LONDON CALLING

Jessie and Kaden returned both looking freshened as they heard Robert explaining to Ruby what was happening. Jessie watched her pay attenshion to his words. " I see, well we can't have that happen." she said then heard the rest " oh my, thats not good, we have to get them back." she said shoked at what he had just told her.

Jack walked in and over to Jessie he thumbed back to Ruby " sister?" he asked and Jessie nodded. " she always this hyper?" Jessie chuckled and nodded " is she..." Jessie shook his head " ah human" Jessie nodded as Kaden moved to the kitchen " is there anything you need me to do Kate?" he asked her hoping to smooth things along.Jess took out the coookies and placed them on a cooling wire for later.

Jessie in the meantime had readied for his patrol with Jack, even though they had just come back from a hike he could not let his duties go. Jack and Jessie headed to the back door. "We're patroling the west border today." he told Robert and looked at Ruby " and you don't do anything foolish" he told her.

"who me?" she said then smiled innocently at him.

"yeah you, remeber I know you all too well." he said then left. as soon as he did Kaden looked at Ruby " now tell me all about him as a youngster?" he asked as Ruby walked over and sat down on a stool in front of him.

Robert decided to let Kaden shift the conversation away from Khaat and Marcus and James. Michael volunteered to help Kate prepare fruits and vegetables for dinner. She took him a large antique wooden butter bowl that she had heaped high with fruit and vegetables for dinner.

"You could help Michael prep fruits and vegetables if you like," Kate told Kaden, pointing to the huge wooden bowl that was heaped high with all sorts of fruits and vegetables. "Supper tonight is going to have a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, so it's going to need a lot of peeling and dicing and chopping. And we don't know how long Michael is going to be able to sit in that kitchen chair before his back gives him too much pain. So anyone who knows how to do meal prep is welcome to help."

No one appeared to have had any suggestions for dinner, so Kate had taken it upon herself to make a decision and get the supper cooking. She had chosen a recipe for Hawaiian chicken that she had learned in one of her trips to Hawaii with Robert. This recipe called for an Asian marinade, along with toasted macadamia nuts and grilled rings of fresh pineapple and some toasted coconut. She made a pilaf of fried rice with fresh pineapple and mango and more nuts and coconut and she made a vegetable stir fry and stirred it in with her rice to mix the rice and the vegetables together. She made some Asian shrimp skewers to serve alongside, and some roasted purple sweet potatoes.  For dessert, Michael suggested a pineapple cheesecake made with a shortbread crust and drizzled with a coconut coulis, served alongside a cup of macadamia coffee.

Meanwhile Khaat was coming conscious. She wasn't sure where she was because there was such little light. It was cold. She shivered, and she had an excruciating headache. And then she noticed she felt horrendously tired, as if she had been awake for endless days. As her eyes focused to the darkness, she saw a figure just inches from her. It took her a moment, but she finally realized it was Marcus. And then she realized they were shackled with chains--chains made of huge, heavy links of iron. Marcus was leaning up against an old stone wall.

"Marcus?" she called softly. He opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Ah, good. You're awake," he replied.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Some cellar, I reckon," he replied.

"Did James take us?"

"Dunno. Haven't seen a soul."

"Then we should be able to get out," she said, trying to move but she found the chains too heavy to do much.

"Save your strength," he said. "The chains are bewitched, I think, to block us from using any of our magical abilities. I've tried, and every time I try,  I lose some of my strength." Khaat tried to use her seers' abilities to try to either find out where they were or to send a distress signal, but the headache pain was crippling. It made her stop at once. "It's no use," he told her. "If we're going to get out, it will have to be the old school muggle way." She shivered again, hard, against the cold. He motioned to her to curl up tight to him for some bodily warmth, and the he picked up his suit jacket from the floor beside him. If he turned the suitcoat sideways, the length of it covered her sufficiently to use as a blanket.

"How did you get your coat off?" she asked him.

"I didn't," he said. "They must have taken it off me so they could search it to see if I had anything in my pockets that they didn't want me to have. It was lying beside me when I woke. It's a cinch I'm not going to be able to put it back on while I'm shackled hand and foot, so you might as well use it."

"Do we have any hope of getting out of this alive?"

"Of course," he frowned. "There is always hope. I wish we had a bit more light, though, so I could get a look around."

"What are you looking for?"

"Anything. Anything at all that might be useful. Do you have anything on you at all? Even something small like a paperclip in your pocket?" She began to search her pockets.

"Nothing helpful. Just a hairpin I found in the ladies' room. It was pretty, so I thought someone might want it back and I put it in my pocket." She showed hi a hairpin that was a metallic gold color and studded with rhinestones on the blade side and a little butterfly on the eye end. Marcus smiled broadly.

"Capital!" he said, holding out his hand for it. "Wonder how they missed it."

"It had fallen into the selvage of my pocket," she said. "It was tucked in there pretty tightly somehow."

"Well, thank heavens for small favors. If this little hairpin gets us out..." he began.

"If that little hairpin gets us out, I'll have it the gold paint replaced with gold plate and the rhinestones replaced with diamonds," she told him. He laughed.

"Well, don't make your wager too soon or you might have to pay up," he said. "Michael Tremaine isn't the only one who can pick a lock."

Jessie and Jack returned from the patrol Jack some what frustrated of the lack of movement to finding Khaat and Angus. " when will we hear something and be able to make a move " Jack said some waht frustrated. Jessie shook his head slowly.

"hes been like this since we left for our run." he said watching Kden and Ruby. Ruby stood up and walked to the kitchen.

"Can I help?" she asked " I could cut some fruit or veg?" she added " mom taught us both how to cook, well me Jayjay was not the best at it, I think he just never got the hang of it, good thing hes got you Kaden." she chuckled looking over her shoulder at the pair of them.

"Certainly," Kate said. "The more the merrier. Knives are on the magnetic strip above the sink. Help yourself. If you need more mise en place bowls, there's a great stack of them in the upper cabinet on the immediate left of the sink. Bench scrapers in the drawer to the left of the sink." She got out a natural olive wood cutting board from a rack of them in a lower cabinet and laid it out for Ruby. Kate made up her marinade for the chicken but she wasn't quite satisfied with it and gave to Michael to taste.

"Got any toasted sesame oil?" Michael asked after tasting a wee bit of it.

"I don't know if Angus has any or not, but I can't imagine that he doesn't," she said. She went to the pantry and found it and brought it back. Michael deftly added the oil and, of all things, just a wee drop of golden syrup to add a hint of sweetness.

"Better?" he asked her. She tasted it.

"Perfect. Thank you. I couldn't quite get it tonight," she sighed.

"You're distracted. Understandable," he smiled. "The family always comes together for supper, but there's nothing wrong with the family coming together to help prepare it. A community kitchen can be a real blessing, Kate. It's a spice well worth savoring."

"Very wise, Michael," she kissed his forehead and took the marinade back and poured it over the chicken pieces for them to do a quick marinade.

"Jess, when you get the biscuits finished, can you take a look at Kate's pineapple cheesecake recipe and the coconut coulis recipe here on the table? With as skilled as you are as a baker, I bet you can knock them both out in no time at all," Michael said. Jess was a skilled baker, and Michael had no doubt she would have no trouble at all with it.

Meanwhile, Robert had pulled off to himself. He was up in his lab, trying to make a potion, but his mind wasn't in it. What he wanted to do was to port to Paris, go into Gelding's mansion, and exactly unforgiveable curses on him until he told Robert where Khaat and Marcus were. In the meantime, he continued to chain smoke.

An eagle owl landed on the living room windowsill and tapped impatiently on the glass. He had a rolled up piece of parchment in his talons, and he made impatient screeching sounds to get someone's attention.

The message was in a bit of a rigid scrawl, done with a number 2 pencil. It read simply. "Don't look for the idjit. Look to the darkness--your search lies there." It wasn't signed, but there was an alder leaf tucked into the scroll.

(you'll want kate to talk to the owl, btw)

Ruby gathered the things and began cutting humming happily as she did. Jess looked up and nodded " of course" she said as she cut out some parchment paper to line the base of a backing tin. She drain & chop the pineapples into small chunks the size of sugar cubes and drain with kitchen paper. She then Place all the digestives or Graham Crackers in a zippy bag, and using a rolling pin bash them until they become fine crumbs, nn a mixing bowl she melt the butter for 30 seconds in the microwavetill it was liquid then add the crumbled digestives to the butter and mix very well until it was all incorporated before ransfering the digestives mixture to the baking pan.

Ruby watched as she cut the veg watching at how quick she did it. Jess continued pressing the digestives mixture down as much as possible she use the back of her hand and go along the edges pushing the mix down and compressing. Then in a bowl she added the powdered sugar to the cream and whip up until just before stiff then add the cream cheese and mixed it she added the pineapple then slowed her movent to Mix it in gently with a spoon. Brushing the sides of the tin with some vegetable oil to prevent it from sticking then she add the filling, she use a spatula to carefully smooth the surface of the mixture then moved to place it in the fridge. " done" she said smiling at Ruby.

"wow that looks so good." Ruby said her tummy rummbling little " you got to teach me that recipy.Pleeeeease." Jess chuckled and nodded.

"I'll write it down so you can follow it." she told her " its a simple recipy."

"Well done, Jess," Michael said. Angus made his way back to the kitchen.

"My apologies, All. I was helping one of the horses that has a sore hoof. I had to send for the farrier to come and tend it."

"What's wrong with it?" Kate frowned, concerned.

"The hoof is cracked."

"Not good at all," Kate said.

"I can't find that jar of hoof cream you made up, Kate..."

"There are several jars in the supply cabinet in our barn over at the farm. Ask Jack to go get you a couple jars. He knows how to get into the supply room over there."

"Well, it's worth its weight in gold, and i hate it that I'm out."

"We'll get more over here. Jess, if you have a chance, can you ask Jack to pop over and get us some more of the hoof repair cream?"

"Oh, and Kate, it's a miracle cream for strengthening weak and brittle fingernails, or so say the ranch hands and ranch guards. They were using it on their hands because the herbs and florals in it smelled so good, and it repaired their nails. Maybe that's where the jar went. Heals fingernails in a couple days."

"Never thought of using it for that," Kate laughed.  Angus heard an odd noise in the living room and went and found the owl on the windowsill. He opened the window and the owl dropped the scroll and fluttered into the kitchen and landed on Kate's shoulder.

"Well!" Kate exclaimed. "Who are you, and where did you come from?"  She took a moment and had a brief conversation with the owl before going to the fridge and getting out a piece of fish for the owl. She broke it into little pieces and fed the owl. Then she let him out the kitchen door.

"What was that all about?" Michael asked.

"He brought a message from the woods," Kate said. "Said he's come from Scotland. He's completely knackered. I said he could sleep in Brian's barn tonight."

"Fenrir," Michael said.

"Sounds like it. The owl said it came from a big male human with gray hair.  Where's the message?"

"Here," Angus said, handing it to her. She unrolled it.

"It says 'Don't look for the idjit. Look to the darkness. Your search lies there.' And there's a this leaf that was rolled up on the parchment. Does anybody know what the devil that means?" Kate asked them.

Jess nodded and moved to Jack who was going to leave to get the lotion when the owl arrived he paused to wait and hear what Kate had found out from the bird. " hum..could it mean its not James but Gelding who has them." Jack sugested" and the leaf could be from a tree close to where they are held?" Jess listened to Kate as Jack headed to the barn for the lotion.

Jack returned with the lotion bottle in his hand " found one in the barn" he said to Angus " here you go." he handed it over to him and moved to Jess. Ruby finished her load of veg and placed them in her bowl.

"there all done" she said cheerfully." Ruby washed her hands and moved to stand with Jessie and Kaden.

"That makes sense," Kate said to Jack. Michael called to Edward who came quickly.

"We've been sent an anonymous missive," Michael said, pointing to the scroll, "by owl."

"Interesting," Edward said. Kate handed him the scroll.

"Jack thinks it means Gelding has Khaat and not James," Kate told Edward.

"Well, you are entirely correct, Jack," Edward said.

"And this was with it," Kate said, handing him the leaf.

"It's a leaf from an Alder tree," Edward said. "The clearing in the Forbidden Forest had Alder trees in it. Remember Fenrir's comments about James? He called James an idjit. This message is from Fenrir. Look at the handwriting. It's scrawled, like from an older writer. It's definitely from Fenrir. He's proving himself worthy already. Good. I think we need to talk to Robert since we need to go after Gelding to get Khaat back."

"He'll be upstairs," Kate said. "I'll go get him if...can one of you get the chicken out of the fridge and put it on the grill? And I just put on the rice to fry. When the rice is done, the vegetables just need to be stirred in with it. They're already stir friend and done. Then we'll be ready to eat."

"We'll handle it, Kate," Michael said. She went upstairs, and Michael looked at the rest of them. "I can go set the table in the dining room unless one of you younger ones want to go do it."

"You mean one of us that doesn't have a broken back," Edward said.

Jack breathed out but Jesie looekd at Ruby who spoke up " I'm on it Mrs Lupin" she said taking out the chicken and setting it on the grill. Once done she moved to do the rice. Jessie chuckled and shook his head,

"she was always one for taking charge, mom saw to that." he said Kaden chuckled. " and I am glad you can cook." he said to Kaden as Jack spoke.

"so when do we move?" he asked standing and looking at Edward as he rubbed his hands in antisipation of the fight to come. Ruby still hummed happily as she stirred the rice.

" Um Mrs Lupin, are you adding little peas to the rice?" she asked " its just I find it makes them sweeter."

"Use your judgment, Ruby," Michael told her. "Kate appreciates creativity in the kitchen."

"Steady, Jack. We wait for direction from Robert now. Rushing in will only get them killed," Edward told Jack. Kate came back downstairs with Brian and Robert. "And, we can't go rushing in anywhere until we know where they're being held."

"You don't think they're at Gelding's mansion in Paris?" Michael asked.

"No. I don't. I'm not sure where they are, but since Robert's lasts meeting with Gelding happened because Robert just marched in, in broad daylight, keeping her at the mansion would be really stupid."

"Well, don't go giving Gelding too any IQ points," Robert said as he came into the kitchen. "He's not that bright."

"Still, he has a point, Robert," Michael said.

"i say we stake out the mansion and follow anyone who goes in or out. Sooner or later, they'll lead us to Khaat," Brian said.

"That could take time," Michael said.

"But, unless we can find out where he's having food delivered, or those sorts of things, it might be the best plan we have. Jack and Jessie, you both have an advantage over us at night because you see better than we do. Perhaps I ought to have you both joint a stakeout crew outside Gelding's place in Paris. One in the front and one in the back. I wouldn't send just the two of you. I'd have at least one more person with each of you. We'll have to be stealthy and careful, but hopefully they'll take food, water, or just a shift change at some other location. What do you all think?" Robert asked. "Can we be stealthy enough? And is it worth a try?"