Author's note: all usual disclaimers apply.
This series comes from a mutual challenge three or four of the author's here accepted where we send photos from ILM or of the actors to each other and then the recipient has to write a short story that explains the shot. This is for our amusement but hopefully also yours.
Tommy Lynley pulled the leather album down from the shelf in his library while his wife poured drinks for him and their guest. Their sons Matthew and James were sitting on the floor near the window trying to teach their baby sister Catherine how to build a Lego car.
He flung the album carelessly on the couch and rushed to his wife. "Barbara, don't lift all those glasses at once. They're too heavy."
"Stop fussing Tommy." She turned to Aunt Edwina who was smirking slightly at her nephew. "It is my fourth child, you'd think he'd be used to it by now Ed."
"The twins only count as one pregnancy," he shot back with a smile.
It had become a ritual every year showing Aunt Edwina their wedding photos when she came down from Bath to spend her birthday week in London. She picked up the discarded album and opened it. "Oh my!"
Barbara looked over and laughed. "Er, that's our private album Ed. Sorry about that." She glanced at the photo and roared laughing. "Tommy, it's the one with you standing looking mortified holding nothing but a pillow in front of you."
Ed looked at her horrified nephew and started laughing much louder than she intended. James and Matthew came rushing over to see what the grown-ups were enjoying so much. Their sister started to cry. Tommy went over and picked her up and sat on the sofa. The boys leapt up onto their father and started vying for his attention. Somehow he managed to scoop them all into his arms and cuddle them amidst growls and laughter.
"Me first, I'm the heir," James bossed his brother, "you're just the spare!"
"James Lynley!," his mother chastised him, "where did you learn that?"
"School," he seven year old son replied sheepishly, "from Peter Heartsmith, he's the son of the Duke of York."
"The Duke of York doesn't have a son," Tommy said sternly, "now what have I told you about being Earl?"
"That you'll decide when we're twenty-one who becomes Earl number nine"
"Correct, so?"
"We're both spares," Matthew chimed in. Tommy smiled at Barbara. Matthew had her intelligence and directness. Although he did not have a favourite child, he knew in his heart Matt would be his heir, despite James having been born by Caesarian three minutes earlier.
James grabbed his brother and hugged him. "Sorry." They happily skidded off their father dragging their sister with them. She was abandoned half way back to their Lego and sat with a perplexed pre-cry face in the middle of the room; a cry that was averted by her mother picking her up and depositing her with her brothers.
Barbara waddled to the sofa. "He told me once, a few hours after that photo was taken actually, that he wanted 'armfuls of children'. Well he's got big arms but after Master Paul here comes, that's it." Tommy lovingly put his arm around her after Barbara managed to lower herself into position.
"Why the shock, in the photo?" Ed asked.
Tommy looked sheepish. "She...thought I was a rapist and grabbed her phone to get evidence."
"Hmm, and why did she think that?"
Barbara looked up lovingly at Tommy. "We had a case in Canterbury. I had gone down with Winston, another policeman, because Tommy was in court. He came down that night. He told reception he was my partner so they gave him the key to my room thinking we were...well lovers. He only turned the lamp on and didn't see me in bed until he hopped in. You can imagine waking to find a naked man climbing into your bed."
Edwina started laughing hysterically. "So what did you do?"
"I punched him and grabbed my phone. It was only after I took that photo that I realised who it was."
"Oh no! What did you say?"
"We laughed about it, then I noticed he had dropped the pillow when he sat on my bed." Tommy squeezed Barbara's knee and grinned at her.
"Something else happened didn't it?" Ed demanded.
"She lifted the covers and suggested I cover myself," he said with a wicked grin. "So I got in and the bed was so small we had to snuggle close. The twins were the result of the evening."
"You weren't...sleeping together...before?"
"No!" Barbara said, "but he had nowhere to go and he was rather cute in those days."
"We'd been sort of flirting for a while and when I first hopped into bed she said 'Tommy? I've missed you today. Cuddle me.' I suppose I should have been shocked but I even wondered if she'd set it up with reception. I had her in my arms and she wriggled closer. I wasn't going to miss the chance to kiss her but when I did that's when she punched me."
Edwina started to giggle infectiously and looked over her glasses at Barbara. "Cuddle me?"
"I thought I was dreaming. I used to do that...about him, and us being together...but when he kissed me I woke up and thought I was being attacked. When I saw it was him and he was sitting naked on my bed confused and contrite he looked adorable...and other things...I took advantage I suppose." His aunt raised an intrigued eyebrow. "I suggested we start at the beginning...
"And then said 'Tommy, cuddle me. So I did then I kissed her again, without the punch and we discovered we rather liked it" The couple exchanged a knowing look. 'Cuddle' had become a euphemism for all intimate moments between them.
"I never knew you had to get married," Edwina said with genuine surprise.
"We didn't," Tommy answered indignantly, "we had already decided that before we even suspected the boys were on their way. I am definitely not telling you the details but we were very 'compatible'. We were lying there in that bed joking about what if something had happened and I said I hoped it had because I wanted an armful of red-haired children."
"And I said I wouldn't wish mini-Barbaras on anyone. But look we have two boys who look exactly like Tommy, a girl like me and a little boy on the way who will grow up to captain England in some sort of kicking sport!"
Tommy called the boys over. They held their sister's hands and like little gentlemen helped her across to the couch. They climbed up and nestled around their parents. Edwina smiled at the happiness on everyone's faces. "So what other photos are in this book?"
