Marriage is Murder

Cassidy nodded to Angus " she deserves it right now" she said and headed down she nodded to Michael and knew just which room he used. "Ow, I know just the one." she said and smiled seeing them. Heading up she found the right chair and moved it taking out her wand he tried several different styles untill she found the one she thought Abby would like and smiled nodding her aproval she added a shawl knowing now that was Abbys chair. She walked down to the cellar. " all ready for you Lee." she said smiling " I made up the bed too in case but I know Abby won't let you use it at least for tonight" she said

"Thank you," Lee said. He simply held Abbey for awhile and fed her cocoa and a cookie. Abbey didn't care if the grown up conversation went on around her. She just wanted to be held. When it got late, Robert motioned to Lee that it was alright to hold on their conversation til morning.

Lee took Abbey upstairs to his room, the child heavy now on his shoulder and half asleep. He looked at the chair. The design of the recliner was fine, but in amongst all the southwest, masculine leathers, the pink leather just wasn't going to suit him.

"I am so not sleeping in that," he sighed. "Abbey, I love you, but I'm not doing that." He snapped his fingers at the chair, turning the color to a tan leather color. "Oh, that's much better," he sighed, relieved. "It can be pink in the nursery tomorrow. Come on, Abs. Lets go to bed." He sat down in the chair and kicked it back, flicked his wand to start a fire in the fireplace, and turned down the lights. He felt her nuzzle into him, and her even breathing soon told him she had fallen asleep.

Cassidy smiled and headed to the kitchen grabbing a soda out of the fridge she drank it then decided to head up to check the other children passing Lees room she saw he'd changed the color and chuckled and shook her head. "If you need anything two doors down to the left, its the nursary." she told him, she understood the color change and closed the door over gently so not to wake the sleeping Abby. Cassidy moved to her own room and went to shower hearing Steven enter not long after.

Now in her own PJs she headed to the nursary to check the othr children and recover James who once again had thrown off the blanket.She then headed down to the cellar to make sure everything was tidyed away picking up two glasses she headed to the kitchen to put them in the sink.

Michael had offered Robert enough firewhiskey that his friend finally was being forced to yield to his deep fatigue. Michael and Robert stretched out in easy chairs with ottomans in front of the fire in the living room. Michael turned the lights off and let the glow of the fire light the room. Michael didn't say a lot. It seemed to be enough simply to have someone close. The house seemed to quiet down for the night.

They weren't fooled into thinking all was well in Khaat's room, but it was all quiet and nothing but waiting now.

Michael glanced over at Robert. He saw Robert had finally fallen asleep. Michael was glad for it. Despite the stress, Robert had given into sleep, and Michael knew that right now, Robert needed the rest. Michael only hoped that the night would stay quiet.

Cassidy sighed drank her soda and heqaded down to see if any one needed anything or if she could go slep finding Robert sleeping she took a blanket and placed it across him to keep him warm and took his glass. She turned to Michael and smiled " its good to see him sleeping finally, he needed it" she said reatching into an old blanket box she took out a second blanket "This cellar can get rather cold " she said placing it next to him  and then walking abck out with a smile as she headed up to sleep knowing she would be up early in the morning to tend the kids.

Jack brushed down his hair as he walked out the bed room and down to the kichen he hardly slept much . Jess was sound asleep again and he left her to sleep knowing she needed it . " hey Angus" he said and pored out a glass of water to drink.

(they went up to the living room in the last post. they're not downstairs anymore.)

Angus yawned sleepily. He wasn't typically up at this hour, but with all the people here from Lee's group, he was having to cook for a lot more people than usual. It was going to take him all night just to make breakfast. The clock chimed 2. He was tired.

"Hi, Jack," he said. "I really do need to talk to Brian about hiring a cook or two. Our operation is a whole lot bigger than it used to be. Its getting more than I can deal with. When I took this, it was just cooking for Brian and Khaat. Now, by my count, with Lee's men included, we have easily 60-75 people coming for breakfast. Its more than one person can do anymore. Sorry. Don't mean to gripe. I'm just tired."

He put the cinnamon rolls on sheet pans to put into the over and put foil over the egg casseroles and potato casseroles that he'd made. He had sheet pans of bacon and sausage to bake as well to try to feed everyone. And he still had a lot yet to do.

Jack chuckled and nodded " yeah I can imagine and its okay Angus" he said and finished his water " I'll send a note to Lizze maybe she can recomend some one to come and help" he said and chuckled " Jess fell asleep she didn't even chew me out " he said but sighed " I'll cop it when she gets up" he looked at Angus and shook his head " go sleep we can take are of our selves " he said " take a day off and recover, Steven and cassidy know how to cook as do I and Jess ow and not sure about brant though hes kinda kept himself in that lab." Just as he finished Brant walked out.

" what about me?" he asked loking to Angus as he made a sandwich for himself making sure everything was clean and put away again. " I can cook, when I need to. " he said " Boy Angus, go sleep"

"I'll go after breakfast," Angus said. "I'm having to feed people in three shifts to accommodate everyone at the table. The first wave hits at 4:00, then 5:00, and then our normal household crew at 6:00. There's just too much to do for me to go until after 7. And that's if I use a spell to clean up the mess from all this.

"I'm not sure I made enough food. I want to make a fruit salad yet, and lots of coffee and tea. And its going to take lots of baking to get all this done because it all has to go into our ovens. So, yeah. I'll sleep after breakfast, and you lot can either fix a mountain of sandwiches for lunch or order out. That will give Michael a chance to start on whatever we're going to do for dinner by nightfall.

"And that reminds me. I'm going to have to order another shipment of food supplies. We're really going through it. Its fine that we have all these people. Really it is. But it just means I have to be really on top of things in the kitchen. For some reason, this crew doesn't like to be hungry." He managed a smile. He took a moment to pour himself a cup of coffee and then went back to working.

Jack nodded " good " hechuckled " hey hey, slow down Im sure we can hadle all of it, make the list and I'll send some one to fetch it. " he said and made a note of all Angus had said " I'll pass this on to the others and we'll get it done." he said looking around the kichen. Steven walked in from out side and saw the list in his arms sat a basket of fres produce from the green house he chuckled and placed them down on the table.

" okay I got cucumbers, letice, carrots, potatoes ow pumpkins are real big this year " he said as six large pumpkins floated in and set down on the table "Thought the kids could carve pumpkins since its nearly haloween, its will keep them busy." he said and smiled.

"I'll just get this finished for breakfast and then you lot can do what you want for the rest of the day," Angus said. He saw Steven bring in a basket of produce. "Good," Angus said. "That will help for lunch or dinner. And yeah, we can help the kids carve some pumpkins. They should like that."

Angus kept working but ordered his quick quotes quill to spring into action, on a narrow roll of paper that he used for list making, to make a long, long list of exactly what he needed to order from the estate supplier, and in much larger amounts than usual. He had exact amounts of every item he ordered. The quill had to scribble furiously in order to keep up with the rapid speed that he rattled off the list with. The list soon began to drape off the kitchen counter and onto the floor.

And as he wrote the list, he had a second list in the makings. One that required quill to bounce back and forth between the shopping list and his new 'to do' list. One of the first things he needed to do was to enlarge the estate pantry to a much larger space. He wanted to enlarge the refrigerator and the freezers to large walk in rooms as well. He needed to hire at least one more full time chef, possibly two, and possibly a housekeeper--or some house elves. The estate had never had house elves, but it was certainly getting time to explore that possibility.

Michael got up about four as Angus was finishing the touches on breakfast for the first 25 people he was serving. Michael arrived downstairs in time to see plates and silverware flying at breakneck speed to the table.

"Holy shit," Michael said, "Oi! Slow down before you lop off somebody's head with one of those plates!" He flicked his wand at the flying tableware, speaking to the plates and the silverware. "Behave yourselves and do it properly!"

He went into the kitchen. "Whats with the panic?" he asked.

"We're turning the dining room over at least three times this morning," Angus said.

"Well, you could have gotten me up. Who said you had to do it yourself?" Michael said.

"I'm hiring staff today," Angus said.

"You are? When did you discuss this with Brian?"

"I...didn't. I guess I mean I'll talk to Brian about it," Angus said.

"Why don't you at least wait until after breakfast and catch your breath before you talk to him about that?" Michael said.

"First seating in the dining room happens in five minutes," Angus said, eye on the clock, waiting for the first half of the outside crew to come in for breakfast.