Sophia couldn’t help it; she found herself smiling. “I wouldn’t say that. We really appreciate your inviting us to sit with you.” She knew it sounded very stiff and serious.
Calixta smiled at her. “Not at all, sweetheart. My pleasure.”
A knock at the door interrupted their conversation, and Calixta called, “Come in.”
A waiter from the dining car rolled a cart into the compartment. “Three plates of eggs, ma’am.”
“And they actually smell like eggs. Thank you,” Calixta said, reaching into her purse for a coin.
After the waiter had left, they ate breakfast, and soon Sophia realized that the warm food and the dull hum of the train were making her drowsy. “Why don’t you sleep in the bunk?” Calixta suggested.
“I should stay awake,” Sophia murmured.
“Nonsense. You need to sleep. Theo and I will keep watch.”
Sophia nodded, not bothering to ask what they would keep watch for. She climbed up to the bunk, put her pack next to her pillow, and put her head down, falling into dreamless sleep.
—12-hour 05—
THE TRIP FROM the town near the Georgia border to New Orleans took several hours, and Sophia slept most of the way. She woke gradually to Calixta’s low laughter, the sound helping to dispel her lingering sense of worry. Truly, Sophia thought, the Fates have been kind to place such a good-humored benefactress in our path.
The pirate’s mood was infectious. Usually it was Theo who charmed people, but in Calixta he had clearly met his match. He had dropped the cocky self-assurance and was readily answering her questions. “I grew up with a bunch of kids. No parents around. The bigger kids took care of me, and then I took care of the smaller ones. We all raised each other, you know?”
“How sweet,” Calixta said. “Regular band of pirates.”
Theo laughed. “Pretty much.”
Sophia rolled over onto her back and quietly checked her watch. It was twelve and five—well past midday. If she had read the schedule correctly, they would be arriving in New Orleans soon.
“Was it an orphanage, then?” Calixta asked.
“That’s right,” Theo said. “Run by nuns. They pretty much left us on our own, though.”
Sophia put her watch away, suddenly alert. Theo’s lying, she thought, with a strange sense of tightening in her stomach.
“Were you very young when your parents left you there?”
“Not so much.” Theo’s voice was light; he didn’t sound like he was lying. “They were traders. I was six when our house was crushed by a weirwind; killed them both. I made it, just barely.”
“What a sad story,” Calixta said, with feeling. “Is that how your hand was injured? When you were six?”
“Yup. The nuns took me in after that. All the kids called me ‘Lucky Theo,’ because our house was a pile of rubble, but I’d survived.”
“No doubt it was the nuns who made you such a little angel,” she said slyly. “Risking your life to help the girl you love. It’s charming. I suppose you’d go anywhere for her.”
Theo gave an awkward laugh. “Sophia and I just met.”
“Oh, you can’t deceive me, Lucky Theo,” Calixta said sweetly. I don’t want to hear this, Sophia thought, the tightness in her stomach giving way to a dull heaviness. “You may have just met,” Calixta went on, “but here you are, rescuing her uncle.”
“Nah,” Theo scoffed. “I’m not rescuing anybody. I don’t do that.” The heaviness seemed to move through Sophia’s whole body until she felt immobile. Or maybe he’s not lying. Maybe he was lying to me. He just says whatever people want to hear. And everyone believes him. She felt flooded with shame and her face grew hot. I told myself that I shouldn’t trust him, but I did anyway. What an idiot I am.
“Oh!” Calixta said with faint surprise. “Here I was, under the impression that you and Sophia were riding into the Baldlands to rescue her uncle. It certainly sounded that way.”
Sophia knew that she should sit up and put a stop to the conversation, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.
“You’ve got it all wrong,” Theo went on. “Sophia’s uncle ran off a few days ago with an actress from Nochtland. He even left her a note saying the beautiful actress had stolen his heart and he would never return. Obviously,” he put in expertly, “Sophia mistook you for a beautiful actress.”
Calixta chuckled, acknowledging the compliment. “Is that what happened? Well, that makes it all clear.”
“If you ask me,” Theo continued, unstoppable now that his story had taken shape, “it’s a cruel thing to do. Abandon your niece, who has no one else in the world, for an actress?” Sophia’s face was so warm that it seemed to burn, and the heavy weight in her stomach had begun to ache. “But that’s the kind of man he is.” He sighed. “Of course this whole journey to Nochtland is hopeless. Sophia’s not going to find him, and if she does, he’ll just tell her to go home. I’m not sticking around to see that,” he grimly concluded. Sophia felt her eyes fill with tears—from the truth and the lie both—and she brushed them away angrily as the train began to slow.
“Well, better wake the poor girl. We’re finally getting to New Orleans.”
Theo’s head appeared at the edge of the bunk. “I’m awake,” Sophia said, her voice choked.
He smiled innocently. “Get up, then. We’re here.”
The train began pulling into the station and Calixta opened the door to the compartment to call for a porter. As Sophia climbed down, her pack on one shoulder, the man came into the compartment and began carrying out Calixta’s trunks.
“I’m taking a coach to the dock,” the pirate said, putting on her hat. “And, if you like, I’ll take you to the depot where you can negotiate for horses. If that’s really what you want to do.”
Theo was about to follow her out, but Sophia grasped his arm. “I heard everything you said about Shadrack.”
He grinned. “Pretty good, right?”
“Pretty good?” Sophia exclaimed, tears again filling her eyes despite her effort to control them. “How could you say that about Shadrack? An actress?” To her dismay, Theo laughed. “It’s not funny!”
“Come on, lighten up. You’re taking this way too seriously.”
Sophia felt her cheeks once again turning bright red. “I don’t see anything wrong with being serious. This is serious! I heard what you said about not sticking around. I never asked you to stick around. You can leave whenever you want. I’ll go by myself.”