Free Ruby Red: Edelstein Trilogie 01 by Kerstin Gier Page A

the wall in the salon and slaughtered all the poor servants.
    “No, silly, of course those things wouldn’t have done her any good. But they wouldn’t have happened to her, because that chrono-thingy would have sent her somewhere else. Somewhere nice and peaceful. A place where nothing could harm her! But you risk your life instead of telling your family they’ve been teaching the wrong person.”
    “Maybe by now Charlotte has traveled in time as well. Then they’ll have what they wanted anyway.”
    Lesley sighed and began going through the stack of paper on her lap. She had prepared a file of useful information for me. Well, more or less useful. For instance, she had printed out photos of vintage cars. According to them, the car I’d seen on my first journey through time dated from 1906.
    “Jack the Ripper was haunting the East End in 1888. The stupid thing is, no one’s ever found out who he was. All sorts of people have been suspected, but there’s never been any proof. So if you ever lose your way in the East End in 1888, any man you meet is potentially dangerous. The Great Fire of London was in 1666, and there was plague in the city practically all the time, but 1348, 1528, and 1665 were particularly bad years. Then there’s the Blitz in the Second World War. The air raids began in 1940 and left almost all of London in ruins. You’d better find out if your house escaped being hit. If so, you’ll be safe there. Otherwise St. Paul’s Cathedral would be a good place, because it did get hit once, but almost miraculously, it stayed standing. So, you could hide there.”
    “It all sounds dreadfully dangerous,” I said.
    “Yes, I always thought of time travel as more romantic. I mean, I kind of imagined Charlotte in her own historical films. Dancing with Mr. Darcy at a ball, falling in love with some sexy Highlander. Telling Anne Boleyn it would be a really, really bad idea to marry Henry VIII. That kind of thing.”
    “Anne Boleyn’s the one they beheaded?”
    Lesley nodded. “There’s a great film with Natalie Portman. I could borrow us the DVD.… Gwen, please promise me you’ll talk to your mum today.”
    “I promise. I’ll do it tonight.”
    “Where’s Charlotte?” Cynthia craned her neck to look around the tree trunk. “I wanted to copy her Shakespeare essay. Er—I mean I wanted to get a few ideas from it.”
    “Charlotte’s not well,” I said.
    “What’s the matter with her?”
    “Diarrhea,” said Lesley. “Very bad. Spends all her time sitting on the loo.”
    “Ew, spare us the details!” said Cynthia. “Can I look at your essays, then, you two?”
    “We haven’t finished them yet,” said Lesley. “We’re going to watch Shakespeare in Love again first.”
    “You can read my essay,” Gordon Gelderman said in his deepest bass voice. His head appeared on the other side of the tree trunk. “All out of Wikipedia.”
    “I might just as well look up Wikipedia for myself,” said Cynthia.
    The bell rang, and break was over.
    “Double English,” groaned Gordon. “For a man, that’s torture. But I can see Cynthia slobbering already when she thinks of Prince Charming.”
    “Shut up, Gordon.”
    Everyone knew that Gordon never shut up. “I can’t imagine why you all think Mr. Whitman is so great. I mean, he’s such a poof!”
    “He is not!” Cynthia said indignantly, standing up.
    “He’s definitely gay!” Gordon followed her to the entrance. He’d be needling Cynthia all the way up to the second floor.
    Lesley rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she said, and gave me her hand to pull me up from the bench. “Off we go for our date with Prince Charming Squirrel!”
    We caught up with Cynthia and Gordon on the stairs up to the second floor. They were still talking about Mr. Whitman.
    “You can tell from that weird signet ring he wears,” said Gordon. “Only gay guys wear that sort of thing.”
    “My grandfather always wore a signet ring,” I said, although I didn’t