Ruby Red Trilogy
Ruby Red AuthorKerstin GierOriginal titleRubinrotTranslatorAnthea BellCountryGermany (location of original publication)LanguageGermanSeriesRuby Red TrilogyGenreRomance, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical FictionPublisherArena Verlag (German), Henry Holt and Co.(English translation)200910 May 2011Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)Pages336ISBN978-142992121-3Followed bySapphire Blue
Sapphire Blue AuthorKerstin GierOriginal titleSaphirblauTranslatorAnthea BellCountryGermany (location of original publication)LanguageGermanSeriesRuby Red TrilogyGenreRomance, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical FictionPublisherArena Verlag (German), Henry Holt and Co.(English translation)201010 May 2011Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)Pages362ISBN978-125003416-8Preceded byRuby Red Followed byEmerald Green
Emerald Green AuthorKerstin GierOriginal titleSmaragdgrünTranslatorAnthea BellCountryGermany (location of original publication)LanguageGermanSeriesRuby Red TrilogyGenreRomance, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical FictionPublisherArena Verlag (German), Henry Holt and Co.(English translation)20108 October 2013Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)Pages464ISBN978-080509267-7Preceded bySapphire Blue
The Ruby Red Trilogy is a series of three young adult fantasy novels by German writer Kerstin Gier. The three books are: Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green. The books have been translated into over twenty-seven languages and sold internationally. The series follows the story of Gwendolyn Shepherd, a time-traveling girl living in contemporary London.
Plot
Ruby Red
Gwyneth Shepherd, a 16-year-old student, feels dizzy for the first time during lunch at her school in London. Not long after, she unintentionally jumps through time while leaving the house. At first, Gwen is doubtful about her jump in time, since her cousin Charlotte Montrose has always been destined to have inherited the time travel gene that is passed down through the females in their family. Charlotte had been prepared for that duty her whole life, and resents Gwyneth for messing up her life plans. Gwen experiences two more uncontrolled jumps through time, during the third of which she witnesses herself, or a double of hers, kissing a boy she has never met at a ball in the 1700s. After her third jump, Gwen’s best friend Lesley convinces her to tell her mother, who had apparently counterfeited Gwen’s birth documents to protect her from the Guardians. The Lodge is skeptical of the circumstances, but decide to watch Gwen to confirm that she has in fact inherited the time travel gene. Gwen travels through time once more and is finally acknowledged as the final time traveler, the twelfth, whose symbolic gem is the Ruby. Gwen’s blood is fed to the chronograph, the time travel machine that contains secrets of its own, so that she can use it to travel through time smoothly and avoid uncontrolled jumps. The chronograph is also the second one made, the first one having been stolen by Lucy, the daughter of Gwyneth's Uncle Harry, and Paul, Falk de Villiers younger brother. Gwyneth is assigned the arrogant and disapproving Gideon de Villiers to watch her. Soon after this, Gwyneth is scheduled to meet the founder of the lodge, the powerful Count Saint-Germain. For reasons unexplained to Gwen, her mother is strictly against the meeting. Despite this, Gwen travels to meet the Count, hoping she might find some answers. However, Gwen is only left with more questions, and is also suspicious of the Count, who is believed to possess telepathy. After the meeting, the stagecoach of their carriage is instructed by someone unknown to take the two to a park, where they are promptly attacked by three men. Gideon and Gwen ward them off, then travel back to their present time. The next day, Gwen is called back to the Lodge, where she is surprised to find that she is needed in order to talk to someone in the past, her great-great grandmother, and the eighth time traveler, Margaret Tilney, in order for her blood to be read in the chronograph, since Gideon had made two attempts to gather Margaret's blood, but both times, she had refused. The two travel back in time where Margaret is expecting them, despite the exact date that was set in the chronograph to travel back in time being kept secret. Lucy and Paul make their appearance, urging Gwyneth to trust them, and to make sure that all twelve time traveler's blood not be read into the chronograph, for fear that the big event that will happen that may cause more destruction than good. Gideon threatens Lucy with a gun, and makes her escort him and Gwyneth out the house, and as the two are running away, she tells Gwen to look up The Green Rider. The two make their escape to a nearby church, inside a confessional booth, where Gideon, unexpectedly, kisses Gwen.
Sapphire Blue
In the prologue, Lucy and Paul are traveling back from watching Hamlet the play in 1602 when they witness a murder. In the present, Gideon has just kissed Gwen when they are disturbed by a gargoyle demon named Xemerius, whom only Gwen can see. They go back to their own time and travel by taxi back to the Lodge. Along the way, Gideon reveals that he lives alone in an apartment and after his father died, his mother remarried a rich French man, and the two moved to France and had another child named Raphael, Gideon's younger brother. He also reveals that he finds the time travel gene to be more of a curse, since it means he cannot travel outside England unless in the company of the Guardians and the chronograph. Xemerius, follows them back to the Temple, where Gwen allows him to follow her around, believing that he will come in useful for information. Gideon and Gwen meet with the members of the Inner Circle to discuss how Lucy and Paul knew about their visit to Lady Tilney. All the members, aside from Mr. George and Gideon, suspect Gwen told them, though there is no proof. Gwen is sent to elapse to the year 1948, the same year as the London Olympic Games, in order to fulfill her quota of time travel for the day. After landing in 1948, despite Mr. George's assurance that no one would be there, Gwen meets Lord Lucas Montrose, her grandfather in the alchemical laboratory. Lucas explains that Gwen gave him a note to meet in that room. While talking, Gwen explains that she is his granddaughter, that Lucy and Paul stole the chronograph and went to the year 1912, and about her current predicament of being the Ruby in the time traveling circle, her suspicions about Count Saint-Germain, her confusion over the secret of the chronograph, and her feelings towards Gideon. The two promise to meet again, at the later time of 1956, and Lucas promises to store a key in the bricks, as well as the password. The next day at breakfast, Lady Arista tells Gwen that Charlotte will from now on be teaching her how to be a proper time traveler, much to Gwen's dismay. After school, Gwen and Charlotte are taken by Mr. Marley to the Temple where Gwen meets Giordano, who has an immediate dislike for her. Gwen is taught dance while at the same time being quizzed on history, all in preparation for a soiree that Gwen must attend on orders of Count Saint-Germain. After lessons, she is taken back home by Gideon who is distraught that Raphael has run away from home, though the next day at school, Lesley, Cynthia, and Gwen discover that he would be attending St. Lennox High with them. On their way to the Temple, Gwen is given shocking news from Xemerius that Gideon, having elapsed earlier in the day, was knocked in the head by someone and left unconscious, though later on, she finds out that he is okay. After dance and history lessons, she is sent to elapse to 1956 where she meets Lucas under the disguise of being his cousin, Hazel, and the two go to a cafe. Lucas tells her that he found out that elapsing to the past, then using the chronograph to elapse further back into the past was entirely possible, and Lucas sent Lucy and Paul to 1602 to see Hamlet. When they traveled back, they told Lucas of the murder they witnessed, and are shocked to find it was Count Saint-Germain who murdered Lancelot de Villiers, the first time traveler, and his ancestor. The two head back to the Temple, and before Gwen disappears, he tells her that the Count had enemies in the Florentine Alliance, that he had private documents not recorded in the Annals, and that reading all twelve of the time traveler's blood into the chronograph was not the only thing that had to be done in order to reveal its secret. After traveling back to the past, Gideon is there, who questions why Gwen smelled of smoke, though she tries to play it off that she smoked. Gwen invites Lesley over, and Mr. Bernard brings Lord Montrose's copy of The Green Rider, which has a series of numbers on a paper; a code that Lesley breaks, but can't make out the meaning of the decoded message. The next day, Gwen and Gideon elapse, and Gideon reveals he believed he was hit in the head by Gwen, but knows that she wouldn't do anything to harm him. The next day is the soiree, and after traveling to the church and elapsing, they meet Rakoczy, who takes them to the soiree hosted by Lord and Lady Brompton. Gideon is led away by Lavinia Rutland and Gwen befriends Lady Brompton and another woman, while having an immediate dislike for Mr. Merchant, who groped her, and Lady Lavinia, who flirts with Gideon. After accidentally drinking punch tinged with liquor, Gwen sings the song Memory from the musical Cats, with Gideon on the piano. Afterward, she meets the Count again, and also Lord Alastair, a man who descended from Conte di Madrone who founded the Florentine Alliance as a means of ridding the earth of demons, whom he believes are the time travelers. The ghost of Conte di Madrone behind Lord Alastair shouts curses at the travelers, along with making several threats. Gideon and Gwen leave the soiree to go to the church and back to the present, though Gideon is angry that Gwen had drunk the punch. Lesley sleeps over and the two search for clues to The Green Rider, with no results. The next day, Raphael correctly guesses the series of numbers and letters is a sort of GPS code, and while they are left to figure it out, Gwen heads to the Temple to elapse to the day before the soiree to meet with the Count. After Gideon is sent away with Lady Lavinia, the Count is delighted to see that Gwen has fallen for Gideon, stating that women in love were much easier to control, and congratulates Gideon for his work. Shocked, angry, and sad, Gwen confronts Gideon about it after they elapse to the present again, to which he denies pretending to fall in love with her, but doesn't deny tricking her. Gwen leaves the Temple, angry and heartbroken. In the epilogue, Paul meets with Lord Alastair, who gives him the Count's secret papers in exchange for the family trees of the male and female line of time travelers. Paul refuses to give the papers, claiming Alastair broke their promise by not coming alone and bringing his men. The three duel, but Paul is badly injured in his arm, and Gideon suddenly shows up, saving Paul, but not the documents about the family trees. Before Paul disappears, he urges Gideon, who truly does love Gwen, to read the secret documents and keep the circle from being closed in order to keep Gwen from dying.
Emerald Green
After the events of Sapphire Blue, Gwenyth explains her heartbreak to Lesley, who sympathizes with her, but also gently reminds her that she has a mission to do. With the help of Raphael, the coordinates that were left after decoding the numbers found in Lord Montrose's copy of The Green Rider point to Gwenyth's house being where the treasure is most likely hiding. Xemerius confirms this after going throughout the house and discovering that there was a chest between the walls behind the painting of one of Gwenyth's ancestors. Nick wakes up and notices Gwen talking to Xemerius about the hidden treasure, and agrees to help out. The two go down to remove the painting, only to be caught by Mr. Bernard, who explains that a chisel and hammer was needed to break through the bricks, as he was the one who hid the treasure on behalf of her grandfather, and agrees to do it that evening, when Lady Arista and Glenda will be gone. At school, Cynthia invites Lesley, Charlotte, and Gwen to her party, though all her guests are forced to wear green, and Lesley dismisses Raphael's attempts to help out more with the mysteries, though Gwen correctly guesses that Lesley likes Raphael. After school, Gideon meets up with Gwyneth at the Temple and offer to stay friends with her, to which she refuses and storms away. After elapsing back to 1956, she meets her grandfather, Lucas, again, and the two try to work out what he hid in the chest behind the bricks. Eventually, Lucas figures out that it is the first chronograph, and Gwyneth realizes that with it, she can travel back in time whenever she wants, though with a certain limit, and Lucas brings her to the Dragon Hall and explains to her how to work the chronograph, and uses the chronograph to have Gwyneth travel even further back in time to visit Lady Tilney, who was expecting her. Lady Tilney gives her a knitted pig, which Gwyneth later gives to her sister, but does not give her any advice or warnings, much to Gwyneth's dismay. After traveling back to the present, Gideon finds her again and tries to patch things over, but Gwyneth still refuses and heads home. After dinner, Mr. Bernard starts to hammer through the bricks, while Charlotte is kept busy playing Scrabble with Maddy. The chest is brought out, and the key, which Gwyneth found after elapsing a few days earlier before she met Lucas the first time, is the same one that Gwyneth had given to Lesley. Upon opening the chest, the first chronograph is found, which is given to Gwyneth. That same night, Gwyneth elapses to meet Lucas in the past again, and though he is now married to Arista and they have had Harry, he still does not have much information about Lucy and Paul. The two agree to meet again much closer to Gwyneth's birth date, when he is Grandmaster of the Lodge, and when he has more time to collect information about Lucy and Paul. After returning to the present, she is caught by Charlotte, who demands to know what she is carrying, but after Mr. Bernard intercepts before she can forcefully find out, Charlotte vows to find out what Gwyneth is up to. Gwyneth makes sure the chronograph is hidden inside a wall she tore down at the back of her closet, stuffed inside a stuffed animal crocodile, before she falls asleep. The next day, Charlotte is announced to be sick, though Gwyneth suspects she faked her illness to search her room, but later on in the day, Gwyneth pretends that she has caught the cold as well to avoid going to the ball that was to be held that day. At the Temple, the meeting with the Count at the ball is postponed, and Gwyneth elapses, then is sent home. That same night, she elapses again, though is nearly caught by Glenda and Charles who at the time, was living in her room. She meets with her grandfather who gives her the book Anna Karenina, though the middle of the book is all the information he is able to collect since the last time she visited him and the first and last 300 page are the genuine text. After going back to the present, she is intercepted by Charlotte again, who claims that she is closer to finding out what Gwyneth is hiding. The next morning, while Gwyneth is "resting" from her fake cold, Mr. Marley, and another man named Mr. Brewer, after a tip from Charlotte, come into Gwyneth's room and discover the chest the chronograph was hidden in, creating quite a mess and a ruckus, though after they leave, Gwyneth assures Maddy that the chronograph was moved and the only thing they would find in the chest was her school atlas and a collection of Jane Austen novels. Though Mr. Marley, who later comes to collect Gwyneth to go to the Temple to elapse, is apologetic about the matter, Mr. Whitman is suspicious. While elapsing, Gideon goes along with her, also wondering why Charlotte suspected her of having the chronograph, though Gwyneth lies and says it was used as a card table for Texas hold 'em. Gideon later reveals he has gotten Elaine Burghley's blood, and that he has suspicions about the Count's motives. He then asks Gwyneth if she was willing to let someone die if there were a cure for all the diseases of mankind. Gwyneth answers that even one human life seems too. high a price to pay, though from a practical viewpoint, she would allow it. The next day, Gwyneth is over her cold, and she is prepared to meet the Count again at the ball held by Lord and Lady Pympoole-Bothame, the parents of James, at her school, though in the past, it was their house, and it is revealed that Charlotte has lost more of her credibility, after stealing Lesley's backpack, calling the Lodge numerous times and searching Gwyneth's room, but still not finding the chronograph. While being led by Mr. George to elapse, he reveals the reason they must go to the ball is to lure Lord Alastair, as well as the traitor among the Guardians, so it can be accurately recorded in the Annals. After elapsing to the ball, Gideon tells the Count that he got Lady Tilney's blood, and he then leads Gwyneth to dance. During the dance, Lady Lavinia dances with Gideon while Gwyneth meets up with James and urges him to meet her at Hyde Park to talk about his horse Hector. After running away from Gideon's reprimanding about attracting attention, she meets a drunken Rakoczy who tries to get her to drink something strong, but is thwarted by Gideon. Gwyneth runs away again to an empty room, and Gideon follows her, trying to assure her that he has no feelings for Lady Lavinia. While arguing, Gwyneth discovers her past self staring at them from her third uncontrolled time travel, and kisses Gideon as a distraction. After her younger self leaves, Lord Alastair, Lord Alcott, and Lady Lavinia corner them in the room where it is revealed that Lord Alcott is the traitor among the Guardians, and Lord Alastair paid a good amount of money to both Alcott and Lavinia to help in his plans. Lavinia managed to take away Gideon's concealed gun, and the two are left defenseless. Lavinia is sent away and Alcott and Alastair fight Gideon and Gwyneth. Although Gideon manages to pin Alastair's arm to the wall with a saber and Gwyneth kills Alcott, Alastair manages to run his sword through Gwyneth. After a brief sensation of becoming a ghost, Gwyneth finds herself back in the present, and aside from a scratch, she is unharmed. She is sent home, but Gideon shows up during supper asking to see Gwyneth, and the two go up to her room, where Gideon expresses his relief to find her alive, and reveals that, according to the papers given to him by Paul, she is technically immortal, which is how she survived the attack, and that in order to get the philosopher's stone, the secret of the chronograph that will cure mankind's diseases, someone has to die, which is Gwyneth. Lesley later shows up, and after deciding Gideon no longer needs to be excluded, explains how Lucas, Lucy, and Paul found out that the Count intends to get the philosopher's stone and make himself immortal. However, Gwyneth must take her own life to have the prophesies come true, and to allow the Count to become immortal, and she is supposed to do it because of Gideon. The next day, when Gwyneth is taken back to elapse, along with her mother who was also invited, she accidentally overhears the Inner Circle's interrogation of her mother. After tracking down the midwife who supposedly delivered Gwyneth, it is revealed that Lucy was the one who gave birth to Gwyneth, and Grace gave the midwife a large sum of money to record the wrong date on the birth certificate and to say that Grace was the one who gave birth. Lucy and Paul were forced to leave Gwyneth behind, and Grace and Nicholas raised her as one of their own. After hearing the shocking news, Gwyneth and Gideon escape to the chronograph room and elapse, despite Gideon needing to finish out Operation Black Tourmaline and Sapphire. After traveling back to the present, Gideon is taken away to meet with the Inner Circle while Gwyneth and her mother clear matters up. After meeting with Madame Rossini to gather green costumes for Cynthia's party that night, and some clothing from 1912, Gwyneth takes Gideon to the roof where she hid the chronograph, knowing Charlotte is afraid of heights. Gideon has his blood read into the chronograph, and with the circle now complete, the philosopher's stone is revealed, and Gideon hides the salt-like substance. The two go to the church, change into their 1912 clothes, and elapse to meet Lady Tilney, Lucy and Paul, where they try to come up with a plan to keep the circle on the second chronograph from being closed, now that they know the truth, and they figure that the Count is somehow pulling strings from the past to get the Guardians to do his bidding. Later on, after returning to the present, they meet Lesley and Raphael at the party, where they find their classmates in a drunken manner after the punch is spiked with vodka, and Charlotte, also drunk, is singing karaoke and revealing all she knows about Count Saint-Germain and the time travelers. Gideon gets her home while Lesley, Raphael, and Gwyneth go back to Gideon's apartment to come up with a plan for finding out how to keep the circle from being closed on the second chronograph, and the possibility that the Count is still living in the present, disguised as someone else. The next day, Lesley, Gideon, Raphael, and Gwyneth travel to the subway tracks, and Gideon and Gwyneth elapse to try and stop the younger Gideon from delivering the letter about Operation Black Tourmaline and Sapphire. They run into Gideon's younger self and knock him out, and Dr. Harrison appears, assuring them that he won't deliver the letter under instructions from Lady Tilney. They elapse back to the present, then go back to the past and meet James at Hyde Park where Gideon gives him the smallpox vaccine. They elapse back to the present, they go to the Temple to elapse and meet the Count. Gwyneth stays behind to talk with the Count while Gideon is sent back to carry out the operation. However, Gwyneth is poisoned by Rakoczy, and after traveling back to the present, it is revealed that Mr. Whitman is Count Saint-Germain, but under cosmetic surgery. After Gwyneth was born, the Count began to age, as he was the one previously immortal, and in order to successfully become immortal again with the philosopher's stone, Gwyneth had to take her own life over love. Lucas came close to discovering the truth, which was why Marley senior had to poison him, and Lucy and Paul, who also discovered the truth, had to hide with the chronograph in 1912. Mr. Whitman held the Guardians at gunpoint and locked them in the chronograph room after the circle closed on the second chronograph, and plans to kill Gideon once he elapses back to the present in order to force Gwyneth to take her life. Gideon comes back and Mr. Whitman shoots him, and Gwyneth is about to take her life when Dr. White, who was injured earlier by Mr. Whitman, hits him before falling back down again. Gideon gets up, unharmed, and reveals that after the circle closed, he took the philosopher's stone to 1912, instead of to the Count, where Lucy and Paul dissolved it in water and he drank it, making him immortal, and able to live forever with Gwenyth. In the epilogue, Lucy and Paul, now part of the Secret Service, are expecting another baby, and have both taken new names as Mr. and Mrs. Bernard.
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