LONDON CALLING

"Sometimes I feel bad for Kate that she is so gifted as an artist and she isn't recognized for it. She doesn't do anything to get any recognition. It's like she's hidden her light under a bushel," Angus said, "but she really is incredibly gifted. I think Edward and Simone are going to really like this topper, though. I have an idea for one for us, but its just an idea. I haven't done anything with it yet, mainly because I don't know how you want to know or if you want me to surprise you. If we choose to do what I've had in mind, I really do think you'll like it. I will tell you that I think we should do a night time ceremony, and that we should use the milky way as our theme. I presume you've thought about colors, but I think, if we use the milky way, we should think about teal and purple because those sometimes are the prettiest colors in the milky way. And there's a lot that we could do with that as a wedding theme without getting too formal and fussy with it."

"Angus, are we getting them anything as a wedding gift?" Sam asked.

"Well, yes," Angus said. "I'm putting together a honeymoon package for them. I've been looking into it. Michael owns a cottage in Cornwall that Rowan's been staying in up til now, and Rowan suggested it might be a good place for a private holiday. Michael's give me some ideas for some things. So I'm having it outfitted with plenty of food and wine. I'm having a wooden box made that can sit outside the front door, and I have a local restaurant that will deliver breakfast and pastries and newspapers every morning for them so they can have a five star breakfast at their leisure. I've asked their wedding planner to slip inside and decorate the place for fall, and to make sure that it is over time top with some romance and luxury. I've got gift certificates to the best restaurants in the area for lunch and supper, and I've paid for them for a hot air balloon ride complete with champagne, tickets to the local art gallery and the local theater, a couple's luxury spa experience, itineraries to some Oktoberfests and pumpkin festivals. And the event planner and one of my chef friends are going to set up a beautiful romantic gourmet supper outdoors by candlelight under the stars at Tintagel Castle, where legends say King Arthur lived during the Camelot years. Seems fitting to have a romantic autumn supper where one of the greatest romances of all time supposedly happened. It will have a bonfire and blankets so they can sit outside on the hilltop and enjoy the night. And, I'm making sure that there is plenty of experienced bodyguards that will be out of sight but always within earshot so that they'll both be safe while they're gone."

"Sounds like you've thought of everything," Victor said.

"I tried," he smiled.

Ruby sat and listened to Angus then nodded " shes very gifted" she said then listened to him talk of their wedding and she smiled " I agree the colours of the milky way are fabulous " she said as she placed her hand on his cheek " I'm sure whatever you come up with will be wonderful, I trust you" she said smiling at him as she made more leaves for him.

She sat and listened to Angus talk to the boys about Edward and Simones honeymoon, " it sounds perfect" she said " and thats why I love him" she said leaning over and giving him a gentel kiss. "as for her peices has she ever thought about starting her own shop to sell some of them?" Ruby asked as she rolled some fondent and started cutting out some leaves again. Her hands moved carfully but swiftly at the motions to make the tiny leaves.

"Okay," he smiled. "If that's what you want. Oh, and Simone said she has something she wants to show you at some point. I have no idea what that's about, but I'm just passing on the message."

"I've asked Kate about starting a shop," Angus said, "but she's never wanted to do it. Nigel and Lee have both offered to take some of her things to some of the bigger galleries in New York but she hasn't been excited about that either. But she did have an idea a few years ago abut doing what she called an Art Co-Op. where fellow artists would go together to open a bit of a shop that also had some studio workspace and some classroom space and storage space maybe in Diagon Alley somewhere. Kate's idea was that the front of the place would be basically a gallery that artists could put their work into to sell, and then, in the back, artists that didn't have a studio could use the space to work, and perhaps teach classes for all sorts of different forms of art. I told her I would be more than happy to invest in something like that, but it didn't get any farther than just some pipe dreams over some coffee one morning. I'd still like to see her do it. And, maybe, she could donate some of her profits to a charity of her choice."

He closed up the case with the topper and set it out of the way and soon finished up the airbrushing of the cake and then started doing some extra shaping on the bugs and flowers and then some painting on them. He put them carefully on the cake until he thought it looked perfect. It looked like a realistic moss covered log with leaves and flowers.

"I think that's it, Guys," Angus sighed, fatigued now. "I think its finished. I won't add the topper until the day of the wedding. What do you think? Have I missed anything?"

Ruby smiled and nodded then watched him finish the cake " its beautiful, Angus, absolutely perfect for them" she said and looked to the boys. " it's a cake made with love" she said and chuckled at her corniness " Angus their going to love it." she smiled " oh best take some pictures before they cut it, it's not going to look like that afterwards" she chuckled.


Rowan walked in and smiled " wow hell of a cake there ." he said then walked over to Angus " all set, here's a set of keys"he handed the keys with a round silver keyring on it along with a saying he found particularly funny. He wondered if Angus would like it too. " Jessie helped make it, hes not too bad with his hands." he glanced at the boys then to Ruby "hes creative guys."

"Thanks," Angus said. "I had a lot of great help with it. It was truly a family effort. I should go over and see how the planner is doing with decorating the farm. I think we'll have to do a belated bachelor party with Edward after the fact. We're just entirely too late to do it now. Actually, if we did what Edward would really prefer, he'd much rather have just a nice family supper with all of us there, especially after the big mess we had last night from Gelding. And I have to say, I honestly think, under the circumstances, he could be right."

"What's his favorite meal?" Sam asked.

"Well, that depends on where he's at," Angus said. "When we lived in Tuscany, my grandmother would do this amazing Italian supper for his birthday. It started with Italian Wedding Soup, then a chopped salad made with roasted raddichio and corn, and then a beautifully grilled steak with eggplant parmesan as a side dish, and she always, always made both tiramisu and chocolate gelato. It was an emormous feast, but it brought everyone out for just a good meal, a lot of great stories and a lot of laughter. We usually invited my great uncles and aunts and some of the family that weren't too busy being asshats."

"Maybe thats what you should do, then. Maybe we ought to find a way to do his favorite meal instead of a bachelor party," Sam suggested. "It sounds like a lot of work, but don't you know some chefs that could help you fix it?"

"I might be able to do better than that. I might be able to invite Edward's cook from the main house. She fixed that meal for us after my grandmother died. I think she would be honored to do it again," Angus said. "And I bet we have enough cooks that, with some direction, we could manage it." He looked at Ruby. "What do you think? Skip the bachelor party for a family supper?"

Ruby listened and nodded " I know how to make tiramisu, I learned a long time ago," she said chuckling " but I think it a great idea and something he'd remember." she said standing up from the table " I'll talk to Kate about the other dishes see if she and Khaat ..oh there not back yet, but I'm sure with you the cook and Kate we could make all the dishes." she said to him. " maybe a quiet night to celebrate, with out drama, is what we all need she smiled .

Rowan looked at the boys and smiled " hey who wants target practice" he said knowing boys love to hit things, " I put new targets up and thought you guys might love to take the first shot." he grinned at Angus hoping he'd tell he changed the targets to ones of Gelding and James. "Any one to get a head shot, dosn't do dishes." he smiled at both of them hoping they would folow him out. Once out by the targets he took out his wand and fired hitting just in the bullseye. " well I don't do dishes." he said as Jack walked past and fired off a shot that was just shy of the target

"damn it, unless some one is worse than that Im on kitchen duty" he said smiling to Sam and Victor.

The boys went out with Rowan, and Sam brought a lawn chair for Victor, who had managed to get to the target area on his crutches, but he wasn't going to be able to balance on one leg indefinitely. So Sam had been thoughtful enough to bring a chair for Victor.

Victor fired at James, hoping to hit James in the heart, but he badly missed and hit James quite a bit lower.

"Oh, that would have hurt," Sam laughed. "I bet I'll get him." He raised his wand to fire, thinking of all the anger he had at his parents and at Gelding and when he fired, he overpowered his shot and blew the target to bits, the pieces of it bursting into flames. "Oops," Sam said. "Sorry."

Andrew told Angus he would clean up the office, and he suggested that Angus take a break. Angus knew that people would soon be getting hungry for supper, and nobody was cooking yet.

"Ruby," Angus asked her, "I think we should order pizza for supper, but not just any pizza. Do you think, if I ordered some pizza from the best pizza place I know of in Italy that maybe Rowan and Jack might go get it for all of us? I think some real Italian pizza would be a wonderful treat." He got out a piece of paper and wrote a list of genuinely Italian pizzas that he thought people would like, and he wrote it as a note in Italian, asking the pizza maker to put it on his account. He wasn't going to send it unless Ruby thought people might like some real Italian pizza

Rowan watched as Sam blew the target to bits " wow okay , you need to calm down and focus." he said softly " but might not have been a bad thing if you did that to an enimy , just make sure im well out the spatter range first" he said and chukled as he moved both boys to the next target. Ruby nodded and smiled "I think were all sufficiantly hungry it will go down a treat" she said just as Jack walked in the door.

"what will?" he asked looking from Ruby to Angus and back "if its food Im in" he said grinning then he heard the bang of sam blowing up a target and looked out the window " welp thats a target that I have to fix, Sam just blew one to bits." he said chukaling as he turned back to Angus " so where and what am I fetching?" he asked

"He's always catching things on fire at school," Victor sighed.

"I've only done that twice," Sam protested. "Well,...maybe three times."

"Four," Victor corrected. "You caught the potions professor on fire too."

"Oh. Yeah. That. He wasn't happy," Sam sighed. "Robert said he'd help me get a bit of control with that.

Depends," Angus said. "Mind popping over to Florence, Italy and picking up a take away order? I thought I'd just order out tonight for something that is perhaps a bit of a splurge. You would need to take Rowan or Jessie with you because there would be quite a bit to bring back. I'd have you stop in two places but one is right across the street from the other. If you're good with it, I'll send the orders over through the floo."

Rowan laughed and then looked at Sam stunned "wow" he said. Jack looked at Angus just as Jessie walked in " sure Jessie up for a road trip to Italy?" he asked and Jessie looked to Ruby and Angus smiling " sure, why not." he said and Jack looked back at Angus " there's your answer, give me the name and where to go and we'll go." he said smiling as Jessie stood with him. " so two shops right opposite each other?" he reiterated to him as he waited for the address of the shop to go to.

Ruby moved to the kitchen and began making the Tiramisu Put the double cream, mascarpone, marsala and golden caster sugar in a large bowl she whisked until the cream and mascarpone were completely combined and had the consistency of thickly whipped cream. It was now she Poured the coffee into a shallow dish and dip in a few of the sponge fingers at a time, turning for a few seconds until they were nicely soaked, but not soggy. Then she layers them in a dish until she'd used half the sponge fingers, then spread over half of the creamy mixture. Using the coarse side of the grater she grated over the dark chocolate. Then repeat the layers once dune she covered it and placed it in the fridge to chill.