Madame Vastra (short story)

 was a short story published in October 2011 in The Brilliant Book 2012.

Summary
In 1881, Madame Vastra sends a letter to Jenny Flint detailing her experiences in Egypt, and decides to tell Jenny the story of how she met the Doctor.

The Doctor confronts Vastra as she consumes commuters in the London Underground. He convinces her to stop killing and instead live amongst the humans.

In a later letter to the Doctor, Vastra updates him on her current situation. She has left a job as part of Henry Gordon Jago's Monstre Gathering freak show. She has found new lodgings and recounts to the Doctor her meeting with a young woman called Jenny Flint, whom she took in and promised to provide for.

A newspaper article details a robbery committed by the 'Masked Lady'. Inspector Abernathy of Scotland Yard reveals in an interview with the newspaper that the 'Masked Lady' tunnels into bank vaults and steals the gold within using an unknown method. On one occasion the robber was disturbed alongside an accomplice, but the robber simply knocked out the Night Watchmen with a whip.

Characters

 * Vastra
 * The Doctor
 * Jenny Flint
 * Eleanor McDermott
 * Abernathy

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor can speak Silurian.
 * In 1881, Jenny Flint helped the Doctor foil a Kraal plot to replace Edward VII with a mechanical duplicate.
 * At some point before 1881, Vastra appeared in a freak show run by Henry Gordon Jago.
 * At one point, Vastra and Jenny fought Neomorph Cybermen in Japan.

Continuity

 * The Doctor first meets Vastra on the London Underground. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, COMIC: The Lost Dimension)