'No sausage last night, then?' Doctor Porter said to Jane when she appeared in the inn's bar the next morning.
Thankfully, there was no one else around. Eddy had already eaten and was seeing to the horses. Max was still donning his gear. He had averted his eyes while Jane had dressed, only looking when she was fully attired. Settling into the seat next to the doctor, Jane fixed the woman with her sternest glare.
'How do you know?' she asked.
'I can tell such things.'
'I thought mind-reading came under the purview of clairvoyants.'
'There's no mind-reading involved. Women have a certain flush about them after partaking of sausage. Especially that first time.'
Jane struggled to find an appropriate reply. 'I suppose there's never any sausage between yourself and Eddy then?'
'I prefer peas to sausage,' Porter said, flashing her blue eyes at Jane. 'Ah, here's Max now.'
Max sat with them. They ate toast and tea before the doctor produced some more of her pungent panacea. Jane drank the liquid as did the others.
'What is in this?' she asked.
'A mixture of things,' the doctor said. 'Eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog.'
'Doctor Porter. That line is from Macbeth. It's spoken by one of the witches.'
'There's very little difference between witchcraft and modern doctoring. I once prescribed a mixture of donkey testicles to a man who could not conceive.
'Did it help?'
'I don't know, but he certainly brayed more loudly.' The doctor erupted into such raucous laughter that she almost fell off her seat. Finally, she sobered. 'As to the panacea,' she continued, 'it's important to keep your strength up, and your senses alert. The potion certainly will not hurt, and it may do you much benefit.'
They headed out into the blinding morning light. It was freezing outside, and Jane was glad of the cloak. Snow had fallen overnight, but a light breeze had swept the clouds away, leaving the sky a vivid expanse of azure blue. Jane thought back to the events of the previous night. It was hard to believe they had endured such horror, but she had the bruises and scratches to prove it.
Max headed off to help Eddy with the horses. Jane watched him leave and shivered. She felt immense gratitude towards him. He had acted like a complete gentleman the previous night. Few men would have behaved themselves in similar circumstances. And then the weapons of his design had saved them from certain death. If not for him, they all would have been slaughtered by Dracula and his followers. Her thoughts returned to the basement.
'Doctor,' Jane said. 'Why do you think Dracula set the house alight? Rather than just killing us?'
Doctor Porter thought for a moment. 'I don't think it was any one reason,' she said. 'But I think that deep down inside, he may fear us.'
'Really?'
'Perhaps. Dracula's a creature of the ages, and yet the world is on the verge of an unprecedented cusp of change. These encroaching factories are only the first of a whole generation. Science is beginning to eclipse the old superstitions. He may have been a force to be reckoned with in times of ignorance, but knowledge has its own power.' She paused. 'And he's probably bored.'
'Bored?' Jane was aghast. 'It was too boring to rip open our necks and drink our blood?'
Porter barked a laugh. 'I know. Rejection is never easy. But if Dracula is ancient—and I believe he is—then he has murdered and mutilated across the course of human history. Killing people isn't enough for him now.'
Jane stifled a shudder.
How horrible.
Porter continued. 'And he said it himself during your little tête-à-tête through the door. He said life is about power. Controlling a woman, a country, or a world.'
'He did say that, although it was the other way around: a world, a country, a woman.'
Porter thought. 'You're right. We have suspected that Dracula has a grand scheme in mind.'
'So, what is his plan?'
'He said it himself: power,' Porter said. 'Absolute power. But how might Dracula do that? He can't achieve it by simply biting the necks of every individual he encounters. He and his followers have an inherent biological weakness that has always held them back.'
'Sunlight.'
'Exactly,' Porter said, nodding to the unyielding orb in the sky. 'Vampires are powerful adversaries, but they are only powerful for half the day. They are weak—no—they are incapacitated for half the day. I'll wager that throughout history, vampire hunters have always followed the same course of action. Track down the creatures during the day and slay them when at their weakest. It's a decisive advantage which humans have always had over the undead.'
'Do you think Dracula has found some way to overcome this weakness? Some way to move about during sunlight?'
'I doubt it. Dracula would already be doing it if he could. No, I suspect he has a plan to build an empire similar to Genghis Khan and others over the centuries.'
'But he would need to be in politics to achieve that.'
'Not politics, but—' The doctor's eyes widened with realisation. Fishing about in her pockets, she snatched out a piece of paper. 'The Baroness of Lenning.'
'What about her?'
'We haven't been asking the right question.'
'Which is?'
'Why her? Out of all the women across the length and breadth of Britain, why pick her?' She showed Jane the leaflet about the King's Ball. 'Even Dracula can only mesmerise so many people at once. The trick is to mesmerise the right people at the right time.'
'But how—'
'This event is by invitation only. I'll wager that the Baroness is alive and well, and Dracula intends to use her as his invitation to the Ball. The entire bloated upper echelons of British society will be there: all the nobles and the gentry. In one fell swoop, Dracula can use his powers on the King and every other person there. He can transform them into vampires, and they, in turn, can return to their respective homes to do the same.'
Jane paled. The thought was appalling. 'Dracula could take over the whole country in a matter of months.'
'Months?' Doctor Porter said. 'Jane, it could happen in days. The ruling classes could transform those servants below them. Those servants would transform their lesser companions. Like a plague, it would spread all the way through England until every man, woman, and child was transformed.' She paused. 'Mind you, controlling all those people, even with his powers, would be enormously difficult. The plan probably wouldn't work, but the damage caused in the meantime would be enormous.'
Eddy and Max appeared. The coach driver was puffing on his familiar pipe. 'What's our plan, Doctor?' he asked.
Doctor Porter explained her thoughts to them. They agreed that the Ball seemed a likely place for Dracula to make his move.
'But we can't just barge into Windsor Castle with this story,' Jane pointed out. 'They'll arrest us on sight.'
Max scrutinised the leaflet. 'This says there's entertainment planned for the ball. We may be able to gain entry as performers.'
'An excellent idea,' Porter said.
'But I'll have to drop by my workshop in London first to gather my equipment.'
'Then, we must hurry. King and country may depend on it.'