A Birth day

Ruby moved with Angus and Marcus to the flower bed and set Caprice down next to her so she too could pull out the weeds with her help. Ruby smiled as Caprice pulled off a leaf and held him up to show everyone. Ruby kept de-weeding when she heard Edward and Simone she smiled "Please that would be wonderful, thank you, the more hands the quicker it will be done," she said as Caprice threw the leafe and pulled another one and giggled. Ruby chuckled and looked at Simone " she's helping in her way" she said and cleared around some Aconite of weeds.

Ruby knelt beside simone and sighed " that womans nbeen at Angus again" she said softly to her " Im expecting him to fall asleep later with the fresh air from weed pulling " she took a leafe from Caprice and placed it among the dead weds she'd already pulled letting Caprice once again pull a leafe but when she tried for another Ruby stopped her " thats a good one" she told her and showed her one she could pull to bits.

"Ah," Simone replied, "so that's why he's tense. And that's why Marcus has joined the weeding. He's staying close. This new Creole woman continues to tinker with his sleep. Well, maybe either Kate will find a new way to block her, or Robert will find a new sleeping potion that does the job. Edward isn't happy about all the bruises Angus has taken in his sleep, I can tell you that. But then again, I'm sure Angus isn't happy about them either. He's a pretty experienced brawler, from what Edward tells me, and not the sort that would likely be trounced in any sort of a fair fight. If there's anything we can do, you know all you need to do is ask." She thought for a moment and then she looked at Ruby. "I wonder if Lee has an alchemist that might be able to do some sort of magical device or jewelry that would perhaps allow a seer to enter Angus's dreams with him. Or maybe even another fighter. Someone to help Angus even the odds a bit. I'll try to sound out Edward to see if maybe he knows some someone. I mean, if we can't block this woman from getting to him, maybe we can find a way to send some reinforcements with him. We could at least ask if its possible, couldn't we? I'm not a seer, but Kate is, And so is Edward and Anise. Jess is a seer but she doesn't do much fighting anymore."

Angus was settled in rather mindlessly yanking up plants, and Marcus laughed and then had to finally reach over to get Angus's attention.

"Mate, you've pulled up half a dozen marigolds. Might want to put them back. What'd they ever do to you?" Marcus teased.

"Oh," Angus said. "Sorry. Guess I'm preoccupied."

"No harm done. Looks like their roots are still intact. Just put them back, and they should be fine," Marcus said.

Ruby sighed and nodded as she glanced over and chuckled " seems Angus has a vendeta against maragolds." she said to Simone with a smile " and Im sure Jess will fight when called for, even being a healer" she said taking out another weed as Caprice held up a leaf to Simone and throwing it towards the pile making Ruby smile as she moved it on to it.

" I'm with Marcus though sooner shes delt with the sooner things can get back to just being Tom Gelding we have to deal with" she said " even if it means he deals with my mother again, gods I wish she would just stop with this fictious venteta against our family, especialy Angus." she stopped pulling weeds and sat back on her feet " its exausting seeing Angus fight her and the bruises he has from this woman now" she said and looked over at Simone " I want to give her the beating of a life time but I know the slow aproch is the right aproch."

"He's not focused," Simone said. "Looks like Marcus made him aware, though, because they're putting the marigolds back. That's alright. I only bought them and put them in because they were on sale at the greenhouse when I bought flowers to put around the house. I don't particularly like marigolds myself, but, as I said, they were really cheap, and they were in good shape. Since these are annuals, I'll probably replace them with snapdragons. Edward told me Angus particularly likes snapdragons, and since we don't have any, I'll probably try to get some really unusual colors of them and chuck the marigolds next year in favor of snapdragons instead. The grower actually had some new species. He has some enchanted ones this year that were carnivorous. They actually snapped. They ate gnats and mosquitos, and I hear they are quite the asset to the garden. And I think he told me they're perennials. Edward is not so sure about them. He's not so sure about carnivorous plants around children, but these don't eat children. They eat mosquitos. I should think he would be glad to not have so many mosquito bites around all of us. I'm getting some of these, whether Edward likes it or not. Besides, snapdragons are entirely too little to eat anything any larger than a mosquito anyway."

"Are you on about those plants again?" Edward asked. "We are not having carnivorous plants around children."

"See what I mean?" Simone laughed. "Well, I'd better get out to the tea garden before he really gets after me." She headed to the back yard to the tea garden.

Ruby listened to Simone and chuckled at Edwards's responce and that Angus was putting the Maragolds back in the ground " yeah" she said and smiled when Simone stood up Ruby looked at Caprice who looked ready for her nap " okay nap time, Im taking Caprice in for her nap" she said " you want me to make some lunch?" she asked as she took the leaf from Caprice and picked her up resting her on her hip a she looked at Angus and Marcus.

She watched as Simone went inside and chuckled as she headed inside to take Caprice to her blanket that she lay on the floor for her to nap on while she could see her and make lunch for them all. She set about making Quattro formaggi grilled cheese sandwichs for every one tith a simple side salad to add if any one wanted some Minty yogurt dressing to go on their salads.

"That would be great," Marcus said. "I'm getting hungry. Oh, and I think there are some cans of strawberry lemonade in the fridge."

"There is," Angus said. "They were a freebie from our supplier. He'd like us to try them and let him know what we think. There are a dozen cans on the bottom shelf, over on the right side of the shelf. They're the pink soda cans. It isn't carbonated, but it still might be refreshing if its any good." Angus kept working but he was starting to feel abnormally sleepy and tired. He had a sneaky feeling that the Creole woman was trying to cast a spell on him to make him sleep. He got up. "I'm going to go get some coffee," Angus said. He went in the house and got some espresso from the pantry and got out a stovetop espresso maker and put it on to make a pot of espresso.

"She's screwing with me, Ru. She's casting a spell to make me sleepy, and it's not going to work. She picked the wrong damn boy for her bullshit because I won't play her games," he told her, quietly angry. He turned the burner on the stove to brew the Italian roast espresso.

Ruby heard Angus and nodded as he took Caprice inside and once she was sleeping she walked to the pantry taking out a jug she pored it in with some ice and placed it on the counter . Seeing Angus walk in and hear him talk she nodded and helped prep everything for the espresso. " best make a pot of that to keep you awake, she's not having you, not today." she said softly her hand resting on his cheek gently.

Now with the sandwiches and salad done she moved them to the table " come lunch is ready" she said handing Angus a plate with a sandwich and salad on it then one to Marcus before she took one for herself and sat down.

"Not just today. She's not having me any day," Angus said. "I'm making an extra large pot. It holds about ten espresso sized cups of espresso. That ought to help." Angus saw that there were enough salads and sandwiches to invite Edward and Simone in too, so he called them in.

"Looks great, Ruby," Edward said. "We went to run some early errands, so we actually didn't get breakfast. I was getting hungry. Sometimes a simple sandwich and a salad is a terrific lunch. How are the bruises today, Lad?"

"They don't hurt like they did yesterday," Angus said. "Today, they're just ugly."

"Well, Robert might have taken some of the sting out of those when he treated those new burns of yours," Marcus told him.

"Burns?" Edward frowned.

"She went after him again last night. Burned some Creole claim of ownership right onto his chest," Marcus said.

"Where? Show me," Edward said angrily.

"Can I eat first?" Angus asked, pouring a cup of espresso.

"No. Show me now," Edward asked. Angus opened his shirt just enough to show the marks to Edward. "That hussy tried to burn those marks in right over your heart."

"Yeah, well, where she's concerned, that's as close to my heart as she's going to ever get," Angus replied, tucking into his salad.

"Tiggy is coming this afternoon and she's bringing someone with her," Marcus said.

"As long as we're making some sort of progress, its fine," Edward said.

"I think we ought to be buggaring off to New Orleans to find this hussy," Angus said.

"Let's wait until Lee and Robert finish making the arrangements," Marcus said.

"I don't need a cover. I'm the bait, remember?" Angus said.

"Yes, but Im betting she sends you with some bodyguards besides just me," Marcus replied.

"Then he'd better hurry up," Angus replied.

"Ruby, we ought to pack a couple go bags in case the bait here gets any more restless," Marcus teased.

Ruby smiled as Edward and Simone entered and took a sandwich themselves " help yourselves I made enough, theres salad and dressing too" she said "Oh and strawberry lemonade in the jug" she told them seeing the burn and hearing Edwrad she scoffed " that part of him we have." she said and smiled to Angus " if she wants it she'll have to fight me for it." she looked to Marcus as he spoke of go bags and she chuckled " oh don't worry I have a bag already packed, I always have one, its kinda athing when I worked at the ministry to go at a moments notice." she bit into her sandwich " the only thing is if we have to go.." she looked to Simone " would you take Caprice while we deal with this creaol witch" she said knowing they would.

Ruby picked up her plate and took it to the kitchen poring a fresh cup for Angus and walked back out replacing hs empty cup with the full one " thought you could use a refil to keep her away, I'll keep them cumming until you say stop dear" she said with a smile.

"You haven't seen her. She's not my type," Angus said.

"Is she ugly?" Marcus laughed.

"Well, I suppose not, but she's all sorts of weird. I suppose, if I gave it any thought, she might be pretty enough, maybe, but the rest of her has all sorts of dark, evil and ugly, and that just seems to cancel anything and everything out about her."

"Doesn't sound like you have any competition to worry about," Marcus told Ruby.

"Definitely not," Edward said. "Can you sketch her so we know what we're looking for?"

"Probably," he shrugged. He accio'd his sketchpad and a pencil, and he sketched an exotic voodoo woman but instead of her face, he sketched in the head of an ugly toad with warts. "There. There she is." He handed the sketch to Ruby first. "That's what I think of her." Marcus glanced over her shoulder, looked at the sketch and then laughed out loud.

"That is not going to make a good APB sketch, you know," Marcus laughed.

"APB?" Simone asked.

"All points bulletin. It's what the Yanks call a sketch made by a police sketch artist to find someone," Marcus said.