Chapter 48

Andy was just thinking about how he should probably go back into the pig shed,when the kitchen door flew open,admitting an anxious looking Toby.“Um,I could be wrong,but I think the sow looks as though she’s having a bit of trouble.”

Andy eased himself to his feet.“What’s she doing?”

“Walking about and sort of straining.It’s been ten minutes since the last one came out,but—”

“Okay,sounds like one has got stuck.”

“Gross,”Craig said.

Andy followed Toby back to the pig sheds,Craig tagging along behind.

Seeing the sow pacing around her pen and looking distinctly unhappy,Andy thought he ought to have a feel around inside.

“Toby,would you go into the equipment room?”He pointed past the rows of empty pens at a doorway on the far wall.The barn was unusually quiet as most of the pigs were outside in the paddock,enjoying the sunshine.“Fetch me a bucket of warm water,liquid soap and the big bottle of lubricant?”

“Okay.”Toby moved off,and Craig stood there uncertainly.

“You sure you want to stay?”Andy knew his nephew was a little squeamish.

“Might as well,there’s nothing on the telly worth watching.”

“Please yourself.But if you start feeling faint,fall backward.”Andy had heard the line in a film once.Craig rolled his eyes.

Toby soon returned with the stuff.Andy soaped up the sow’s rear and disinfected his arm,before coating it in lubricant.“Always make sure you use plenty of this,”Andy told Toby,who looked on with keen interest.

“He says that to all the boys,”Craig put in,but both Andy and Toby ignored him.

Andy slowly began to inch his fingers inside the sow’s vagina.

“Don’t you be getting any ideas for later.”Craig elbowed Toby,who chuckled.

“Have you found the problem?”Toby asked,stepping away from Craig.

“Not yet.”Then his fingers brushed up against something.“Wait.There’s a head pushed back against the hip bone.”

“Can you fix it?”Toby asked.

“He’s not Bob the builder.”

Andy shot Craig a look before returning his attention to his task.Addressing Toby,he said,“If I push his head back and then straighten things up…yes,that should make things easier.”

Andy worked for a little longer;everything seemed to be in the right place,so he withdrew his arm.

As he wiped his hand free of mucus and birthing fluids on a patch of clean straw,the sow gave a grunt and the head of the piglet emerged.The rest of the body soon followed.

“He’s all yours,”Andy indicated to Toby,who scooped up the wriggling damp bundle.

“Uh,actually,he’s a gilt,”Toby grinned.

“I was just testing,”Andy said,smiling.

Craig looked confused.

As Toby cleaned the piglet,he asked,“Does this sort of thing happen often?”

“Not too often.This was quite a simple birth.Breech,where the piglet comes out arse first,can be a bit tricky.”

“I was laid wrong.The doctors had to do a Caesarean on my mum.”

“Oh,right.We don’t really do that with pigs.If you can’t get them out alive,then you haveto put the sow on a course of penicillin injections and wait a few days for the dead piglet to beaborted.

Craig wrinkled his nose.“I remember when that happened once.It stank.”

“Yeah.Thankfully the sow survived.They don’t always.But then she didn’t stop eating,which was a good sign.”

A new,and most welcome,voice came from the doorway.“Here you are.I come home after a hard day’s work,expecting my dinner to be waiting for me on the table.Only there’s no meal,not even anyone slaving over the stove preparing it.”

Andy saw his Luke striding down the central walkway.It was as if the sun had come out.His knee no longer hurt;everything looked and felt right with the world.“Hello,love.”

“Everything okay?”Luke tilted his head up to receive a kiss.

“It is,now you’re home,”Andy said,delivering the kiss.

“Please,not in front of the piglets,”Craig grumbled and Toby chuckled.

“We had a bit of trouble with a farrowing.”Andy pointed to the sow,now laying on her side as her new family suckled her.

Luke sniffed Andy.“I can tell.”

Andy thought Luke on the other hand smelled fresh,clean and totally delectable.“I’ll be in soon;I just want to wait until she finishes,just in case there are any more problems.”

“Okay.I’ll start dinner.”Luke began to turn away.

“No,it’s all right,it’s my turn,”Andy protested.“And like you said,you’ve been hard at work all day,and—”

“I was pulling your leg.”Luke smiled.“You finish up in here.I called in at the supermarket on my way home and picked up some salad ingredients.I didn’t think you’d want anything too heavy,what with the weather.”

It had been hotter than usual for July.

“Thank God,”Craig said.“Because,after seeing what I’ve just seen,I don’t think I couldhave faced eating meat.In fact,I’ve been thinking about turning vegetarian.”

“What?”Andy exclaimed.“Over my dead body!”

Craig burst out laughing.“It was a joke.You should see your face.”

Luke smiled.“He got you there,love.”

Andy harrumphed.

****

“Can you actually speak Welsh?”Toby asked Luke at the kitchen table as they ate their salad.

“Ydw,tipyn bach.”

“God,that’s brilliant,”Craig said through a mouthful of food.

“Craig,”Andy shook his head.“Manners.”

Craig chewed rapidly,and then swallowed.“Sorry.But what did you say?”

“Yes,a little,”Luke replied.“Welsh was compulsory at school,though I was allowed to takeFrench instead at fourteen.But I soon found I hated that even more.”

“Go on,say something else,”Craig encouraged.

Luke covered Craig’s hand and,looking into his eyes,in a low voice,said,“Mae fy hofrenfadyn llawn o lyswennod.”

Craig shivered.“Uh,yeah.God,Luke that sounded so sexy.What does it mean?”

Andy shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“I said,”Luke smirked,“that my hovercraft was full of eels.”

“Huh?”Craig’s mouth fell open.Everyone laughed.

Later that night,when the pair was in bed,Andy curled round his lover,he asked,“Did you know,after you started speaking those few phrases in Welsh,you developed a bit of an accent?”

“Really?”

“Yeah.I hate to admit it,but Craig was right.It sounded dead sexy.I always wondered why youdon’t have an accent.”

“I tried to lose it when I left home.”

“That’s a shame.”

“I think I always regain a bit of an accent each time I go home.People say I also sound Welsh when I get drunk.”

“We’ll have to get you drunk,or maybe take you back to Wales then.I want to meet your family,if that’s all right.”

“Um.”

“It is all right,isn’t it?”Andy asked,not sure if there was a problem.He knew most of Luke’s family had accepted his homosexuality.

“There’s no problem.I’m sure mam and da will really like you.”

“So why the serious face?”

Luke didn’t speak for a moment.Then he kissed Andy softly on the lips.“Meeting my family.It just makes it all seem…real.”

Andy looked at his boyfriend.“That’s a good thing,isn’t it?I mean,you were the one who asked me to marry you.If you’ve—”

“No,stop.It is a good thing.A very good,wonderful and happy thing.And my family will just love you,da especially.”

“I know it’s a bit old-fashioned,but I sort of want them to meet me before the wedding,you know?I’m not going to ask your dad’s permission or anything.I’m not that old-fashioned,but I would like to meet them beforehand.”

Luke started to grind his crotch into Andy’s.“And my da will grill you,asking you if your intentions toward his son are strictly honourable.I can just see it now;Dad standing in frontof the fireplace,his pipe in his hand,pointing it at you as he interrogates you.”

“He won’t,will he?”Andy started to worry.

Luke laughed.“No,you daft sod.‘Course he won’t.”

Andy smiled.“Now you’re sounding like a Yorkshireman.”

“You’re a bad influence on me,that’s what you are.”

Luke continued to rub their midsections together.Andy had sprung wood the second he’d begun.Now he was starting to leak.