Marriage is Murder

"Here," Robert said, handing Brian a shot of firewhiskey.

"At 7 am?" Brian looked at him.

"You earned it," Robert said. "We dont make a habit of it. Besides, those sting, I know full well."

"Like the devil," Brian admitted. He looked at Khaat, who was somewhat awake again, unable to settle. "It wasnt' you who let them in just because the beast had a fix on you, you know."

"Not directly, anyway," she said.

"No," Robert said, agreeing with Brian. "It was what they trained that thing to do and what they engineered it to become."

"And now we just have more of them," she sighed.

"Yes, but they're not as experienced, and we took out a few of the newer ones today. this isn't as bad as it looks, I dont' think," Robert said.

Jess smiled and nodded " will do you good" she said softly as she walked past the door . Brant looked at them and could not help sigh thinking back to his failed meeting in Hogsmead. " do you think they will try again?" he asked " after that" he added as he took a deep breath. Steven looked at him and shook his head .

" not for several months I'm guessing" he said and looked at Brian " might give us all time to heal and recover " he added as he moved to the door " okay I'm off to wash up " he said " Brant you might want to check on Angus and see if you can help, might take your mind off what ever it is that's really bothering you" he added and disappeared.

"Several months..." Khaat sighed. "I don't know if I like that thought or not. That just gives them more time to make more and to train them." She watched Jess and Steven leave.

"My dear," Robert sighed. "You forget. There's every chance we won't even be living in England by then. Let's not borrow trouble, shall we? You need to focus on your recovery."

"Do I need to be looking for a replacement for us at St. Mungos?"

"No," he said very deliberately. "Do nothing out of the ordinary. Business as usual unless I say otherwise."

"What are you going to do?"

"What I always do. Take care of things the best I know how," he said. "Now, if you're all in one piece, I have work to do. Brant, I think all you'll find in the kitchen is Angus doing either breakfast clean up or starting preparations for either lunch or dinner. Nothing that exciting." He went to Brian's office.

Khaat looked at Brian. "How do we keep him from being the scapegoat for everyone else's insanity? He's doing nothing wrong, but the scandal is being aimed right at him."

"Your father," he said to her, "is very well able to deal with this. When have you ever known of him to give a damn about public opinion? He didn't start out to be minister, and he doesn't want it forever. He's not even giving that thought, so don't you get caught up pitying him either."

"Pity?"

"Thats what it is. You want to protect him from hurt because you care and you feel he's being wronged. A certain degree of that is pity. If you want to deal with this the way he wants it handled, you'll simply follow his lead."

Brant nodded and headed down to the kitchen he could not smell any food yet and carefully opened the door " hey cousin anything you want me to help with?" he asked slipping off his jacket and hanging it up on the hanger close by him and rolling up his sleeves as he knew he'd have something to do. Steven showered and headed down passing Khaat room.

"Any better Brian?" he asked as he stopped by the door he wanted to stay so Brian could get washed up himself but he knew he would not leave her side just yet.

"If you like," Angus said. "My brothers sent some fabulous fish from the boat this morning. I'm thinking I'll make a massive batch of fish and chips with a good dark ale batter. We've still got a big crew to feed for lunch. I presume they'll be gone sometime this afternoon. Do you remember how to clean fish? Or peel potatoes? The kids don't like the peels on the potatoes. So, either one would be a help."

"Yeah," Brian said. "Much. Its not like you and I both haven't faced worse just in training exercises. You might want to take Jim with you and go get Jack's house secured since they somehow used his place to get in and camped there during the night. I"m figuring that house is way beyond disgusting. Take a crew with you,and let's get it secure and cleaned up. I think you and Jim are more than qualified to make sure its locked down."

Brant nodded and saw the fish picking up a sharp knife he sat down and started to gut and clean out the fish " feels like old times when we were kids" he said and picked up a second fish. Steven chuckled and nodded.

"probably beyond disgusting in their case" he said just as Jim passed behind him.

" ow way worse " he said " got a crew cleaning it as we speak , they trashed the place" Jim chuckled " I think if Jack wasn't still out he would be seeing all that they did" Jim said looking at Steven " if you could check how its going for me I'd appreciate it " he asked and Steven chuckled and nodded. Jim looked at Brian " sorry couldn't wait , you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Angus said, "we've cleaned a couple fish in our time." He listened to the dialogue in the living room,heard Brian give the order for Jim and Steven to oversee the cleanup at Jack's house and then heard Jim deflect Brian's order to Steven instead of taking it and doing the job jointly with Steven. He paused briefly, looking up, knowing that wasn't going to go well. The issues had been ordered to Jim as well as Steven. Brian had not given Jim the authority to pass the entire job to Steven. He knew Brian much too well, and Brian had wanted the job shared. He had wanted Steven treated fairly. Brian did not take this sort of insubordination.

"I'm fine, Jim," Brian said quietly. He accio'd a fresh shirt and put it on. "I'll be back. Got work to do." He apparated out without another word.

"That's eventually going to turn out worse than if Brian had actually said something," Angus said quietly to Brant.

Brant listened and nodded he could not see how Jim could get out of this. " yep hes the busted" he said and continued to clean and gut the fish until half the fish were done. Jim looked at Brian and frowned as he left.

" I went out to the house already and took a look , I'm not asking Steven to do it all by himself" he said as he watched Brian leave and sighed " he never lets me finish" he said and with Steven apperated to Jacks house where he saw all the mess. Steven whistled.

" wow it is the pits, Jess would have a fit if she saw this" Steven said and picked up a chair.

"Jim really should know better by now. After all, look at who trained Brian," Angus said with a slight smile. "Eventually, Jim will probably get it figured out. Hopefully before retirement age. You wanna place a bet on it?"

"That depends on how well Jim ever really listened to Robert in the first place," Michael said, coming in. "Need help?"

"Peel potatoes?" Angus asked.

"Okay," Michael said. He snapped his fingers at the peeler. "Potatoes! Now! And cut the chips while you're at it!" The peeler stood bolt upright, as if in salute and dive bombed the bowl of potatoes and began rapidly peeling them, peelings flying everywhere. "Neatly! Neatly, or I'll demote you to a bottle opener." The peeler began behaving mroe appropriately at once. "Consider them peeled," Michael said, refilling his tea mug.

"You really do need to teach me how to do that," Angus said to him.

"Nope, don't think so," Michael said. "You enjoy manual labor much too much to switch to enchantments."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Angus frowned.

Brian didn't speak. He looked at what looked like almost utter destruction of all the funishings of Jack's log home. He picked up a shovel that was resting against a wall and began to shovel up the utter filth and debris that seemed to run like a carpet across every inch of the floor. He wasn't letting the home of his staff, on his land, be destroyed. This made him angry. Very angry. He was going to take care of this.

Jim nodded to Steven and began clearing the kitchen of the filth that sat in the sink and over the counters and cooker. Steven shoveled dirt into a pile and sending it to compost heap " Hey, it will make good compost for the flowers" he said and Jim shrugged.

"if you say so" he said continuing cleaning up he saw Brian and shook his head " hes dead Brian taking it out on Jacks house isn't going to help" he said moving to work next to him Steven had the men clean out the bed room and remake the bed as if nothing had happened, even down to the light curtains on the windows.