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“There you are, Grace,” said Falk, his eyes twinkling at me.
“Who do you think you’re kidding, Falk?” My mum gave him one last dark look, then took my arm and led me away. “Come along—the others will be waiting for us before they start supper.”
“See you tomorrow, Gwyneth,” Falk called after us. “And … er … see you sometime, Grace.”
“See you,” I muttered. Mum muttered something too, but I couldn’t make out what it was.
“If you ask me, haystacks again,” said Xemerius. “They don’t fool me with their quarrels. I know people who fancy rolling in the hay when I see them.”
I sighed. Mum sighed as well, and held me closer to her as we went the last of the way to the front door. I stiffened slightly, but then I put my head on her shoulder. “You don’t have to quarrel with Falk over me. You’re worrying too much, Mum.”
“Easy for you to say so.… It’s not a nice feeling, thinking you’ve done everything wrong. I can tell you’re angry with me.” She sighed again. “And you’re right, really.”
“But I love you all the same,” I said.
Mum was fighting back tears. “And I love you more than you can imagine.” She murmured. We had reached the street outside the house, and she was looking around as if she was afraid of someone lying in wait for us in the dark. “I’d give anything for us to be a perfectly normal family living a perfectly ordinary life.”
“What exactly is normal?” I said.
“Not us, anyway.”
“It’s all a question of attitude. So how was your day?” I asked with a touch of irony.
“Oh, the usual.” Mum grinned faintly. “First a little argument with my mother, then a bigger argument with my sister, a bit of an argument with my boss at work, and finally another argument with my … former boyfriend, who just happens to be Grand Master of that amazingly secret Secret Lodge.”
“Told you so,” said Xemerius cheerfully. “Rolling in the hay!”
“There, you see, Mum. Perfectly normal.”
Mum smiled, all the same. “And how was your day, darling?”
“Oh, nothing special worth mentioning. Some trouble with Mr. Squirrel at school, next some dancing and etiquette lessons with that obscure secret society that goes in for time travel, and then, just before I got around to strangling my dear cousin, a little excursion to the year 1953 to do my homework in peace and quiet, so as to avoid more trouble with Mr. Squirrel at school tomorrow.”
“Doesn’t sound too bad.” Mum’s heels were clicking on the sidewalk. She looked around again.
“I really don’t think there’s anyone following us,” I reassured her. “They’re all too busy. The place is swarming with amazingly secret people.”
“The Inner Circle is meeting—that doesn’t often happen. They last all met when Lucy and Paul stole the chronograph. Usually they’re distributed all over the world.”
“Mum. Don’t you think it’s about time to tell me what you know? It does no one any good to keep me in the dark.”
“In every sense of the word,” said Xemerius.
Mum stopped. “You’re overestimating me! The little I do know wouldn’t be any use to you. It would probably just confuse you even more. Or worse—it might actually put you in danger.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t giving up that easily. “Who or what is the Green Rider? And why don’t Lucy and Paul want the Circle to close? Or do they want it to close, but only because they want to make use of the secret themselves?”
Mum rubbed her forehead. “Today’s the first I heard of any Green Rider. And as for Lucy and Paul, I’m sure their motives weren’t selfish. You’ve met Count Saint-Germain. He has ways and means of—” She stopped. “Oh, darling, believe me, nothing I could say would be any use to you.”
“Please, Mum! It’s bad enough with those men acting so mysterious and not trusting me, but you’re my mother!”
“Yes,” she said, and there were tears in her eyes again. “Yes, I am.” But obviously that argument wasn’t going to get me anywhere. “Come along, the taxi’s been waiting half an hour. It’s probably going to cost me half this month’s salary.”
I sighed, and followed her down the street. “We could go by Tube.”
“No, you need something hot inside you as soon as possible. And Nick and Caroline miss you terribly. They’d hate to have supper without you yet again.”
* * *
