Rika’s Parents was a bit of a test of the Marion and Kristoph fan base, because this week neither Marion nor Kristoph are in the story except by reference. It centres around Rika, the former lady’s maid who is shortly to become Madam de Lœngbærrow when she marries Remonte. But I decided to introduce a bit of a fly in the ointment. Rika’s parents, ordinary folk from Polafrey, the mining planet arrive to find out who has been leading their daughter astray.

I decided that the Caretakers might have a different dialect and a whole set of words for things that the Newblood and Oldblood Gallifreyans didn’t use. The first I used were “Mamu” and “Paru” which were pretty much obvious as Rika greeted her parents. Less obvious were ‘yeigliss’, ‘yissigk’ and ‘sudifan’.” The first two refer to women who are no better than they should be. The politest term for ‘Yeigliss’ would be mistress. ‘Yissigk’ is worse, being a harlot or prostitute. ‘Sudifan’ refers to a man who engages the services of the first two. They are shameful words, used, of course, in their proper context. Remonte DID make Rika his mistress when he was still married to Idell. They were having sex against the laws and morals of Gallifrey – and, indeed, many other societies. Rika’s parents come from a proud, hard working lower class with a strict moral code who are shocked by her actions and take some persuading not to take her back to Polarfrey in disgrace.

Remonte’s humiliation in front of her father, at his mother’s insistence, defuses the situation. I debated whether he should actually be whipped. I decided against it because it might be difficult for him to go on to marry Rika after actually suffering physical punishment from her father. It would certainly be difficult for him to go on and have tea in the garden. And besides, it might encourage the wrong sort of readers, especially since there was so much debate about sex in this story.