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things.’
    â€˜Rubbish,’ Ruby said.
    Gerald looked at her, surprised. ‘You don’t think so?’
    â€˜Think has nothing to do with it,’ Ruby said. ‘I know so. And I’ll show you.’ Ruby stood and took Gerald’s hand. She dragged him over to a round table in the middle of the restaurant.
    â€˜What’s this supposed to prove?’ Gerald asked.
    â€˜Just shut up and follow me, okay?’ Ruby tugged on his hand and led him twice around the table, then back to the booth. She plopped down next to Sam with a look of accomplishment on her face.
    â€˜So?’ Gerald said. ‘What’s a guided tour of the restaurant meant to show me?’
    Ruby leaned forward and said in a low voice, ‘Your life is now forever changed.’
    Gerald started laughing. ‘What are you talking about? How can two laps of a table change my life?’
    â€˜Chaos,’ Ruby said.
    â€˜Chaos?’
    â€˜It’s chaos theory. If we hadn’t walked round that table we might have left this restaurant by now. For the rest of your life you are going to be a minute behind where you would have been. Every interaction you have with the world from now on—the things you see, the people you meet—will be different because of that little walk. And all the people you meet: their lives will be different too, even if only just the tiniest bit. The same goes for the people they meet, and so on—like ripples spreading on a pond.’
    Gerald wasn’t convinced. ‘So life is just one coincidence after another? There’s no grand plan?’
    â€˜I’m the coincidence queen, Gerald,’ Ruby said with a wink. ‘You can trust me.’
    Sam picked at his teeth. ‘Well, it’s no coincidence that this conversation is boring. We get to meet Walter tonight. Terrific. Anything actually exciting going to happen, Gerald?’
    A shadow passed over Gerald’s face. ‘Two things,’ he said. ‘And I can’t bear thinking about them.’

Chapter 4

    V i was still fussing over seating plans for the party when Gerald walked through the front door, weighed down with shopping bags.
    â€˜I’m not sure the archbishop should be sitting next to Lady Carstairs,’ Vi said to Eddie. ‘Not if the gossip magazines are to be believed.’
    â€˜Why don’t you move the bishop?’ Eddie said. ‘Stick him next to Walter.’ Then, under his breath, he mumbled, ‘That ought to shut him up for a bit.’
    Vi bristled and straightened in her chair. ‘I will not have you white-anting Walter.’ She grabbed up her handbag from under the table and pulled out a key ring. She jangled five golden keys in Eddie’s face. ‘See this? I am only three away from graduating from the Drawing Room of Indifference to the Library of Absolute Insight on the fourth floor,’ she said. ‘The fourth floor, Eddie! No one in Walter’s course has ever got that far. He says I’m gifted.’
    Eddie snorted. ‘A gift, more like.’
    â€˜What was that?’ Vi skewered her husband with a rapier stare. ‘You know what’s in the Library of Absolute Insight, don’t you?’
    Eddie emitted a weary sigh. ‘The Chalice of Inner Stability?’
    â€˜Exactly,’ Vi said. ‘The Chalice of Inner Stability. Walter says it is essential for my core structural strength. And from there it’s a mere eleven storeys until I reach the Attic of Ultimate Fulfilment.’ Vi’s face flushed at the thought if it. ‘I’m the best student he’s ever had.’
    â€˜For what he’s getting paid,’ Eddie said, ‘you’re the only student he’ll ever need.’
    Gerald knew when to make himself scarce. He reached the lift just as his mother exploded.
    From the tall window in his bedroom, Gerald gazed out at the line of chimney pots that ran the length of the rooftops