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I stepped aside and said, angrily, “Stop it!”
“And we shouldn’t always draw conclusions from what we’d do ourselves,” Gideon went on. His eyes looked darker and darker in the flickering light, and suddenly I felt afraid of him. “Maybe you simply put the key in your jeans pocket. Give it here.” He put out his hand.
“I don’t have a key, damn it!”
Gideon came slowly toward me. “Again, if I were you, I’d hand it over of my own accord. But like I said, we shouldn’t draw conclusions about other people from ourselves.”
At that moment the lightbulb finally fizzled out and expired.
Gideon was right in front of me, the beam of the flashlight shining somewhere on the wall. Apart from that beam, which acted as a spotlight, it was pitch-dark. “Well?”
“Don’t you dare come any closer.” I took a couple of steps back, until I came up against the wall. The day before yesterday he couldn’t have been too close for my liking. But now I felt as if I were confronting a stranger. Suddenly I lost my temper. “What’s the matter with you?” I spat. “I haven’t done anything to you! I don’t see how you can kiss me one day and then hate me the next. Why?” My tears were coming so fast that I couldn’t keep them from streaming down my cheeks. A good thing he couldn’t see that in the dark.
“Maybe because I don’t like being told lies.” In spite of my warning, Gideon was advancing on me, and this time, I couldn’t retreat any further. “Particularly by girls who throw themselves at me one day and get me knocked over the head the next.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“I saw you, Gwyneth.”
“What? Saw me where?”
“When I traveled back in time yesterday morning. I had a small errand to run, but I’d gone only a couple of yards when you were suddenly standing there in front of me—like a mirage. You looked at me and smiled as if you were pleased to see me. Then you turned and disappeared around the next corner.”
“When is this supposed to have been?” I was so confused that I stopped crying for a few seconds.
Gideon ignored my question. “When I went around the same corner a moment later, I was hit over the head, so I’m afraid I was in no position to have a conversation with you to clear things up.”
“You think … you think I knocked you out?” The tears were flowing again.
“No,” said Gideon. “I don’t think that. You weren’t holding anything when I saw you, and I doubt whether you could have hit so hard. No, you just lured me around the corner because someone was waiting for me there.”
Impossible. Totally, absolutely impossible.
“I’d never do a thing like that,” I finally managed to say reasonably clearly. “Never!”
“Yes, I was a little shocked myself,” said Gideon in an offhand tone. “When I was thinking we were … friends. But when you came back from elapsing yesterday evening smelling of cigarette smoke, it occurred to me that you might have been lying to me all along. Now, give me that key!”
I wiped the tears off my cheeks. Unfortunately more kept coming. I only just managed to suppress a sob, hating myself even more for crying. “If that’s true, then why did you tell everyone you hadn’t seen who hit you?”
“Because it’s true. I didn’t see who it was.”
“But you didn’t say anything about me, either. Why not?”
“Because I didn’t want Mr. George to … you’re not crying, are you?” The beam of the flashlight shone on my face again, dazzling me so that I had to close my eyes. I probably looked like a chipmunk, all stripy. Why had I bothered to put on mascara?
“Gwyneth.” Gideon switched off the flashlight.
Now what? A body search in the dark?
“Go away,” I said, sobbing. “I do not have any key on me, I swear I don’t. And whoever you saw, it can’t have been me. I would never, never let anyone hurt you.”
Although I couldn’t see a thing, I sensed that Gideon was standing right in front of me. His body warmth was like a radiant heater in the darkness. When his hand touched my cheek, I flinched. He quickly withdrew it again.
“I’m sorry,” I heard him whisper. “Gwen, I…” Suddenly he sounded helpless, but I was far too upset to feel any kind of satisfaction.
I don’t know how much time passed as we simply stood there. I was still shedding floods of tears. Whatever he was doing, I couldn’t see it.
After a while, he switched the flashlight on again, cleared his throat, and shone the beam on his watch. “Another three minutes before we travel back,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You’d better come away from that corner, or you’ll be landing on the chest in the chronograph room.” He went back to the sofa and picked up the cushions he had thrown on the floor. “You know, of all the Guardians, Mr. George has always struck me as one of the most loyal. Someone to be trusted whatever happened.”
