A Birth day

Aria listened to Marcus and nodded " I'll leave her to you then" she said and chuckled as she headed back inside.

Ruby saw Edward return and sighed hearing him talk " I know but..and it all makes sense " she sat down but doesn't help hes mad at me and I feel like I betrayed him" she said looking at Edward as he said it was all over and done now. " I'm going to apologise o Angus when I can for this , this is not how I wanted our first day married to be" she said standing and looking at him " as soon as it comes I'll get on that" she said heading back to their side of the duplex where she paused seeing Aria sat with the girls.

Aria saw Ruby walk back and sit down not far from her. " well?" she asked but Ruby sighed .

"I'm going to apologise to Angus about all this" she said Aria just looked at her and said nothing and continued to read her paper.

"First of all, I'm not your enemy, but I do want you to hear what I'm going to say. You definitely need to apologize," Marcus told her quietly, purposely staying very quiet and calm because he wanted her to hear him clearly and without feeling like she needed to gear up to defend herself. "Did you happen to think, yet, that this was one of his biggest fears and yet he went through with it? Did you wonder why he didn't put up more of a fuss than he did and why he didn't call you and Edward out on it outright yesterday morning? I bet not--not yet. I'm going to tell you anyway. 

"He went along with it with as little fuss as he knew how to do because he was protecting you. He did it entirely, 100 percent, for you. He's always known that when he got to adulthood that he was going to be wealthy enough that he would have to drag his feet with marriage for a long list of reasons, not the least of which was his general fear of it. He knows how much it would have hurt you to think, even for a moment, that he was backing out because he was rejecting you. He could not bring himself to leave you at the altar, even if it was you and Edward that dragged him there. So he went along with it to keep you from being hurt, knowing full well the sort of hurt he had to be willing to take onto himself to do it. And since then, you've been acting exactly like the sort of Ice Queen that your mother is and my ex is. 

"I tell you that, not to hurt you, but to bring you up to speed on what's going through his head. And, so you know what's going through mine, I hope you fix it, starting with the way you've been acting around him. However, if you don't, my job and my friendship with him will not let me do anything less than to do my level best to protect him, even if that means you find yourself living here with the kids but without him. Make sense?"

Ruby listened to Marcus and knew his words were true " your right" she said softly to him " i should be thanking him for doing what he did , and understanding how he feels not wallowing in my own self pity and guilt from making him do something he wasn't ready for." she said " and I don't want to live here without him , but I defiantly do not want to act like my mother, I left to get away from her not bring her with me , in me" she said as she moved to the back door. She looked at Marcus " I don't know whether I should do it now or wait a bit longer?" she asked looking back at him wondering if she should do it tonight or wait.

Thinking about it she made up her mind and stepped out heading over to where Angus sat quiet. " HI," she said sitting close but not too close to him " I need to say this , I'm sorry for yesterday and I'm sorry how I have been acting since then, and I really am sorry for making you go threw something you were not ready for." she said her had was hung down as she spoke to him. " Marcus told me you think I'm acting like my mom, looking at it , yeah i was and I don't want to do that, I'm sorry" she said unable to stop crying as she continued telling him how she didn't want to have him live away from the kids. She stopped and looked at Minos " I need a kick" she said to him.

Aria put down the paper and stood up to stand with Marcus " she doing okay?" she asked

"She seems to be," Marcus said. "I just told her the truth. We're not her enemies, but we're not going to let her mistreat anybody either. I think she intends to try to repair things."

Angus had heard someone approaching but he hadn't realized it was her until she sat down with him and started to speak.

"Apology accepted," he said quietly. "I wasn't sure what was happening to you because in the last month or so, you've been really driven about needing to be married. I'm not sure where that's been coming from but its been in some of your remarks and your attitude that our relationship wasn't going to ever be right unless we got married. Don't think I didn't catch it because I did. And I really was trying to work through it in my own head.

"I have a lot of reasons why marriage hasn't ever been appealing to me. And none of them have anything to do with you. First, my parents were truly shitty role models for a healthy marriage--people who made me feel that, even as tiny as I was, I was responsible for their dysfunction. And, as healthy as Edward and Caprice were, I saw how horribly he suffered while she was sick and when she died. I was just little then, but I wasn't sure I ever wanted that sort of pain. And, when you're raised, knowing you're going to be worth millions of galleons before you're legal age, you learn that you have to go to all sorts of extremes to not be taken advantage of because you won't be the only one hurt. You'll be hurting the entire family. It's a pretty heavy weight for a kid to have to deal with. And, then there's been the really crappy girlfriends before you who all thought they were going to be 'the one' for me. And there are a few other reasons but those are the top few."

"As I said, my reasons had nothing to do with you. But I did know I didn't want to hurt you while I tried to come to grips that someday it was going to be okay to be close to someone enough to take that chance. I also know how headstrong and influential Edward can be, so I know full well he had a huge role in all this. I am glad, though, that you don't want to act like your mother because I really don't like her. But you know that."

Ruby heard Angus talk and stayed quiet letting him talk and tell her everything that was on his mind when he accepted her apology she relaxed a little but stayed quiet to let him continue when he said he really didn't like her mother she nodded " yeah, I do." she said softly " and I hate myself for acting that way." she said softly to him. " and yes he did have a large input" she said meaning Edward . She sat quietly next to him and looked at the sky " the galaxy is out tonight" she said then looked at him again.

Aria looked at Marcus and chuckled slightly " well seems he accepted her apology, hope she sticks to it she said hearing the babies waking up and become cranky . " okay back to work" she said and walke dove to them and gave each a Sippy cup with juice in it making them settle down to play again.

"Well, I told her I'd take him out of this house if she kept up her crap," Marcus told Aria. "I suppose if someone lives around Reginald and Suzanne that long some little quirk of theirs is bound to rub off. At any rate, they're talking, so it's a start."

The boys dragged home from work, a good deal later than usual, and they were whipped. 

"You're late," Marcus told them.

"Yeah, well, we have cows, it seems," Victor said, taking off his boots at the door. Sam was doing the same thing. "Did you know we have cows?"

"Out in the far northeastern section? Yes. I knew that. How do you think we get all that milk and cheese and ice cream you two like to inhale like there are no cows in all of England?"

"Well, cows have babies. Did you know that?"

"Well, I didn't figure they come by immaculate conception," Marcus said. 

"Well, did you know they could get stuck?"

"Probably so," Marcus said.

"One of the cows got loose," Sam said, "and it just happened to be a very pregnant one. So, we found her in the cabbage patch, mashing down some of the cabbages, and then she decides to have the baby in the cabbages and gets it stuck. And where was Jack? No ruddy clue. He probably got to go home hours and hours ago while Victor and I had this stuck cow."

"You could have summoned your dad, Nitwits," Marcus said.

"What does he know from cows?" Sam frowned.

"He's been running this estate since before you were born. I daresay he knows which end of the cow is the southbound end," Marcus said. "So where is the cow now?"

"We got her almost into the corral but she wouldn't go in, so i tied her there good and proper," Victor said."

"And we tied the cowling there too," Sam said.

"Cowling?" Marcus laughed. "What's a cowling?

"Cowling. You know. Baby cow."

"It's a calf, you city boys. There is no such thing as a cowling. Alright. You boys go shower. You're a mess of all kinds of bodily fluids and manure. You're both disgusting. Aria, can you order some pizzas for delivery and then see if you can raise Evan to see where the heck the girls are? They should have been home hours ago. I'd better go tell Angus we need to go rescue the cowling. For crying out loud. Cowling? Really?"

Marcus went outside and walked across the yard.

"I hate to break this up, Tex, but your boys are home, and we have to go rescue their 'cowling,'" Marcus told Angus.

"What the hell is a cowling?" Angus frowned.


"In this case, its a calf that the boys had to try to deliver by themselves in the cabbage patch and that they could figure out how to get from outside the corral to inside the corral."

"Oh for Pete's sake," Angus sighed. He looked at Ruby. "Clearly, Jack wasn't told about this before quitting time. It won't take me five minutes. Sorry. Cowling? Ruby, did you not teach them a baby cow is not a cowling?"

Aria saw the boys and chuckled as they explained why they were late " cowling?" she said softly still chuckling " great explanation" she added listening to the boys talk again then head to shower and change " all right , go rescue the "cowling"" she said and chuckled .

Ruby saw Marcus walk over and heard him talk to Angus and chuckled as he spoke to her " thought I did,I guess not" she said and chuckled " i'll go and rescue Ara from the girls" she said as she looked and smiled to Angus. She stood up and headed inside " I'll make fresh coffee for every one too" she added as he walked inside and started filling the coffee pot with clean water and making a pot of coffee and one of tea.

Jack had come from the main house to the barn seeing a cow tied to the barn doors he sighed and shook his head as he walked closer he saw the calf " okay, " he said and grabbed some feed untying the cow he gave her some food and glanced over seeing Angus and Marcus walking over.

"The boys just told us we have a new 'cowling,'" Angus told Jack. 

"You might want to have the vet come check the mother tonight yet if you can," Marcus suggested. "Evidently, the boys found the heifer out in the cabbage patch today, trouncing down our cabbage crop good and proper, and then she went into labor in the cabbage patch, and the delivery seems to have taken hours and hours because they said the 'cowling' got stuck."


"At least they stayed with the heifer," Angus said. "I give them credit for that. And they got them as far as the but the heifer wasn't having any part of going in, so the boys tied the heifer and the 'cowling' to the fence. We came to rescue the cow and the cowling and to check on them. I probably should go see what sort of a disaster our cabbage crop is too, unless you'd rather do that yourself?"

Jack heard Marcus and Angus and walked behind the cow to see the calf " well they got her unstuck all right" he said then lead the mother into the barn to an empty stall he sent a note to the vet who arrived quickly and checked out the cow finding she was fine as the calf suckled from her. " can you check the cabbages please , while I stay with the calf and mother," jack said as he gave the vet a bucket of warm water so he could check she had nothing left inside her.

Ruby began boxing the bread and putting it in the pantry while she also made the pots of coffee and tea before she started making some dinner for every one while they waited for Marcus and Angus to return.

"Sure," Angus said. He and Marcus walked back to the cabbage field to check on the damage in the spring cabbage crop. "Spring cabbages should be ready to come off any time now," Angus told Marcus. "We actually get several types and harvests of cabbages throughout the year, but we use them too. I really don't want to see we've lot very much."

"And I'm hoping that Aria and Ruby are ordering the pizzas and finding out where Anise and Ginger are. They should have been home hours and hours ago," Marcus said.

"I'll find them when we're done here if Aria and Ruby haven't found them already," Angus said.

It took them awhile to walk the distance but when they got there, Angus sighed heavily.

"Oh, not good," Angus said. "At least a third of the crop has been trampled to nothing. And another substantial amount has been damaged by, well, by the calf being born here. Nobody's gonna eat those. They'll just go to waste. We can salvage about a third of this crop but that's about all. I'll have to supplement from cabbage from our suppliers. Can't help it. I'll have Jack get the crew on it at first light. I want him to supervise that himself so that we have absolutely no contaminated cabbages in the harvest. We'll salvage what we can and get rid of the rest. Then, we'll have to plow it over, re-seed it and start from scratch."

"Clearly not what you wanted to find."

"Definitely not. That's just ridiculously expensive, but not worth risking someone getting sick from bad food. Let's go back." They apparated back to the barn.

"I was hoping the damage was minimal," he told Jack, "but we're only going to salvage maybe a third of the spring cabbages at most. There's a third that's been trampled down to nothing, And there's far more than I expected that was damaged where the calf was born. We cannot possibly risk having any contaminated cabbages getting into the harvest. Get a crew on that at first light if you can and get the good cabbages off first. Make sure you supervise that yourself, or if you can't, you come and get me, and I'll go with them. Once the good ones are off, we'll need to clear that field completely. Then, in another day or two we'll have to plow it, re-seed for a fresh summer cabbage crop and start from scratch. I'll fill in the gap by buying from the supplier. It's an expensive loss but it can't be helped."