Rain

Michael finished making the drinks and sat down at the board. He filled his pipe with a special wizarding blend of pipe tobacco designed to not be harmful to pregnant women. It was made of comforting herbs, and it had a deep, nutty, almost cinnamon-y scent to it. It was designed to have s soothing effect not only to the smoker but anyone else who smelled the smoke. Khaat had no idea where Michael had found it, but she found that the very aroma of it, so close to her face, took away every trace of the residual anxiety from her very busy and uncomfortable couple of days in the wet and the cold.

Khaat looked back and saw even her father had decided to give in to its gentle effects and lean back in his own chair and rub away some of the ache in his head, by rubbing his temples.

"I don't know where you got that, MIchael," Kate sighed, stretching her sore muscles from all the work, "but do get Robert some, would you?"

"I got it in Bangladesh," Michael said.

"When were you in Bangladesh?" Robert frowned.

"Never you mind," Michael said

Angus smelled the tobacco and said, "Oh, I know that stuff. Some of the clients on my yacht smoke that in the evenings. It helps them sleep, they say. Alright. Lets start by toasting some nuts." He drew out a couple of cookie sheets and spread a single layer of nuts on each one. One was with cashews for some cashew brittle. The other was a sheet of mixed nuts for the candy coated ones. "That won't take more than a minute maybe two. The minute you can smell warm, toasty nuts, take them out. They can burn and get bitter really quickly. Then we'll make a couple of sugar glazes. Thats' all there is to it."

"Jack's alright," Angus smiled. "Part of what a lot of men keep about them is their little boy stuff. I guess I have some of that myself. I don't get to let it out much, but its there. About the only time I really get to let it out is when Brian and I or Robert or I train together. But given Khaat's injuries and the fact that they were caused because Robert reacted so strongly, so instantly, my guess is that we're going to be training even harder so that we don't do that kneejerk stuff to anyone ourselves. I feel bad for both of them. Thats a father daughter team who truly love each other. And she knew exactly what she was doing when she fired on him. But I can't blame Michael for being angry, though. Robert chose well when he chose Michael to be her godfather. Michael has taken his duty to her very seriously right from the start." He'd been talking while making two sugar glazes. One was a brown sugar glaze for the mixed nuts and it had just enough spice in it to give it the faintest hint of a bit of heat.

The second pot held a brittle mixture. "Watch out, Jess. These are both really hot. I wouldn't want you burned. Take the brown sugar mixture, toss it with the nuts, spread them back out on the cookie sheet in a single layer and bake it for a few minutes to set the glaze on the nuts, please. Just a few minutes should do it. I'll handle the brittle. That's really dangerous stuff."

He tossed in the baking soda, watched the brittle mixture froth and rise and stirred it quickly to make it lighter quickly and to keep it from frothing over the top of the kettle. He added the toasted cashews, mixed the nuts into the brittle mixture and spread the whole works out on a greased cookie sheet and set it on a piece of marble to cool. "When it cools, we'll crack the whole lot of it into pieces," He told her. "When that stuff you're working on cools off, we'll just toss those into bowls for everyone to enjoy. Don't tell them I added just a wee bit of heat. We do it all the time on the boad. No one ever really notices. They just notice they get a little thirsty," he laughed.

"I say we serve it," Angus smiled, setting spells for the kitchen to clean itself. He made sure the two snacks they made were broken at least into 2 or 3 bowls per recipe so they could be set round the room. Then as an afterthought, he got out two arrowroot cookies for the babies and took them to the girls while the bowls followed him through the air.

"Come here, you!" Michael motioned a bowl of the sugar coated mixed nuts. The bowl zipped over to Michael obediently, making Khaat laugh. Michael put the bowl on the game table, waiting for Khaat to make her opening move. She studied her white pieces carefully and then dictated the move to the pieces. Michael frowned looking at the board.

"What the hell sort of opening move is that?" he asked her.

"Hm..." Robert said, thinking and looking. "Very innovate. This should be very interesting. Its either going to work very well for her, or she'll die very easily in this."

"Looked like suicide to me," Michael said.

"No,no. This is my daughter we're talking about. She won't give up on the first move, my friend," Robert laughed, trying a couple of the nuts. "Nice job, whichever of you did the mixed nuts. I haven't had that for a very long, long time."

"The brittle is good too," Kate said, nibbling on a piece of cashew brittle.

Khaat had several ideas about what she thought her godfather might do in response, but to her surprise, he did a move that was something so totally counter to anything she had anticipated that she frowned deeply. Robert roared in utter laughter.

"And the contest is on, I do believe," he laughed. "Well, now what, my dear?" he asked Khaat.

"I'm thinking," she said, studying the board. She studied very carefully all of the most likely moves, progressing to the ones that were the more unlikely to the least likely. And then she did a move that was totally her own. Something totally counter to what she knew Michael would have wanted her to do. He looked at the board, puffed on his pipe and then took a sip of his firewhiskey.

"You're planning on making me think, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. She took a few of the mixed nuts and tried them. "Oh, great job on the snacks, you two. It wouldn't be a chess game for us without them. Thank you."

"You're very welcome," Angus smiled. Khaat looked back at Michael.

"Now what are you going to do?" she asked, trying to suppress a grin.

"I don't have the foggiest idea--yet," he replied, studying.

Khaat knew right away this time what she wanted to do, and she made a move, causing her knight to mash Michael's rook. Michael groaned, not seeing it coming.

"We'll be happy to," Khaat said. "Either of us."

"Let's play partners next time," Michael smiled.

"Oh, that will work," Khaat said. "He means we play another game, and, Jess, you'd partner with one of us, and the other of us would partner up with a fourth so that its two against two. Usually there is some harmless bet involved. Such as, losers fix breakfast for the winners."

"As I recall it was breakfast in bed," Robert said. "Steak and eggs to be exact."

"You're right. It was," Khaat remembered.

"And it was delicious," Robert grinned.

"You won't get that again. Its my turn," she said.

"So you think," Michael said. "Anybody want in on this foursome? Anybody brave enough?"