Marriage is Murder

Abbey gladly took the bread with the honey butter on it and decided she liked it.

"Unca Aggie?" she asked.

"Hm?" he asked.

"How come you no make berry butter?"

"I can," he said. "I just haven't done it. Would you like some?"

"Pleeeeze?" she said, pleading. He laughed. He got up, went to the kitchen, and got out a bowl of berries. He chopped them into bite sized pieces. He added some sugar to the berry juice and let it all sit to sweeten the berries while he went to the next step. He whipped some fresh creamery butter until it was light and smooth. Then he mixed in the berries and the berry juice with the whipped butter It came out with a beautiful berry colored butter that was sweet and had swirls of berry juice and pieces of fresh berries. He put the berry butter in a bowl and brought it out to the table.

He spread some on some bread and handed it to Abbey.

"Here," he said. "Try it." She ate it and smiled broadly. She slid the bowl over to herself and was going to simply dip her fingers into it.

"No, no," he said. "Its not for eating like that. It goes on bread. Or maybe in your oatmeal in the morning."

"On my cookies?"

"You have frosting on your cookies," he said.

"On my fishy?"

"Nah. You won't like it on your fishy."

"Berries good with everything!" she nodded.

"Maybe not quite everything," he laughed.

Cassidy smiled seeing Abby with the berry butter " ts better on bread you taste the berry's more the fish don't like berries" she said eating her own food with some of the honey butter on bread. She gave James some but he didn't like it and spat it back out but he did eat his food. "Guess James doesn't like honey." she said as Steven looked at him.

"Glad Abby does, its very tasty and good for you too, full of anti oxidants" he said smiling as he took a bite out of some bread and honey butter.

"James won't like dessert, then, either," Angus said. "We're having honeycake with a whipped honey icing. I was trying to get us back to healthier eating habits. I suppose there are more berries if he'd prefer fruit. I have stopped making multiple dishes. My apologies. It was getting to be too much."

And it was true. For him to make a second entrée for every meal in case someone didn't like it, and double the amount of salads or side dishes, and double the amounts of desserts, it was just too much work anymore.

"Suki," Angus called. The little house elf came on the run.

"Yes, Sir," she asked promptly.

"Might you and Dottie take care of the rest of dinner service tonight, please?" he asked. "I think I have eaten just enough that I'm a bit uncomfortable and I think I'd like to go for a run if that's not going to be a problem."

"No," Suki beamed, glad to have a chance to take on more duties. "It would be my honor, Sir."

"Thank you so much. If you'll all excuse me," he said. "But the time change is getting to me a wee bit, and I'm tired. I'm going to go for a run and then turn in." He go up and headed out for a run on the grounds.

Jack and Jess looked at James who stuck out his tongue at the thought of honey " no thats fine Angus I'm guessing hes just not into eating tonight " just as Jess spoke James gave a yawn and she brushed the hair back off his face. "Yes I think hes one tired little boy" she said and Jack took him out of his seat and carried him up to the nursery.

Jess found that the others were fine and stayed awake eating and playing. Catlin sat paying with a small rag doll she had found under a seat. " whose was that?" Cassidy asked Kate " because she loves it and won't let it go" she smiled as Catlin giggled a she ran about with it.

Angus had seen James stick out his tongue at the mention of honeycake. Angus bristled but said nothing. He hated rude behaviors of children, especially when they were allowed to get way with it.

He didn't speak. He merely went for his run. When he had had his fill of the finicky appetites before, he'd met with Brian privately. Brian had offered to let him cook when he wanted and to let the house elves to most of it.

But that had been the trouble. Angus truly did like cooking. He didn't even really mind the finicky appetites. What he loathed was the rudeness that seemed to go with it. It went against everything he believed in about how people should treat others who loved in the same house.

He felt glad to run and to get rid of his frustrations. By the end of the run, he'd made up his mind. Suki and Dottie could do all the cooking. He was done with it. No more. He would do as Brian had repeatedly asked him to do and step into more of an administrative position. He didn't want to get to the place where he truly hated any of them because of how they might choose to behave once in awhile. From now on, that was going to be up to the house elves.

In the meantime, Marcus made a pot of chai tea and had poured some in a pair of mugs and had added milk and a bit of turbinado sugar that he'd brought back from Hawaii. He stirred both mugs and took one mug to Khaat and kept one for himself. He watched Angus come inside and head straight to his room for a shower after his run.

"Shall we play some cards?" he asked her, putting a deck on the table by the chaise that they used for games nowdays.

"I'll beat you again," she said.

"I doubt it," he laughed.

Jess sighed seeing the look and feeling Angus's frustrations at James actions. " hes a small boy Angus," she said simply " he will learn manners, but I won't force food on a child that won't eat it." She said then sighed as she watched him go for his run. She shook her head and moved to feed the others. Jim fed Jaylen who was in frustration grabbing the spoon that he held.

" okay here you go" he said and watched as she took some food and ate it from the spoon " well done little one" he said and she smiled at him doing it again, soon the others copied her much to Jess's relief. Cassidy watched Angus go and looked at Kate and Michael.

"Whats his problem, Jess made James go with out instead she didn't ask for any other meal" she said confused.

"What's the problem?" Kate asked, wondering why they immediately had to fragment themselves because one of them wasn't happy, "Why are you all feeling a need to defend yourselves or James and why do you need to see Angus's thoughts or feelings to be so wrong? Why must he be seen as having a problem, and why must he be wrong? Is there some need you all have to be right?

"Angus didn't say a word. He didn't like how he was treated, and while I understand your position, I understand his too. Why can't you leave it alone? Why must you make a problem out of it?

"Angus knows how old James is. And he didn't ask you to force him to eat anything. Nor would he have refused to make something special if you'd asked him.

"He'll resolve his own thoughts and feelings in a way that works for him," Kate said. "He doesn't have to agree with anyone here. He does have to present himself in a professional way, and from what I saw, that was what he did. He didn't say a word. He merely used his own personal time to go for a run and then he went to bed. Why is that wrong?"

Jess looked at Steven and Kate and sighed " sorry your right I...I don't know..I think all this back and forth has me all topsy turvy tonight" she picked up Catlin and sighed " I'll give my apologies to Angus in the morning, good night Kate." she said and headed up the stairs leaving a rather bemused Jack sitting with little Robert at the table who ate his food and banged his spoon down for more.

Steven gave Jaylen her food and shook his head staying quiet as he drank his tea and ate his food. Brant looked up at every one.

"Did I miss anything?"he asked

When morning came, Brian got up a bit earlier than normal. He was going to go down to see if the house elves were on schedule with breakfast when the coffee tray arrived at their room, meticulously prepared.

"So you know," he said to Khaat, handing her an envelope. She opened it, took the paper out and read it.

"Is this serious?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "I accepted it last night. This is a promotion for him, really. I added an office next to mine downstairs for him. He's going to be very, very busy now. He's going to be gone all day today visiting all the safehouses, the headquarters in Paris, our place in Tuscany, the Colorado estate. He's gathering the financial books and the accounts. He's going to finally be able to have all that in one place. And he's going to be able to have a boat here in the fishing village and enough time to use it. I think he's going to be happier."

"So how do you get the others to understand this was his choice and not anyone's fault?" she asked.

"I'm going to tell them the truth. That I gave him big promotion and a big raise to go with it," he laughed. "It is why we hired the elves." He gave her a cup of French roast and kissed her. He laid his hand on her stomach. He felt nothing. "Are they okay?"

"They haven't had their first cup of coffee," she smiled. "Give them an hour. Go on if you need to. Marcus will be here any minute."

"Okay," he said. "Behave until he gets here, would you?" He took his own coffee cup downstairs, smelling the excellent spread Dottie and Suki were preparing for breakfast.

Jack and jess had been up for hours Jess was on her fifth cup of coffee as the kids had kept her awake most of the night. Cassidy and Steven walked down several minuets later both taking to each other as Cassidy moved to the kitchen to gather breakfast for her and Steven returning they both sat and ate. " why is Jess so wound up?" Cassidy asked Jack shrugged.

" I don't know shes been this way since last night" he said and sat down with a soda on the couch. Brant walked out of the lab still dressed in his clothes from the previous day.