Marriage is Murder

"No one under 5 slept," Michael said. "Not that I'm aware of. The rest of us were watching the films. The kids didn't budge. They were tired. They had a busy day yesterday. Did anyone send a coffee tray upstairs yet?"

"Working on it," Angus said. "I was going to make eggs but everyone fixed their plates with the pastries and the bacon before I could fix eggs. No point in making eggs now. So I'm just sending up pastries and coffee for Khaat and Marcus. They'll be fine with that."

He fixed the coffee tray and put two glasses of juice and a plate of the fresh, warm pastries on the tray and sent the tray upstairs.

Brian and Robert finally finished cleaning up the movie room and came upstairs as Kate and Edward were coming downstairs. Brian helped himself to coffee and Edward, Kate and Robert poured themselves tea.

"Pastries, anyone?" Angus offered them to them.

"No thank you," Edward said. He picked up a large juicy pear and cut it into slices for himself. "Just fruit, I think. The pastries look lovely, though."

"I'm sure they will be," Kate said. She and Robert each took a pastry and a piece of fruit, along with their tea.

Angus had gotten largely past the fact that when he was cooking for so many, there was always going to be at least one person that was going to be unhappy with what he did and would want something else.

"Not at all," he said, not entirely telling the truth. But no one else needed to know that, given the changes he was making at least for the moment. "It makes little impact on me because the house elves will be doing the cooking for you for the next few days. They've told me you all can place individual dinner orders, and, if they have sufficient time, they will make your food fresh cooked for you. If they don't have enough notice, they can always conjure your order for you. I think it should work out better than our current system."

"That will be more than sufficient, Angus," Brian said, glad to give Angus some relief from the cooking. "Now that we have the elves, you don't need to try to run the estate and spend all day in the kitchen from before daylight til bedtime anyway. Cook when you want to. Its all good with me."

"Its not offensive," Angus said. "You asked if it bothered me, and I said it didn't. Its a big estate with a lot of people who have individual tastes. I can't possibly cater to all of that. I don't expect to...."

"Oh, for goodness sakes," Brian said. "The last I knew, the house was mine. The last I knew, I was still Angus's supervisor. I hired the house elves so that Angus didn't need to spend 16 hours a day, every day, in the kitchen and still be responsible for the cleaning of the house and the running of the estate. Its just not possible. I need him in other areas besides the kitchen, and we all know he's not happy when he does nothing but cook.

"You all are welcome to whatever food you like in the house. You always have been. You're welcome to either have the elves fix it for you, or to join us for whatever Angus fixes when he cooks, or to cook for yourselves.

"Angus, you are too valuable to me to be unhappy here doing your duties and too talented to be just our cook.

"Do tell me again why we need so much drama before I even get through my first cup of coffee, please," Brian sighed.

"As I said," Angus said, "I was not offended." He headed for the back door, picking up his jacket and headed to the barn to finish his morning chores outside. He had had to interrupt them to make the pastries.

"I meant what I said," Brian told them. "Angus isn't happy being in the kitchen 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nobody can be happy long term under those conditions. He's an auror first, and a damned good one. And one of the best sea captains I've ever known. I can hire cooks. What I can't hire quite so easily are good fighters, as you all should know. Nor can I hire anyone with the skills to manage an estate this sized while he helps to protect my family. It really is fine that he starts being in different areas. Its what I need him to do."

"Do you lot realize you're all 30 minutes early today?" Kate asked quietly. "I think everyone started getting their own plates ready before he was finished cooking so he left you to your own devices. And there's nothing wrong with that.

"I don't know that any of you appreciate how difficult it is to cook for everyone here," she continued. "There are at least 30 people in this house to cook for, and that's not counting the men on ground patrol. Between having a dozen toddlers who all have very different and finicky tastes, we also rarely have a meal that we don't have grownups with some different taste preferences too. Its very very hard to please everyone--ever.

"No one is suggesting that you're on your own for cooking your own meals unless you want to be," Brian said. "Our house elves are wonderful cooks. There 4 elves to one of Angus, and they will have the ability to meet your needs, so long as those needs aren't outrageous. But if you prefer to cook for yourselves, we can make that change. If you prefer to do that, perhaps we don't need the elves after all."