AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stopped. “Oh, come off it, Gwyneth! You don’t seriously believe I’m swallowing that story about your grandfather? As if he just happened by chance to be in the room where you were elapsing! It’s as unlikely as Lucy and Paul just happening to be at Lady Tilney’s. Or those men attacking us in Hyde Park by chance.”
“Oh, of course, I fixed all that in person, because I’d always wanted to stick a sword through someone. Not forgetting that I wanted to see what a man looks like with half his face shot away!” I snapped.
“What you may do in the future, and why—”
“Oh, be quiet!” I cried, angrily. “I’m sick and tired of all this! Ever since last Monday, I’ve felt like I was living in a nightmare that’s never going to end. When I think I’ve woken up, I find I’m still dreaming. There are millions of questions that no one will answer going around in my head, and everyone expects me to do my best for something I don’t understand one little bit!” I was walking on again, almost running, but Gideon easily kept up with me. There was no one on the stairs to ask us for the password. Why bother, if all the ways in and out were as secure as Fort Knox? I went up the stairs two steps at a time. “No one asked me if I wanted to be involved in this at all. I have to be pestered by crazy dancing masters and have my dear cousin show me all the things she can do but I’ll never be able to learn, and you … you…”
o;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.”
“But Mr. George really didn’t have anything at all to do with it,” I said, hesitantly moving away from my corner. “It wasn’t like that at all.” I mopped the tears off my face with the back of my hand. I’d better tell him the truth so that at least he couldn’t suspect poor Mr. George of disloyalty. “When I was sent to elapse alone for the first time, I met my grandfather here by chance.” Okay, maybe not the whole truth. “He was looking for the wine cel—well, never mind that. It was a peculiar meeting, especially once we’d realized who we were. He left the key and the password in hiding in this room for my next visit, so that we could talk again. And that’s why yesterday, I mean in 1956, I borrowed the name of Violet Purpleplum when I came back here. To meet my grandfather! He’s been dead for a few years now, and I miss him dreadfully. Wouldn’t you have done the same if you could? Talking to him again was so…” I fell silent once more.
Gideon said nothing. I stared at his outline and waited.
“How about Mr. George, then? He was already your grandfather’s assistant at the time,” he said at last.
“I did see him, but not for long, and my grandfather told him I was his cousin Hazel. He must have forgotten that ages and ages ago—to him it was an unimportant meeting a good fifty-five years in the past.” I put my hand on my midriff. “I think…”
