Mal stood in the doorway to the nursery and gazed at the empty beds. Ethan, of course, had moved down to the lower crew quarters to have his own room some time back, but they hadn’t taken the old bed out. His sister, on the other hand, hadn’t so far succumbed to the lure of a room away from her parents. Besides, when Ethan had a bad dream he’d been known to sneak back in and snuggle up on his old mattress. At the moment it was covered with Jesse’s toys, a large percentage of which seemed to be teddy bears, all facing Mal and glaring with their beady glass eyes, as if demanding to know where their owner was.

“Sorry,” he breathed. “But she’ll be back on board ‘fore long, along with the rest of ‘em.”

Hands snaked around his waist, and soft flesh pressed against his naked back. “Are you talking to dolls now?”

He smiled. “You know, I surely hope that’s my wife behind me. Else we’ve got stowaways.”

“Naked stowaways?”

“Well, maybe they lost all their clothes in a freak accident and it’s my lucky day.”

Freya lightly bit his shoulder, then kissed it better. “At least you didn’t suggest it was River.”

“Nah, we keep that secret. Ow!” he complained when she bit harder.

Another kiss, this one more lingering. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Woke up dreaming.”

“Good dreams?”

“Not … really. Mostly about being in a dark, cramped space.”

She stirred against him. “Ben’s been having those dreams.”

“Yeah?” He turned and put his arms around her, pulling her close. “You think I’m picking it up?”

“Possibly. We don’t know if psychics can act as conduits, but I don’t see why not.”

His lips twitched. “I love it when you use words like conduits.”

“Oh, I’ve got lots of others.”

“I know. Anyway, I didn’t fancy going back into it, and I was thinking about the kids, so …” He gestured with his chin over his shoulder. “Empty.”

She looked into his face, the low lighting making his eyes seem dark. “Do you want to tell Sir Warwick that we’ve decided not to tak