A Birth day

Ruby finished her stew and took her bowl with Arias to the kitchen and washed it she saw Angus head up to take a shower an smiled as he passed by. Aria listened to Tara and chuckled " he's not that invasive beside whose going to attack him while he bathes, that's just rude" she added as she thanked Ruby for taking her bowl.

Once done Ruby moved back to the sitting room and picked up the book again and admired the plants and flowers in and around the room. She had decided not to bother Angus and to let him soak in his bath. She moved to a plant and began dead heading it to refocus her mind. Aria looked at Marcus as Ruby left the room.

"So shall we check the grounds or do you want to wait a bit and let dinner settle?" she asked siting back in her chair. " I know one thing we can rule out the Grave yard I went over that with a fine tooth comb and nothing."

"I think we should just go," Marcus said. "I'd rather go and get back, actually. This house is bigger, and it does take more time to do a good, efficient check than it does at home, obviously, because the house is so much bigger. Come if you're coming, Evan."

"I'm coming," Evan said. He looked at the girls. "You four--back home, and back to your books. I expect all that homework to be done by the time I get there."

"I'll take them back myself," Tara said, "so I can be sure they're back at it. They a composition due on Boggarts, and they also have a quiz on charms incantations tomorrow, and I'd like to be sure they know them. So we'll do a review while you're outside."

"Sounds fine," Evan said, getting up and accio'ing his jacket. "It'll be chilly outside tonight now that its dark. You're going to want jackets."

"We've got them," Marcus said. He accio'd his jacket and Aria's and handed Aria's to her. "Shall we? I'm not expecting to find anything, but I'd rather do it and find nothing than to not doing it and miss something important."

Aria nodded to Marcus as he said he wanted to get going immediately as it was a bigger area. " okay , lets go" she said and took her jacket from Even " thank you" she said smiling a she slipped it on ready to head out with Marcus.

Walking out side she looked around seeing a dock not far from them and a wooded area along with a field with vines off in the distance " okay which way first?" she asked

Tara took the four girls back home so they could finish their homework.

"I'll go check the dock and the west side of the house since that's down at the very front of the property," Marcus said. "How about you and Evan go check the woods because that's in the back and over to the east of the house. That's an even split of the area. Teach Evan what to look for, and if you get into trouble or you see something, hit your medallions so I'll be able to apparate right to you."

"You really don't think you'll find anything, do you?"

"I don't. No. I think he legitimately saw his grandmother. He's seen Ruby's father on multiple occasions. I know he isn't a seer, but plenty of us saw Nearly Headless Nick and Peeves while we were in Hogwarts, and it certainly did not require us to be seers to see them. I think if a ghost wants to be seen for some reason, they can make that happen. I don't even presume to know what she wants him to see her for but it was important to her. And if her message didn't get through, for all I know, she may appear to him again. We're just checking to make sure whatever enchantments Edward has are still holding. If we can get it done in a few minutes, we can go back inside. By the way, we may want to hurry it up a little. Look up. There are no stars out tonight and it is particularly dark. That means there are some dark clouds overhead. I'd prefer we not get wet if it starts to rain. I'll go this way, and you two go that way. Yes?"

Aria listened to Marcus and nodded " that's true , I didn't like Peeves much, always getting in trouble." she said and looked to Even " okay follow me " she said slipping out her wand as she walked casting a silent revelio she saw the glow of where the charms were as they walked " see how dull that one is , cast the charm and watch" she said to Even as she paused at one of the spots a charm had been placed on a tree. " it will recharge" she added softly to him so he would not be scared to cast his charm.

As Even cast his charm Aria glanced up at the sky and sighed as the clouds grew darker above them. " we'd best make this quick" she said and moved to the next . After checking about half she felt the first spots of rain and sighed " looks like were goanna get wet, I never leave a job have done" she said and moved to the last few as it started raining harder around them, so far she had not found anything out of the ordinary, a few anima prints and nuts a squirrel had dropped but nothing else.

Marcus moved to check his area by himself, but he found nothing. He saw that the protections charms were in their proper places, and most the ones near the sea were fully charged. He didn't need to add anything to them tonight. He kept moving, knowing that he was probably going to be wet before they finished.

Evan didn't hesitate to check the charms in the area, and as he did, he turned towards the fountain in the flower garden, and he saw something moving. He didn't cast a lumos, feeling that the dim lights on the fountain were plenty light enough. He couldn't believe his eyes. He saw a misty figure of a woman, and she looked just as Angus had described her. Jeans, white button down. Blonde hair. He recognized her from some of the pictures of her when she was younger.

"Look! Look!" he told Aria softly. "Over there by the fountain." He pointed her out to Aria. "It's her. It's Grandma Donohue and she looks just like Angus said she did. He wasn't kidding. There she is. She's been gone now for at least 26 or 27 years, and she's come back for some reason. God, I wish Edward was here."

Angus finished his bath when the water got cold. He had finished his Irish coffee with the extra whiskey that he'd poured into it. He dressed in a pair of lounging trousers and a long sleeved tee that he shoved the sleeves up on. He ordered another Irish coffee from Carlo and went to his room to see if Marcus had packed him a book or two.

Aria walked with Even until he called to her to look at something she saw a mist and looked to Even " I see just a mist nothing else " she said " okay lets check it out" she said and slowly began to walk towards where Even said he saw Caprice. She flipped up her hood as she walked making sure the water from the rain didn't get in her eyes. " strange she shows again now, Angus isn't around to se this" she added.

Ruby closed her book and headed up to the room they would be staying in and smiled seeing Angus " enjoy your bath?" she asked " the water must have gone cold the time you were in it." she said and moved to the bed to sit down on it " so what was she like?" she asked " caprice , what do you remember of her, and why do you think she's here now?" she asked wanting to know more of her grandmother in law

"Well, maybe she figured she'd appear to another grandson so that Angus doesn't go around thinking that he's mental," Evan shrugged. "I hope she can get her message across, whatever it is."

"I did," Angus said. "And, yes, the water was cold when I got out, but I found one of Edward's bath salts, so I thought I'd try them and simply enjoy just a few minutes alone. I'm not so sure this was a good idea. I mean, it's great seeing Evan and everything but everyone's hovering like I'm one step away from a mental unit. It's heavy and oppressive and damned uncomfortable." He listened to Ruby ask what Caprice was like.

"She was happy, always happy. She loved gardening, baking, cooking, making her own jams and jellies when the fruit was at its best. She used to knit and crochet and do needlepoint. Edward was gone a lot, and I do mean a lot. He made a lot of his money in those days, and he was always in demand, so that meant she had to be strong enough to run the estate largely by herself and to hold off my crappy relatives, including my greedy, smart mouthed father. God, I hated him. To most people she looked like a very poised and gracious housewife, but she was a damned fierce fighter. Edward never ever, ever worried about her in a skirmish because she was absolutely fearless. I think you'd have liked her, and I know she'd have liked you."

Aria looked at the mist as it seem to just stand at one point " hum she's not moved , maybe we should summon Marcus and have him tell us what he sees" she said and turned her medallion, she knew it wasn't an emergency per say but she did want him to see this with his own eyes to confirm what Evan was seeing.

Ruby listened and smiled as Angus talked about Caprice " I think I would have, what do you think she would have said about what happened?" she asked then chuckled " you think she would have sad something to the effect of pull your self together or do you think it would have been something else, I do agree thought she sounds a formidable woman." Ruby changed into some comfortable clothes and sat back on the bed as she listened to Angus.

"Which part?" Angus asked her. "When we were in New Orleans? Or when we were in Paris? Well, if she'd have been here, I can promise you, 100%, Paris wouldn't have happened at all. Wouldn't have needed to because she wouldn't have stopped until both Suzanne and Priscilla and Dominick were very, very dead. She'd have guaranteed they had no way to come back into my life again.

"Edward used to tell me that before they took me in, she was 100% about family, and after she and Edward took me in, Edward said she was 200% about creating one thing--a family for me that consisted of Edward, her, and me, just the three of us. After seeing how my parents had treated me, she completely closed off the main house from my parents and the rest of them as much as she knew how. That was fine with me anyway, and that was pretty damned effective until she started getting sick." He paused for a moment, and then he added. "I always saw that as a damned courageous thing to do since Benjamin was their firstborn. She and Edward said it wasn't about courage--it was about love. I suppose, as a small boy, I saw them as one and the same. It's what it looked like to me then."