Marriage is Murder

ooc: its only midafternoon. we just finished lunch and haven't gotten anywhere near the evening meal.

"I sent Steven and Brian both on errands," Khaat said. "They wont be long." Husband? she wondered. The last she knew, Cassidy and Steven weren't married yet. She wasn't sure exactly why Cassidy was referring to him as her husband, but she said nothing. She was about to shift the direction of the conversation when Angus sent out a tray of tall glasses filled with ice and some sort of tropical beverage.

"Try that and see what you think," he called to them. Khaat took a glass off the tray and tried it. Fresh made limeade. It was a nice, refreshing change.

"Its wonderful," Khaat said. "Its a nice change from lemonade."

"Well, thats what I thought too," he said. "And I am making some sweet bread crackers and an extra sharp cheddar and bacon cheese spread if you all want some sort of a snack between now and dinner."

"Sweet bread crackers?" Khaat asked.

"Not like you're thinking. The yanks don't eat what we call sweetbreads like we do. This refers to a dough made from a bread dough that is sweet. Just like it sounds. They're thin and sweet with just a dusting of pretzel salt."

"I'll try them," she said.

Khaat was the only one who seemed remotely interested in the crackers and fresh cheese spread Angus was making, so he simply disappeared into the house silently to bring her a small plate of them when they were out of the oven. He knew if Brian was back by then that he would also have some with her. Today he felt frustrated by serving as the house butler. The original contract called for him to be a bodyguard and to run Brian's massive estate. Now he was a cook, a butler and a nanny. And then, most of the time, he felt about as regarded as the furniture. Tuscany was starting to look like a good alternative for the holidays--with his family. He said nothing and began quickly rolling and cutting more cracker dough into the right shapes to go with the cheese spread--which was chilling in the refridgerator.

Khaat picked up quickly on the icy discontent that came from Angus. That was so rare for Khaat to ever, ever see from him that it concerned her. She said nothing but merely made a mental note to ask Brian to spend a bit of time with him. Khaat could not begin to see their home without Angus in it.

Then he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye, and he spun to see a toy--a large, colorful, metal spinning top, sliding at breakneck speed across the floor towards Abbey and Dakota. At this rate, one of the girls was about to be hurt. He flung himself on the toy and tackled it, just as it came within a couple of inches from plowing right into Dakota. He looked up at her, his face only a few inches from her.

"You really do have to learn some control if you're going to start doing that," he scowled at her. She just giggled at him and swatted his nose happily.

"I've played a time or two," he shrugged. "I just didn't want it to smack Dakota. She doesn't have any control or concept that being hit with that would hurt." He listened to Jess and simply smiled and said. "Yeah, I know. Its just that...well, I enjoy what I do, but I'm a damned good bodyguard and an auror and sometimes all I do is laundry and cooking and changing diapers. It gets frustrating."

"That's because we all need to do better at sharing the load around here," Kate said, coming into the room. She went over and kissed him on the cheek. "Why don't you take some time when we get back from the memorial service and do some surfing? Or take a long weekend to visit your family?"

"Because its too close to the holidays" he said simply.

"Sure," Khaat said. "Thank you. Did you smell that tobacco? It does smell like fine brandy. Michael has those custom made in Italy. He got me a box last year to give to Eli for Christmas, and Eli loved them." Khaat tucked the ring box into her robe pocket. Khaat suddenly picked up an odor of a potion gone wrong.

"Jess," she said, "You've had some experience with potions. Since I can't help Daddy, would you look and see if you can help him downstairs? Clearly, the experimental potions hasn't worked out the way he'd hoped, and every time I've smelled that odor, he's caused a bit of a cloud of smoke in the potions lab. Hopefully, he hasn't burned himself.

"Khaat," Angus said. "Would you like me to pack for you and Brian?"

"I think I'll have Brian do that, but if you would pack the girls? And, if I could get someone to pack the triplets, please?" She looked at the clock. Brian had been gone almost 2 hours. She was getting a trifle worried. She had no reason to think there was trouble, but she still was concerned. She didn't figure she'd feel better until he got back.

"The binding agents I have to use in this are extremely unstable until blended and heated," Robert sighed. "I've tried it with stable ingredients and the damned thing doesn't just go up in a small puff of smoke. It becomes dangerously explosive. Anything that explosive can't possibly be good to ingest. So, the only binding agents I've found are unstable, and It takes a combination of two of them. I've blown this thing up more times than I can count. Too little and this is what happens. Too much, and I end up blowing the room apart. You might not want to stay for this. I still think that if I get the ratios right that it won't explode. But its very, very tricky." He sighed and got out a bucket of soapy water and a few rags to wipe up the mess. He flicked his wand at a cellar window to let out some of the fumes. "Sometimes, a bit of cleaning, by hand, helps clear my head," he said to her. "Helps me review what I've done and where perhaps I've misstepped."