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"Ruby red, with G s the Circle of Twelve home into safe haven," ic of the raven, blah blah blah But I’ person Count Saint-Ger several yards away, and I could hear his voice in my head, and then there were those men with pistols and swords in Hyde Park, and I had to run a sword into one of them because otherwise he’d have killed Gideon, who is … who’s such a…" I took a deep breath, only to go headlong on the next minute "Gideon is a pain in the neck, he acts as if I were ahe kissed Charlotte, well, only on the cheek, but ht to have kissed hi about that first, after all, I’ve only known him a day or so, but suddenly he was so nice and then … oh, it all happened so fast … and everyone thinks I told Lucy and Paul ere visiting Lady Tilney because we need her blood, and we need some of Lucy and Paul’s blood too, but they need Gideon’s blood and raph And no one tellsto happen when everyone’s blood has been read into the chronograph, and sometimes I think they don’t know for certain theht to ask you about the Green Rider"

Lucas had half closed his eyes behind his glasses and was obviously trying desperately to make sense of my torrent of words "I have no idea what this Green Rider could mean," he said "I’m sorry, but it’s the first time I ever heard of him Maybe it’s the title of a film? Why don’t you ask … I know, you could simply ask me in the year 2011"

I looked at him, horrified

"Oh, dear, I see," said Lucas quickly "You can’t, because I’ll be dead by then, or old and blind and deaf drowsing away in some senior citizens’ home… No, no, please, I really don’t want to know"

This time I couldn’t hold back e as it sounds--I suddenly randfather dreadfully "I loved you very ave me a handkerchief and looked at me sympathetically "Are you sure? I don’t even like children Little pests, if you ask me… But maybe you were a particularly nice child In fact, I’m sure you were"

"Yes, I was But you were nice to all us kids" I blewfor a little while Then Lucas took a watch out of his pocket and said, "How much time do we have?"

"They sent , then We’ve wasted far too et pens and paper, and we’ll try to find some kind of system in all this chaos You’d better stay here Don’t move from the spot"

I just nodded When Lucas had left, I stared into nothing with ht It was important to keep a clear head now

Who knehen I’d s that hadn’t happened yet ought I to tell hi at it the other way around, I was desperately anxious for any inforht co in the wrong tiht, fro me?

Lucas stayed away for soan to doubt , and anyknife, to get blood out ofworried, I stood up and looked around for so I could use as a weapon There was a board with a rusty nail in it lying in a corner, but when I picked it up, it cruers At that very randfather came back with a notepad under his arh of relief

"Here, to stave off hunger pangs" Lucas tossed me the banana, took a third chair off the pile, placed it between us, and put the notepad on it "Sorry I was so long That idiot Kenneth de Villiers was upstairs getting intheir long noses into everything, wanting to be in control andthey know best!"

"How right you are," I murmured

Lucas shook his wrist to loosen it up "Then here goes--granddaughter You’re the Ruby, the twelfth in the Circle The Diamond, from the de Villiers family, was born two years before you So he’d be around nineteen in your tiain?"

"Gideon," I said, and just saying it out loud made me feel war over the paper "And he’s a pain in the neck, like all of theht the drift of what you were saying just now Aren’t you rather young for that kind of thing?"

"Goodness irls in our class are on the pill but ie, and Cassie Clarke, but Aishani’s parents were conservative Indians and would ie fancied girls, and as for Cassie--one day I was sure those spots would go away of their own accord, and then she’d be nicer to other people and stop snapping, "What do you think you’re gawping at in that silly way?" when anyone even glanced in her direction

"Oh, and of course Charlotte won’t have anything to do with sex either That’s why Gordon Gelderman calls her the Ice Queen But now I’roundhow Charlotte had looked at Gideon--and vice versa If you stopped to think how quickly Gideon had thought up the idea of kissing ine what had been going on between him and Charlotte over all the years they’d known each other

"What kind of pill?" asked Lucas

"How do youbut cow-gut condoms, if that I didn’t really want to know "Honestly, I’d rather not talk to you about sex, Grandpa"

Lucas looked athis head "And I’d rather not hear that word in your mouth I don’t mean Grandpa"

"Okay" I peeled the banana as Lucas went onnotes "What do you say instead?"

"Instead of what?"