using a Weeping Angel in his act. It’s sending girls back into the past.’

‘I think you’ve just found out where in the past they’re ending up,’ the Doctor told Rory. ‘One minute they’re in a West End theatre in the twenty-first century...’

‘... and the next they’re in 1945. At a party in Trafalgar Square,’ finished Rory. ‘Oh no.’ He jumped up. ‘We’ve got to go and rescue them! We know where they are and when they are, so we can go in the TARDIS!’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘We also know they stay there, in that time. They grow old.’

‘We could get them back to their own time!’ Rory cried.

‘They get back to their own time,’ said the Doctor. ‘They just take the long route. It takes them about sixty-seven years.’ He shook his head again. ‘I’m sorry, Rory. We can’t change that.’ He stood up. ‘But we can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Come on, Ponds, we’re going back to the theatre. We’ve got less than twenty-four hours to stop Sammy Star.’

The sign above the theatre was still lit up. The words Sammy Star’s Magic Show! shone out.

‘The city never sleeps!’ the Doctor said. He rattled the theatre doors. They were locked. ‘It seems the people who work here do sleep, though. Never mind.’ He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. ‘I have a key.’

The foyer looked haunted in the gloom, more haunted than the stage graveyard. They crept across it in silence and went through a door marked NO ENTRANCE.

‘I know the way,’ the Doctor whispered. ‘I went for a snoop around during the interval. I had a feeling something was wrong. My seventh sense.’

‘Don’t you mean sixth sense?’ asked Rory.

‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘I already have six well-used senses. This was my just as well-used but often ignored Finding Evil sense. Of course all my senses are finely honed – ooof.’

He broke off as he walked straight into a large security guard.

‘What are you doing here?’ growled the guard.

The Doctor fumbled in his pocket and brought out his psychic paper. ‘I’ve come to inspect the magic,’ he said, holding out the open wallet. The guard peered at the blank paper, seeing only what the Doctor wanted him to see.

‘Says here you’re with the Magic Oval,’ he said.

‘Ah yes,’ said the Doctor as he brushed himself down. ‘It’s like the Magic Circle, only... stretched. We inspect tricks at night so no one else finds out how they’re done. If you could just escort us to Sammy Star’s prop store, we’ll get on with our checks.’

He made to walk past the guard, but the burly man put out an arm to stop him. ‘Does Mr Star know about this? He never said you were coming.’

The Doctor tutted. ‘Well, of course he doesn’t know. It wouldn’t be a random secret magic check at night if he knew about it. You’ve heard of secret shoppers? They buy things in shops and then report back on the service.’

The guard nodded his head.

‘Well, we’re secret magic-checkers. We check the tricks then report back to the Magic Oval.’

Amy held her breath. For a moment it looked like the guard might let them through.

‘Well...’ he said. Then he paused. ‘Hey, haven’t I seen you before?’

The Doctor looked puzzled. ‘I don’t think so. I’ve just got one of those faces.’

‘Yes I have!’ The man frowned. ‘I threw you out of here an hour ago. I noticed your plastic bowler hat at the time.’

‘Lots of people wear these!’ the Doctor said. ‘They’re cool.’

‘No they don’t,’ muttered Amy under her breath. ‘And no they’re not.’

‘Yeah, but I also noticed your funny T-shirt and that you had a red-headed girl with you,’ said the man. ‘Come on, you’re not fooling me. You’re trying to nick something so you can cheat in the contest tomorrow. Well, you’re out of luck. Out you go!’

‘And stay out!’ the Doctor yelled as he landed on the pavement for the second time that evening.

‘I already have “theatre” on my list of places we’ve been thrown out of,’ Amy complained. ‘We could at least have found somewhere new.’

‘Well, look on the bright side,’ said the Doctor. ‘At least we were thrown out before we got to the guard dogs. They looked fierce.’

Amy blinked. ‘There were guard dogs?’

‘Just a couple. I saw them when I was scouting around during the interval. Oh, and a lot of padlocks. Sammy Star really doesn’t want people going through his props.’

‘So what do we do now?’ asked Rory.

The Doctor didn’t answer at once. He looked deep in thought. ‘We’ve got to find a way of getting into the prop store,’ he said after a moment.

The others nodded.

‘We need to do it before the next show. The Angel mustn’t get any more girls.’

They nodded again.

‘Did anyone else hear that guard mention a contest?’

Amy and Rory nodded again. ‘I don’t know what he was talking about, though,’ said Amy.

The Doctor jumped up. ‘One way to find out!’ He went back over to the theatre. The guard could still be seen in the foyer, his shadow on the window. The Doctor found a letterbox in the main door, and knelt down to it. ‘Excuse me!’ he called through the letterbox. ‘What contest were you talking about just then?’