A Birth day

Ruby saw Angus walk in the room and turn down the lights as he crossed to the bed , changed and slipped in next to her " good idea" she said " and she can anytime" Ruby said smiling to Angus " that it has my dear" she said as she lay down next to him her arm across his chest as she watched as he fell asleep next to her. Closing her eyes she too was soon asleep.

Aria watched as Marcus did his rounds and Angus head up to his room. " you think the cleaning spell will make Anise less worried about frogs in the bathroom?" she asked smirking knowing Anise will still clean it even after the spell.

"No. I just hope I talked her out of trying to make a super cleaning solution by boiling bleach. We do not need anyone asphyxiated by chlorine gas," Marcus said, yawning. "I did warn her it was highly toxic and told her not to even try it. "Since Minos has it under control, we need to head for bed ourselves. It's going to be a rather short night and probably a busy day for both of us tomorrow. You're going out in the morning with Jada, and I think Angus and I are going out in the afternoon. I know how his mind works. Shall we go?"

Angus slept like a dead man all night, barely even moving, but he rose early, refreshed, shaved and dressed. He headed downstairs, made coffee and tea, and let Finn out. He had intended to put Finn on his leash, but the damned leash seemed to be missing. Instead, he went out with Finn, grabbed the paper and kept a close watch on Finn. He figured if Finn got into trouble, he'd use magic and bring the little delinquent back.

He glanced towards the sheepfold and he saw the workmen taking down their tents and packing up their things. He walked over to them, and they told him that the pens were finished. They had made the sheepfold, and at Angus's request, they'd added another pen for the llamas and the alpacas. He thanked the workmen and paid them in full and with a generous bonus for his gratitude at their quick work. He was just finishing paying them when two trailers arrived. And they were loaded with sheep and goats and llamas and alpacas. Angus was excited. Finn took off like a shot towards the trailers full of sheep.

Angus motioned them to the new pens. He saw the food and water troughs weren't filled yet, but that wouldn't take long. He doubted Jack was up or at work yet, so Angus decided he'd better lend a hand to get the animals in the right pens and get them fed and watered.

Aria chuckled and nodded to Marcus " yep" she said as he spoke of boiling bleach and gassing them selves " yeah don't need that" she added as she stood up " okay cottage or spare room?" she asked watching as he double checked every thing. then headed to the cottage to sleep for the night.

Ruby turned over and found Angus side of the bed empty. slipping from the bed she dressed and headed down , seeing Finn missing she smiled as she glanced out from the door way to see Angus and Finn by the pens with the work men. Walking in she began to make breakfast so it would be one less thing Angus had to worry about.

Angus was thrilled when he saw all the animals. They looked like they were in top shape, and he had gotten an exceptional variety. As he watched, he heard some running behind him. He turned to see Kate and Robert both running outside towards the new pens, and when Kate saw the sheep and goats and other animals, her eyes grew wide.

"What's all this, then?" Robert asked.

"Its my family's Christmas gift to you and Kate, a wee bit early. This will supply Kate with all sorts of new yarns for not only her art pieces, but I am quite certain she will have plenty to be making you some exceptional new sweaters to keep you warm in cold temperatures."

"And, I can think of one gift it gets me that you haven't thought of," Robert laughed.

"What's that? Besides sheep poop?" Angus teased.

"No, no. Happy wife, and I'll have a much more peaceful life," Robert teased.

"He's telling the truth," Kate said. "And those exotic yarns are expensive. So now I can make my own, and it'll save him money. And he always likes that. Thank you, Angus." She kissed his cheek. "And thank your family for me, would you? It's the nicest gift I've had in a long time. Now, can I borrow your dog to herd my new babies?"

"God, please do. He hid frogs in my house, and one of the tree frogs hatched. Now I have hundreds of baby tree frogs in my basement."

"Frogs! Lovely! Catch the little blighters, and bring them to me. I can sell those little devils in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade as pets," Kate said. "I want every one of them."

"Dear God. I didn't marry a seer. I married a zookeeper," Robert sighed."

Ruby now seeing Kate and Robert walk over to Angus stepped out with two cups of coffee and walked over to Angus " here , brought you a cup" she said and admired the lamas and alpacas " those are beautiful creatures but watch for the spit" she said as she moved to one side as one spit at her.

Aria woke and headed down to the kitchen and chuckled " we have lamas and alpacas." she said as she pored a cup of coffee for herself and Marcus before making pancakes for both of them adding some chocolate chips to the batter for an added sweetness. Placing them on a large plate she placed them on the table " breakfasts ready" she called as she accioed a jug of orange juice.

"Bless you," Angus said. "I definitely needed a cup of fuel. I made it but I didn't get any yet. Thank you.'

"Have you started breakfast yet?" Robert asked.

"No, not yet," Angus said.

"Good. I brought one of our young women fro the Paris office who just turned 18 to start training with Nicky and Zoe. She wants to be a cook. She actually had fixed a lot of meals in the Paris office, and did really well with it, but she can't get into a culinary program until the new term starts in January."

"If she starts in January, she'll finish in September, if she does the comprehensive program," Angus said.

"That's exactly what they said," Robert nodded. "She's a good kid. i just think she deserves a chance. I think she wants to go back to Paris and take over the cooking there. We haven't had a real cook there since you left. We've just had willing hands who can make decent food."

"And that's all it really takes," Angus said.

"Well, if she wants to stay, I might honestly give serious thought to cleaning out the attic there and refurbishing it to add some temporary sleeping rooms for some of our young transitioning people who are going from teens to adults until they can afford their own places. That will let us help teach them about banking, budgeting, shopping and how to do the whole adulting thing."

"Good idea. Let me know if I can help," Angus said.

"I will. Thanks. Anyway, the reason I brought it up is because today's breakfast lesson gave us a double portion of the entire breakfast buffet. Can you use half of it?"

"Absolutely," Angus said.

"Send some of your crew over, and we'll fix you up with scrambled eggs, a ham and cheesy potato casserole, some fruit salad, some breakfast pastries, the whole bit."

"We can use it. I'll get the boys up, and we'll send them over," Angus said.

"Please do. We'll load them up," Robert said. "Oh, and thanks again for the new herd. Kate's been bugging me about sheep for the last few years."

"I was happy to do it, and besides, it will help keep Finn out of trouble."

"We'll get him herding, and he'll be fine. Jack can have another word with him."

"I'd appreciate that," Angus said. "I'll go wake up the boys." He turned and headed back to the house, as Kate and Robert went into the pens to take a closer look at the new animals."

Aria smiled as she handed Angus his cup and looked at the Lamas and Alpacas in the pen "Morning Robert, they look so sweet" she added as Ruby walked over dressed and holding a cu of coffee herself as she chuckled seeing the lamas.

"wow their coats are so curly" she added as she let a lama brush against her hand. Looking at Robert she chuckled as one bumped her shoulder " hey , no more" she said to it as it turned and walked away " pushy aren't they" she said as Jack walked out of the barn.

"yep and stubborn, remind you of some one" he said and chuckled to Angus as he placed down a bucket of food for the lamas and Alpaca's in their feeding trough

"Oh, Jack, if you get a moment, do please have another word with Finn? He has been hiding frogs in our basement, and one of them laid eggs which have now hatched, and I have hundreds of baby tree frogs in my house. I love the dog, but he's on my last nerve, frankly. If it were solely up to me, which is isn't, I'd be turning him over to be a barn dog because of this frog thing. my kids were up in the middle of the night frog wrangling. As it is, all the Fae are now in my house wrangling hundreds of microscopic baby frogs."

"Frogs that my wife is determined to have," Robert said. "Frogs that I do not need nor want, either one. The dog has to stop with the freaking frogs. Do get the damned dog a herding teacher, Jack, one who will work the dog until he's too tired to hunt frogs."

"I'll go get the boys," Angus said. Angus went to the house and found the boys were up and dragging themselves downstairs to find that no one had cooked this morning. "Sorry, Guys. Everything is off schedule this morning. The cooks at the main house have a breakfast surplus. Do you both mind going over and getting it and bringing it over, please?"

"No problem," Victor said. He and Sam put on their jackets and dashed out to go over to the main building. Angus went to find the Fae to see how they were doing with hunting frogs.

Jack heard Angus and chuckled as he spoke of Finn and frogs " I'm on it, got a man coming this afternoon to start his training" Jack said " and yes I'll have another word with Finn about the frogs." Jack said glancing over at where Finn now sat looking at him before lowering his head as if he knew he'd done something wrong.

Ruby chuckled at Finns reaction and rubbed the dogs head " he'll be back to being a good boy once hes trained right" she said and Finn looked up at her his tongue hanging out his mouth as if smiling to her. It was now she spotted the boys heading over to the main house once Angus had gone back inside. " looks like breakfast won't be long2 she said to Aria and Jack who chuckled and went back to the barn.

"oh Robert" Jack said " let Kate know the first sheering of the lamas and alpacas will be soon" he said and then disappeared into the barn but a sharp whistle came and Finn dove inside too.

"Knowing her? She'll still be in this damned sheep pen when that happens," Robert said. "I'm not going to be able to tear her away."

Angus went downstairs to find that the girls, Jada and the Fae were still wrangling frogs. Angus now felt horribly guilty for going to bed, even though Minos had told him that the Fae had this under control. He told Anise and Ginger he was making the decision to not send them to school today. They needed sleep more than they needed to go to school today. He went upstairs and notified Evan and then notified the school that he wasn't sending the girls today. He didn't give Beauxbatons a reason. He immediately then went to set up the breakfast sideboard so that people could eat when the boys got back.

As he was finishing setting up the sideboard, Marcus and Andrew arrived for work. Marcus immediately that Angus was looking exceptionally stressed.

"What's up, Mate?" Marcus asked, pouring himself a mug of coffee, as Andrew headed upstairs to tend to Elwood.

"I went to bed, and they're still hunting frogs. My kids were up all night while I slept. I should have been with them," Angus said quietly.

"If you'd known they were going to ignore Minos's request and stay on, you'd have stayed on too. Let it go."

"It's all loused up this morning," Angus sighed. "We're completely off schedule."

"It'll get better. Sit down and get a little coffee in your system. It always looks better with coffee," Marcus said.

"Yes. It does," Angus admitted, sitting down.

"Are Ruby and Aria still taking Jada to Clive today?" Marcus asked.

"I presume so. We haven't talked about it yet today, but I don't see why not," Angus replied.