LONDON CALLING

"I'm not concerned about the fact that Reginald knew about me and the organization. I'm sure that the boys probably did overhear some fragments of things. I'm sure he was going to groom all the boys, including Jessie to do what he himself did, and, very likely, he wanted, at some point, to find a way to get you to join your mother in the entertainment side of the business. It might actually lend some credence to what your mother was hinting at in her letter to Angus, that she really didn't always feel she had choices with your father." He heard Ruby say she would go upstairs to join Angus and Nigel upstairs. "Ruby, I don't think you need to be in the room during Angus' exam. They won't be long. Give them a few minutes, and then I'm sure Nigel will bring him back down."

Sam was upstairs in the master bedroom of the dollhouse, lying in bed, reading when Ruby asked him where the bodies were buried.

"Well, I don't know where they're all at. I know the dude that died at the Christmas party is, well, when you get to the bottom of the basement steps, he's buried at about a 5 o clock position from there. if that makes sense."

"Makes perfect sense," Robert said. "Any idea how many are there?"

"No. No idea. More than one, though."

"Okay."

"Hey, look, I know you want to hear me apologize for coming with Victor, but I'm not sorry. I'm sorry I got caught, but I'm not sorry I came," Sam told Robert boldly.

"That isn't what I want you to be sorry for," Robert told him. "I want you to be sorry for stealing what didn't belong to you with no more reason than you had, and I want you to be sorry for not just being honest about why you wanted to come in the first place. You won't ever know what you might have accomplished if you had chosen to tell the truth. You presume they wouldn't have let you come, but you don't actually know that for sure. We'll talk more tomorrow, but this is a start. Good job."

Ruby marked on the floor plan where Sam had said " oh I thought he was going to stay there but okay, my bad" she said and blushed at her mistake. " and nope don't need to be there for that" she said looking at Sam as Robert spoke to him she just stayed quiet Once he'd finished talking to Sam she nodded " your right he probably didn't like you from when you were a minister and as for bringing me into it, they had no hope in hells chance, I left to get away from that." she said and looked at Sam " but I am sorry I couldn't take you and your brother with me back then." she told him.

Rowan sat at the chess board and looked at the pieces " you play chess?" he asked Michael as he picked up a piece and placed it down one square forward his way of silently challanging him to a game. but his eyes fell on something much more interesting a small grand piano. Walking over he sat down and lifted the lid slowly a light coating of dust was on the keys but he brushed it off and lay his hands over the keys and began to play Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 "Moonlight Sonata."

"Well, look," Robert said, "I have a lot of friends, and I have an equal amount of enemies. If he was associated with Gelding, then of course he heard of me and I'm sure he didn't like me just because of how Gelding demands loyalty. If he was on the wrong side of the law, which we know he was, that would have been enough for him not to like me. But, all I'm saying is that we don't have any idea whether the bodies that are supposed to be in the basement are people that had any connections with Gelding or not. We know Gelding was not your father's only employer. So, we need to try to uncover whoever is down there, and I'm going to probably be the one doing the autopsies to try to determine who they were and how and when they died."

"Meh, Jessie didn't take us either," Sam shrugged, as if it was all water under the bridge now. "And he was probably better equipped than you were to try to protect us from Mom and Dad if we'd gone. And you know they would have come after us. I'm not sure what keeps Mom from coming after us now."

When Rowan asked if Michael played, Michael nodded.

"I do," Michael replied. "I'm game anytime you are." He saw Rowan sit down at the piano. "Kate is the piano player, though I'm afraid. I know a lot of different kinds of music but I didn't learn to play, much to my own disappointment."

Nigel finished with Angus, and he gave Angus a bit more of a bump on energies, feeling that the dark artifact might have caused a temporary dip in Angus's energies. He decided he would try to watch it over another day or so and see if it stayed stable or if it fell again. Nigel believed he understood why the dip might have happened, so he was optimistic that the energy dip would not have lingering effects. He was also believing that Robert's birth control spell had basically collapsed when Redfern had overdosed Angus. He believed when Angus's magical system had collapsed, it took Robert's spell along with it. He believed that the birth control spell could now be redone, but that seemed a bit pointless for the next eight months. They had time to consider that now.

Nigel relayed the information to Andrew, and then Andrew helped Angus get a shower. Angus changed to lounge trousers and a tee shirt, and Robert and Nigel took their leave and went back to the main house. Andrew showered quickly and got ready to station himself overnight in Victor's room so that if Victor needed anything during the night, Andrew was right there. Angus saw that Sam was getting sleepy and was finding it hard to stay awake, but he was quite anxious about going to sleep in a dollhouse.

Angus settled into the recliner with a blanket. He had no intention of going upstairs tonight, not while Sam was only six inches tall. There were too many things that could happen during the night to any creature that small, and Sam was definitely limited on how far he could make his voice carry. Archangel and Pip came to the top of Angus's list. At his current size Sam would make a handy snack for either of them.

"You're safe to sleep, Sam," Angus told him. "I'll be right here. Hopefully you can mend your fences with Robert tomorrow so he might consider undoing that potion for you. Then you won't need a bodyguard, but for tonight, I'll make sure you're safe." He looked at Ruby. "You need to go to bed like usual though because I know you'll have to work tomorrow.

Ruby listened to Robert and nodded " yeah your right, could be other cronies of dads he took out" she said then looked at Sam and nodded " well I'm here now anything you need within limits we'll provide, okay, " she said and smiled " now sleep please" she looked to Angus and smiled "I'll see you when you come up." she said and lent down to kiss him gently.

Rowan finished playing and chuckled " I haven't played since mom died, and Kate , wouldn't peg her for a pianist." he said walking over and looking at the board as he moved a second pawn. "your move" he said and chuckled sitting down " might as well do something to pass the night." he said refilling his cup of tea as he watched for Michaels next move.

"Ruby," Angus said, figuring that Ruby hadn't heard him, "I'm going to be down here tonight. I want Sam to be able to sleep without worrying that something bigger than he is could get him if he closes his eyes, so I'm going to stay down here and read. I told him I'd keep watch. You have to work, though, so you need to go to bed and get some sleep. So you sleep well, and I'll see you in the morning."

evidently wasn't thinking of how easy it would be for Archangel or Pip to eat Sam, but Angus was, and he wasn't going to let Sam be some sort of a bird snack. He was doing his job as protector of the house, protecting the kids.

Michael sat down at the board and took his time looking at what was in front of him and he moved his bishop.

"Well, Kate is exceptionally creative and artistic. She does all sorts of fine arts. You should check out her studio. And next time you get over to Angus's, take a look at some of the stained glass. That's all her work. The mug you're drinking out of. That's her pottery. She paints, draws, does stained glass, pottery, weaves, sculpts, sews, does jewelry, and plays music--and probably a hundred other mediums I haven't remembered. She doesn't play often, but she does play. Robert has suggested that she get involved with some of the local wizarding community theater companies and do some costume or set designs, but she hasn't really been interested. She's also had people tell her she should take some of her work to some of the wizard art galleries in London, but she hasn't been interested in doing that either. I gave my lady friend a painting of Kate's, and I haven't told Kate that one of the biggest wizarding art dealers in Paris wanted to buy it on the spot from my lady. She didn't sell, but now he's pestering her all about details about wanting to know where the artist is, how can he find her and all of that. I can't see Kate being interested in that either, but when I remember, I'll ask her."

Ruby face palmed when Angus reminded her he was going to stay down stairs that night to make Sam feel safeer "yeah , sorry, okay, I'll see you in the morning then" she said and walked over to him kissing him gently " I'll miss you tonight and thank you for wtching over him." she said with a smirk. Standing up she looked at Sam and smiled " sleep well brother and I'll see you both in the morning" she moved to the stairs nd up to their room whre she changed and slipped into bed , her had as soon as she touche the pillo , she fell straight to sleep.

Angus stayed awake. He stayed in the recliner and made more sketches for Edward and Simone's cake. For him, he considered it an immense honor to be asked to make his grandfather's wedding cake, and he wanted it perfect. He had asked Edward if he wanted him to cook the wedding meal, but Edward had been firm. He wanted Angus to be able to enjoy the wedding and not to have to feel that he had to work through it.

Now with the theme and the color scheme in mind, Angus now had what he felt like was the biggest honor in his life so far. He wanted it to be absolutely flawless. And he had done pages and pages and pages of sketches. He'd scrapped hundreds of ideas, and he was still sketching. He had read the wedding cake idea book, and taken some ideas, chucked them and started again. By the time Andrew came down at 4:30 to make the morning coffee, Angus had a fierce headache from sketching and stewing and sketching again. Feeling for him, Andrew talked him into laying the sketchbook aside and Andrew massaged Angus' shoulders, his neck and the muscles in his head to reduce the tension for him.

"Coffee's ready," Andrew said. "Can I get you anything else?"

"Yeah, a new sketchbook. I've filled this one," Angus sighed.

"I'll order you a couple," Andrew smiled. He brought Angus a mug of coffee and sent an order in to the quill shop in London for more sketching pencils and more sketch pads, asking for them to be sent asap.

Pip started banging on the window, wanting to come in and bring his breakfast, a field mouse, but when he found the window closed, he dropped the mouse and started screeching angrily. Sam woke with a frightened shriek, feeling the owl was going to eat him.

"Sam," Angus picked up the little bed with Sam in it, and removed it from the dollhouse. "I'm right here. Pip is outside. You're safe. Breathe, Dude. It's alright." Sam looked around, and Angus pointed at the owl that couldn't get in. Sam sighed heavily, trying to calm himself. "Do you want some tea?"

"Is that coffee I smell?" Sam asked.

"Yeah."

"Could I have some of that?"

"Sure. Anything in it?"

"No, thanks. Just black." Angus relayed the order to Andrew who filled a mug, shrank it and brought it to Sam.

"Do I have to stay in this thing?" he pointed to the dollhouse.

"No. Where would you like to be?"

"Can...Can you show me around your house?"

"Sure. We can do that," Angus said, putting Sam in his pocket and putting the bed back in the dollhouse.

Ruby woke to the sound of an owl down stairs and wrpped a gown around her. Walking down she smelt coffee " oh to have coffee again" she said and pored some tea instead to drink " morning, angus, andrew and sam" she said knowing it probably was only a few hours after she'd gone to sleep she'd been woken. " was that Pip I heard earlyer" she asked kowing it probably was as she caught the last peice of a tail diapearing off the porch " oh he brought his breakfast again." she said and sat down watching Angus move around the room as he showed Sam around.

"do you want help with breakfast?" Ruby asked Andrew as she placed down her cup. " I could make waffles or cok up some bacon." she added it was now she saw Angus's scetch book and opened it to look at scetches for wedding cakes, oh this ones pretty its simple " she said smiling as sh saw other eaborate cake ideas.

"Yeah," Angus replied to Ruby, " but when he found the window wasn't open, he got irked and dropped the mouse and it dashed off.

"I haven't even started breakfast yet," Andrew said. "So, yeah, if you can lend a hand, that would be great. You decide what you want to make, and I'll try to jump in and help with something. I'll be back in a moment." He took a coffee mug upstairs and came back a minute or so later. "Victor is awake and getting a cup of coffee, and he let me know in no uncertain terms he's hungry and about ready to eat a piece of furniture if he doesn't get food soon."

Angus looked at the cake she liked. "Oh, Well, I haven't ruled that one out yet. I've got two or three that I'm tinkering with the designs of, hoping that I can get the designs right and maybe that will be easier to choose. That's the simple, traditional design. I'm also working on a sculpted cake design that would be a lot more elaborate. And I'm considering a wedding cake and a groom's cake, so basically, I've settled on absolutely nothing."

"Who's wedding cake?" Sam asked.

"My grandfather. He's getting married in a couple weeks, and I need to get cracking on making his cake," Angus told him.

"You cook?"

"Sometimes," Angus smiled.

"I thought you were an auror or something."

"Well, yeah, something like that. I do that too."

"Like more than one thing?"

"Sure. I don't see a need to limit myself. I like a lot of different things." Sam looked at him, as if he hadn't considered he could have more than one interest. Angus saw him looking almost confused.

"What?" he asked Sam.

"I didn't think about maybe not having to settle," Sam said. "Like, maybe I could do more than one thing."

"Of course you can," Angus said.

"Can I see Victor now?"

"Sure," Angus said.

"I'll take him up," Andrew said. He opened his hand for Sam and took him upstairs to visit with Victor.

Ruby smiled as she heard Angus talk to sam knowing it ws exactly he needed. She moved to the kitchen and fixed some Brioche breakfast bake with crispy bacon, In a large bowl she whisked together the eggs, cream, milk, maple syrup, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Then she tipped about two-thirds of the blueberries into a baking dish. Dipped each brioche piece into the egg mixture until well soaked, then arrange them on top on the blueberries and poured any remaining egg mixture over the top. She then Scatter over the remaining blueberries.

Heating oven she Uncover the dish and scattered over the pecans. Meanwhile she lined a baking tray with foil and arrange the bacon on top.She cooked the bacon for about 5 mins on each side until crispy. She then Dusted the brioche with icing sugar and top with the crispy bacon. Before she placed several psices in plates and sent one up to Victor with some juice to drink, she knew he ahd coffee but juice is always good to have. Taking some she shrunk it down for same and a second nornal sised tray for angus." help your self Andrew" she said