The child is running, bare feet on the cold stone floor, his lungs straining for air, throat dry and raw.  No matter how fast he runs, he doesn't seem to get any further.  Then footfalls become splashes as water trickles across the stones.  Soon it is pulling at his ankles, dragging him down, tugging at his torso.  He is gasping for breath but none comes, just liquid swirling into his mouth and gushing down his throat.  He gags and chokes, screaming.  He has to escape, he has to get out.  The murky, silt-laden waters start to shimmer as a great light moves nearer.  It illuminates the depths and the boy forgets he needed to breathe, forgets he wants to escape.  If he can just reach the light, everything will be better, every -

Nyssa sat up with a start.  What had that been?  A dream or a nightmare?  Already the details were fading away, driven from her conscious mind by the sunlight piercing the curtains, illuminating thousands of dust particles floating above her bed.  Nyssa closed her eyes and let herself lie back down, trying to hold on to the fast-receding fragments of what she had experienced.  She was dreaming about drowning, she knew that for certain.  It had been a dream, but not her own.  She had been a spectator, a voyeur.  Already the cold waters were closing in around her.  Nyssa shivered once and was asleep.


Baroness von Luckner entered the breakfast room to find the Doctor savouring a pair if kippers.  He rose from his seat and welcomed her to the table before reuming his appraisal of the smoked herring.  'You know, I have sampled delicacies from many different worlds but there is to match the simple delights of a kipper,' he enthused.

The Baroness remained unsure of what to make of this interloper who had appeared so mysteriously last night and wormed his way into the Queen's affections with such alacrity.  She decided to humour him and see what more could be discovered.  'Is that correct?'

'Oh, I should think so - can you think of anything finer?' the Doctor replied, holding a forkful of fish aloft.  'Dinner in a diner perhaps?'

'I'm not sure I understand you, Doctor...'

'Do you have diners yet?  Probably not.  I suppose the closest British equivalent would be a coaching house - or a roadside café in future.  Still, I fancy none of them could offer such a succulent morsel before midday.'  He popped the forkful into his mouth and chewed on the fish with undisguised ardour.

'Your arrival last night was quite unexpected,' Luckner ventured.

'I do like to surprise people,' he said.  'You might not find them at their best, but they will be more honest that way - no time to hide their guilty secrets, as it were.  Her Majesty said your family name was Luckner'

'That's correct.'  The Baroness sipped at the cup of tea that had appeared before her, spirited into place by one of the household staff lining the walls like ghosts.