Marriage is Murder

Brant reached back and picked up a battered shoulder bag. " might need these " he said and patted the bag making several bottles with in knock together. He then followed them out side. He was about to warn Angus when he saw him turn and fire. Seeing the woman fall over the wall he headed over and checked her over. " well shes alive " he said and took out a healing potion from his bag and gave her three drops" enough to start the healing but not enough to get her back on her feet yet" he looked at Edward from where he knelt. " I think she needs to cool off a little first and realize just how lucky she was" he looked to Angus and smirked. "Good shot though Angus, dead center of her chest." he moved to let the other women carry her inside.

"Thank you, Brant," Angus said.

"Your father will be home tomorrow," Edward told Angus. Edward was confident his son would put Angus's aunt in her place about Angus's right to be at Edward's home and also about the foolish idea that she could defeat a well trained fighter as easily as she thought. "Let's let it rest now. Get your bags, Boys. There is nothing I need to deal with here. She was duly warned."

"Gladly," Angus said. He sheathed his wand and headed into the house. He picked up his bag and Edward's. Edward motioned to Angus to give him his bag.

"I can still carry a pack, but I appreciate it," Edward laughed. "You can carry it when I can't do it for myself." Angus handed over Edward's bag to us. "Grab hold, Boys. Let's go to work."

Brant stood up and walked over to Edward nodding as he passed Angus " remind me never to get in a duel with you, unless I wear protection, chest protection" he said and smiled as he picked up his bag. Walking over to Edward he stood close to him and waited to be ported back to Roberts. Feeling the pull of porting he closed his eyes and breathed out.

Feeling it stop he opened his eyes and breathed out seeing they were at Roberts farm. " nice" he said softly the potions bag still hung at his side and the duffel bag held in his hand as he waited and watched the animals around them. " they sure have a lot of animals." he said smiling to himself.

"They do indeed," Edward said. Angus sighed with relief. It wasnt' the prting that bothered him, but for some reason, he felt more at ease being back at work than he did being home in Tuscany. Angus led them up the path to the kitchen door of the farmhouse and simply opened it and went in.

He could smell coffee, tea, eggs, bacon, fried potatoes with onions, and freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Kate was pour freshly squeezed orange juice into a large glass pitcher and was ready to serve it.

"Did you lot get a proper Italian breakfast? Or shall I set for you?" she asked, not surprised to see them arrive.

"We did have a proper breakfast, but I couldn't turn down one of your cinnamon rolls, Kate," Edward laughed.

"They're Michael's recipe, I'm afraid," she laughed.

"Oh, the extra large ones?" he asked.

"Robert asked for them last night, and I promised him I'd make them," she said, picking up a massive platter of gigantic, hot cinnamon rolls and putting them on the table, with platters of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes with onion, and a platter of crispy bacon. "I expect the rest of the house is up already. The last I knew, Abbey was going in to jump on Robert to wake him up. And the other kids were busy getting their clothes on backwards. They've decided they can dress themselves. I never know how they're going to appear when they get themselves together. Khaat and Brian got here last night. I sent their coffee to them awhile ago. I'm just presuming they're awake."

Brant chuckled and looked at Angus seeing him physically relaxed simply from being away from the woman. he moved with them into the house and took a deep breath in. " Good to see you again Mrs Lupin." he said smiling as he left his duffel bag by the back door. He moved to the kitchen placing a large Cinnamon roll on a plate he then pored a coffee and walked over to Edward and handed him it. He then turned to Angus " you look like you need a strong coffee." he said holding out the cup he held in his hand to him. Brant moved back kitchen and began to help best he knew he could.

"Thank you," Angus said. He took a sip of the french roast. It tasted like home to him. As much as he loved Tuscany, he had a home here with the Lupins too. Before he could even consider the cinnamon rolls, he heard the patter of little running feet. He put his coffee cup down just as Abbey raced into the kitchen and wrapped herself around his legs, hugging him.

"Hi!" she was all smiles, still in her pink nightgown.

"Hi!" he laughed. He picked her up and she hugged him tight. "Did you miss me?" he asked. She nodded. "Did you miss me or my cookies?" he teased. She just nodded. He laughed.

"It can't be the cookies," Kate said. "We've made enough blooming cookies to open a shop."

"Mama gived me kitty!" she told Angus.

"Mama gives you all kinds of kitties," Angus said.

"No," she said. "This a baby kitty. Gam make Archie not eat him."

"What?" Angus frowned. Archangel didn't eat toy kitties. He looked at Kate frowning.

"She's not lying to you," Kate laughed. "Leave it to Khaat and Brian to find an orphaned newborn kitten. Abbey's right. We had to tell Mo and Max to be nice and had to tell Archangel not to eat him."

"He mine," she nodded to Angus.

"Are you sure about that?" Angus asked Abbey. She nodded. "How do you know?" he asked.

"'Cause I want him," she said simply. Angus laughed. In the world of a three year old that was all it took. If she wanted it, it was hers.

Brant chuckled as he saw Abby and Angus together. This made him want to be part of it all the more, He looked at Edward and smiled at him nodding as he knew he would say just to be himself. he cleaned down a side and gathered some children's cups he filled them one by one. Brant moved to stand with Kate and handed Abby a cup so she could take a drink if she wanted it. He heard a sound from out side sounding like one of the horses and he excused himself. " Excuse me , sounds like one of the horses needs attention" he said and headed down to the barn.

Walking in he found a horse in a stall walking over he brushed his hand over the horse's shoulders finding nothing wrong with the horse it self. As he looked down he saw a nail in the hay the horse was walking on and he picked it up. " hum bet that's better" he said and opened the barn doors to let him out into the paddock.

Khaat had found one of her boys had tried to dress himself and had his head caught in the sleeve of his t shirt. She couldn't help him one handed. She had had to use her bad arm to help him get unstuck. But she finished helping them dress and sent them to the breakfast table. She sat alone in the nursery, her shoulder pain now out of control from trying to use it. It had automatically brought tears to her eyes and had made her sweat from the pain. She wasn't hungry anymore. The pain took over everything.

Robert had heard the scampering feet of the rest of his grandkids and wondered how their dressing experiments had turned out this morning. He went out to find out. When he saw they were all appropriately dressed, he frowned.

"How'd you all manage that?" he frowned, as they gathered around him to hug him.

"Mama!" little Robert said.

"Mama helped you?" he asked. The boy nodded. "Just a minute, then. You lot sit down and I'm sure someone will get you a plate." Robert turned back to head back to the bedrooms tofind Khaat, knowing that could not possibly have gone well.

Brant looked at Edward and smiled nodding he understood what he meant and started to dish up breakfast to the children as he smiled and pretended to be their waiter for the morning even going to put Kate's apron around his waist as he took over little Roberts and Abby's food placing it down he pulled out a chair for Kate and placed a cup of coffee down in front of her. He looked at Angus " I might not be able to cook but I can wait tables" he said grinning as he placed down several more plates. " I hope that's okay and I'm not over stepping my place?" he said as he refilled Dakota's cup once more before placing down a fresh pot of french roast for the adults.

"No, thats fine," Kate said, finishing fixing the breakfast plates so that everyone could eat. The last plates she delivered were hers and Roberts. Brian intended to wait on Khaat before he started to eat. "Brian," Kate said, sitting at the table, "if Robert needs you, he surely knows where you are. He's just going to control her pain so she can eat. Clearly she just overused her arm by trying to help the kids. She didn't know we were letting them try to dress themselves. It surely isn't going to traumatize them to try. She felt she needed to rescue them, but it really wasn't necessary."

"I'd have done that for her if I'd have known," he sighed.

"And perhaps thats the point," Kate said. "She needs to know she can still manage, pain or not. Eat."

"Alright," he said as Owens arrived.

"Owens?" Kate frowned, seeing him come in.

"The estate is open as Robert requested," Owens said. "The crews are starting to work readying the house. It should be ready again in a couple of hours."

"Thank you," Kate said.

"How did you know what groceries to buy?" Angus frowned.

"You are very predictable on what you buy," Owens said. "We took your master list and restocked." Edward laughed, not surprised that Angus had gotten the management of the kitchen down to a fine art.