Memories of Aineytta the Gentle is a gentle story in itself. It is set on a sunny day at the Dower House, drinking tea on the lawn by the River Bærrow. While little Rodan plays, Aineytta de Lœngbærrow remembers when her first born son was a child who wanted to be everywhere and do everything. “Like a Flutterwing to a candle….” I don’t remember where I first heard the word Flutterwing to describe a Gallifreyan butterfly, but it is a charming word.

The memories of Kristoph as a little boy give way eventually to darker thoughts about when he was a young man. Aineytta is clearly bitter about the way her son suffered as a prisoner of war when he was still just a youth, and she never liked him being a Celestial Intervention Agency assassin, either. The subtext of this story, of course, is about Marion considering the kind of career her future son might have, and hoping he might be more like his studious grandfather than his adventurous father. In fact, Chrístõ Cuimhne, one day to be known as The Doctor, is destined to be a little of both. He will be a man of great learning and intelligence, but also with a thirst for adventure and a sense of justice that sends him into danger for others.

There is a problem with this story, the one hundred and sixteenth story since I began writing Marion and Kristoph’s saga. Aineytta talks about being only newly married when she became pregnant with heir to her husband’s great House – Kristoph, of course. But I am almost sure I have said in other stories that Orianna is the eldest child. I really need to go through them all and look for possible factual errors of that sort. It could be that a bit of a rewrite may be in order for this one.