"Come, let's take you to Edmund."

Clarissa closed her eyes and lay limp. Lucy held herself over her, stiffly. The airship engines droned, somewhere far away.

Lucy let her breath out in a rush through her nostrils. Her lip curled. Like another child. As if there weren't enough on this trip already.

"Come, Clarissa," Lucy said. "Let's take you to Lord... Let's take you to Edmund."

Lucy helped Clarissa sit up and wrapped the other woman in a shawl. Clarissa's petite frame was enveloped in Lucy's garment, which could do her as a cloak. Lucy threw a coat round herself and got Clarissa to her feet.

"Come now," Lucy said. She led Clarissa out into the service gangway outside the makeshift cabin and through a service door back into the passenger halls. An airship attendant glanced at them but did not interrupt.

It was still night over the Continent, the eastern horizon paling as dawn approached, but the brighter stars still discernible.

Clarissa stopped her at the door to the room she shared with Edmund.

"Lucy..." she said. Clarissa's chin trembled. "Lucy, I know you and Lady Catherine..." She trailed off, swallowed, and cleared her throat. "Lucy, do you fancy women? Do you fancy...me?"

Lucy's eyes widened as she looked in Clarissa's pleading face. Her own face flushed hot and scarlet and her throat constricted.