‘Because I wasn’t certain it would work,’ Estro said gently. ‘I’m pleased to report that it is working, and the next batch of Dalek guns will be ready by morning. Besides…’ he smiled at Haldoran, ‘I need to keep some secrets in order to remain valuable. If I’d told you initially that the guns were coming from a Dalek Artefact, you might well have protested, knowing no better. Or you might have tried to cut me out of the loop, thinking you didn’t need me.’

‘What makes you so sure that I won’t do that now?’ Haldoran asked, grinning.

The fool. He was wasting his time posturing. ‘Because you’ve… spoken to Murdock. I’m sure he didn’t tell you very much before he died. And nobody else involved will tell you any more. You won’t get anything further out of DA‐17 without my help, and you must know that.’

Haldoran, of course, did. He’d simply been hoping that his threat would worry his adviser. He nodded curtly. ‘So – I get my weapons. But I’m curious – just what do you get out of all of this?’

It had taken him long enough to ask the obvious. ‘Power,’ Estro replied, knowing this lie would be believable. ‘I have the weapons, but not the men to use them. We need one another. What I want when all of this is over is my own Domain – under your rule, of course. As your right‐hand man, I’m sure little would be beyond my grasp.’

Haldoran smiled, obviously relieved. The story was logical, and it appealed to the man’s own baser instincts. ‘I can see you and I are very alike,’ he said.

Estro smiled, tightly. After all, he’d be gone long before Haldoran would discover the truth. ‘It would appear so,’ he agreed blithely. ‘Now, if you’re happy, can we continue with the war?’

‘By all means,’ Haldoran agreed, rubbing his hands together. ‘Especially since I’m winning it…’

The Doctor stared at Donna, and she was pleased to see him confused for once. ‘This… marriage of yours,’ he murmured. ‘Would that have anything to do with the private areas of your life I wasn’t supposed to poke into?’ he inquired.

‘Yes,’ Donna admitted, feeling herself flush even now.

David looked at him. ‘You didn’t know about it?’ he asked. ‘It’s common knowledge,’ Then, realising who he was saying this in front of, he blushed as well. ‘I mean…’ he said, stumbling to a halt.

‘I’ve only been on this planet a day,’ the Doctor complained. ‘I really haven’t had the time to collect all the local gossip.’

With a great sigh, Donna steeled herself. ‘Well, since you’re bound to get it out of him anyway…’ she said. It still hurt terribly to think about it. ‘I was seventeen, and innocent enough to still believe in love. My father needed peace with Haldoran, so he arranged for me to marry him.’ She shuddered at the memories this resurrected. ‘The man’s a monster,’ she said simply ‘Pure ego, with nothing to control it. Anything he wants, he gets. Anything. What I wanted was irrelevant. At first… well, like I said. I was naive, and I believed in love. Oh, I knew he didn’t love me, and I didn’t know him. But I thought we’d come to love one another, and everything would be fine. Yeah. Right.

‘Lust is what consumes him. He enjoyed the thought that he was using me, corrupting me. If I protested, I was punished.’ She could still sometimes feel the pain, even after all this time. ‘I still have the scars across my shoulders.’

David looked very uncomfortable. ‘I didn’t know any of this,’ he protested.

‘Of course you didn’t,’ Donna agreed coldly. ‘Nobody was interested in hearing my side of the story. Not even my father. He was the worst of them all, believing the lies and the deceits, without ever asking me what really happened.’

‘If this is too painful…’ the Doctor said gently.

‘No,’ Donna insisted. ‘Oh, it’s painful all right. But what scares the hell out of me is that I’m going back to it. You have to understand my fears, Doctor, because I want you to kill me if we can’t escape.’

He glanced at her sharply. ‘Retreat into death isn’t the answer.’

‘That’s easy for you to say,’ she snarled. ‘You’ve never been through what I have. Haldoran is a monster, and he enjoys his power. Especially his power over others.’ Donna calmed her emotions as much as she could. ‘Haldoran forced me to do things, horrible things. Then, when he discovered that I was barren, he threw me away like a piece of trash.’

‘The fault wasn’t yours,’ the Doctor said gently, wiping at the tears she wasn’t even aware were on her cheeks.

‘Yes, it was!’ she yelled. ‘You don’t understand!’

‘No,’ he agreed amicably. ‘I don’t.’

‘A society attempting to rebuild itself, Doctor, values children above everything else,’ said David, wearily. ‘Being barren isn’t a crime, but it’s a terrible stigma. Susan and I have suffered it, too – we couldn’t have children, either, We adopted three, which mitigated things a little, but we’re still on the edge of being ostracised from polite society. As if they fear that infertility is contagious.’ He looked down at the ground. ‘It’s only these last few years, now they all think Susan’s too old…’

Donna interrupted him, her angry words tumbling out. ‘Haldoran didn’t want me as his wife if I couldn’t bear children. How could a monarch hope to rule with no heir? I was useless to him.’ She didn’t even try and stop the tears now. ‘So, he had me removed. And the bastard took my own cousin in my place. She was in his bed before my side of it even got cold. And Brittany’s a proper baby factory. She’s had half a dozen brats already. Haldoran publicly divorced me, humiliated me, lied about me…’

The Doctor shushed her, gently ‘But you weren’t to blame for any of this.’

‘Don’t you think I know that, you idiot?’ Donna screamed. ‘That’s not the point. When I came home again, everybody had heard the stories. They treated me like I had some contagious disease. My father barely speaks to me, and every man I meet looks at me like I was a leper. I can’t have any kind of a normal life any longer. That’s why my father was only too glad to allow me into knight training. This way, I’m out of the castle more than I’m home. And, with luck, I might get myself killed, and remove all embarrassment from my being alive.’

‘Nonsense,’ the Doctor said briskly. ‘Donna, most of this is simply in your own mind. Oh, I’m sure people talk about you, and doubtless enjoy it. But nobody who gets to know you would ever do the same. You’ve shown great courage. You’ve made a new life for yourself, you’ve…’

The Doctor’s platitudes trailed away as Donna turned her back on him and her voice became quiet, like a child’s. ‘When Haldoran threw me out, he promised that if I ever returned, he’d make what I’d endured before pale in comparison.’ She turned round and stared at him, panic‐stricken. ‘Doctor, he’s going to destroy my spirit! I would never live through what he’ll subject me to. That’s why you have to kill me first!’

9

Journeys End In…

Despite Donna’s plea, the Doctor shook his head firmly suffered enough,’ he replied gently. ‘I won’t add to it. And I certainly won’t kill you to prevent a fate worse than death.’

‘Doctor,’ Donna said desperately, ‘I’m serious.’

‘And so am I,’ he assured her, touching her lightly on her shoulder. ‘You should not be punished for the actions of another.’ He stared at her almost hypnotically. ‘I promise you, I will not allow Haldoran to harm you again.’

Donna faltered. ‘I know better than to trust the word of any man ever again,’ she said bitterly.

‘Don’t,’ the Doctor agreed cheerfully. ‘Trust the word of a Time Lord.’

‘How?’ Donna gestured around them. ‘We’re trapped in here, in case you hadn’t noticed, and being taken to Haldoran’s castle. We’ll be surrounded by his troops there. There’s no way out.’