Timothy Turner burst through the back door, his knees covered in dirt and his hands cupped around a glass jar full of leaves and twigs. "Dad! Dad! Dad!"

"No shouting and running in the house, Tim, we've talked about this," Patrick scolded from his cross-legged position on the sitting room floor. It was his first Saturday off in a month and he was occupied with a very important task: trying to find what combination of tickling and funny faces made Angela laugh the most. He tickled her belly once more and was rewarded with a squealing gurgle before he turned to his son. "What is it?"

"Look what Colin and I found in the garden." Timothy held out the jar, which at close view, revealed a brown and orange spider about the size of Angela's fist among the foliage. "It's not poisonous — I checked in the book I got from the library last week — but I've never seen one this big before. What kind do you think it is?"

Patrick took the jar and examined its captive more closely. "I'd say it was just your common garden spider, though you're right, it is rather large. Maybe Mum knows."

"What's that?" Shelagh came out of the kitchen where she'd been preparing their lunch.

"Look." Timothy took the jar from his father and showed it to her. Shelagh peered at it, blanched, took a step back and shuddered.

"Take that back outside please, Timothy," she said, taking another step back. "And then get Colin and go wash up, please. It's almost time for lunch."

"All right." He dashed back into the sunny garden.

Patrick watched as his wife turned for the kitchen, her shoulders still twitching slightly. He rose from the floor, placed Angela in her playpen, followed Shelagh to the kitchen and leaned against the doorway.

"You're scared of spiders."

Her cheeks pinked in embarrassment. "Not scared, exactly. I just don't like them." She began spooning cling peaches into a glass bowl next to the plate of sandwiches. "Once, when I was about 12 or 13, one of my older cousins put a spider in my bed as a joke. It was — " She made a face and shuddered again. "Not pleasant."

Patrick chuckled slightly. "I'll bet."

She set down the spoon. "Now, I just see one and I get a crawling feeling up my spine." She shivered again and rubbed the back of her neck. "I suppose I'm lucky Timothy's interest usually runs more to caterpillars and butterflies."

"Indeed." Timothy brought home all kinds of crawling creatures, but this was the first time he'd ever seen Shelagh squirm at one of them. It was rather amusing. "But what do you do when one gets in the house?"

Her grin turned even more sheepish. "I call Timothy. It's only happened once or twice." Her eyes widened. "But, goodness, they were everywhere at Nonnatus in the summer. Sister Evangelina hated them too —"

"Wait, Sister Evangelina is scared of spiders?" His smile widened.

"Don't you dare," she said, her voice stern, but her eyes dancing. "She'll know I told you. And if the nurses found out, it would be absolute chaos."

"You're probably right." Teasing the elder nun about her fear, even lightly, wouldn't be pleasant for anyone. Teasing his wife, however, could lead to very pleasant consequences. He moved closer so he was standing behind her and rested his hands lightly on her hips.

She leaned into him and looked out through the kitchen hatch toward the sunlight back windows. "It's lovely out today. How would you feel about lunch in the garden?"

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

She turned slightly in his arms and he could see the edge of her frown. "Why not?"

His fingers moved upwards, tickling across her lower back. "Well, all those spiders —"

"Patrick Turner, stop it right now."

"Creeping and crawling…" His hands traveled to her shoulders, then brushed across her neck. She laughed and tried to squirm away, but he caught her around the waist and turned her so she was facing him.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you," he whispered and attacked her stomach with teasing hands. She gave a giggly shriek before exacting her own revenge, tickling all the places she could reach — his stomach, his chest, under his arms, the side of his neck — until the thundering of two pairs of feet on the stairs forced them apart. They were still laughing when Timothy and Colin appeared.

"What's so funny?" Timothy asked.

Patrick smirked. "Mum thought she saw another spider."