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Great-aunt Maddy looked up in surprise when I raced through the door. “I thought you’d already left, my love.”
Out of breath, I stared at the clock on the wall. It was now exactly twenty minutes since I had left the room.
“I’m glad you’re here, though. There’s something I forgot to tell you. They have the same sherbet lemons at Selfridges but sugar-free, and the packaging looks just the same. But don’t buy the sugar-free sherbet lemons, whatever you do, because those give me … well, diarrhea.”
“Aunt Maddy, why is everyone so sure that Charlotte has the gene?”
“Because … oh, ask me something simpler, can’t you?” Great-aunt Maddy was looking rather confused.
“Have they tested her blood? Couldn’t someone else have the same gene too?” My breathing was slowly calming down.
“Oh, Charlotte is definitely a gene carrier.”
“Because it’s been found in her DNA?”
“My little angel, you’re asking the wrong person. I was always useless at biology—in fact, I don’t even know what DNA is. I was no good at maths either. Anything about numbers and formulas goes straight in one ear and out the other. I can only tell you that Charlotte came into the world on the very day calculated for her hundreds of years ago.”
“So your date of birth decides whether you have this gene or not?” I bit my lower lip. Charlotte had been born on the seventh of October, and I’d been born on the eighth. We were only a single day apart.
“More like the other way around,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “The gene decides the time of the carrier’s birth. They’ve worked it all out.”
“Well, suppose they made a mistake?”
One day’s difference! It was that simple. Someone had mixed the dates up. It wasn’t Charlotte who had this wretched gene, it was me. Or maybe we both had it. Or else … I sat down on the stool.
Great-aunt Maddy shook her head. “They didn’t make a mistake, my little angel. If there’s one thing these people are really good at, you can bet it’s arithmetic.”
Who were “these people,” anyway?
“Anyone can make a mistake now and then,” I said.
Great-aunt Maddy laughed. “Not Sir Isaac Newton, I’m afraid.”
“Newton worked out the date of Charlotte’s birth?”
“My dear child, I understand your curiosity. When I was your age, I was just the same. But for one thing, it’s sometimes better not to know all the answers, and for another, I really, really would like my sherbet lemons.”
“None of this makes any sense,” I said.
“That’s only how it looks.” Great-aunt Maddy patted my hand. “Even if you’re no wiser now than you were before, this conversation must stay private. If your grandmother finds out all I’ve told you, she’ll be furious. And when she’s furious, she’s even worse than usual.”
“I won’t say anything, Aunt Maddy. And I’ll go and get your sherbet lemons right now.”
“You’re a good child.”
“Just one more question. How long after gene carriers have first traveled in time do they do it again?”
Great-aunt Maddy sighed.
“Please!” I said.
“I don’t think there are any rules,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “Every gene carrier is probably different. But none of them can fix the times for themselves. If the travel is uncontrolled, it can happen every day, sometimes several times a day. That’s why the chronograph is so important. With its help, as I understand, Charlotte won’t be flung around helplessly in time. She can be sent to times that aren’t very dangerous, where nothing can harm her. So don’t worry about your cousin.”
To be honest, I was much more worried about myself.
“Then when a gene carrier is in the past, how long has she been gone in the present?” I asked breathlessly. “And the second time a traveler goes back in time, could it be all the way to the dinosaurs, when there was nothing but swamps around here?”
My great-aunt cut me short. “That’s enough, Gwyneth. I’ve no more idea than you have!”
