Madeleine gave a muffled sigh. Then she patted Hæra’s arm affectionately and looked up at the Cessna. “I wish he could be here for this,” she murmured.

After five years, a reference to Jonathan no longer felt like a blow to the gut. This one put a lump in Hæra’s throat, though. “He’d ask me why I wanted to do something so damned silly as get in an aeroplane when there’s a perfectly good ferry. And he’d refuse to climb aboard.”

“I’d get the honor of your maiden passenger voyage no matter what,” Madeleine said firmly. “I almost died of fright the first time you took off with your instructor, and that wasn’t for nothing. But he’d be proud of you, and you know it.”

This was the first time Hæra would fly without an instructor and with a passenger on board. She’d worked hard to get here. Jonathan had always praised her work ethic and how she’d never tried to skive off, even when it was so hard at the start. She’d worried she’d forget him, but thank the Great Mare, she knew now that wasn’t true.

“Yes.” She swallowed the lump. “He would be. And I’m proud of myself.”

It had taken a while to stop hating herself for her mistakes and castigating herself for being a terrible human. She saw now that all humans made mistakes and weren’t always good at being themselves. Even Madeleine said an unkind thing occasionally. The main thing was to learn and then to do better next time. Her first flight hadn’t gone perfectly, but she’d stuck the landing.

Madeleine grabbed Hæra’s arm. She beamed. “I’m so glad to hear that, sweetheart. Well? What were you saying about taking advantage of the weather?”

A few minutes later, they were situated in the familiar cockpit. The Cessna 152 was rented from the flight school. Hæra had trained in it, and by now she knew it as well as she used to know the shoals off the island. She’d already run through the pre-flight checklist twice—no sloppiness for her, when her wife was along for the ride—and she’d flown the plane here this morning herself. Everything was in order.

“Right.” Madeleine’s shoulder harness fastened with a click. Her pallor had returned somewhat. “I’m all set.”

“No you’re not,” Hæra said at once. “We haven’t had the passenger briefing.”

“The what?”

“I’ll begin with a flight overview,” Hæra said. “Then, since you already did the seat belt, I’ll skip that bit and go to the evacuation procedures, followed by the fire extinguisher location and how to secure our belongings. Today we’re flying from Jorsay’s airstrip to Aberdeen International Airport. We anticipate a cruising altitude of—what is it?”