Ruby Red: Edelstein Trilogie 01 Read Online Free PDF Page A

was a striking contrast to my blue eyes and fair skin. Lesley also managed to persuade me that the little crescent-shaped birthmark on my temple—the one Aunt Glenda always called my “funny little banana”—was intriguingly mysterious and chic. These days I thought I looked quite pretty, especially now that I no longer had braces, which had put my front teeth back where they ought to be and stopped me looking like a rabbit. Although of course I wasn’t nearly such a “delightful vision of beguiling charm” as Charlotte, which was how James would have put it. Ha, ha. I wished he could see her in that shapeless sack of a dress.
    “Gwyneth, my angel, would you like a sherbet lemon?” Great-aunt Maddy patted the stool next to her chair. “Sit down here and take my mind off all this a bit. Glenda is getting on my nerves, pacing up and down like that.”
    “You have no idea of a mother’s feelings, Maddy,” said Aunt Glenda.
    “No, I don’t suppose I do,” sighed Great-aunt Maddy. Maddy was a plump little person with cheerful, blue, childlike eyes and hair dyed golden blond. There was often a forgotten roller left in it.
    “Where’s Lady Arista?” I asked, taking a sherbet lemon.
    “Next door on the phone,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “But she’s speaking softly, so I’m afraid you can’t make out a word of it. By the way, those were the last sherbet lemons. You wouldn’t by any chance have time to pop around to Selfridges and get some more, would you?”
    “Of course I’ll go,” I said.
    Charlotte shifted her weight from one leg to the other, and Aunt Glenda instantly spun around.
    “Charlotte?”
    “No, it’s nothing,” said Charlotte.
    Aunt Glenda’s lips tightened.
    “Shouldn’t you be waiting on the ground floor?” I asked Charlotte. “Then you wouldn’t have so far to fall.”
    “Shouldn’t you just shut up when you’ve no idea what this is all about?” Charlotte snapped back.
    “Really, the last thing Charlotte can do with right now is silly remarks,” said Aunt Glenda.
    I was already beginning to regret coming downstairs.
    “On the first occasion the gene carrier never travels back farther than a hundred and fifty years,” explained Great-aunt Maddy kindly. “This house was finished in 1781, so Charlotte is perfectly safe here in the music room. At worst she might scare a couple of ladies playing the harpsichord.”
    “You bet she would, in that dress,” I said, so quietly that only my great-aunt could hear me. She giggled.
    The door swung open and Lady Arista came in. As usual, she looked as if she’d swallowed a ramrod. Or several. One for each arm, one for each leg, and one holding it all together in the middle. Her white hair was combed severely back from her face and pinned into a bun at the back of her neck, like a ballet teacher. The strict sort you wouldn’t want to tangle with. “There’s a driver on his way. The de Villiers family are expecting us at the Temple. Then Charlotte can be read into the chronograph the moment she returns.”
    I didn’t understand a word of this.
    “But suppose it doesn’t happen today after all?” asked Charlotte.
    “Charlotte, darling, you’ve felt dizzy three times already,” said Aunt Glenda.
    “It will happen sooner or later,” said Lady Arista. “Come along, the driver will be here any minute now.”
    Aunt Glenda took Charlotte’s arm, and together with Lady Arista, they left the room. As the door closed behind them, Great-aunt Maddy and I looked at each other.
    “Some people might think a person was invisible, don’t you agree?” said Great-aunt Maddy. “At least a good-bye or hello now and then would be nice. Or something really clever, like Dear Maddy, did you by any chance have one of those visions of yours that might help us? ”
    “And did you?”
    “No,” said Great-aunt Maddy. “Thank God, I didn’t. I’m always ravenously hungry after those visions, and I need to lose weight as it is.” She patted her