A Birth day

Ruby heard Edward and chuckled as he spoke of how much suger they ahd put in Abbys tea " well that will fule her for the rest of the day " she said smirking but then smiled as Edward said Angus wouldn't sleep all day " thats a relif " she said as she picked up a scone and started to eat it little by little as she held Caprice in one arm " this is realy delishious even slightly warm" she complimanted her then chuckled as Abby began pummeling the jigsaw peice again.

"you know going to some place different for a while sounds good" she said then chuckled " spaghetti is spaghetti to me, its the sauce that changes it for me" she said " chese sauce makes mac and cheese, tomatoe could be bologase and a plain white sauce is alphredo." she said softly " I like pasta no matter what sauce it has on it."

"Ruby," Simone said, "you really don't need to be anxious about Angus. Really you don't. He wasn't wounded last night. He was just tired. If there had been more to it, Robert would have known about it last night. Honestly, I saw a side of him last night I haven't seen before. I thought I'd seen him fight but things were different last night. we had so many of them that I thought we might well be outnumbered. But that did not seem to bother Angus for one single moment. I haven't seen anyone use their wand like a sword quite like he did. He rather reminded me of a swashbuckler in an old pirate movie. I haven't trained to be a fighter. I want to, but I haven't done it yet. From what I saw last night, though, if I were you, I would certainly not worry much about him. He can hold his own. If I can ask, what are you really concerned about? My guess is that you've either not had a chance to get back with Jeffrey or there's something else on your mind. So what is it?"

"Hey," Edward shouted in front the doorway between the houses. "I'm going to pop over to see the kitchen garden and then to ask Zoe and Kate if there are any plants we want. And then I'll seek Gam's permission to take Abbey with us. I'll be back."

"All the more time for us to eat all the scones," Simone teased. Edward waved and headed next door. "Abbey made it abundantly clear to Edward and me that she likes 'noo-noo's. My kids used to call noodles 'noo-noo's' when they were here age too. Brings back a lot of good memories for me."

Ruby looked at simone as she spoke and she looked puzzled " I didn't think I was worrying about him and I do know hes quite capable of taking care of himself but, yeah I think I need another session with Jeffery before he leaves for swizerland" she said "he did mention that we could do another session. Ruby heard Edward then simone and chuckled at her mention of eating the scones.

" oh Sam use to do the same" she said and chuckled " I think all children come up with there own words for things " she said " but I like noddles too, especialy with chinese." she chuckled as Caprice blew a razberry at her mention of chinese " oh some one has her own opinion all ready" she said smiling.

Simone used a very tiny flick of her finger that Abbey didn't see to slightly move the puzzle piece in alignment with the hole in the puzzle. Abbey eventually looked back at the puzzle and saw the alignment and put the puzzle in the hole and then gave a loud shriek of success, proud of herself that she had gotten it "all by herself."

"Good girl!" Simone said. "I knew you could do it! Well done, Abbey! That's my girl. Look how very smart you are. And this puzzle is supposed to be for kids up to age six."

"Maybe it is for sixes who no be very smart, Gam CeCe," Abbey said. Simone burst into laughter.

"Well, maybe you're right," she said.

Angus had showered and shaved and he had dressed and was now pouring himself a mug of coffee. Still yawning, he took his mug and went over next door to Edward's. Abbey sprang from her seat and flung herself at him, and he quickly moved the mug to avoid splashing her with hot coffee, setting the mug aside. He scooped her up, and she was all full of youthful enthusiasm, wrapping herself around him.

"Hi!" she said, bursting with energy.

"How do you have so much energy so early in the morning?" he asked her.

"Not early, Aggie. Is half past noon-o'-clock," she nodded. He looked at the clock, which had not yet even struck ten.

"You're off a couple of hours, Abs," he said.

"Is fourteen-o-clock?" she looked at him wide eyed.

"Close enough," he laughed, giving up.

"We hunting noo-noos today."

"Did some escape?" he asked, having no idea what she was talking about. She nodded. He flicked his fingers to send his coffee mug to the table, and he went there and sat down putting Abbey on his lap. Simone got up and got him a fresh scone."

"They look lovely," Angus said. "Strawberry?"

"Noooo," Abbey said. "Red." She announced it as if it were truly a legitimate flavor.

"Well, that clears it right up, doesn't it?"

Ruby listened and watched Simone then chuckled as Abby announced she ahd done it " oh well done" she said smiling then chukaling as she said it was for children ages six that wern't smart. She saw Angus enter and smiled at him then chuckled as Abby ran to hug him.

"Good morning dear" she said "look Caprice Daddys here" she said as Caprice held out her hands and moved her small fingers in a grasping motion, gurgling as she did. She heard Abby mention Noodles and chuckled "were going to replace some of the plants in the garden with some from Edwards other gardens, including one in italy so, noodles." she said chukaling " and Abbys helping clear out the stones the mean men put in the garden, isn't that right" she said shifting Caprice to her right side.

"Good morning," he said. He took Caprice's hand for a moment while he listened to Ruby's explanation about the trip to Italy. "Oh. Okay. Now it makes sense. Thanks for translating that. Sounds like the garden got trashed last night. I'm not surprised. Gelding came with a rather large platoon, even by his standards. And then Fenrir brought his crew down. Actually, I was really glad they showed up. They were a huge help. Especially Anise."

"Who's Anise?" Simone asked.

"Sister of that girl Robert's treating," Angus said. "Anise swiped Abbey straight off from James while he was all worried about Fenrir. Ginger told us last night that Anise wants to be a fighter, and Ginger wants to be an animal healer but the girls aren't sure they're going to ever be able to break free of the pack. I know that when they become adults they could make their own choices in our society but pack rules are so different that I don't know if they could leave then or not. Jack might know, but he didn't live in a pack either, not that I know of. Still, he does know a lot about pack traditions."

"Your mother, honest to Pete," Angus said to Ruby. "I've seen some lamebrains, but heavens to Merlin. She turned a bush into whole pile of lemons, turned a rock into a turkey, and one of Edward's flower beds slithered off into the woods because she turned the whole bed into a pile of snakes with the ruddy hiccups. She's a menace. I really expect Robert's going to find a way to look up her Hogwarts's grades to see exactly what sort of grades she actually did earn--if she finished at all. Her own goons called her a nitwit and took her home. And then she left this old codger on the lawn, and he says he's your dad and Jessie's. I'm sure Robert's doing some background checking on him too. I don't know wther I should be glad that we might not have Reginald on our tail forever or not. He's the devil I know. This new guy is the devil I don't know."

Ruby listened to Angus and laughed at the snakes with hiccups "oh dear lord she does sound a right nit" she said " and sounds like the garden is in disarray, but Im glad Fenrir came in and helped as much as he did, as for the new guy who claims to be our father, I'll leave that to Robert and Jessie, one father is enough for me." She had heard him mention Anise and smiled " well I for one am glad she saved our Abby, I do hope Robert considers giving her training, she sounds like she would be perfect." Ruby said then nodded at his final coment "that I agree, better the devil you know than the devil you don't" she said lightly bouncing Caprice.

"Stll did you sleep beter?" she asked knowing he probably did "we had panckaes and syrup for breakfast then came home and found daddy sleping before coming here and seeing Abby finish a puzzle , all by her self" she said smiling " oh and the scones, delish and Simone said I can have the recipy so I could practice making them some time...with the icing too" she said smiling once more.

"I did sleep better, after Kate stopped Suzanne's shenanigans. I don't know if I saw the same thing Kate saw, but I clearly saw some sort of a blue glass pendant she was wearing and when Kate ended Suzanne's interference, i saw that pendant shatter. If what I saw was accurate, then she's not going to be able to interfere for awhile. I don't think she's done for good, but at least, for now, she can't reach us.

As he was speaking, David came over and handed Angus an envelope.

"This just came for you by owl," David told Angus. Angus looked at the envelope. He did not recognize the handwriting at all. He opened the envelope and could not believe what he was reading. The note was from Tom Gelding. He wanted to meet Angus at Café de Flor in Paris. It was the most famous muggle sidewalk café in the city. Gelding wanted no other people along, and he wanted no 'dirty tricks' on Angus's part. Angus did not believe for one moment that Gelding would ever come alone. He would have goons stationed thickly all around him.

"Believe it or not, it's from Gelding. He wants to meet today in a public place, and he wants me to come alone. Forty years we've been battling him, and he's never asked for a meeting. This is really, really weird," Angus said.

"What do you think he wants?" Simone asked.

"I haven't the foggiest," Angus said.

Ruby listened to Angus and breathed out when he said Suzanne's interferance was over for now. She saw David walk over and hand him an envelope which he read, then spoke about its contents" your not going alone right?" she said " who knows what he's up to, you said it your self he's never asked for a meeting in the whole time you've been fighting him, why now?" she looked to Edward and Simone hoping they would see a slight panic , but only slightly as she refocused her mind by taking a deep slow breath in as she looked at Caprice and start thinking of ideas for baby wear for her to take her mind off worrying about Angus.

Ruby took a second slow breath and calmed down " your taking some men and getting them to hide aren't you" she asked with a smirk some what knowing how he thought.

"Well, that's what he'll do, without a doubt," Angus replied to Ruby, "but remember, this is a muggle neighborhood. They can't use magic there. They could use muggle weapons there, but if I cast a shield spell before I go, their muggle weapons won't be able to penetrate. I have no idea what he's up to, but, presumably, he's chosen that café so that he'll be safe from me. I guarantee you he's far more afraid of me than I am of him."

Angus sent a paper bird over to the main house, hoping to reach Robert. Brian responded instead, arriving and knocking on the door, and Simone let him in.

"Robert's already gone in to work. He left just a moment ago. You just missed him," Brian said.

"Daddy!" Abbey squealed with delight. "Lookie! I do'ed a puzzle all by myself!"

"Did you?" Brian looked at the puzzle. "I swear, Girl, you're getting smarter every day." He gave her a hug. "Papa Ed asked if you could go with him and Gam Cece today. Do you want to go?"

"Yeah!" She nodded. "We gonna hunt noo-noo's."

"Well, Italy is a great place to hunt them," Brian asked. "Papa Ed thought you might like to take Molly along, and Molly's mom said she could go if you want her to."

"Molly! Yeah!" Abbey bounced up and down.

"So what's up?" Brian asked Angus, and Angus showed him the note. "What the devil is he up to, do you suppose?"

"I have no idea. We offed quite a few of his men last night, so maybe its related to that somehow.'

"I doubt it. It never has been before. He sees those men as expendable. What do you think? That cafe will be crowded. It's April in Paris, and it's always chaotic at that time of day, limiting his ability to use any magic."

"I agree."

"And he certainly won't be alone."

"No, but by the same token, I dont' want to overplay my hand and bring a platoon in."

"No, and I don't think you should," Brian said. "I'll go with you, and we'll see what he wants." Brian looked up and saw that Ruby looked afraid. "Stop worrying, Ruby. Gelding doesn't have anywhere near Angus's skills. Aside from Robert and me, nobody in our organization has dealt with Tom nearly as many times as Angus has. Gelding has good reason to be afraid of Angus, but there is no a lot of reason for Angus to be afraid of him, except how many extra men he might be bringing. Two of us equals a lot of them. We could do it with just the two of us, but if I see Jack, I'll grab him to tag along, but I certainly don't think that we need more than the three of us. We'll make the meeting, and then you can go on to Italy and catch up with your family if you want."

"That works," Angus said. "I think we should play it with an open hand. I think you and Jack should sit nearby by not at the same table."

"Oh, agreed," Brian nodded.