Crystal's pregnancy was in its second trimester and she was spending some time reading and educating herself on the invasion of her person by a vampire like creature that had stopped making her ill but was swelling her slim belly and beginning to move inside her.
A pile of pregnancy books had accumulated on her bedside table which she attempted to plough through at night. As autumn ended and the weather settled into a pattern of frosty chill with flashes of freeze, the absence of their electric blanket had brought Archie and Terri out of the drawer to warm her icy extremities.
'Why do I suddenly have cold feet?' she said out loud.
A small voice from the bottom of the bed replied, 'I don't know but I hope we're helping.'
Crystal lifted the duvet and said to Archie and Terri,
'Yes thanks. Are you all right down there?'
'We're fine, but it's a pity about the electric blanket having to go.'
'Yes, Crystal said with regret, 'But the....'
'Electromagnetic radiation can lead to birth defects,' Jeff finished for her.
'You've been reading my books.'
'Just a couple; I thought, as we're having triplets, I might need to be better informed.'
'Triplets?' Terri squealed out from the depths.
Crystal reached down and pulled them out, setting them up on her knees. 'Yes, the scan confirmed it today; one of them was hiding.'
'Incredible,' Archie said.
'Triple trouble,' Jeff said but he was happy, if challenged by the task of naming three royal babies. As he'd said to Crystal in the car on the way home,
'They each have, what is it four names?'
'Usually.'
'So we have to come up with twelve names?'
'Hmmm, but we can use some we like and family names.'
'Such as?'
'Well your mother's name. I love Charlotte. And my grandfather's: Henry is so old and has lots of links to the family.'
'What about your mother? She had a great name; I like Adelaide.'
Crystal smiled a wistful smile. 'You know that I don't remember her. I was so little when they died. Grandmother has told me a lot but now I wish I knew more. Her name was Adelaide Victoria Louise...'
And as her grandmother had told her, Adelaide had been very beautiful but also very wilful. She'd grown up fearless: she rode horses men feared and suffered broken bones; hunted before it became politically incorrect and hadn’t cared when she suffered concussion; sailed in ocean races and pursued her greatest love - the Amazon where she had died.
Before her early death Adelaide had been her father Henry's favourite child. She had been like him in many ways. He'd taught her to ride and swim, shoot and hunt the stag in Scotland. Unlike her rather wet brother, who had not been missed since his renunciation of the throne, she had loved the outdoors and sought danger. Of course, with her amazing figure and inky black hair she'd also been a darling of photographers, men about town and fashion designers. Unlike Crystal she had never suffered with puppy fat or mousy hair: she'd been wafer thin from babyhood with startling green eyes.
Her marriage had been a happy one for some time until she'd found out about her husband's penchant for young men.
'Grandmother told me that's when they started to argue and fight. Despite 'his little weakness' as he called it he didn't want to lose her so they went on that last trip to try and sort things out.'
'You mean he preferred boys to her? He must have been mad, she sounds amazing.'
'Maybe he was.'
'What happened in South America?'
'He flew their plane into a mountain.'
'Why?'
'We don't know.'
The sad circumstances of Crystal's parents' last day were short.
Oliver watched as his wife brushed tangles from her hair. They were stubborn and she cursed at times as her hair's dark waves refused to give up its burrs. Lying on their bed as he watched her concentrated efforts he said,
'I could do that for you darling,'
'No thank you,' Adelaide said, not raising her head, 'I can manage.'
'Exquisitely polite as usual, as cold as ice', he thought. Exasperated Oliver threw his legs over the side of the bed and reached for his boots,
'I think I'll go down to the bar.'
'Fine,' she said and caught his eye in the mirror, 'Will you be coming back for dinner?'
'That depends,' she cocked her head and dared him to tell her on what his return depended. He obliged. 'On whom I meet.' He left, closing the door quietly behind him. She put down the brush and saw her knuckles were white. 'He won't be back,' she said to herself.
After Oliver's early morning return hey left their hotel and drove to the town's tiny airport. Their twin engine aircraft was waiting. Oliver wanted to take the controls. She tried to joke him into sitting in the right hand seat,
'Let me do it this morning. You were out late and probably had some champagne. It doesn't do to drink and drive.'
He ignored his wife and walked round the aircraft carrying out the pilot's pre-flight check. The porters loaded some light luggage into the plane for their week in the interior. They were flying to friend's estate to observe the wildlife and some birds. Adelaide had started to paint birds and flowers which infuriated Oliver and fuelled an increasingly bitter, ongoing argument,
'We go half way round the world so you can hunt up some orchid or other and I sit about while you paint it before it wilts in the heat.'
'You never used to mind.'
'You never used to mind about my little interests either, until you got that letter.'
Adelaide looked at her husband, 'Blackmail is ugly Oliver. How could you have let those photographs be taken?'
'I didn't know.' He pleaded with her, 'Honestly my love I didn't know.'
'Mummy is furious and Daddy is ready to disown you. I don't know what to do. If the papers get hold of them...'
'They won't. I paid. I'm sure he gave me everything.'
'I hope so,' she said doubtful of the honesty of a blackmailer.
The flight to their friend's home in the mountains was through low cloud and increasingly heavy rain. Oliver kept an eye on their altitude but he was feeling ill: he had a monumental hangover which was making him airsick. A small pain had started in his chest as he'd left the bed of a boy he'd found in a bar at two in the morning. It still niggled at him, sending a pain down his left arm.
Adelaide could see he was clammy with sweat. She wiped his face with a handkerchief,
'Do you want me to take over?'
'I rather think I do, I'm going to be sick.'
He retched suddenly as she grabbed the controls. His chest continued to shake as he reached for a bag and was sick.
The small plane had dropped a little in altitude and she corrected it.
'What height should we be darling? Oliver?'
'I'm sorry I have pain in my chest. I feel as though it's being crushed.'
Adelaide reached for him and saw his face was racked with pain. He doubled over in the seat, holding his chest. She didn't see the mountain in front of them as it loomed out of the cloud and rain.
The debris was found by a helicopter several days later.
'There was a fire,' Crystal told Jeff. 'There was very little left. Grandfather went out there and brought them home.'