AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Charlotte?”
“No, it’s nothing,” said Charlotte.
Aunt Glenda’s lips tightened.
“Shouldn’t you be waiting on the ground floor?” I asked Charlotte. “Then you wouldn’t have so far to fall.”
“Shouldn’t you just shut up when you’ve no idea what this is all about?” Charlotte snapped back.
“Really, the last thing Charlotte can do with right now is silly remarks,” said Aunt Glenda.
I was already beginning to regret coming downstairs.
“On the first occasion the gene carrier never travels back farther than a hundred and fifty years,” explained Great-aunt Maddy kindly. “This house was finished in 1781, so Charlotte is perfectly safe here in the music room. At worst she might scare a couple of ladies playing the harpsichord.”
“You bet she would, in that dress,” I said, so quietly that only my great-aunt could hear me. She giggled.
The door swung open and Lady Arista came in. As usual, she looked as if she’d swallowed a ramrod. Or several. One for each arm, one for each leg, and one holding it all together in the middle. Her white hair was combed severely back from her face and pinned into a bun at the back of her neck, like a ballet teacher. The strict sort you wouldn’t want to tangle with. “There’s a driver on his way. The de Villiers family are expecting us at the Temple. Then Charlotte can be read into the chronograph the moment she returns.”
I didn’t understand a word of this.
“But suppose it doesn’t happen today after all?” asked Charlotte.
“Charlotte, darling, you’ve felt dizzy three times already,” said Aunt Glenda.
“It will happen sooner or later,” said Lady Arista. “Come along, the driver will be here any minute now.”
Aunt Glenda took Charlotte’s arm, and together with Lady Arista, they left the room. As the door closed behind them, Great-aunt Maddy and I looked at each other.
“Some people might think a person was invisible, don’t you agree?” said Great-aunt Maddy. “At least a good-bye or hello now and then would be nice. Or something really clever, like Dear Maddy, did you by any chance have one of those visions of yours that might help us?”
“And did you?”
“No,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “Thank God, I didn’t. I’m always ravenously hungry after those visions, and I need to lose weight as it is.” She patted her middle.
“Who are these de Villiers people?” I asked.
“A bunch of arrogant show-offs, if you ask me,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “All of them lawyers and bankers. They own the de Villiers private bank in the city. That’s where we have our accounts.”
That didn’t sound particularly mystical.
“So what do they have to do with Charlotte?”
“Well, let’s say they have problems like ours.”
“Meaning what?” Did they have to live under the same roof as a tyrannical grandmother, a frightful aunt, and a cousin who thought herself something special?
“The time-travel gene,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “It’s passed down through the male line in the de Villiers family.”
“You mean they have a Charlotte as well?”
“The male counterpart. His name’s Gideon, as far as I know.”
“And he’s waiting to feel dizzy too?”
“He’s already over that part of it. He’s two years older than Charlotte.”
“So he’s been time traveling for the last two years?”
