Lucy waits

Lucy watched Sabrina and Annie silhouetted against the silvery light from the window, their lips together. Annie pressed Sabrina eagerly, urgently, while Sabrina stood still, accepting Annie's kisses.

Lucy's heart thumped as she watched her daughter ardently kissing Sabrina Netherwood, their profiles similar, forehead, nose, and chin showing the Netherwood lines seen in Edmund, in Jeremy, and now that she knew to look, in Lucy herself. Lucy, Sabrina, Annie, all of them Jeremy's line, all of them here tonight.

Sabrina warmed, kissing back. Lucy's pulse beat in her ears and she felt faint. As she wavered, she startled to feel hands supporting her from behind. She whipped her head round to see Edmund looking at her with a calm smile.

"Hsht," he whispered. "Look." He took Lucy round the shoulders, holding her from behind.

Sabrina and Annie had got to tongue kisses. Lucy made to move forward but Edmund held her tightly.

"Leave them be," he whispered.

Lucy watched, Edmund's chin on her shoulder, as their daughters played the game of love, tongue to tongue. Waves of heat, of cold, of dizziness swept over Lucy. Not Annie, she had hoped. Not Annie. But Annie loved Sabrina as Lucy loved Edmund. Lucy feared that Annie loved with the desperation of youth, and without the core of strength Lucy prided herself on having grown. Oh, Annie. Let it just be a summer storm, this love.

Sabrina broke the kiss, took Annie by the hand, and led her out of the observation lounge.

When the door closed, Lucy turned round to Edmund.

"Well I n...!" she began.

Edmund closed her mouth with a kiss. Lucy struggled, and he let her go.

"This could ruin Annie's life, you know," Lucy said.

"They are very understanding, at school," Edmund said, "Of girls in love. This was Clarissa's school. On our return flight we have a stop. For Clarissa to visit her dearest Marie-Fière."

"I...not that. I'm afraid Sabrina isn't careful," Lucy said. "Neither of her own reputation, nor of Annie's heart."

"Well then," Edmund said. "I shall have to have a talk with her." He chuckled. "Jack, Jack. Well played, sirrah. But she felt herself to be mistress of his pleasures."

"She should know better," Lucy hissed.

"How could she know?" Edmund said. "She is young and come into her beauty and her hot blood. At least they were both sensible enough to have it be just the once."

"I credit all the sense there, to Jack," Lucy said. "Precious little of it there was."

"Sabrina should enjoy herself sensibly. Time enough for the bitter with the sweet," Edmund said.

"Some people can float on a cloud of class and wealth. Where does that leave Annie?" Lucy asked.

"Annie? Annie Longbottom, Little Miss Downs Edge?" Edmund asked. "It leaves her one of the beautiful people. One of us. One of us, Lucy." His eyes flashed in the dimness. "Annie is more at home in this world--" Edmund gestured round the luxurious airship gallery "--than yourself, Lucy. But Lucy, Lucy, Lucy my love, you will be. " Edmund smiled. "Now, our business here, our true business, is a midnight tryst." He extended his hand. "Lucy?"