Out of all the Core planets, only Osiris still celebrated St Valentine’s Day. At least, this was according to River on the morning of February 14th, as she helped Caleb eat his breakfast.

“St Valentine’s ...” Kaylee mused. “You know, I think I heard o’ that. But I ain’t too sure what it means.”

“It’s when a man or a woman lets the love of their life know they are ... wanted,” Simon explained.

“Don’t they do that anyway?”

“Yes, of course they do,” Simon said, pulling a rag from his pocket to wipe at David Gabriel’s chin as the warm cereal threatened to slide onto his little chest. “But they’re more formal about it.”

“You mean they don’t just go up to a feller and kiss ‘em?” Jayne asked.

“Considering how long it took River to catch you, I don’t think you should talk,” Mal put in from the head of the table.

River smiled but said nothing.

“And no,” Simon went on. “Perhaps in other levels of society, but in the one River and I were born into, marriages tend to be arranged, rather than a matter of personal choice.”

Everybody had long ago got over being annoyed at the doctor’s occasional descent into pomposity, so it was with honest interest that Zoe asked, “And yet they still have Valentine’s Day? I wouldn’t have thought that was the done thing.”

“I suppose they looked on it as a sort of escape valve.” Simon shrugged. “The one opportunity in the year to be spontaneous and actually send your love a card or flowers. Anonymously, of course.”

“They didn’t know?” Kaylee was scandalised. “What’s the point in that? You wanna know when someone thinks you’re suai, not have to be guessing.”

“Simon sent a card to Naomi Van Gelder,” River said, her bright voice belying the mischief on her face. “She talked about it for days .”

Simon blushed, just a pink tinge across his cheekbones. “I was twelve, River.”

“It was all sentimental, too.” River wasn’t to be stopped. “All hearts and rabbits, and a poem he wrote himself.”

“A poem?” Hank couldn’t help himself. “Do you r