To the Aerodrome

The chauffeured electromotive wheeled off from the solicitors' office into the damp gloom of late afternoon. Annie happily chirped along about the airship and all she had read about its various furnishings and views and how ripping and smashing it all would be as they sailed among the clouds, buildings, roads, castles, ships and bridges all like tiny toys below them, and a rainbow-ringed glory round their shadow upon the clouds by day.

Lucy smiled indulgently at Annie. Though Annie's mother was now styled Lucy, Lady Downs, the only thing in the young woman's head was the airship passage to Paris and then to Strasbourg in Alsace, and thence up the Rhine to Switzerland to the finishing school Annie was attending as companion to Sabrina Netherwood, Edmund and Clarissa's daughter. Annie, by contrast, was Edmund and Lucy's daughter, though unacknowledged, yet brought up almost as Sabrina's sister, at least as far as Lady Catherine had anything to do with the matter.

Clarissa and Edmund sat in silence. Edmund seemed lost in thought, though he stole a glance at Lucy every once in a while. Lucy took care only to smile at Annie and not to look at Edmund. Clarissa wore a look of discomfort, and every so often would stretch her shoulders, looking like she was trying to throw something off her back.

The electromotive paused at their lodgings to collect Sabrina, who tucked away her book and joined the rest of them for the run to the Aerodrome. Sabrina and Annie sat together, heads lowered, speaking quietly and giggling at each other. Snatches of their talk escaped their little tête-a-tête. "And I will..." "No you shan't!" "I'm sure we shall..."

The electromotive wheeled in under an awning protecting a raised, carpeted walkway from the rain. The driver parlayed with the porter attending the station, then began unloading Annie and the Netherwoods' luggage onto a pushcart.

"We are in good time to have our baggage loaded and get settled," Clarissa said. "Edmund, you even have time for a brandy in the smoking room."

Edmund nodded to his wife, though his eyes were on Lucy.

"Not that one," Clarissa told the driver as he reached for Lucy's traveling case. "This is where we bid farewell," she said coolly.

Lucy looked at Edmund.

He parted his lips and spoke.