Page 19 of The Seven Sisters
‘Has Georg Hoffman arrived?’ I asked them as we both sat down.
‘Yes, but we’ve been told to wait here. He and Ma have disappeared off somewhere. Typical Pa Salt, mysterious to the last,’ Electra commented acerbically.
The six of us sat waiting tensely until Georg eventually appeared on the terrace with Marina.
‘Sorry to keep you so long, girls; there was something I had to organise. My condolences to you all,’ he said stiffly, reaching out his hand around the table and shaking each of ours in the usual formal Swiss manner. ‘May I sit down?’
‘Of course,’ I said, indicating the chair next to me. I studied him, dressed immaculately in a dark suit, the creases on his tanned face and his receding silver-grey hair telling me he was probably in his early sixties.
‘I’ll be inside if anyone needs me,’ said Marina with a nod, before walking off in the direction of the house.
‘Well, girls,’ Georg said. ‘I am so very sorry that the first time I meet you in person is under such tragic circumstances. But of course, I feel as though I know each of you very well through your father. The first thing I must tell you is that he loved you all very much. Not only that, but he was passionately proud of who you have all become. I spoke to him just before he . . . left us, and he wanted me to tell all of you this.’
I was surprised to see a glint of tears in Georg’s eyes – I knew how unusual it was for a man such as he to show any emotion, and I warmed to him somewhat.
‘The first thing to do is to get the finances out of the way and reassure all of you that you will be provided for, at some level, for the rest of your lives. However, your father was adamant that you should not live like lazy princesses, so you will all receive an income which will be enough to keep the wolf from the door, but never allow you to live your lives in luxury. That part, as he stressed to me, is what you must all earn yourselves, just as he did. However, your father’s estate is held in trust for all of you and he has given me the honour of managing it for him. It will be down to my discretion to give you further financial help if you come to me with a proposition or a problem.’
All of us remained silent, listening intently to what Georg was telling us.
‘This house is also part of the trust, and Claudia and Marina have both agreed that they are happy to stay on and take care of it. On the day of the last sister’s death, the trust will be dissolved and Atlantis can be sold and the proceeds divided between any children you may have among you. If there are none, then the money will go to a charity of your father’s choice. Personally,’ Georg commented, ‘I think what your father has done is most clever: making sure the house is here for the rest of your lives, so you know you have a safe place to return to. But of course, your father’s ultimate wish is for all of you to fly away and forge your own destinies.’
I watched the other sisters exchanging glances, unsure whether they were pleased with Pa’s decision or not. For myself, I realised that practically and financially, little had changed. I still had the Pavilion, for which I paid a nominal rent to Pa, and my career would provide comfortably for any other immediate needs.
‘Now, there is one further thing that your father has left you, and I must ask you all to come with me. Please, this way.’
Georg stood up and, instead of walking towards the front door of the house, he traversed the side of it and we followed him, like lambs after a shepherd, through the gardens. Eventually, we arrived in a hidden garden that sat behind a wall of immaculately clipped yews. It looked directly onto the lake, with a spectacular uninterrupted view of the sunset and the mountains on the other side.
From the terrace that sat in the centre of it, there were steps leading down to a small, pebbled cove where we sisters had swum often in the summer in the clear, cool waters. I also knew that it was Pa’s favourite spot in the gardens. If I couldn’t find him in the house, I’d usually find him sitting here, with the sweet smell of lavender and the scent of roses emanating from the well-tended flower beds.
‘So,’ said Georg, ‘here we are. And this is what I wish to show you.’
He pointed to the terrace and we all stared at the strange but beautiful sculpture that had appeared in the centre of it.
Gathering round, we studied the object in fascination. It consisted of a stone plinth rising to just below hip height, with an unusual circular structure set on top of it. As I peered at it, I saw that the shape was made up of an intricate series of slender, overlapping bands, enclosing a small golden ball at their centre. On closer inspection, I realised that the ball was in fact a globe, with the outline of the continents engraved upon it, and that it was skewered by a slim metal rod with an arrow at one end of it. Around the circumference was a further band, depicting the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac.
‘What is it?’ asked CeCe, speaking for all of us.
‘It is an armillary sphere,’ said Georg.
Seeing that we looked none the wiser, Georg continued. ‘The armillary sphere has existed for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks originally used them to determine the positions of the stars, as well as the time of day. These,’ he said, indicating the golden bands encircling the globe, ‘all depict the equatorial, latitudinal and longitudinal lines of the earth. And the meridian line, which encircles all of them, and has the twelve signs of the zodiac inscribed on it, runs from north to south. The central rod points directly to Polaris, the North Star.’
‘It’s beautiful,’ breathed Star, bending over to take a closer look.
‘Yes, but what does it have to do with us?’ asked Electra.
‘It isn’t part of my remit to explain that,’ said Georg. ‘Although, if you look closely, you’ll see that all of your names appear on the bands I pointed out just now.’
We all bent in closer, and saw that Georg was right.
‘Here’s yours, Maia,’ said Ally, pointing to it. ‘It has numbers after it, which look to me like a set of coordinates,’ she said, turning to her own and studying them. ‘Yes, I’m sure that’s what they are. It’s what we use to navigate on the sea all the time.’
‘And there are inscriptions too, but they seem to be engraved in a different language,’ commented Electra.
‘They’re in Greek,’ I said, immediately recognising the lettering.
‘What do they say?’ asked Tiggy.
‘I’d have to get some paper and a pen and write them down to work them out,’ I said, looking closely at my own inscription.
