Chapter Four: The First 24 Hours

By around 6 o'clock that evening, the servants had brought up everything we needed, so we peeled off the highly soiled garments, and managed to keep the mess contained to only them and the bed sheets. I even burned the evidence in the fire for the sake of his pride, I was sure he'd thank us later for that if he made it through.

We wiped him down before getting him into the clean water, burning the rags as well. We were lucky we had boot camp prior to coming here, I truly don't think I would have been in shape enough to handle the man had I not. Dragging him off the unmade bed, he managed to crack an eye lid when he felt himself enter the cold water. His eye immediately found mine, holding it.

"Am I dying?" he asked, his voice scratchy; I felt pity for him, I bet he could do for a drink of water, if my hands weren't full I would grab him a cup quickly.

Kate with one arm, and I with the other, struggled for what it's worth, but I could feel he was trying to help us with his weigh, and we did manage to get him settled into the water. He closed his eyes, not even able to hold himself up though, having become so weak. I reached behind me, onto the table and grabbed the cup of water, pouring a stream of it into his mouth- while I am vaccinated, I still don't want those germs in my mouth. His eyes immediately shot open again, gulping down the water, and coughing a little bit. He looked at me once again, dark eyes holding mine.

"An angel," he said before dozing off again, slipping further into the water. I blushed a bit, but Kate completely ignored what he had said, no doubt contributing it to his fever, as people tended to act out of sorts when they were this hot. Their brains not able to handle the heat, they act strangely.

We caught him, and allowed him to sit for a moment, but he kept falling backwards, wanting to fall back to sleep. We took turns holding him up with our arms, but found out rather quickly that it would be hard to keep that up for at least another 45 minutes. The Duke was a large man, muscular in his build, and very heavy; it took a lot of strength to simply hold him up at this angle from outside the tub.

"I'm going to get in and hold him up," I said all of a sudden, feeling a tad sting of embarrassment when I did. I knew when I looked up Kate would be displeased, I could feel it in my bones.

Kate did a double take, blonde strands coming out of her tiny pony tail. The shock on her face, made her round, bulgy green eyes seem even larger. "You can't be serious, I know that it's 1540, but you're taking advantage of this man. We can keep doing this-" at this point he had began to slip down into the bath and she tried to hoist him back up, but quickly realized she couldn't alone. "Damn-it. Well, whatever, I guess one of us is going to have to do it, he keeps slipping, and I don't have any strength left in my arms to keep doing this like I thought I might, if I weren't so short maybe it'd be a bit easier," she admitted. Which is true, Kate is only 5'2 so i'm sure this is probably a little harder for her than me since she's a smaller stature. We aren't used to picking up our patients like this, but this lead is promising so it's where our training will come in handy.

"Same, and like I said, it isn't like that. I admit, he's handsome, but I wouldn't take advantage of a patient, I can promise you that." I stood, but tried to keep eye contact but she avoided it, turning her face away from mine. "Besides, if this is what I think it is, then we will be going home soon."

"I believe you, Anne. You're a goody two-shoes, and in a way I guess I respect that, but don't get any ideas that could jeopardize our mission. Now is not the time to decide you want to have sex. I'm going to go and get some new bed linens for him and clean up that whole area," she said, finally turning to face me. She raised her eyebrows, "I will be back very soon, so I am deathly serious. No funny business."

"Yes, yes, now give me just a moment while I get these layers off," I said.

"Okay, okay, but hurry," she said.

I unlaced my top, allowing it to slip to the floor with my sleeves and pleats. I unzipped my fake corset, something I had brought from the future with me that helped me when I needed to undress alone. When my skirt was left, I reached behind and untied it, feeling it slip to the floor by my feet until I was wearing nothing but my white chemise.

"Okay, i'm taking him," I said stepping into the freezing water, my teeth immediately chattering as I sunk lower, taking the weight of the Duke from Kate, and sliding him between my legs.

"Okay, you can go now, by the time you find the linens, i'll be ready to get out anyway. God knows how you are with directions," I teased as I pulled the Duke to me, sliding him until his head was being cradled in my arms.

"Whatever, see you in a few," she said, furrowing her eyebrows at me and shuffling out the room quickly.

I don't know why this felt so good, but I found myself thankful that she had left. I felt the familiar pools of desire in my womanhood, and felt a tingle in my belly when I noticed the Duke's eyes were once again open, and staring right at me.

This was weird. I needed to get my shit together, but in this time, a man this handsome was very few and far between. It's only natural though, as long as I don't act on those urges, it's fine.

I gathered my thoughts, doing a pretty bang up job of keeping my forbidden needs at bay. The man remained still the entire time most likely due to the low dosage of the pain medicine I had given him. I needed to make sure that he didn't react badly to it before I gave him more.

He continued to stare at me; his deep brown eyes bore into my own.

"Are you an angel?" He finally said, through raspy voice, and a furrowed brow.

"No, I am Anne, your doctor. We're going to get your fever down, just try to relax, i'll take care of you," I said, petting the side of his face when I noticed the worry he expressed once I said no.

His hand came up out of the water, and took my own, catching me off guard. Quickly, he pulled the arm down to his face, placing a slow, meaningful kill on each of my knuckles, before turning my hand over and kissing my palm. Out of shock, I didn't budge until his eyes rolled back into his head. He had obviously went back to sleep; slumping over, dropping my hand. I held him once again, trying to shake off the effect of what he just did. Wrong time to be getting those feelings in the bath, even if you can't help it.

I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off as we both relaxed in the bath together. Time seemed to pass rather quickly and before I knew it I suppose I had dozed off myself. What woke me, was when I heard Kate coming back into the room- a stack of linens in her arms.

"Hey, sorry, I would have had him bathed by the time you came back but I must've fell asleep. This cold bath isn't so bad after you get used to it," I said as she sat the linens down in the chair next to the bed.

"That's probably because it's warming up, but beside the point, I told the kitchen to have some food sent up for us, since we didn't get to go to lunch after all, and i'm starving," she said the last part with attitude.

"Yeah, me too, and thank you," I replied, "can you hand me the soap?"

"Here," she said, seeing it sitting on the table next to the chair.

"Thanks again," I laughed as I noticed she was looking away, "i'm wearing my chemise, why are you looking away?"

Kate burst into laughter, "you mean it didn't cross your mind that your dress is see through when it's wet? It's white."

"Oh for fu-," I looked down at myself, noticing for the first time that you could, in fact, see through wet chemise. I hope he hadn't seen anything, "oh my god, you really can," I face palmed myself.

I began washing the man, eager to get some clothes on. I took the soap and scrubbed him from his head to his toes before giving him a good rinse. No doubt i'll need a bath later myself, once I can get him settled.

Kate assisted me in pulling him out and drying him off the best we could by hand. This took a considerable amount of time, but once we did, we slipped clean clothes onto him, deciding to leave his chest bare, as well as his lower legs. This should help us to keep his fever low until the medicine can do its job.

It was at this point that I realized that I was dripping wet as well, so I shrugged out of the wet chemise, completely naked to Kate's displeasure.

"Hurry and throw some clothes on, Anne, Jesus Christ," she said turning her face.

"I don't have any thing clean with me i'm going to have to wrap up in a sheet until some clothes are dropped off for me," I said drying my naked body by the fire. "I still have to wash myself off, it didn't feel right using someone else's bath water."

"I'll tell the people outside that you need some clothing and a hot bath brought up, just cover up please," she said getting up and heading towards the door.

I walked by the bed, tossing my wet hair over my shoulder. Leaning down to grab a thin white sheet, I wrapped it around myself, and then walked back over to the table sitting down.

Now that he was clean, we needed to worry about getting him fed, so I hooked him back up to his IV while Kate stepped outside. Sitting on the side of the bed, I got what I needed for my feeding, quickly getting it into place. By then Kate had come back, so she slowly hand fed him with a syringe. I knew his stomach couldn't take much, so we agreed we would have to feed him a little bit at a time in intervals.

By the time she finished up feeding him, he grunted slightly, no doubt discomforted by the removal of the tube. I hoped he could sleep a little better now though, having his belly full, hydrated, and clean. I tucked the blankets in around the Duke, happy to see that he was resting more peacefully now.

Kate and I ended sitting at the table, reading books while we waited on the servants to bring our beds and meals. We were actually brought some items to embroider, no doubt a gift to keep us busy if he found ourselves idol. I took some excitement in that, not really ever having the time to go out and get the items to do it, I looked forward to making something. Kate on the other hand was no so creative when it came to art, whether it be sewing or painting- a little something she shared with me while we were in training.

Around 8 o'clock the servants brought us an elaborate dinner, and dropped off a steaming hot bath, ready to go by the time I finished dinner no doubt. Among the items they brought were a change of clothes as well since I was unable to bring anything with me as this was so last second. My other clothes, I must admit, were soiled after the flopping around in the bath. Kate did not seem to mind, she came prepared she had said, and casually pulled a simple silk gown from her own bag, slipping into it quickly while my back was turned.

Once I made it over to the dinner table, I was absolutely starving and ate several things that I honestly didn't recognize. Some type of pork, two roasted birds, and plenty of vegetables, and a dessert tray even. It was some of the nicest food we had eaten since arriving in this time, needless to say we ate very quickly, and stuffed as much down our throats as possible relishing every bite.

"I don't know what this is but it's delicious," I said, gesturing to the small bird I was devouring.

"I am willing to bet that's quail. Isn't that something you said you wanted to try when we came here?" She said as she licked her fingers clean of pork.

"It is, if that's what this is then it's even better than what I thought it could be." I took another bite, moaning as I did. "This has got to be the most delicious thing I've ever had. Even back in our time."

"Really? I miss the fast food, myself."

"Nope I miss my family if anything."

"Who you got waiting on you at home?"

"Well, my brothers James and Ethan are on missions like me since they're 18 and 21 and of age, but I have a mother and father, and a grandma and grandpa back home who were allowed to stay home," I said, looking her in the eyes from across the small 4 person table.

"I have a Mom and a sister who are waiting for me back home. She's only 8 so she probably won't remember me if we don't return soon, but when I was there we were close. We lived where there were lots of mountains, and we had this vineyard that made amazing wine, and the yummiest grapes. My sister and I would pick copious amounts, and get sick off of them. My mom would get so mad because we couldn't help but stain our clothes in the process," she laughed thinking back.

I held up my goblet of wine, "the wine here is pretty go though, is it not? Places like these have an abundance, how's it compare to the wine from your vineyard then?"

"It doesn't, my family makes their wine with love, but this is still very good too," she smiled, reminiscing. The first time I had seen that emotion on her since being assigned her partner back before boot camp.

"I hope they are all okay, it's ridiculous we can't speak to them," she said finally.

"I know," I said, looking into the flames of the fire, "I wish we could at least be told that they're okay."

There was a sadness that settled on us for a moment, before it was shattered by a knock at the door. Kate and I looked at each other, panicking but jumping up and closing the canopy so that nobody could see the person sleeping inside just as the door opened.

The Constable was the first to enter, all wearing masks this time. He was followed by 2 men carrying in our beds, and then a woman with a large stack of linens for them. The men carefully sat the beds down, leaving and then returning with the mattresses as the lady sorted who's linens went where.

She set the beds up on the side of the fireplace, leaving us with the Constable who had up until this point been quiet. At this point the time had to be around 9 o'clock, as it was getting dark and the only light in the Palace was the fireplace.

Once everyone had left, and closed the door behind them, leaving us alone with the Constable, he walked over to the Duke's bedside, observing his condition. He was still for several moments, leaving us to stare at his back. Kate and I looked at one another before she spoke.

"Mr. Stanley? Is everything alright?" she asked, concern and curiosity in her tone.

Finally, he turned to look at us. "I am pleased to see he at least appears better, is there any progress?"

"Well, we only just started but he has opened his eyes and even spoken a couple of times. I will check to see if his fever has broken in the morning but for now he seems to be doing good," I said, pulling the sheet I was wrapped in tighter around my naked body.

The Constable must have just became aware that I was in the nude, because he looked down as I did and turned around quickly. I felt embarrassment rise in my cheeks, but held onto the conversation.

"I suspect he will be survive," I said boldly. He shook his head up and down, walking quickly for the door stopping just short.

"My apologies for walking in on you, Doctor. I did not realize you were indecent," he apologized.

"No, that's fine, Mr. Stanley you can't see anything, besides I had no other clothes until moments ago, so it will be our little secret."

"Thank you, Miss Aske. Good night," he said, not being able to leave the room quick enough.

I laughed, dropping the linen; Kate hissed at me when she seen me.

"Really? Hissing?" I said, stepping into the hot bath and sitting down.

"Really? Nudity?" she backfired.

"It's nothing you don't have, I don't see what the big deal is."

"I don't even want to see mine, let alone yours. Keep it to yourself, or at least warn me when we have to be in the same room together."

I raised my hands up in defeat, "fine, you win. No more nudity."

"Thank you," she said finishing up straightening her bed, "now then, I am going to bed, wake me for my shift."

"Okay, whatever, good night then," I watched as she climbed into the small bed and turned away from me, snoring in minutes.

I leaned back into the bath, closing my eyes, and falling asleep for the second time that night. As I was sleeping, I had the most peculiar dream...