“We won! We won!” yelled Lizzie throwing her sword up and bouncing around. The girls all squealed with delight and the boys looked defeated, dropping to the grass with groans.
Rob pointed his sword to the grass and shook Emrys hand, “Well done, old chap, some fierce little warriors you have there!”
Emrys ripped off his helmet and grinned. “I have indeed.”
Miss Pringle came over and held out a medallion on a ribbon. “Would you care to do the honors? I think Miss Elizabeth wins the day for most valorous knight.”
Emrys grinned and took the medallion, beckoning Lizzie over. “Kneel, Sir Knight, and receive your reward,” he intoned in suitably portentous accents.
Lizzie, her face flushed and grinning from ear to ear, dropped to her knees, and he bent and slipped the ribbon down over her head and settled the medallion on her proud little chest.
“For intelligence and valor extraordinary in the field of battle, you are so rewarded, Sir Knight,” he said solemnly.
Refreshments were then served, ale for the men, wine for the ladies, and lemonade for the children, and it was declared a vastly entertaining afternoon.
Ewen trotted over to Emrys, waving one of the wooden swords dropped by the other boys. “Will you teach me to fight too, Papa?” he asked plaintively.
Emrys squatted down and smiled at his son. “Yes, of course I will, Ewen.”
Ewen grinned and swung the toy sword wildly, whacking Emrys in the legs, which made him wince. He would have a bruise from that! Then Ewen hurtled off to Miss Pringle, yelling, “Papa’s going to teach me to fight, too!”
She received him, picking him up and deftly avoiding getting her eye poked out by the sword. Emrys strode over quickly and divested his son of the weapon. “Be careful, Ewen. You don’t want to hurt Miss Pringle, do you?”
“No, Papa!” He flung his arms round her neck and hugged her, and she flushed with obvious pleasure. “I like Miss Pingle!” he said with a beatific smile.
Emrys heart melted as he reflected that he liked Miss Pingle, too, if she could make his little man smile like that. He resolutely kept his eyes away from her bosom but was physically conscious of her even so. A tingling in his breeches he hadn’t felt in months provoked a blush that made him look away, lest she guess what he was thinking.
“Papa!” Lizzie came up holding her medallion in one hand and a piece of cake in the other.
“Papa!” Charlie attacked him from the other side, also with a piece of cake, but with fruit instead of a medallion in her other hand.
“Yes, girls?” he said crouching down to their level.
“Can we stay here forever?” asked Charlie. “It’s so much fun!”
“Yes, can we pleeeease, Papa?” wheedled Lizzie.
“I’m afraid we can’t do that, but”—he hastened to add as the pouting lips appeared—“we are not going home yet. And I believe Miss Pringle has more adventures in store, don’t you, Miss Pringle?” He looked up at her, and she nodded.
“Yes, I do.”
“Tell us!” demanded Lizzie.
“It’s a surprise,” Miss Pringle said with a smile.
Emrys waited for Lizzie to announce that she didn’t like surprises, but she didn’t. Instead, she stuffed the cake in her mouth and hared off toward Hepzibah, trailing Charlie behind her.
He rose to his feet, shaking his head. “I don’t know how I’m going to turn them into young ladies. They are half feral, I fear.”
Miss Pringle juggled Ewen on her hip and said, “Plenty of time. They are children still—let them enjoy it.”
“Oh, I will. And I enjoy them immensely. I never know what they will say next.”
Later that night, climbing into bed, Emrys settled back against the pillows with his book in hand, but his every attempt to concentrate on the written word was interrupted by snatches of the day. It had been both enchanting and disturbing. He couldn’t shake the image of Miss Pringle’s generous breasts encased discretely in the plain fabric of her gown. The brooch nestled in the center, the plain ribbon beneath, the way the fabric cupped them...
A sudden rush of hot desire assailed him, as his mind posed the question of what the soft, round globes of her breasts mightlook like beneath that prim and proper dress. And more to the point, what they mightfeellike?
The notion took so strong a hold that he couldn’t dislodge it, and for the first time in months his cock grew stiff against his belly and his balls tightened uncomfortably. He uttered a soft groan as his hand groped for and seized his cock, stroking it almost without conscious thought. With blinding awareness, he knew his body needed release and would not be denied.
