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"I aood friend of Gwyneth’s," replied Xeht even say her best friend She’s going to buy lance

"The ian "When Gideon and Gwyneth visited Lady Tilney, they were expected All of us here can confirm that we chose the date and time of their visit entirely at rando for them It can’t conceivably be coincidence"

"Which means soe, as leafing through one of the folio volumes "The only question is who"

"Or when,at me

"And why," I said

Gideon frowned "Why is obvious They need our blood to read it into the chronograph they stole That’s why they brought reinforcements"

"But there’s not a word about your visit in the Annals," said Mr George "And yet the two of you were in contact with at least three of the Guardians of the tiuards posted at the doors Can you remember their names?"

"The First Secretary ess, or some such name He said the brothers Jonathan and Timothy de Villiers were expected to elapse there early in the evening and Lady Tilney had already elapsed early that ravia in a cab He was supposed to wait at the door for us there, but e caet away on foot, find a place to lie low, and wait to travel back"

I feltwhen I re low I quickly helped myself to a biscuit and let my hair fall over my face

"The report that day ritten by a Guardian in the Inner Circle, a , says a little about the weather, then he ettes’ protest march in the city, says Lady Tilney turned up punctually to elapse, and that’s it No unusual incidents, he adds There’s no mention of the de Villiers twins, but they too were hed, and closed the folio volue It all points to a conspiracy in our own ranks"

"And the main question," said Mr Whitman, "remains how Lucy and Paul could know that you tould visit Lady Tilney’s house at that time and on that day"

"Wow," said Xeh to make your head spin"

"The answer to that is obvious," said Dr White, his eyes resting on loo, but obviously all the others were assu that at some future date I’d feel that I had to tell Lucy and Paul ere going to visit Lady Tilney, for a reason so far unknown It was all terribly confusing, and the longer I thought about it, the ical it seemed to me Suddenly I felt very much alone

"What sort of freaks are you all?" said Xe head down froantic chandeliers "Tis in my time, but this is new even toI don’t understand," I said "Why were you expecting to find soe? I mean, if there had been, then you’d have seen it already, and you’d have known that ere going there that day and ould happen to us Or is it like that film with Ashton Kutcher, The Butterfly Effect? And every time one of us coed?"

"That’s an interesting and very philosophical question, Gwyneth," said Mr Whitman, as if ere in one of his classes "I don’t know the fil to the laws of logic, that the tiniest change in the past can have a great influence on the future There’s a short story by Ray Bradbury in which--"

"Perhaps we can put off philosophical discussion to some other time," Falk interrupted him "At the moment I’d like to hear the details of the aet away"

I looked at Gideon Right, it was up to hiive his pistol-free version of the story I helped myself to another biscuit

"We were lucky," said Gideon, his voice just as cal at once Lady Tilney didn’t seem at all surprised to see us The table was laid for afternoon tea, and when Paul and Lucy turned up and the butler stationed himself in the doorway, Gwyneth and I escaped into the next room and down the servants’ stairs The cab had disappeared, so we got away on foot" He didn’t see of his eyelids, no artificial looking up, not a trace of uncertainty in his voice All the saht his version of the story lacked a certain soe," said Dr White "If the ambush had been properly planned, they’d have been aret away"

"My head’s still spinning," said Xe a subjunctive to get what’s happened in the future and the past mixed up"

I looked expectantly at Gideon If he was going to stick to the pistol-free version, he’d have to coht idea now

"I think we simply took them by surprise," said Gideon