A Birth day

"Come on, Anise," Marcus called her. "Or Ginger's going to leave you in the dust."

"The heck she is," Anise said, taking her board and going back to Marcus and Ginger to try again.

"What do you hear about the funerals, Edward?" Angus asked.

"They'll be the day after tomorrow," Edward said. "I did try to talk them out of that because its supposed to be lousy weather, and so did Patrick. The rest of Basil's kids and grandkids did not want to listen, though. They just presumed I was going to host the reception and have Rosaria do all the cooking, but I told them absolutely not."

"Why?" Angus asked.

"Because I am not footing the tab for the funeral or the reception either one. Nor am I asking Rosaria to do all the cooking for all of them. Nor am I having it in our house. It isn't just my house. It's yours too, and if they can't even be civil to you, why should I let our home be the place where the reception is held? The only thing I want Rosaria and Carlo to do that day, after breakfast, is to take care of Caprice. I've given them permission to have the funeral service in the family chapel, as we've always done, and the reception will be held at the winery. People are booking that for weddings as it is, so I've donated two days for them. They can have tomorrow to set up and to let the caterers in. They can have the day after for the reception and to clean up. That's all they're getting."

"Are they upset with that?"

"Well, first of all, I really don't bloody care. And second, it's about time they were upset that we aren't going to put up with their nonstop exploitation and abuse. Enough is enough. And third, you and I neither one owe Basil or Gloria one bloody more thing. Patrick, for his part, was actually supportive of having the reception elsewhere. He understood my point. You know, you don't need to go.

"Oh, yes I do," Angus said. "I am not going to give them even one minute of satisfaction. I'm not going to have them thinking I'm intimidated by them in the least because I'm not."

"Understood," Edward nodded. "Are you leaving the girls behind?"

"No, I think they'll want to go because I'm sure Evie and Faith will be there," Angus said.

"Well, Simone is going out at seven that morning to get her hair and nails done for it, so, Ruby, if you and the girls want to go along, I'm sure they'd accommodate you. They're opening early for her because when Donohue women call for service, the locals bend over backwards to accommodate. They know we rarely ask for favors, so they're happy to do it. Besides, we pour loads of money into this little village, so I don't feel bad about it in the least. You could go early and get back in a couple of hours and be back in time for breakfast at nine. That would still give you time to leisurely dress because the funeral service is at noon, with the lunch reception starting immediately following the service, so I suppose that will be at 1:15 or so. I would expect the entire thing to be finished by four or five pm. I've told them that we all will most likely go back to England within the next day or so after the funeral because we have obligations back home."

"That's fine," Angus said. "I've enjoyed the break, but it really is time to get back.

"Agreed. So you know, though, Evan is serious about wanting to come for a visit," Edward said. "He wants to come and bring the family."

"Then he should," Angus shrugged.

"I think we could accommodate them at our place," Edward replied, if the girls don't mind sharing a room."

"I doubt they'll mind that," Angus said. "It is just temporary, after all. Perhaps we should make it across the Friday that the boys graduate. That would be a great way for them to start a holiday there. Sam and Victor will be home for good then, and Marcus's kids will be arriving. I'm presuming Jess and Jack's kids will be coming as well. That would give them almost a dozen kids close to their own age that they could hang with and do things with."

"That's a good idea. There are all sorts of things for kids their age to do there, and all kinds of staff to learn from and to do things with."

Carlo and Rosaria came out and set the table for supper, telling them that supper would be ready shortly. Carlo brought out an appetizer for them with a citron splash made with Citron, Limoncello, and prosecco. The appetizer was just simple little crostinis with bacon, caramelized onions, and melted parmesan cheese. They were delicious.

Supper was Tortelli alla Lastra--stuffed pasta squares that were stuffed with ancetta, mashed potatoes, eggs, wild greens, ricotta, pumpkin, and herbs and spices, and topped with a beautiful vodka sauce. It was served alongside some grilled salmon fillets and a chopped salad with a fresh vinaigrette. Dessert was Torta Montovana, a cake with lemon, almond and toasted pine nuts, served with freshly brewed coffee.

Ruby smiled and nodded to Edward " Of course we'll go with Simone" she said and listened to what he had to say about the arrangements for the funeral "Too right , they are friends not servants" she said "If they think thats all they are, Im glad you told them no." she added then smiled " don't worry we'll be ready when the time comes, besides I think the girls would love a gorls day out to take their mns off whats to come" she said.

Hearing about Evan coming to stay she smiled " thats a great idea I'll talk to Jess when we get back Im sure she'll love the idea , the kids could show Faith and Evie around the grounds." she said and looekd as Carlo and Rosaria came out to set the table for supper.

Ruby found supper to be delishious and ate happily smiling as she saw Caprice happliy eating her food.

"Well, that's what Simone thought too, Ruby," Edward said. "She is looking forward to going with you all in the morning. She normally has to go to the salon by herself, but to have, for all practical purposes, her daughter in law and her granddaughters, that excites her to no end. Oh, and I'm supposed to tell you that she left you and the girls some hairstyle magazines and nail art magazines so that you and the girls could look through them and pick out hair styles and what you'd like your nails to look like."

"You four are going to look wonderful, and I'll look shaggy and bruised and pitiful," Angus teased.

"No, you won't," Edward said. "I paid my man here double his usual rate to come and trim our hair and trim my mustache and beard and do our nails so they look decent.

"Well, by my count," Angus said, "when Evan comes, there will be his two, our four, Marcus's five, and Jess and jack's three. That makes fourteen, at least by my math. That's a sizeable herd."

"The girls were discussing wanting a camping trip somewhere with Evie and Faith."

"Well, that's not a problem," Angus said. "They could sleep out on the grounds or there's Remus's spot at the farm, and, with a little bit of magic, there's Abbey's treehouse. They would have lots of places to camp out."

"Those are all good ideas," Edward said. "You know, maybe Jessie and Jack would like to take our boys and Jack's boys for a couple nights under the stars, and Ruby and Jess could take the girls or something like that. Sometimes guys need to be with guys, you know?"

"That's not a bad thought either," Angus said. "Does Simone camp?"

"She says she does, but she and I haven't done that yet.

After supper, as they were sipping on coffee, Ginger came out and handed a little bundle in tissue paper to Ruby.

"I don't know if you have a use for it, but, well, I made something for Caprice," she said, a bit timid about giving anybody a gift she'd made.

Ruby chuckled and listend to the men talking about the herd of kids that would dsesend on them once graduation was done. She heard about taking the girls and she nodded " that would be so much fun" she said and chuckled thinking of the hair styles that the girls might choose.

Hearing them talk about the girls camping she smiled " that sounds great, I haven't been camping in ages." she said it was now Ginger walked over with something wrapped in paper and placed it infront of her. Ruby smiled and gently opened the tissue paper and smiled " oh its perfect, thank you Ginger , she will look so cute in this " she said and held it up for the guys to see the dress.

"You made that?" Angus was impressed. "Thank you. That's beautiful. It'll be perfect this spring and this summer when things are warm and we want her to look nice. You know, we'll have to find someone with a camera, and then we'll put her in the dress and get some pictures. I know we'll want to keep a picture, but you should send one to your mom as well."

"That's Irish lace," Marcus said. "You did a beautiful job with it, Ginger. You've been working on that quite awhile."

"Since I knew Anise and I were coming to live with Angus and Ruby," she said. "When I said I was reading, I was really working on this."

"It shows. Well done."

"This will be one of those pieces that we keep for other Donohue babies to wear," Angus said.

"I'm glad you like it," she smiled.

"You didn't happen to bring your camera, did you, Ru?" Angus asked her.

"If not, one of you could pick up a disposable muggle camera when you go to the salon," Edward suggested. "I had one, but I dropped the thing when I was here briefly in January and I cracked the lens. I've just never replaced it."

"Is there a backgammon set here, by any chance?" Ginger asked. "Anise and I would like to play."

"Absolutely," Angus said. He accio'd his little traveling game kit, and he handed it to her. "Here. There are a lot of games in here."

"Thanks," she grinned, and she excused herself to go find Anise.

"We're going to be lost in another year or so when all these kids move out, Ru," Angus sighed. "I've come to like having a houseful of teenagers."

"I'll have to have Nigel check you to make sure you didn't suffer brain damage recently," Edward teased. "Nobody likes a houseful of teens."

"Yeah, but these are good kids, every one of them," Angus replied.

Ruby nodded at Angus's response of it being beautiful " I agree it loks like you put a lot of wok into it and I agree with Edwrad , from now on ita an airloom" she said and smiled accioing her camera " I never go any place with out it." she said chukaling " you never now what candid shots you'll capture, now we just need caprice" she said smiling thn chuckled hearing Angus's words.

"oh I thnk we'll servive, besides theres always holidays they will return , plus did you say you wanted more kids?" she said teasing him. She nodded and smiled " I agree, we got lucky " she said smiling

"More?" he frowned, laughing. "We have five as it is. Can we wait at least is out of diapers before we think of any more?"

"I'm good with more grandkids any time," Edward laughed.

"More?" Angus frowned even deeper, "you've lost your mind. You have twenty seven grandkids and, as of now, 62 great grandchildren. That gives you a total of 73. How many more do you want?"

"I'm shooting for another twenty seven so we have an even hundred," Edward grinned. "So you and Ruby better get on it."

"Nope, Nuh uh. Not happening. We are not--I repeat, not--having another 27," Angus said.

"Well, if you just have five more, and then your ten each give me two more, we're there with a little bonus."

"No. Nope, nope, nope. We're not having ten kids," Angus laughed. As he was speaking, an owl flew through the outdoor living space and dropped an envelope into Edward's lap and flew off. Edward opened the envelope.

"Too bad you can't come on this one," Edward looked at Angus. "This one is back in Sergio's neck of the woods. Some poor fellow escaped a Romanian nick, and it's thought that he might have had some sort of madness or curse. He apparently ran into a werewolf during a full moon a couple months ago, and now there's a madman that is also a werewolf running about the Carpathians."

"Well, you can't go by yourself," Angus said.

"And you can't hunt with me," Edward said.

"Well, I can still wield a wand and a sword both. Plus, we have Anise. She really was a big help with James. I realize she's only sixteen, but she's a good little scrapper. When would we go?" Angus said.

"Not until after the funeral at the soonest," Edward said. "I'd have to go back to England to get my axe. It's there, not here. Hopefully, I could be to Romania and back in just a couple of days since the full moon is coming up again. If I hunt him during the moon, he shouldn't be that hard to find."

"You are not going to Romania to hunt a crazy werewolf by yourself during a full moon," Angus frowned. "That's just extraordinarily dangerous."

"Well, I could take Sergio or Ana with me."

"What do you think, Ru?" Angus looked at her. "Would you be okay with me going with Edward for just a couple days? And could I take Anise along? For that matter, if you want to leave Caprice either here with Simone or back home with Kate, you could come too. I don't think Ginger is strong enough, so we'd have to leave her behind."

Ruby laughed out loud at Angus's reaction she heard Edward and sat stunned "Wow that many" she said then heard him mention twenty-five more and she shook her head " nope I agree with Angus on that one one or two maybe but not twenty-five" she said chuckling She saw the owl drop the letter on Edwrads lap and sighed hearing what it was about. She then heard Angus and shook her head " nope I'll leave that to you guys and Anise, I'll be good waiting back home, but whats Robert going to say about you hunting a werewolf with your shoulder?" she asked knowing he wasn't best pleased about him being on a skateboard, he would be furious at him hunting a was in the mountains. She heard him mention taking Sergio or Ana with him and she nodded "Well if you get the okay from Robert I'll be waiting at home for you." she said smiling as she kissed his cheek.

"Robert?" Angus asked. "He's going to hate it, but as much as he'll hate it, Nigel will hate it more. Robert understands that crap happens. Nigel doesn't care that crap happens. Nigel believes that if one is on the disabled list, they stay on the disabled list until he removed them from it. He believes that benched means benched. At least Robert does understand that, sometimes, being benched is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule."

"Go and get Nigel, and open the floo and talk to both of them," Edward said. Angus got up and went inside and found Nigel and opened the floo to talk to Robert. Nigel, of course, was completely against it. Robert was not in favor either but he did understand that sometimes things just went sideways at the most inopportune times.

"I agree it could be an advantage to take Anise," Robert said. "so long as you're looking out for her, but I also think that if you go, I'd rather see you taking someone like Jack along because he's had years of his own situation being under really good control. You don't know how big this fellow gets or how fierce. Even if you have Sergio or Ana, Jack or Jessie are definite advantages as companions. Let me see if Jack is within earshot." He shouted for Jack. "Hey, Jack, come join me on this floo call, would you?"

Ruby lite ed to Angus and nodded she agreed " yeah hes a bit over protective of his patiants " she said but heard Edward sugest opening a floo to talk to Robert with Nigel there about being able to go werewolf hunting she sat and admired the dress Ginger had made.

Jak had returned from the barn after feeding the animals. As he walked in he heard Robert call for him and he walked to Roberts study where he found him stood by his floo. " you bellowed?" he said and chukled as he walked over to the floo.