A/N : the version of the chapter title song by the O'Jays is recommended.

Emotionally Yours

Tuesday, July 22, 1913 – Thursday, July 31, 1913

Mary's fever started to abate.

Against all medical prognostication she started to recover.

Dr. Clarkson was acclaimed as her saviour but he and Isobel knew better. Mary should have died. The infection was so advanced, her organs should have been failing sequentially until the last little flame of life flickered out. Instead it grew. Why? Or more accurately, how? A miracle? But that was only a conclusion. Prayers answered? Certainly there had been plenty of prayers. Love? As Richard and Isobel stood in the doorway watching Matthew sitting beside Mary, cooling her with the iced water cloth, it was hard not to make that the leading candidate. Mary had fallen off the cliff and Matthew had caught and held her until she was able to claw her way back up the cliff face.

Plenty of food and rest and Richard thought Mary would be walking out of the hospital in ten days or so. Which was good thing because he did not think he could stand another fortnight of the way her demands trumped every bit of his authority.

Matthew was happy that Mary was getting better. Physically. But he was worried about dealing with Mary's emotional needs. He did not know what he could say or do if she became too weepy or fell into too black a mood.

She surprised him. During the days, Anna told him that Mary talked about this and that, but never about the baby. During her waking moments during the nights, when no one else was around, which were fewer and shorter as she slept more and more, a good sign Isobel told him, her body was healing, Mary did not cry over or even refer to the baby. What she wanted, what she demanded, was that he tell her stories about their future children. And like a little child she was vigilant about any discrepancies between the stories. And they talked about whether to educate the children at home, or the local village school, or send them off to boarding school; how much to spoil them; when to let them ride; and so on, all matters that, in the event, would end up being dealt with on the fly.

"And how many daughters will we have?"

"Two"

"No, how many?"

"Three."

"And what are their names?"

"Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail. And our sons are named Stinky, Smelly and Snotty", Matthew had told her they could not give out the real names until they had actually seen the children.

And she did not just want to talk, she wanted to cuddle. She wanted Matthew to lay down with her, which, given the narrowness of the hospital bed, posed certain logistical problems. Matthew ended up positioning the chair beside the middle of the bed so his rear end could rest on it while they lay on their sides, facing each other, Mary in his arms. She usually fell asleep within minutes and he would then disengage himself before his arm fell asleep. There was a fifty fifty chance he would end up falling on the floor doing this. Then he would sit beside the bed watching her sleep, semi-dozing himself, until she woke up, wanted to talk and after they were talked out, he would cuddle with her again. They would go through this cycle three or four times a night.

The fifth night Matthew fell asleep while cuddling with Mary on the bed.

Dr. Clarkson and Isobel, who had been called in to deal with an accident victim, discovered Matthew sleeping with Mary. He wanted to roust Matthew up.

"Don't you dare" warned Isobel.

"Sleeping with a patient! Those beds are not for canoodling!"

"Oh? I seem to recall a certain member of the medical staff using one of those beds for something way beyond canoodling."

Dr. Clarkson harrumphed.

Isobel slipped her arm though his. "Leave them be. Now weren't you saying something about a nightcap?"

As Mary got better there was no need for her to have two bed baths a day. Indeed she could have a bath in a tub. And Anna, not Matthew, could help her. Cora suggested this to her. Isobel suggested this to her. Violet told her to do this. Mary insisted that Matthew would bathe her.

So it came to pass that Matthew walked Mary down the hall to the hospital's bathroom, ran her a warm bath and helped her into it. Anna had given him bath salts, soap, shampoo, three heavy thick towels, powder and a nightgown. He soaped Mary all over. He shampooed her hair. He was quite taken with the suds, no shampoo he had ever used had foamed up so much or smelled as good. He had her lean forward so he could pour jugs of water over her head to rinse her hair. He carefully wrung her hair. Mind no pulling! He wrapped a towel around her head turban style. He had her stand up and he poured jugs of water over her body to rinse the soap off. He held her arm as she stepped out of the tub. He gave her a towel to dry her front while he dried her back. He dried all the way down to her feet. As he dried her bottom he thought we can't do this anymore I won't be able to stand it. His erotic feelings were back in full force. He had her turn around and started drying upwards from her feet. As he got to her middle she spread feet apart.

"You were supposed to dry your front yourself."

"I want you to do it"

"Well give me your towel" He took the dry towel, dried between her legs, and then finished drying her chest and arms. Her skin had a nice rosy hue where he had rubbed the towel.

He had her turn around as he powdered her. He turned to get her clean nightgown and she grabbed his arm. When he turned back towards her she put her arms around his neck.

"Make love to me" she said and she kissed him.

For a moment he considered the possibilities but..."I really really want to.. but you're still sick.."

"I'm better"

"But we don't know if everything has snapped back yet. Wait and I promise I will make love to you so much that you'll say 'please sir, not today'"

She laughed. "Promise?" and she kissed him again.

"Promise" and he kissed her. Then he got her into her nightgown and robe as fast as he could.

As it happened Cora and Isobel were waiting for them when they got back to Mary's room.

Mary gave them both a sweet smile. "Matthew has just given me the most marvellous bath. You should really try being bathed by your loved one sometime" and she giggled.

Matthew was embarrassed for his mother, who had no loved one who could bathe her. He looked at her, expecting she would be perturbed by Mary's comment, but found she had a pensive look on her face.

Later that night, as Matthew struggled with the erotic difficulties that cuddling now entailed, in their separate establishments Robert and Richard both finished bathing their loved ones. Which lead to other things.

-0-

As the end of July approached Matthew started to fret about the necessity of reporting to the Officer Training School. He had not told anyone that he was in the army; what with the crisis over Mary no good opportunity to do so had arisen. He did not want to leave Mary. He loved her and she loved him. What was done was done; they could move on together into the future. He wondered if he could get Robert to pull some strings and get him released from his obligation to the King.

He worried for naught. Mary resolved his dilemma for him.