Marriage is Murder

"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.

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.

(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.

"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.

"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.