She tiptoes into the room. Moonlight streams from the open casement window onto the two sleepers, and she creeps closer until she is breathing into the face of the nearer one.

He stirs, wrinkling his nose against the breeze. "Who is it?" he grumbles quietly, squinting into the dark.

"Melisande," she says, and he can hear the shiver in her voice.

"Hop in, Melly," he says resignedly, holding his blankets up for her to creep in beside him. "Mercy, your feet are cold!"

She giggles and tucks them under his thigh. "I had a bad dream," she confides.

"Spiders, again?"

"Mmm-hmm." Her curly head tucks under his neck and he tries to get comfortable around the warm lump of her and her icy toes jammed into him.

"G'night, Melly," he murmurs, dropping a kiss on her hair and drifting back into the ocean of sleep.

"G'night, Mermer."

On the other side of the bed Arthur smiles to himself and follows his lover and daughter back into slumber.