Marriage is Murder

"Yes. They will. Our unicorns consider it a great honor," Kate smiled. "Steven, lets be sure to give all of them plenty of food and a lot of extra straw. We perhaps need to move them into that very large stall in the middle of the barn. We can keep all four together there. It was tight with the parents and the colt together, but now with the foal, we need to make use of the very large stall to give them more room. I'll let you make sure they are warm. You could always change that red comforter to one that fastens so that it does not fall off." Kate did her best to welcome the foal and to be sure that the colt did not feel jealousy but it appeared that he rather liked the idea of someone closer to his own age.

"Oh, and Steven," Kate said. "Do put a detail of our own armed aurors here in the barn. They might not like guarding unicorns, but do try to pick men that have some semblance of understanding how important this is and how critical it is that we keep it secret. I'll trust you to do that. I'll ask you to supervise during the day and perhaps Jim would supervise on the night shift. We do not want to give Grindelwald the ability to create another life for himself with a very simple potion made from her blood. I do not know if he is a potions master, but Zada Forbes is. Let us not let them know this foal exists. If you're good here, I will leave you to it for now."

Steven nodded and started to move them all into the larger stall he changed the comforter to a light pink one that fastened around her and moved her into the larger stall , placing extra straw and food in the stall for them all , he even left the red comforter over the stable door so the smell would be there and make her feel home. Jim arrived with three men " hey tex" he said and Steven looked at him.

" these the men , why these three?" he asked looking at them all.

" they all have experience with animals and there all good at what they do, Jackson's an ex vet, Richards is ex mounted police and johns was raised on a farm that reared young horses for the mounted police I would not be surprised if Richards rode one of his fathers horses, so yeah all good men and they know their job " he said looking as Steven nodded.

"Good, I hope Robert approves, nobody gets close to that foal, unless its cleared by me or Robert got that?" he asked and all three nodded " I'll leave you to the night shift and will return in the morning. he said and after one final check he aperated back to the main house.

"Papa!" Abbey dashed towards him when he got back. "Horsey?"

He picked her up, laughing softly and kissed her lovingly. "You are entirely too smart for not even two. Yes. We found a horsey."

"Mine?"

"No. She's a friend."

"Me see!" she nodded.

"I think that would be alright," Robert said. "If that's alright with Grandma."

"I think its a fine idea," Kate said. "They might never see another in their lifetimes. But, let us not all decend on her all at once, shall we? Perhaps after dinner tonight? We could take Abbey tonight, Andrew in the morning, and then Dakota a bit later in the morning. I am not certain the other kids would get much out of it. They're too little."

"I think thats a fine idea. And that gives a great many of us a chance to go out, if we go just a couple at a time. Well, so much for our pilfered muggle movie," he laughed.

"I'll go finish fixing dinner," Angus smiled. He soon was setting dinner on the table. meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad, and a roasted corn casserole. For dessert he had a deep dish peach pie with homemade vanilla ice cream and freshly made whipped cream. It was followed by a lovely soothing pecan flavored coffee. He soon had it set out and called them all to dinner.

Steven returned and saw Robert with Abby and smiled " shes all settled in , Jim's got three men on it " he said and saw the movie had been turned off. he moved to get a drink and sat down " Jim's staying out till morning to guard her , I'll take over tomorrow " he said taking along drink of his soda. Cassidy went to check on the smaller kids while Jess re boxed the movie and placed it beside the TV.

" we'll we can watch it again another day Kate what I saw it was good " she admitted " especially when Robert made Steven bald " she said and Steven groaned at the thought but smiled as well.

They gathered at the table and had a quiet enjoyable dinner.

"Kate," Brian said, "Is there any reason why Khaat and I can't go out after the foal is asleep to see her? A unicorn foal is pretty rare in itself, let alone one that is so rare on top of that."

"I don't see why not," Kate said. "We just dont' want to overwhelm her. but if she's asleep and if you're quiet and respectful, I don't see any harm."

"I promise. No parties in the unicorn stall," he smiled.

"That would be very wise," she laughed."Angus, you make a wonderful meatloaf. Thank you." She was about to say something else, when Dakota decided she did not want her vegetables and began flinging them everywhere.

"Well, I wondered how long it would be til we saw that again," Robert laughed, dodging fistfuls of Angus's corn casserole. He merely looked at her and asked her, "What is it you want, Dakota?"

"Cake!" she demanded

"We're not eating cake right now. I'll get you cake if you eat your dinner," he said as she continued to hurl food.

"NO! Cake! Now! Mine!!" she threw big globs of corn casserole at just about everyone. Robert raised an eyebrow at her.

Jack dodged some casserole and looked at Dakota then Robert " looks like a temper tantrum " he said softly " I'm guessing she doesn't want to go and see the baby unicorn tomorrow" he said " she won't like shouting or noise " Steven looked at Dakota.

" that's right the baby needs quite and good children to visit not ones who throw there food " he said eating his food " besides its delicious Angus " he said watching as Andrew looked puzzled at Dakota as he ate his food with no fuzzing though he wasn't keen on some vegetables he still ate them knowing they were part of the food he had been given.

"I think I might have the answer to this one," Angus smiled. "With your permission?" He flicked his wand and turned the portion of corn casserole on her plate to a few coin sized round pieces of polenta. "Dakota," he called her very softly, almost a whisper. "Look. Cake." He picked up one of the coins and ate it. She became jealous of him immediately.

"NO! MINE!" she shouted at him and picked up the pieces of polenta one at a time and ate them, fully believing they were cake. She had no idea she was eating her veggies. Brian glanced across the table to see Abbey starting to stick out her bottom lip, unhappy that Dakota had cake.

"Um...how about just transfiguring a bit more of that?" Brian said. "How do you know all these tricks to get kids to eat their vegetables?"Abbey had been good, but she surely did not want to be let out of getting cake.

"I don't know," Angus shrugged. "Not a problem." Angus took a plate, put a generous amount of corn casserole on it and transfigured it to more little coin shaped pieces of polenta. "Here. This should do for all of them," he smiled. Brian gave Abbey some, and was pleased to be greeted with her happy little smile once more. Robert made sure that the triplets each got some and passed the plate on to Jess.

Jack passed it to Jack who gave Andrew some he picked one up and tried it clapping happily that he liked it " nummie " he said and picked up another to eat . Jess looked at Angus and chuckled .

" are you sure you don't have some kids out there?" she asked and chuckled " your so good at calming ours " jack coughed and chuckled along with Steven, Jim just raised his eye brow at them and smiled shaking his head as he ate.

" y0ou spoil them Angus" he said and looked up from his plate.

"No kids of mine out there," he laughed. "But lots of cousins and nieces and nephews. You saw the grownups in Tuscany. You haven't seen the kids. My granfather brags about all the kids and grandkids our family has. But it helps that I've known these kids since their birth." When dinner was finished, he brought out pots of tea and coffee and large slabs of peach pie topped with homemade ice cream and whipped cream.

To Brian's surprise, Abbey picked out the peaches and ate them first and then ate the crust and the ice cream and whipped cream. She was a sticky mess when she was done.

"I'm going to have to take her out and dunk her in the pond, I think," Brian laughed, looking at her. Dakota wasn't much better. She was covered with corn. "Hm...her too by the looks of it."

"Maybe we should just toss them in the pool," Kate said.

"No. I do not want all that sticky mess in my pool," he said.

"Well, I bet Grandpa and I can deal with two sticky little girls," Kate smiled.

"Speak for yourself, Kate," Robert teased. "I think they'll have to stay that way. And by the looks of them, that could be an all night project."

"I'll get it," Khaat smiled.

"No, you won't," her father said firmly. "You'll be face first into the tub if I allow that. That's just not happening tonight."

Jack chuckled as Jess spoke |" ah that explains all " she said and smiled as she saw Andrew , Abby and Dakota all messy she shook her head " leave it to cassidy and I ,we'll clean them right up" she said picking up Abby and Cassidy picked up Dakota.

" and that leaves mister here for me " said Jack who chuckled as Andrew placed a sticky finger on his noes as he carried him out of the dinning room and up to a bathroom to wash. He could hear Jess with Abby in a naboring bathroom and knew cassidy had Dakota in hand. Once Andrew was clean he changed him into a a onezie and carried the half asleep boy to his bed , placing him in Jack gave him a kiss on his head and headed down to the living room.