Within four hours a ceasefire had been called for the first time in 131 years. Within four weeks the politicians were around the table in Budapest. Within four months every single English soldier was out of the peninsula. As for the Goliath Corporation, they were soon called to account over their deceit. They expressed wholly unconvincing ignorance of the whole affair and laid the blame entirely on Jack Schitt. I had hoped the Corporation would be chastized further, but at least it got Goliath off my back.

36.
Married

Landen and I were married the same day as peace was declared in the Crimea. Landen told me it was to save on the fee for bell-ringers. I looked around nervously when the vicar got to the bit about “Speak now or forever hold their peace” but there was no one there. I met with the Brontë Federation and they soon got used to the idea of the new ending, especially when they realized that they were the only people who objected. I was sorry about Rochester’s wounds and the burning down of his house, but I was very glad that he and Jane, after over a hundred years of dissatisfaction, finally found the true peace and happiness that they both so richly deserved.

THURSDAY NEXT
—A Life in SpecOps

THE RECEPTION turned out to be bigger than we thought and by ten o’clock it had spilled out into Landen’s garden. Boswell had got a little drunk so I popped him in a cab and sent him to the Finis. Paige Turner had been getting along well with the saxophonist—no one had seen either of them for at least an hour. Landen and I were enjoying a quiet moment to ourselves. I squeezed his hand, and asked:

“Would you really have married Daisy if Briggs hadn’t intervened?”

“I’ve got those answers you wanted, Sweetpea!”

“Dad?”

He was attired in the full dress uniform of a colonel in the ChronoGuard.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said and I made a few enquiries.”

“I’m sorry, Dad, I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You remember, we spoke about two minutes ago?”

“No.”

He frowned and looked at us both in turn, then at his watch.

“Great Scott!” he exclaimed. “I must be early. Damn these chronographs!”

He tapped the dial and left quickly without saying another word.

“Your father?” asked Landen. “I thought you said he was on the run?”

“He was. He is. He will be. You know.”

“Sweetpea!” said my father again. “Surprised to see me?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“Congratulations to the two of you!”

I glanced around at the party still in full swing. Time was not standing still. It wouldn’t be long before the ChronoGuard tracked him down.

“To hell with SO-12, Thursday!” said he, divining my thoughts and taking a glass from a passing waiter. “I wanted to meet my son-in-law.”