A Birth day

Ruby listened to Simone and smiled " I like that idea , did you donate the old small clothing from Caprice too?" she asked " becuse if you haven't go ahead, I'd rather they go to people who could use them rather than them sitting around not being used." she said with a smile " I think there are a few more things in our basement that could go too when suzanne sent over things thinking I was having a boy" she chukled " I'll dig them out for you to take and resale." she watched as Simone put Caprices wellies on and also watched as Caprice tried to pull them off again.

Jessie heard Angus and nodded " I think home scholing with others would be good t least until we have the paper work sorted." he said to Angus as Cris ran back to show him the now fixed brontosaurus. " Jessie gave him a thumbs up and a large smile. "Asta e bine, thats good" he said to Cris who smiled up at him. Jessie looked at Angus " that was right, right" he asked himhoping he'd not said something insulting.

"No, I haven't donated anything simply because it's not mine to donate. If you want me to take it there, though, I'll be happy to do that. I could take you two if you want so you can see the shop, maybe meet my daughter. Who knows, you might find something there that you like," Simone said.

"Yes," Angus told Jessie. "That's right. You're learning. Good job." Angus suggested to Cris that he talk to Kate when he saw her next about an adult doing the mural to make the dinos look realistic." Cris nodded.

Edward decided to leave Ruby and Simone to their plans, and he went over to where his desk was and picked up a red plastic bucket with a lid and went over next door, to where Jessie and Cris were, and he sat down with them. He told Cris he brought him something that he could either use here at the duplex when he was here, or if he wanted, he could take the bucket home, but he knew that there sometimes there wasn't enough to do on a rainy day. He set the bucket down in front of Cris. Cris opened the bucket and found a whole bucket full of little toys. A bunch of plastic green army men, little plastic cowboys, some little cars, some little farm animals, and zoo animals, little plastic fences, cowboy accessories, and building logs to build little toy cabins with. Cris was elated. He dumped out the bucket on the floor to see what all was in the bucket.

"He'll be lost in that for hours," Angus laughed.

"That was the idea," Edward said.

"Where is that big bucket we had?" Angus asked.

"Oh, its downstairs out on the terrace where the outdoor living room is. The younger kids still ask for it first."

"How big is that big bucket at home? Five gallon?"

"Seven," Edward replied. "This one is just a four gallon bucket, but if he outgrows it, we certainly can get a bigger one. And somewhere Simone has a big tin of crayons and some coloring books if he's ever here and bored."

Ruby heard her say she ahd not donated any of the clothes as they were not hers to donate " please go a head and yes I would love to visit the studio some time" she said smiling she saw Angus with a bucket and the smile that it up Chris's face when he saw what was inside it. " hes definatly loving those toys" she said to Simone.

Jessie stood and smiled as Angus tol him he'd spoken corectly to Chris " oh good" he said and smiled as Angus gave Chris a bucket of toys " oh hes here to stay" he said and chuckled as he looked at the window as the rain began to lightly fall against it.

Ruby accioed her rain coat and uberella placing it next to the stroller she headed down to teh basment and chose a few itens of clothing and baby toys to donate. Walking upstairs she placed them infront of Simone " its a few rompers, a play mat and several blankets that have cars and boy stuff on." she said showing her they still had labels and some were in their packets still. " will they do?" she asked smiling " Im sure ther are mor things below we can give her to resale."

"Of course," Simone smiled. "I think we should leave the boys to their own devices and we should go donate your things and then hit some farm markets. I know there are all sorts of places to eat in the Chelsea Market. I bet we could find somewhere to get a bite of lunch while we're out." She peeked over into the other side and called to Edward. "We're leaving. You boys are on your own for lunch. We'll see you later."

"I thought you were just going for apples," Edward frowned.

"We are. We'll be back by supper," she said, going back to her side. "Shall we go to Paris first and unload those things, Ruby?" She got out a portkey to her daughter's studio.

"How can they go for apples and take all day to do it?" Edward sighed.

"Because they're women," Angus laughed. "So, what do you think about my taking my chicken and mushroom pie recipe and making them into pasties instead? I could do a tossed salad and some dessert pasties as long as I'm making pasties."

Ruby chuckled seeing the guys talking and then Simone tell them they were leaving " I think thats a good idea" she said " leaves our hands free to get the apples and anything else we need" she said smiling as she heard the boys talking about cooking. Taking one side of the stroller she waited for Simone to port them to Paris.

Ariving she felt the rain his her head and she opened the umberela at the same time pulling dowen the rain cover on the stroller and smiled at Caprice " that better?" she said and saw the smile on her face " I thought so" she said and stood up to lok at Simone " so whitch way?" she asked looking around noticing they were not far from the Paris house.

"Just behind us," she told Ruby. She pointed to the rather small old building right behind them. It had four floors, all of which were taken up by the dance school. "My daughter's been trying to buy the building for years, but the owner has had it in the family for generations, and he hasn't been willing to see. Still, it has a lot of old lovely art deco details. I can't imagine the school being anywhere else." She showed Ruby into the building and pointed her to the room right on the left that held the resale shop. She noticed that the school was absolutely silent today. That had never happened, not in Simone's knowledge.

"Where is everyone today?" Simone asked the little French woman in the resale shop who was folding freshly laundered baby clothes to set them out on the displays.

"The school is closed today," the woman told Simone. "Madame Lena, she has closed the school today. I'm afraid I do not know why. A woman came here earlier and talked with her, and it seemed to upset her because it was right after the woman left that Madame Lena closed the school for the day."

"I'll see if I can talk to her and see if I can help," Simone told her. "Meanwhile, we brought some things if you think you could use them." Simone put Ruby's things on the counter, and the clerk smiled.

"Absolument," the woman smiled. "These will sell quickly, especially the play mats. Shall I put them on your account?"

"Please. This is grandson's partner, Ruby."

"Ruby, it is nice to meet you," the woman said. "I am Aveline. I run the shop for Madame Lena. I have heard so much about your daughter. And I finally get to meet her. She's beautiful."

"If you don't mind," Simone said to Ruby, "I'd like to talk to Lena for a moment and see what she's upset about. She's never closed the school before. You can come along or you can shop. Whichever you like."

Ruby looked behind her and saw the building and marveled at the arrtdeco styling of the building " its beautiful" she said and followed Simone into the building she also heard when she spoke to the lady that the school was closed. Ruby placed the bag with the items on a table and smiled " well if it helps Im glad and yeah but shes a handfull at home " she said chukaling. Looking up and seeing wory on Simones face Ruby smiled at her " I'll come with you" she said and took control of the stroller and followed Simone . " your concerned about why she closed the school " she said and looked at her " I can tell by your body lanugage and face, it screams 'this is not right' "she told her as they walked " if its anything we can help sort , Im in" she told her.

"Lena has never closed the school, not once in all these years. She's got other dancers that will teach if she needs a holiday or something. She's never needed to close it. It's been very successful." She walked over to the school's office, opened the door and went in. She walked past the clerk like she belonged there and walked straight to Lena's office, and without invitation, she opened the door.

Lena looked a lot like her mother, except she was thinner, willowy, with the agile, fluid figure of a prima donna ballerina. Today, she wore a black dance leotard with lace sleeves, and a sarong tied around her waist, and ballet toe shoes. Her dark hair was pulled back into a low chignon, a stray wisp dangling along the side of her delicate face. She was obviously quite upset, and she was sitting at her desk looking at a ledger book.

"Lena," Simone said. "What's happened?"

"We're being evicted," Lena looked at Simone.

"Evicted? Why? Are your affair in order?"

"Certainly," Lena said. "We've got to be out and into something else by the first of the month. the owner sold the building. I offered him a price that was more than what the building was worth, but he got a higher offer, and he said he's going to take it."

"From who? Who bought it?"

"Some industrialist I've never heard of," Lena sighed. That, in itself, wasn't surprising. Lena didn't read the papers or watch the news.

"Names, Lena. Who? Who is going to buy it?"

"British expat living here with his wife. Golding, Gilding..."

"Gelding?" Simone sighed, already hating this.

"That's it. You know the name?"

"Oh, yeah. I know the name. Do not lose hope. Let me talk to Edward," Simone said. "I'll let you know."

"But what..."

"Edward can be a very powerful man," she said, not willing to tell Lena more. She intended to talk to Edward and Robert both. "You don't have to be out right now, so don't lose hope. Give me a little. I'll let you know."

"My whole life is going under and..."

"Lena," Simone said firmly, "Listen to me. There could be far more to this than you know. Powerful men play powerful games. Your father knew that, and your brother knows that. You need to know what diplomats really do. They spend their careers meeting big fish like Gelding ,and they try to smooth talk them into doing decent things and try to look elegant in the process.. Your father was good at it, but that doesn't mean it was easy or danger free either one. I knew that from the time I met your father. I did my best as an ambassador's wife to help him, and he did his best to teach me as much as he knew to try to keep me and you and your brother safe. I suppose I did you no favors by protecting you both from some of the realities of that, but for now, you'll just have to trust me. Now, take a breath and calm yourself, and I'll do my best to fix this. We've got time. For now, stop stewing over your school's finances because that isn't going to fix it. I will get back with you. You have my word. Now, write down the name, address and phone number of your landlord and give it to me," Simone looked at Ruby.

"I hate to say it, but we might have to put off your trip to Chelsea Market and go talk to the boys, shouldn't we?" Simone sighed. "We could go to see Gelding ourselves, but Robert would have our heads. Lena wrote down her landlord's information and handed it to Simone.

"Where is Enrico?" Simone asked.

"On his way here. He was going to find where this Gelding fellow lives so we can go see him and try to..." Lena said.

"No," Simone said quickly. "God, no. You really, really don't want to do that. Tom Gelding is one of the most dangerous criminals in Europe...."

"Criminals?" Lena frowned. "Oh, now that is far fetched...:

"I'm serious," Simone said. She looked at Ruby for a moment. "I think Lena and Enrico need to come with us for a couple hours, don't you?"

She was trying to casually tell Ruby that she didn't trust them to not go to see Tom if she left them alone. She could entirely understand them wanting to see if they could talk Tom into rescinding their offer on the building, but Simone was sure there was a dirty trick already in the works in this, and the worst thing she could do was to let her daughter and son-in-law walk into Tom's blindly. If they took Lena and Enrico back to England temporarily, then, they could stall for time while they got direction from someone higher up in the organization.

Ruby followed Simone up some stairs to an office where she saw a woman , a thiner version of Simone sat at a desk her eyes were puffy as if she'd been crying. Ruby listened to what she said , when she spoke of Gelding she sighed and glanced at Simone. When Simone tried to erswade her to not do anything and told her about Gelding Ruby nodded " he is the worst, Angus,Edward and Robert have been stopping him trading in children no older than Caprice here " she said " its worked so far, but please understand Simones right, leave it to Edward and Robert to sort this out and trust me they will even if they have to buy the property at an inflated cost he will just to make sure you have your studio." she told her and glanced once more to Smone as she spoke of their trip to Chelsea Market. " this is more important , I get the feeling hes trying to do to use what Angus did to him, take out our foundation little by little, but hes going to find our foundations are made of stel and he can not break that." she said then looked at Lena. " why don't both of you come with us to see simones home im sure Edward will love to see you and Enrico again, I know Angus would too." she said with a smile just as Caprice giggled and held out her hands to be picked up by Lena. " looks like Caprice wants to hug you too" she said hoping her words would encurage her " there not much you can do until Edwrad and Robert sort it out."

Some of what they were saying wasn't sticking in Lena's head mainly because she was in a panic about possibly losing her school, but as Ruby was speaking, Enrico arrived, and he listened to what was being said. Enrico had always had a head for business, and he had worked at the wizarding bank in Paris for many years. He looked at Lena and spoke calmly to her, taking the ledger and locking it up in the safe where it belonged as he spoke.

"Lena, it sounds as if Mr. Gelding may have some dark motives at work, and your mother knows people who have the inside track about not only what he's up to but how to inconvenience him. I think we should do as they ask. We shall send an owl to my mother to ask her to keep the children for us in case we get back late tonight, and we will accompany your mother to ask for whatever help her friends can provide. Why don't you go change out of your leotard so we can go, my dear?" Lena merely nodded, got up, and left the room, heading for the staff locker room to change.

"She'll be alright," Enrico told Simone and Ruby, as he scribbled a note to his mother about their children and sent it through the floo. "Her career has been entirely wrapped up in this school since she left the national ballet. Ballerinas have relatively short dancing careers, normally retiring at about age 30, so this school is important to her, and to a lot of the people in the Paris theater business. Well over half of the child dancers who appear in the Paris theater productions come from our studios, as well as a good number of the teen and adult dancers. We could certainly move locations, but we've been here for so long that the public sees this building as synonymous with the studio. We aren't wealthy but we're comfortable, so if I have to mortgage our house or something to secure the school, I'll do it."

"It may not come to that," Simone said. "Edward and I have some powerful friends of our own, and they're familiar with Gelding and..." It was at that moment that Caprice got bored sitting in her stroller, and she started to fuss. Simone picked her up out of her stroller, and Enrico took her from Simone, and Simone handed him a set of plastic baby keys from the baby bag. Enrico took the keys and in a moment, he had Caprice distracted with them by putting a simple little charm on them to make them make little musical sounds when the keys were shaken.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Simone laughed.

"We have moms who wait here for their children, and it isn't at all unusual to have a cranky baby in a stroller who is bored from sitting and waiting," Enrico laughed, plucking his mother's response out of the air as it fluttered back through the floo. He read the note quickly and shoved it in his pocket.

Lena returned in a pair of white stretch leggings that were printed with blue and yellow flowers and green leaves. She had paired the leggings this morning with a white camisole top and a plain blue crocheted summer cardigan, and a pair of green sandals. She hadn't intended to be going anywhere after work but perhaps to run an errand or two, so she had dressed very casually. She returned, with her dance clothes shoved quickly into the large tote bag that she took back and forth to work. She was looking more composed, after having a moment for herself.

"My mother will get the kids when they get out of school, so we're free to go," he told Lena.

"I told Aveline to take the rest of the day and i asked her to lock up when she leaves," Lena told him.

"Then we're ready to return," Simone said. She ported them all home, and when they landed, Simone walked next door to see Edward and Angus and Marcus still lingering over their morning coffee.

"You lot could not have gotten to Paris and to Chelsea already," Edward said. "You've only been gone about thirty minutes."

"No. We didn't," Simone said. "We brought Lena and Enrico with us. I'm glad you boys are still here. We have a new Gelding problem."

"Oh, fabulous," Angus frowned. "Well, Robert is at work, so we might be the best you have for a few hours."

"I think this sounds like we're going to need a fresh pot of coffee," Marcus sighed.