Marriage is Murder

"Ciros," Robert cast a slight reprimanding glare at the elf. The shameless elf merely shrugged at Robert. "Ciros has a wandering eye. That is part of the reason he works for Rene. With Rene there isn't anything to see. And Rene normally keeps him on a short leash. My daughter is off limits, Ciros. And so are the other women here. They're mine. Got it?"

"Ooooh," the elf grinned, "Minister gots himself a harem!"

"I'm about to have another bug for my collection in a minute," Robert said.

"I'll take him to the guest house to Rene," Brian said, grabbing hold of the elf and hauling him off like a sack of potatoes under his arm. He marched down to the guesthouse and walked in unannounced, not setting the elf to his feet until he could stand him in front of Rene.

"Where have you been, Ciros?" Rene demanded angrily.

"Watching my wife in the shower," Brian was curt and angry.

"tell me you're not Brian," Rene looked at him flatly.

"You want me to lie?" Brian scowled.

"Then Ciros was in Khaat's bathroom," Rene sighed. "Ciros, you tell me one good reason why I should not hex your eyes shut for a month!"

"How could Ciros serve Rene without his eyes?" Ciros looked at Rene innocently.

"I'll handle it. My apologies, Brian, to you and to Khaat and to Robert. It won't happen again--or else!" He stared directly at the houseelf. The elf just shrugged, unafraid and went to see to Rene's needs in the kitchen. Brian wasn't satisfied. He marched into the kitchen and flicked his wand at the elf, turning him into a postage stamp and laid the stamp on the counter. Then, satisfied, he walked out of the kitchen.

"Where is my servant?" Rene asked.

"On the kitchen counter," Brian said, leaving and returning to the house.

"Well," Robert said, watching Brian leave with the elf, "My odds are on him not being a house elf in about five seconds. ciros doesn't know how to not push his luck. He always has to push one more step. This should be interesting."

Brian came back alone, but Robert quickly picked up on the look on Brian's face that said he'd settled it. Robert could barely resist laughing. He almost didn't want to know what Brian had done.

"He's a stamp," Brian said.

"You mean as in a rubber stamp?" Kate asked.

"No. I mean as in a postage stamp. If he gets too foul, I'll just send hi by post to romania to Charlie Weasley. By the time they whack postmarks all over him, he'll be glad to spend some time with all those unbathed men and stinky dragons," Brian said. "I'm going to go make sure my wife isn't ready to mail him herself." He went upstairs. Robert managed to keep a somewhat straight face until Brian left. then he laughed. "That boy is growing up fast," Robert laughed. "I like it."

"Whatever you need to do," Robert waved any concerns aside.

Upstairs, Brian found Khaat putting on just a pair of comfortable exercise stretch pants in a plain black color. She added one of her own t shirts and Brian's flannel shirt and a pair of slipper socks. She was trying to reach an itch in the middle of her back where she couldn't reach.

"Still cold?" he asked gently, going over to help her reach the itch..

"Maybe just a little," she replied, "I'm not using that shower gel Daddy made for relief of cold symptoms, though. It makes me itch. Oh thank you. I could not begin to reach that."

"I've never known of you to be allergic to anything,' he said. He lifted up her shirt and saw the beginnings of a fine rash. "But it looks like there is a first for everything." He went to the cabinet and got out a lotion and helped her spread it over the rash. It quickly numbed the fine rash. "With as much land as we have here, I have never let the cabinet go empty of anti-itch lotion. There is a lot of poison ivy out there. But it sure doesnt' look like any poison ivy I've ever seen. Looks more like allergy to me."

"I dont' care what it is as long as we stop it" she said.

"Come downstairs and i'll reheat your tea," he said. She agreed and followed him back downstairs. While they'd been gone, Abbey had awakened and waa a bit disoriented at finding her mama gone from her. Robert went over and picked her up and carried her over to his deep comfortable chair and let her curl up sleepily in his lap while she woke up.

"No snacks until after dinner," he told James. He was not surprised James had finally decided to start walking. "We're going to eat noodles soon." He flicked a spell into action to set the table.

"No" Kate said. "She and Brian have both already had that. It could just be a heat rash from overdressing because she's chilled. Or maybe she's just reacting to a plant in that new shower gel of Robert's. I'm not going to be bothered by it yet."

"Nor should you be," Robert said. "If it needs tending, I'll do it.

"Go ahead. Feel free to talk about me behind my back" Khaat said, coming in, sneezing..

"We intend to. Gesunheit. You have a houseful of seers. They picked up on your irritability from your itching."

"Thank you. Its fine now," she said. "Brian took care of it."

"Good," her father said. She was about to sit down when one of the St Mungos owls arrived for her. She read the message and sighed.

"I've got to go," she said, laying the wand aside.

"Uh...like that?" he asked, noticing her very casual dress. He realized that it wasn't even her style to normally dress that casually at home, much less going out like that.

"No," she said. She went up and changed quickly into a pair of tan dress slacks and a white shirt and a beautiful green cashmere sweater. She used a glamour spell on her hair and her makeup and apparated out to St. Mungos.

"Do you feel like you're back at work yet?" Robert smiled at Brian, seeing that he was slightly annoyed by the fact that Khaat wasn't even getting one day off.

"Yep. I guess we are," he said. "Angus," he called. "Hold Khaat's dinner. She's gone in to work."

"Again?" Angus called back. "Okay."

"Are you getting hungry?" Kate asked James. "I smell noodles. I''m hungry."

"Well, wait no longer," Michael said, serving bowls of chicken and noodles with a crusty dinner rolls and dinner salads. "And Angus has made a lovely fresh raspberry cheesecake for dessert. Its a shame Khaat is missing it. It would make her feel better to get some comfort food this evening."

"It will be very welcome when she gets home, I'm sure," Robert said.

"Are you sure we should go home tonight, Robert?" Kate asked, starting to takes kids to the table for dinner.

"Its a cold," Robert scowled at them all. "What would you all do if she really did get sick? Until or unless we find something out very different, I presume we treat her as if she's still up and moving because the very last I saw, she was." He got up and helped Kate and Brian help to take kids to the dinner table.