Marriage is Murder

"Okay," Angus shrugged. "You're on. Do I have to leave them just as they come out of the freezer?"

"I presume you will heat them," Marcus said.

Angus scowled. "That much I knew."

"You can pick any packaged, processed food that you want, but you need to put up your equivalent for that so its fair and square."

"Okay," Angus said. "Sounds fair enough. When are we doing this?"

"Your choice," Marcus said. "Surprise us. Either we'll know or we won't."

"Ow!" Khaat jumped. Marcus frowned.

"Cut yourself?" he asked.

"No. It bit me," she said, curling her good hand into her chest.

"What did?" he asked.

"I don't know. The plant, the tomatoes, something."

"Tomatoes don't bite," Marcus said. He started to look through the plant and saw a snake slithering away quickly, too quickly for him to see if it was toxic or not.

"Steven," Marcus called. "See if you can call that runaway snake back. We need to know what sort it was. It bit Khaat."

Steven looked at the snake moving away he ran and knelt in front of it and spoke to it. The snake wrapped around his arm and he walked back " hes deeply sorry for biting you, his names Harold and hes a Rough Green Snake, he was snoozing and you caught him by surprise. " Steven stopped and looked at the snake then back to Khaat.

"He just said that if he'd have known it was you he'd not have bitten but the mice in the field need to be controlled, He did say he'd make sure none of his friends bite any of us." he held out his arm as the snake uncurled and held its head to face Khaat then bowed slowly to her as if showing respect to her.

"Green snakes aren't toxic," Marcus told her. "You'll live. But the snake is right--you don't want mice."

"He can have the mice," Khaat said. "We all need to eat, I guess. I'd have warned him--if I'd any clue about how one warns a snake."

"Well, I think we should just keep picking tomatoes, and hope there isn't anything else out here to surprise us," Marcus said, figuring Khaat wouldn't last out here picking tomatoes all day anyway.

She recognized his tone of voice. "You don't think I can do this, do you?"

"Not all day, I don't," he laughed. "I know you. And I know how much anyone can do with one hand. I also know how much pain anyone could be expected to shoulder. I doubt you'll last until lunch. If you last til mid morning, I think you have every reason to be proud of yourself."

Steven chuckled at the snake and then knelt down in front of them , it slipped off his arm and slithered away. " he really didn't mean to bite you" he said and moved back to continue picking pumpkins. " though he did say he would not eat too many mice as they too need to live." he cut a stalk and placed it in the cart.

Brant chuckled and watched the snake slither to the other side of the field and disappear into a bush out of site. " I for one am not keen on snakes" he said and gave an involuntary shiver at the thought. In all his traveling they were the one thing he could not handle.

"Its fine," Khaat said. "My father is rather more practical about it. He sees it all as the cycle of life. That sort of thing. I am trying to have his practicality about it. Sometimes I do, sometimes not so much."

"That might be because, as much as your father is a healer, he's also a soldier. He knows the price of life," Marcus said.

"And war," she sighed.

"Yes," Marcus agreed. He knew where her mind was going. She was tired of James, tired of Gideon, tired of them all living in hiding, tired of her father having to pretend he was still cursed, and tired of him not feeling like the time was right to heal her arm. She knew the price of war too, but in a different way.

"But if you don't pick tomatoes," he said to her to divert her attention, "the price of us being short on tomatoes is going to be us suffering with frozen muggle pizzas all winter."

"Yuck," she wrinkled her nose at the thought. "Pick faster, Marcus." He laughed.

"I have to admit, this really is the first time a bodyguard assignment meant picking tomatoes," he said.

Brant chuckled at Khaats response to the frozen pizzas and continued to pick tomatoes " not too fast don't want them spoiled. " He said his mind drifting back to an encounter he'd had in a cafe, sparks cafe. He smiled as he picked the tomatoes. " Hows John doing Steven?" he asked as Steven looked up at him.

"ow not bad hes taking Defense against the dark arts this term, I believe we know the teacher , its Michael this term, he'll love that" Steven said and chuckled. He knew Michael would make him do as he was told and not take any messing around.

"Michael signed up as a sub," Khaat said. "Or at least that's what he said. I think there were a couple thoughts. First, with Gideon dissolving the board of governor for the school and putting the school under the ministry, Daddy wanted some eyes and ears inside the school."

"Yes, and with morons at the helm, I don't want my kids there unless there's someone competent in the castle. Someone that knows the difference between the handle of a wand and the point," Marcus said, still angry about the werewolves getting onto the grounds and hurting and killing so many.

"Agreed," Khaat said.

"But what was the other reason?" Marcus asked.

"Michael's wife, Maddie, is going to have Michael's first child at Christmas time," Khaat said. "I think Maddie needs to have Michael doing something a bit safer temporarily, and Michael wants to know his child has a chance of a safer school."

Brant watched Steven nodded his head as he continued picking the pumpkins. "He's a good choice I think John will learn a lot this year" he said placing another pumpkin in the cart and moving to stand next to Jack who placed down three that he held him his arms that he placed down in the cart and went back for more.

Soon more than half the field was harvested  Jack looked up T Marcus " can we stop for lunch?" he asked wiping his brow and leaving a dirty mark over it. Brant shook his head quietly and continued to pick tomatoes lost in his own thoughts as he tried to make sense of them, not of his recent love loss which really wasn't any loss to him, but a chance meeting he had with a beautiful woman in sparks bistro.

Marcus looked at his watch. "I hadn't realized we were that close to lunchtime," he said. He looked at Khaat. "You lasted longer than I thought you would," he said.

"I'm not anyone's boss though," he said. "If someone wants to stop for lunch, by all means. Whatever your normal work pace is. I'm presuming that either someone is cooking something by now or that we can all make ourselves a sandwich."

He reached his hand down to Khaat. "Come on. Stand up. You've done enough. Lets go back to the house. I think you're at your limit."

"Okay," she agreed, hurting badly enough that she didn't want to argue with him. "I'll make the decision. Lunch break, Everyone."

Jack placed down the last two pumpkins he had just picked and breathed out. Steven placed down his large pumpkin and lent back on the cart " sheesh, I didn't realize I was so out of shape" He said and looked to Brant. " Hey take a brake" he called over.

Brant snapped out of his thoughts and smiled placing down the last basket now full of ripe tomatoes into the cart. " I think the house elves have worked magnificently today don't you Angus" He called over as he was Marcus lead Khaat back to the house. He walked over to them. " she did well , more than I expected." he said taking a small drink of water from a canteen he had strapped to his waist.

All three men walked back to the house after Jack had stored the last cart in the barn. Steven chuckled " she did better than I anticipated" he said and Jack laughed from behind him .

"Shes a Lupin and a stubborn one at that, what did you expect." He said and headed in to make his sandwich followed by Brant and Steven.