"If you go without for years, you go for years, is all." There wasn't much a positive slant that could be put on the statement. "It's something for Danann to decide."

Marcello drew in a breath, rubbed her hands together, and went quiet, hanging back a few paces behind Morgana, with a rather dazed look on her face. She cleared her throat, as if looking for something to say, but didn't venture past that. Finally, realizing how she must sound, she said, "I don't know what to say to that."

"Then don't," she said. "I wish I could say something more encouraging but this is one of those things where there'll be no way of telling until it's already upon you. I will say you're both still very young and have lots of years ahead of you; there's no need to see this year as the end of all things."

"I'm not thinking about this year," Marcello said. "I'm thinking, what happens in ten years? Or fifteen?"

"In ten years you won't worry about it this much, because you'll have seen how things work and you'll know," she said in an assuring tone. "Or in ten years you could possibly have ten children. Your family has how many, seven? Mother's had I-know-not how many; I still haven't gotten to the end of all my half-sisters." She patted Marcello's arm.

Marcello looked wistful. "I don't have the same kind of time Judith has," she pointed out. "I wish I did. I just want children, Meg," she said quietly. "I want to have a family. It doesn't have to be a big one."

"No one has Mother's time," she said. "Oh, come on, silly thing, you're going to get me all mournful an we start going on about what-might-be. There's nothing more miserable than a pair of women imagining kicks together."

Marcello bit her lip. "All right," she said, quietly, giving Morgana a tight smile. She shook herself out. "All right. Ready to go back."

She smoothed Marcello's hair away from her forehead. "All right then," she said quietly. "Let's go see to the ladies."