"Ah, well, now that's a whole different story," Khaat sighed. "He knew how strongly protective I"ve gotten about the girls. He knew that I would be very likely to just go to Paris and start murdering any and every witch, wizard or muggle that got between me and my girls. And, .." she sighed, "He was right. I would have. I presume he didn't want me spending my life in the Paris wizarding prison. So, he deliberately set Brian and me up not to know. He told us we had to stay in Tuscany because Tasha was after me and that I could not risk Abbey or Dakota that way. He said he had the girls and that they were fine and he was taking care of them. I had no bloody clue. None whatsoever. I used to have repeated nightmares about Abbey, and he would drop in, all hours of the day or night, say something generally pretty cryptic to keep us where we were, blow off my dreams, and apparate out again without actually telling us anything. He and Brian almost came to blows over it repeatedly.
"Then he appeared out of the blue and said it was over and Tasha was dead and it was safe to go home. So, we went home. It was that simple. Brian and I found the stuffed puppy with the bracelet, and I sent to see my father to see how in the world Abbey had gotten that, and that was when he told me she had been kidnapped, auctioned, sold, and had been with you all that time. Honest, Rob, I didn't know. He and I...we had a fight. Probably the worst I've ever had with anyone. I actually fired on him. I tried to off my own father."
"Yeah, well, you got the worst of that," Brian said, a bit soothingly, knowing she would never have harmed Robert had she not been so angry when it had happened. "He's fine. He fired back, remember? And got off a damned good shot in the process."
"Meh," Khaat shrugged slightly. "That's just Daddy being Daddy." Khaat signallled a server and ordered a pitcher of hot spiced cider and mugs for the children. They were delivered in short order and Khaat managed, despite some sharp twinges in her bad shoulder from just movement, to pour each child a part of a mug of cider. If they liked it, they could certainly have more.
"I understand you spent 100..on them," she said, being deliberately a bit cryptic now herself about the card. "There's 150 there. I know you can use it."