Abbey decided to go downstairs, and when they got downstairs, Robert had put her chair beside him, between him and Kate. He put her into her chair, and Kate got a plate for her. Abbey at her dinner quietly tonight, and she wouldn't even look at Khaat. Brian had noticed that straight away, and he knew that Abbey was really angry with Khaat. That wasn't going to go away any time soon.
Robert believed Khaat had made a mistake by punishing Abbey for running away before she had listened to why Abbey had done it. He knew, though, that every parent made mistakes, and he had certainly made his share when Khaat was little. He wasn't going to judge Khaat too harshly for her missteps. The truth was that, for a toddler, Abbey was remarkably well behaved most of the time and needed very little correction. If someone could teach her and help her understand how the world worked, she generally did what was asked of her with very little static. Khaat herself had been far less tolerant and much more mischievous as a child than Abbey was. This seemed to be something Abbey had taken much more to heart. Robert approved of Brian's idea to take Abbey out for the day. He hoped Khaat was able to take a cue from that and try to mend fences with Abbey a bi, but he was going to remove himself and see if they could figure that out for themselves.
After supper, though, Khaat had decided to give Abbey her bath, and Abbey wasn't having it. She wanted nothing to do with her mother, and the two of them got into a battle of wills. Khaat finally just picked Abbey up and took her upstairs for her bath. Abbey was angry and shouting and argumentative. Khaat ended it rather quickly by taking Abbey to her room and putting her to bed after her bath. And that caused Khaat and Brian to have a rare argument.
Frustrated, Kate cleaned up after supper and made some preparations for breakfast. She had decided to make some breakfast pasties, and she made a fresh fruit salad, sautéed her sausage and bacon, grated her cheeses, made large bowl of beaten eggs for the scrambled eggs to go into the pasties, diced some slices of lean cooked ham, diced some onion and some bell pepper, and got all her ingredients to go. she peeled and diced some potatoes to sauté to tuck into the pasties and put the potatoes into a bowl of cold water and put them into the fridge, and made some fresh fruit fillings for some sweet pasties. She mixed her dry ingredients for the pasty dough and covered it and set it aside for morning. She made a couple different varieties of fresh chutneys for the pasties, She got the coffee and tea ready to brew. It gave her something to do and a way to take out her frustration by doing something productive. She poured a large pitcher of juice and set it in the fridge and prepared the dining room and the sideboard as much as she could in advance.
It was very late when she went upstairs to go to bed. So far as she knew, the rest of the house was asleep. She went into Abbey's room, and she found Abbey's bed empty and Abbey's pajamas on the floor, cast off either hurriedly or carelessly. Two of the dresser drawers were partly opened, and the more she looked around, she saw Abbey's little pink sneakers were missing. She checked the other rooms quickly, and didn't find her, and then she went downstairs and checked Fudge's tree. Fudge was gone too. Fearing the worst, she went to the front door and saw that not only was it unlocked, but it was open a crack. The fear rose up tightly in her throat. Abbey had somehow gone out in the middle of the night. She went upstairs quickly and jostled Robert.
"Robert, Robert, wake up," she called.
"What's wrong?" he looked at her, not quite awake.
"Abbey's gone outside. I can't find her in the house, and I found the front door open," she said.
"Damn," Robert said, immediately wide awake.
"I'll go wake Brian," Kate said.
"No, wait," Robert said. "Let's not disturb him yet because there isn't a way to do that without disturbing Khaat. Let's see if we can find her first. Get Archangel out looking for her."
"What about Pip? Pip can help look," Kate said.
"Good, if you can summon him."
"Of course, if Angus has left a window open," Kate said.
"If Jack is out, he'll help look," Robert said. They hurried downstairs together, lighting their wands and starting to look, calling for her.
Upstairs, in the bedroom, Angus was asleep. He had left the balcony doors open to get the night air, and Pip was on his perch near Angus's side of the bed. Pip heard Kate and Robert summoning Archangel, and Pip started his little high pitched hooting sounds. That woke Angus. He heard Kate and Robert summoning Pip, and, as Pip flew out through the balcony doors, he heard them calling for Abbey.
Pure panic welled up inside of Angus, and he forced himself, with much effort, into his chair. He wheeled the chair to the stairs, took the magical stairs down and went outside.
"Robert?" Angus called.
"Abbey's come outside sometime tonight, and we can't find her," Robert said.
"Oh, God. Help me into my other chair and I'll help you look," Angus said. Robert was hesitant for a brief moment, and then he nodded. If Abbey would come to anybody, it would surely be Angus. Robert helped Angus into his chair, accio'd Angus' wand and lit it with a lumos spell and handed it to him, so Angus would have a light.
by 
