14 September, 1893 — Sanditon Terrace

There was still at least an hour or two of decent sailing left in the day before the sun set and the wind died off, but the holiday crew — as was the habit of rich folk on holidays — had long since left off anything resembling actual activity and settled into patio chairs or around dining room tables with drinks in hand. Alfred had done his due diligence and hung around by the little sailing dock an extra quarter hour, then hung up a sign on the supply shed door letting anyone who stopped by know they could reach him at his house on the Terrace. He always hung the sign up if he left while there was still daylight out, but of course no one ever came by the house. They were probably more likely to just break into the supply shed and take a boat out themselves, and maybe crash it due to inexperience and poor supplying, but at least if they did Alfred could claim not to have neglected the guests when the Fudges asked him about it.

He'd only just been home long enough to take his boots off when the owl arrived. He didn't get much mail that was time sensitive this time of year, and since he was still in the middle of telling Zelda how his day had been and asking her about hers he would normally have set it aside for later. He did have the unresolved matter with the Adebayo Trading Company still lingering, though, so he decided to open this one right away on the off chance that it was related — if there was news of the missing ship, he was sure that the owner would want to hear it right away. "Sorry, just give me a second," he said to Zelda, then unfolded the letter and skimmed it over. It wasn't related — or at least if it had anything to do with the Adebayos, it didn't say as much — but it had some decidedly similar themes.

His face lost a bit of its color. He dropped the letter and started putting his boots back on.

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Zelda's back ached today, but she wasn't surprised — she suspected she was about halfway there, so to speak, and it was admittedly easier to be pregnant when she wasn't running around the Ministry. (Other things were harder — the days stretched, and seemed longer now than they had when she'd first quit her job.

So she was always very chatty when Alfred got home. She had started to think seriously about reorganizing the nursery to make room for the new baby, and was sure that Alfred would have opinions — and then there was the letter. She hadn't expected the letter to be an event, and then — Alfred was pale.

Zelda tilted her head at her husband. "What's happened?" she asked.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred's left boot slid into place with a heavy thunk. "It's from the Ministry," he said. That probably explained most of it, without his needing to go into more detail. The Ministry did not tend to send him letters in the late afternoon for a wide variety of reasons. At least he was awake for this one — the Santa Antonina owl had arrived in the middle of the night. He'd also taken the Voyager out of storage at the beginning of the month, as a pre-emptive measure in case the Adebayos wanted to send him on a salvage mission, so that was more time saved compared to the last time. Which was good — it sounded like time wasn't something they had an abundance of.

"I'm going to London," he said. "Via the Ministry, apparently, because they said the floo's offline."

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Zelda frowned. There was a rusty instinct thrumming in her veins; she recognized it as the sense that something was wrong, a Catastrophe. If the floo was offline, there was a Catastrophe, and her friends were getting called in. "Why?" she asked, staring at Alfred as if she could pry the information out of his head.

  

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred frowned at her. He didn't want to tell her, because he didn't know how she would react, and he didn't have time for poor reactions. But he couldn't leave without telling her where he was going, and he wasn't going to lie to her.

"It's, ah. Dragons," he said, and his voice was suddenly hoarse. "Dragons on the Thames. And — my ship, they need a ship. For rescues."

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Her eyes widened. Zelda's first reaction: she wanted to go. She wanted to help. She wanted to fight dragons.

She knew she couldn't, because she was pregnant and because she was a civilian now. And Alfred's father had died in a dragon attack. Alfred's father had died in a dragon attack. Zelda bit her lip. "You'll be careful?" she asked; she could not, and would never, ask him to stay, because she understood nothing as much as she understood running into a catastrophe. But she could not stand to lose him.

  

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Alfred wished he could make light of the question, respond with a sarcastic phrase, but he didn't feel up for humor. "Course I will," he said grimly. He finished tying his second boot and looked at her for a moment, sensing that one reassurance was not enough. He stood and moved to where she was and reached for one of her hands. "I've survived a lot of things," he pointed out quietly. "I'll come home safe."

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Zelda swallowed and squeezed Alfred's hand when he plucked hers up. She did not know what to say — being careful might not be enough, but Alfred had survived a lot. She leaned up to press a kiss to her husband's mouth. "For luck," Zelda added; the look on her face may have been wry, but she was mostly feeling nervous.

  

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AMAZING set by MJ

She wasn't arguing about him going, or expressing any more concrete worries, which was good. Alfred didn't suppose that she was really letting go of it all that easily, but they were both putting on a brave face at the moment, for each other. It worked well that way — buoyancy that carried between them, even though neither of them were actually feeling it.

"Ah, give me more luck than that," he teased, and reached out to catch her arm in his hand and pull her in again.

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Zelda was startled into smiling at her husband, and squeezed him once he drew her in. "Be safe," she said, as if telling him so would keep him from coming to any harm at all.

  

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AMAZING set by MJ