Itchy Feet

By Donna and Abby

After the birth of Highlander Duncan's twins, Doctor Benjamin Adams returned to the warmth of his little home, and his pretty little wife.  She was in bed already, snuggled down and happy, and she cried out when he got in next to her.  "Ben!" she yelped, "you're frozen solid!"

"Tell me about it.  Stupid bloody Highlander dragged me all over the place, just to stand and watch Fontanna have twins.  Like he needed another witness! Certainly they did not need me for any medical reason!"

"But your feet are like ice!" she complained.

"Well, we'll just have to warm them, won't we?"

She yelped again, then swatted him.  "It's not your feet you want warming," she accused.  He chuckled warmly, grabbing her around the waist.  Cold or not, he was ready for her.  "But we can't."  She sounded far less Scottish than the rest of her friends, having picked up his accent.  "Not right now, anyway."

Doc rolled back, bitterly annoyed.  "It is not an advantage to be Type A," he said.  "Too bad you can't get pregnant, then we will not have to worry."

"They said they needed more Type B," she said, "but Duncan is the only one in town."  Doc made a rude noise, which gave his opinion of that!  "We'll just have to think of something else, I guess," she said, sounding disappointed.

"Well, I still need warming."  His frown slowly lifted into a grin, and he ducked under the covers.  His wife's sudden giggle told of her agreement to his alternate plan!

While Ben and Pru were occupied happily, Sir Lancelot was searching the castle from one end to the other. He had come back to his rooms after a hunting trip, and found both Amanda and his son missing. He finally located Darrel, who was safely in the care of one of the handmaidens.

"Mi'Lady asked if I wud mind watchin' the wee Lord," she said as he claimed his son from her. "I keen not where she is now."

He thanked the girl and then headed back to his rooms, Darrel riding happily on his hip. Perhaps she left a note or something! He placed Darrel down in the play area they had set aside, and started to scour the room from top to bottom.

He found nothing, until he came full circle, and noticed his son was chewing on something.  It took a moment before he noticed it was a wadded up piece of paper!  The baby's face was covered with ink!

“Be a good lad and give the paper to your father, Darrel,” he asked as he fished the paper out of the fourteen month old boy’s mouth. He carefully opened it up, but found that most of the words were completely unreadable.

With a sigh, he looked down at Darrel, who was whimpering slightly. It was then he noticed his son was drooling almost uncontrollably! Alarmed, he snatched, him up and ran with him to the Royal Physician's small clinic.

But Giles was not there!  His wife, Melissa, explained that someone at the Monastery had broken their leg, and he had gone to help Cadfael set it.  The herbalist was very capable, but with a real doctor around, they wanted to be sure it was set properly.

Darrel chose this time to start coughing, and then threw up some of the paper he had been eating. "I'm taking him to Glenerin," Lancelot announced. He then ordered one of the men passing by in the hall to go saddle a horse for him while he went to get his cloak and wrap Darrel up in a warm blanket.

When he got to the stables, he found a horse ready, along with a small escort. He handed Darrel to someone, then once mounted, took him back, placing him protectively inside his cloak against his chest. The others held torches to light their way to the village of Glenerin.

Doc Adams had his hands in his wife's beautiful red hair while she pleasured him with her mouth.  Well, it was only paying him back for the pleasure he had already given her!  But just as he exploded, there was a loud knocking at the door!

Doc gasped and then mumbled some rather rude and colorful curses under his breath. Throwing on a robe, he went to the door, where to his surprise, he found some of the men from the castle, one of them wearing the same face as the stubborn Highlander that had dragged him out into the cold earlier that day!

"Now wha-," he began, but then he saw the baby with ink all over its face.  "Come inside."  He closed his robe tighter and shouted instructions to Prudence, herself also in just a robe. "Where is my learned colleague?" he asked the boy's father as they got things ready.

"He was called to the Monastery to set a broken bone," Sir Lancelot said as he unwrapped his son. "Darrel ate a note that his mother left me. He's been drooling a lot, and then he was sick to his stomach. I brought the ink bottle with me, just in case you wanted to see what was in it." He was almost out of his mind with worry, not only for the boy, but for his missing companion!

Doc looked at the ink, smelled it, and even tasted some of it.  Then he went into the closet where he kept his medicines.  "Did he bring much up?" he asked.

"A fair amount. Some paper wads and whatever he had for his dinner," Lancelot said as he wiped the boy's mouth. He wasn't drooling quite as much, and he hoped that was a good sign. In fact, Darrel seemed alert and relatively happy, considering all that was going on around him!

Doc nodded.  "Good.  This might not be necessary, then."  He showed him a bottle of ipecac syrup.  "If he's gotten it all out, then all we really need do is dilute whatever is left with some good milk."  As he said this, Prudence came in with a bottle of warmed cow's milk.  She handed it to her husband.

Amanda had lost interest in nursing him rather quickly, so Darrel was used to drinking from a bottle. He took it hungrily, and seemed to be in no distress. Relieved, the men who had accompanied them told Lancelot that they were going to the tavern and would be there if he needed them to escort them back.

The tension now eased, and as Prudence watched the knight cuddling his son, she gave her husband a raised-eyebrow look.  Doc nodded his understanding, but was not sure he knew how to proceed.

"You say Amanda's missing?" he finally asked

"Yes," Lancelot said, his jaw tightening. "The note she left was almost unreadable. There were two words I could make out though. 'Unhappy' and 'leaving'."

The room went silent then, though Prudence bounced a little on the balls of her feet excitedly as she looked him up and down with renewed interest.

"Wonder where the little vixen went," Doc said, sounding unconcerned.  "Domestic life was never her strong suit."

"Apparently not," Lancelot sighed. When Darrel finished the milk, Doc reached for him and took him into his arms, telling the boy's father that he wanted to feed him small amounts of porridge spaced out over the next several hours, while he made sure he had no ill effects from the ink.

"Prudence will see to any of your needs," he said with a wink to his wife and he left the room with the baby and headed to the kitchen.

"Are you cold, milord?" she asked sweetly, pointing toward the fire in the sitting room.  As she bent slightly, her robe opened *just* enough to show part of a pale breast.

"A little," he said, swallowing hard. The doctor's wife was a fair woman, that was for sure!

"Then come ye and warm by the fire, Lord love ye!  I honestly do not know what could have come over your fair maiden, leaving you and the bairn to suffer alone!  You need the love of a good woman."  As she spoke, she guided him into a chair, leaning over him so those breasts he could now easily see were also pressed against him as she fluffed the chair cushion behind his head. "Soup?  Or hot milk like your darlin' boy?"

He swallowed hard again. Lancelot was experienced enough to know when a woman was offering herself to him. With a hesitant hand, he reached up and cupped a breast with it. "Hot milk will fill the need," he groaned. "But what of yer husband?"

Prudence just laughed, and told him that her husband approved of her and him being together. "You already have one strong child," she purred. "And after tonight, there could be another on the way!"

Lancelot's eyes widened. Now he understood!