Steven Harper - The Havoc Machine

“My family,” Nikolai repeated. “I like it.”

“Feh,” Sofiya said. “Your papa won’t even make an honest woman of me.”

“Did you want me to?” Thad asked archly.

“You?” Sofiya snorted. “You aren’t man enough for this clockworker.”

Thad munched a sandwich and gazed off into space. Saint Petersburg chugged past the window. “True enough. Anyway, if I were looking to marry again, I think I’d fall in with someone like Dodd or Nathan.”

Sofiya came upright in shock. Then she rolled her eyes and kicked at his shin. “You!”

Nikolai uncorked his bottle with a squeak, and the smell of vodka drifted through the car. “Papas are supposed to make bad jokes that no one thinks are funny.”

“And their sons still laugh,” Thad said. “You need to be less concerned about rules, Niko.”

“Yes, Papa.” He drank.

Sofiya’s face grew more serious. “Thad, now that all this is over, do you intend to continue with your…other vocation?”

He looked at Nikolai, who was reading his book again. “I don’t see a need to.”

“Do you ever think about the promise you made to me?”

“Yes. But that’s not for a few years yet, is it? Who knows what’ll happen between now and then? When the time comes, if it comes, I’ll keep my promise, but I’ll hope it won’t come to that.”

“Hm.”

The train picked up speed. “Where are we going?” Nikolai interjected.

“Back to Warsaw, then farther south before winter really sets in,” Thad said.

“What are we doing in Warsaw?”

“More shows,” Thad said. And he would visit David’s and Ekaterina’s graves one last time. He hoped that, wherever they were, they were glad he was happy. He touched the tsarina’s pearls in his coat pocket, each one a grand possibility. “And after that, we’ll do whatever we want. It’s our choice.”

The train clattered ahead into a fascinating future.