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“Be that as it may, I don’t want Gwyneth meeting him,” said Mum. “Those are my conditions. Gideon can do it by himself.”
“It’s not up to you to decide,” said Mr. de Villiers, and Dr. White snapped, “Conditions! So now she’s making conditions!”
“But she’s right! It won’t do anyone any good for us to drag the girl into this too,” said Gideon. “I’ll explain what happened, and I’m sure the count will agree with me.”
“He’s going to want to see her, anyway, to get an idea of her for himself,” said Falk de Villiers. “There’s no danger for her. She won’t even have to leave this house.”
“Mrs. Shepherd, I assure you, nothing will happen to Gwyneth,” said Mr. George. “I imagine your opinion of the count is based on prejudices that we’ll all be very happy to dispel.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to do that.”
“I am sure, dear Grace,” said Mr. de Villiers, “that you’d like to tell us on what grounds you feel such a dislike for the count—a man you’ve never met.”
Mum pursed her lips firmly.
“We’re listening!” said Mr. de Villiers.
Mum said nothing. At last she whispered, “It’s just … just a kind of feeling.”
Mr. de Villiers’s lips curled in a cynical smile. “I can’t help it, Grace—I do get the impression that you’re keeping something from us. What are you afraid of?”
“Who is this count anyway, and why aren’t I supposed to meet him?” I asked.
“Because your mother has a kind of feeling,” said Dr. White, straightening his jacket. “The man has been dead for over two hundred years, Mrs. Shepherd.”
“And that’s the way I’d like him to stay,” muttered Mum.
“Count Saint-Germain is the fifth of the twelve time travelers, Gwyneth,” said Mr. George. “You saw his portrait in the documents room just now. He was the one who first understood the way the chronograph works and decoded the old manuscripts. He not only found out how he could travel with its aid to any year he liked, on any day he liked, he also discovered the secret behind the secret. The Secret of the Twelve. With the help of the chronograph, he succeeded in tracing the four time travelers in the Circle born before him and initiating them into the mystery. The count sought and gained support from the most brilliant minds of his time, mathematicians, alchemists, magicians, philosophers—they were all fascinated by his work. Together, they deciphered the Ancient Writings and worked out the birth dates of the seven time travelers yet to be born before the Circle could be closed. In the year 1745, the count founded the Society of the Guardians here in London, the Secret Lodge of Count Saint-Germain.”
“The count had scientists, philosophers, and scholars such as Raimundus Lullus, Agrippa von Nettesheim, John Colet, Simon Forman, Samuel Hartlib, Sir Kenelm Digby, and John Wallis to thank for the decoding of the Ancient Writings,” said Mr. de Villiers.
None of those names rang a bell anywhere in my head.
“None of those names rings a bell anywhere in her head,” said Gideon sarcastically.
Could he really read thoughts? Just in case he could, I gave him a nasty look and thought, with all my might, You … stupid … show-off!
He looked away.
* * *
“I THOUGHT Sir Isaac Newton was one of the Guardians?” I asked.
“Indeed he was!” Mr. George replied.
“But Newton died in 1727.” I surprised myself by coming up with that fact. Lesley had told me when she phoned yesterday, and for some unfathomable reason, it had stuck in my mind. I wasn’t as stupid as this Gideon said after all.
“Correct,” said Mr. George, smiling. “That’s one of the advantages of traveling in time. You can make friends in the past as well as the present.”
“And what’s the secret behind the secret?” I asked.
“The Secret of the Twelve will be revealed when the blood of all twelve time travelers has been read into the chronograph,” said Mr. George solemnly. “That’s why the Circle has to be closed. It is the great task that we must perform.”
“But I’m the last of the Twelve, right? So this Circle should be complete with me.”
“And so it would be,” said Dr. White, “if your cousin Lucy hadn’t taken it into her head to steal the chronograph seventeen years ago.”
“Paul stole the chronograph,” said Lady Arista. “Lucy only—”
