Lucy must go.

Lucy held Annie firmly by her shoulders. "Guard yourself, Annie. Guard your tongue and your heart. "Sleep now, and wait tomorrow. I will miss you like fire."

"Mum," Annie said. "I love you."

Lucy's lips tingled. Her head darted forward and kissed Annie upon the lips.

"I must go," Lucy said. "Tomorrow my heart goes with you."

She turned and left her daughter with Sabrina, heiress, half-sister, and Sapphic lover. And half-niece to herself.

She paused at the turn and looked back, seeing Annie waiting at Sabrina's threshold. "And wash your face," she admonished.

Lucy turned away and walked quickly toward the little door that let upon the crew corridors, and to the dim closet that was her bedroom.

She ached for someone's touch. Without Annie to cuddle, without Edmund to possess her -- her lover now, not her master -- she was left to her own devices. She rubbed one hand over her face, spreading Sabrina's cunt musk across her nose and lips. With her other hand, she made herself spend again and again until she fell into an exhausted sleep, her mind, heart, and loins all drained and empty. The drone of the airship engines lulled her to slumber upon the cot in the cold little storeroom.