Miles in Love - Lois McMaster Bujold [327]
"I somehow missed that one. Must have been off-world. You let him watch all that violence, at his tender age?" Miles's eyes were suddenly alight.
Ekaterin set her teeth. "It was supposed to be educational, on account of the historical accuracy of the background."
"When I was Nikki's age, my obsession was Lord Vorthalia the Bold, Legendary Hero from the Time of Isolation." His reminiscent voice took on a rather fruity narrator's cadence, delivering this last. "That started with a holovid too, come to think of it, though before I was done I was persuading my gran'da to take me to look up original Imperial archives. Turned out Vorthalia wasn't as legendary as all that, though his real adventures weren't all so heroic. I think I could still sing all nine verses of the song that went with—"
"Please don't," she growled.
"Well, it could have been worse. I'm glad you didn't let him watch Hamlet."
"What's Hamlet?" asked Nikki instantly. He was starting to uncoil a little.
"Another great revenge drama on the same theme, except this one is an ancient stage play from Old Earth. Prince Hamlet comes home from college—by the way, how old was your Captain Vortalon?"
"Old," said Nikki. "Twenty."
"Ah, well, there you go. Nobody expects you to carry out a really good revenge till you're at least old enough to shave. You have several years yet before you have to worry about it."
Ekaterin started to cry Lord Vorkosigan! in outraged protest to this line of black humor, till she saw that Nikki looked noticeably relieved. Where was Miles going with this? She held her tongue, and nearly her breath, and let him run on.
"So in the play, Prince Hamlet comes home for his father's funeral, to find that his mother has married his uncle."
Nikki's eyes widened. "She married her brother?"
"No, no! It's not that racy a play. His other uncle, his da's brother."
"Oh. That's all right, then."
"You'd think so, but Hamlet gets a tip-off that his old man was murdered by the uncle. Unfortunately, he can't tell if his informant is telling truth or lies. So he spends the next five acts blundering around getting nearly the whole cast killed while he dithers."
"That was stupid," said Nikki scornfully, uncoiling altogether. "Why didn't he just use fast-penta?"
"Hadn't been invented yet, alas. Or it would have been a much shorter play."
"Oh." Nikki frowned thoughtfully at Miles. "Can you use fast-penta? Lieutenant Vormoncrief . . . said you couldn't. And that it was very convenient." Nikki precisely mimicked Vormoncrief's sneer in these last two words.
"On myself, you mean? Ah, no. I have a screwy response to it that renders it unreliable. Which was very handy in my ImpSec days, but isn't so good right now. In fact, it's damned inconvenient. But I wouldn't be allowed to be publicly questioned and cleared about your da's death even if it did work, because of certain security issues involved. Nor privately, in front of you alone, for the same reason."
Nikki was silent for a little, then said abruptly, "Lieutenant Vormoncrief called you the mutie lord."
"A lot of people do. Not to my face."
"He doesn't know I'm a mutie too. So was my da. Doesn't it make you mad when they call you that?"
"When I was your age, it bothered me a lot. It doesn't seem very relevant anymore. Now that there's good gene cleaning available, I wouldn't pass on any problems to my children even if I were a dozen times more damaged." His lips twisted, and he carefully didn't look at Ekaterin. "Assuming I can ever persuade some daring woman to marry me."
"Lieutenant Vormoncrief wouldn't want us . . . wouldn't want Mama if he knew I was a mutie, I bet."
"In that case, I urge you to tell him right away," Vorkosigan shot back, deadpan.
Mirabile, this won a brief, sly grin from Nikki.
Was this the trick of it? Secrets so