A Birth day

Jessie laughed and looekd at Kate " thank you so much I bet she was such an annoyance" he said as he took some bacon and pancakes for his breakfast " hows Angus now , bet hes sleeping like a baby" Jess said as he took a bit for the bacon " yumm fantastic Zoe" he said smiling at her. Jack finished his food and smiled.

" couldn't agree more , but I got patrol today Jessie you got it this afternoon and don'y forget to sent that food parcle up to fenrirs group " he said as Jessie waved him off as he ate his pancake and syrup breakfast.

Ruby finished her breakfast now that Caprice was settled and thanked the two for helping her she looked at David and smiled " we should get back I'd like to check on Angus," she said taking his arm as togethe they aperated to out side the duplex. Ruby pushed open the door quietly to see Angus sound asleep. she moved quietly up the stairs to shower and change knowing he needed the sleep after what Suzanna had put him threw in his dreams.

"Well, if what I saw last night is accurate," Kate said, "she couldn't cast even the most elementary defense spells. Now, that could be anxiety driven if she wasn't really taught to fight. Or, without any sort of devices to correct some of her inaccuracies, she might honestly be really inept. I wasn't entirely sure last night."

"My vote is on idjit," Michael said.

"I did not say she was an idjit," Kate said. "I never said anything of the kind."

"Inept, idjit, same thing," Michael shrugged.

"Frankly," Robert said, "I don't think that woman could duel her way out of a paper bag."

"Agreed," Michael said.

"Well, my own feeling, for what little it might be worth," Kate said, "is that her real talent, if you can call it talent, is for 'entertaining,' and it starts and stops there. I think she uses that talent to make connections to higher powered wizards who can supply her with potions and devices to make her look far more powerful than she really is."

"I think you might be exactly right," Robert nodded as he and Kate went to fix their plates. "Angus deserves a lie-in today. He fought in the skirmish and then fought her in his sleep for hours before it woke us. When we left him, he was in a dead-to-the-world sleep, and Abbey was too."

"Do you think we should go check on them?" Kate asked.

"No, I don't think so. Edward will have surely done that by now, and I'm sure Ruby will be home soon. She and David are both early risers," Robert replied.

David made sure the place was secure when they got back, and he made a pot of fresh coffee, feeling that he would enjoy it and probably Angus would need it. He didn't see Abbey, but he saw the door was open between the two houses. David went over and looked through the doorway to see that Abbey and Edward were sitting at the table and they were working on a very basic jigsaw puzzle. Edward was helping Abbey to learn to observe and focus on her shapes, and she seemed to be learning quite a lot.

"Ah, so you're back," Edward said. "I take it all is well?"

"It is," David replied. "I was looking for Abbey since she isn't with Angus."

"We decided to let him sleep in. Simone is baking some cherry almond scones, so they'll be ready shortly. We'll bring some over."

"Sounds marvelous," David said.

Jessie laughed at Robrt and Michaels banter " I agree with Michael" he said still laughing " definatly an idjit" he said laughing. Ruby watched David secure the house and fllowed him to Edwards side smiling as she listened to Edward and smiled at Abby " your doing realy well" she said smiling at her " those smell divine Simone Ruby said walking over to the kitchen Caprice fussing a little in her sling on Rubys chest. " Im guessing the little twit was taken care of and nobody got seriusly hurt, gods I hope not." she said softly so Abby would not hear her ask about Blood.

"Sanks," Abbey said to Ruby. "Gram Cece maked 'nana nut eggy bread. It was yummy yummy."

"I had a loaf of banana nut bread that I needed to use," Simone said, "so I made a breakfast bread pudding with it, and just to be a little different, I took some applesauce, added some cinnamon and sugar and some chopped pecans and heated it up and used it on the top instead of syrup. I am surprised by how much this little one can pack away when she's hungry. Good gracious that child can eat."

"She had four slices of that eggy bread," Edward laughed, "and she ate every crumb."

"They should be out of the oven in another two or three minutes," Simone said. "I made extra large ones because when I used to make these, people were taking one and coming back and whacking another in half. So I just decided to make them in a much larger size. And, yes, I have a cherry almond glaze for on top as soon as they're cool."

"Papa Ed says we gots to fix the garden. Said the doggies tore'd it all up last night," Abbey told Ruby.

"They did do some significant damage out in our little garden. I haven't checked the kitchen garden at the main house, but I doubt it fared much better," Edward said. "I think that's where Simone and I might need to be most of the day."

"Papa Ed says I can help," Abbey nodded.

"I told her they chucked a lot of rocks in there, and she would be a huge help if she would pick out the rocks and get rid of them. If she makes a nice pile of them, maybe we can use them for something else later. I really don't think that anyone was hurt, but I haven't talked to Robert yet. The only thing I know for certain is that Robert was hit with a fireball and his shoulder was burned, but that really is not a big deal. We did not lose any of our men, not that I know of, but Gelding did 'permanently' lose some of his thugs." He did not want to specifically say that some of Gelding's men were killed in front of Abbey.

"They deaded," Abbey nodded. Edward look at Abbey and shook his head, laughing.

"So much for trying to protect little ears," Edward said.

"Aggie gotted three all by himself," Abbey said. "I can count to twelve, so I know."

Ruby listened to Simone and Edward glad Angus had sent her and Caprice away with all that had happened "Im glad none of you were hurt and Im sure Robert had some one good take care of him" she said thinking Jess or Kate would have helpped him " oh stone collection thats very important" she said looking at Abby " could Caprice and I join you" she asked " Angus is sleeping and I don't want to wake him , he deserves it" she said smiling at Abby. Smelling the fod she smiled " those will be wonderful, could I get the recipy from you ?" she asked taking Caprice out of her sling to rest on hr shoulder so she could look around the loom as far as she could look.

Jessie readyied himself as he started on his patrol he'd found several men that had already been on patrol and didn't want to change shifts so he let them stay . Passing by the barn he stopped and checke on the animals , finding them all happy and rested as well as being fed by two of the guards. " thanks " he said as a pigmy puff jumped into his arms . Chuckaling he placed it back in the pen " now stay put." he said and chuckled again.

"Of course," Edward said. "The more the merrier. There's more than enough work for all of us for a few days. I probably am going to have to replace quite a lot of the plants but it is still early enough in the season that I could do that without a lot of trouble. The ones that I have in my garden in Tuscany, I might go and get one from there to transplant here. That could save us quite a lot of money, actually. And Simone could do the same thing from her house in the Cotswolds that she is renting out. The lady that she's renting to would not have any trouble with that."

"Of course you can have the recipe," Simone said, taking the scones out of the oven. She had two full baking trays, and both trays were loaded with scones with just only a smidgen of room between the scones. "Oh, good. They didn't spread into one another." Edward looked at her tray.

"How did you do that without a microscope?" Edward teased. "There isn't five millimeters between them."

"Actually, I guessed," she shrugged, flicking her fingers to cast a wandless cooling spell at the tray. She picked up a cup with the cherry almond glaze and a fork, deciding to use the fork to drizzle the icing off the tines of the fork. "This won't take half a tick," she said. They heard a sudden pounding sound, and Edward turned to see Abbey was trying to pound a puzzle piece into a spot where, clearly, it wasn't meant to go.

"If you can make it fit that way, you let me know," Edward told Abbey, laughing.

Ruby smiled at Simone " oh thank you, they do look good and the fork drizzling, not don that I use a piping bag or spoon " she said pating Caprice gently as she bounced ortried to on her shoulder. "I'd love to help, and that would be good , they ould already be aclimatized to the weather so would just need to settle." she said then rembered her own herb garden " I hope they didn't mess ours up too bad" she said " I had some chomping cabages in there, well if they got in they probably regreted it and the cabages are fell fed" she said with a chuckle. Hearing the pounding she turned to se Abby hitting the jigsaw peice and Edwards responce "is he always like this?" she asked simone in regards his quick remark.

Now realizing Caprice needed to be changed she stood up " excuse me for amoment some one needs to be changed " she said and headed back to their side of the duplex to change her smiling a she pased by Angus in the recliner.

"You can get much finer lines if you use a fork, dip it into the icing, and then just flick it over the pastry," Simone said.

"Well, I'm telling you the garden behind the duplex is in sad shape," Edward said. "I think of it as one garden, I guess."

"Oh, sometimes he's worse," Simone laughed. "There. That does it. Now, you lot can tie into them now or just give them a moment for the icing to set up."

"I'll have mine warm and gooey and now," Edward said, taking one off the tray and then refilling his tea mug. He took a table knife and cut what he believed was an Abbey sized piece from his and put it on a saucer with a fork and gave it to her. "There. Now, try that. Do you want some more of Gam Cece's cinnamon tea?" Abbey nodded. Simone got a child's size mug out and put some tea in it with plenty of milk and sugar and set it in front of Abbey.

"She saw us drinking tea this morning and asked if she could have some. So we gave her some in her little cup, and she likes it," Simone said to Ruby.

"I would too if I had a little tea in my milk and sugar," Edward teased.

"You know full well its an acquired taste," Simone said. "I think it's very adventurous of her to be willing to try it at just three years old." Simone walked over to the table and looked at the puzzle piece. "Abbey, does that piece really look like the same shape as the hole is?"

"But it's yellow, and I need a yellow piece," Abbey protested, frustrated.

"Look at all your pieces. There's a piece left in the box that you haven't gotten out."

"I putted it back," Abbey said.

"Why?"

"It no fit no place. It gotta be an extra one," Abbey said. Simone tried hard not to laugh. She kissed Abbey on the cheek. "Try it again, Sweet Pea," she said gently. "Turn it right side up and try again."

"

Ruby returned with a clean Caprice and smiled nodding as Simone spoke of how the lines would be thinner using a fork " oh okay , next time I'll try that method" she said then chuckled as she said that was how Edward was. She also heard him talk of the garden and sighed " oh dear, well we realy should sort it out" she said "but I do think your idea with the plants is a good one" she added then watched Abby and Simone with the jigsaw "oh that tea sounds nice, I'll leave mine till its cooled if thats okay" she said smiling as they spoke of the tea. " flavored teas don't have milk or suger in them, there sweet enough." she said "but I guess each person has there own taste. and that as a good idea im sure shes old enough to try new flavours now."

Ruby looked back at the other side of the duplex as she spoke again " do you think Angus will sleep all day today?" she asked " I know after what she did to him in his leep he much be exausted" she said hoping he would not sleep all day as it would mean he would not sleep that night.

"This is her first tea ever," Edward said, "so I saw no harm in letting her have some extra sugar. Simone saw no harm in a bit more." He laughed. "No, he certainly won't sleep all day. He rarely sleeps more than five hours at a time at the most, even when he's completely knackered. Go tuck into your scone while Abbey pummels that puzzle."

Edward went next door, and he deliberately woke Angus.

"Look lively, Boy," Edward told him. "Day's a wasting while you're lollygagging around. Besides, Ruby's worried about you. Go hit the shower, shave off the peach fuzz and get out of last night's filthy clothes."

"I haven't had peach fuzz on my face since I was about twelve," Angus scowled.

"Yes, well it was closer to fourteen before it stopped being peach fuzz but who's counting?" Edward said. "Looks like David made coffee over here, and Simone made scones over at our place."

"What is that hammering sound?" Angus frowned.

"Abbey is wreaking havoc on a jigsaw puzzle," Edward said. "She's at our place."

"Oh. Thanks. I'll be over in a bit," Angus sighed. "Give me a bit before I have to face any more humanoids this morning."

"Understood," Edward said, as Angus got up reluctantly from his chair and headed upstairs to shower and shave. Edward sent a message through Angus's floo to Evan, asking what the weather was there at the estate today, and Evan sent a three word reply. It read, "Glorious! Come ahead! E."

Edward went back to his place.

"I sent a word to Evan. He says the weather back home is, in his words, 'glorious.' Perhaps we should go there this morning and take our pick of the plants and then com back and start trying to remedy the damage. What do you two think?"

"Can we eats basketti, Papa Ed?" Abbey asked pounding now as hard as she could on the puzzle piece.

"We can eat 'basketti, if you really want some, but Angus makes very fine spaghetti, remember?" Edward laughed. "I'm sure if you ask him, he'll make some today for us."

"I admit, I'm responsible for that. I found a children's book about some different countries and what they're famous for, and on the child's map of Italy it showed a cartoon drawing of a plate of spaghetti," Simone said. "Now she thinks the spaghetti there is going to be completely different than what Angus makes."