Morningstar Manor

Everything had gone as planned - so far. The trip to the airport had been quick and easy, the place wasn't too busy and because they had a toddler they had been shown into a nice waiting room with plenty of toys. Now they were embarking for the first leg of their flight and Nia was still in good humour if a little heavy eyed.

Deacon had the carry on luggage while Charlie wrangled the munchkin. He had high hopes that nobody would get rowdy.

Loki ( Read more... )

Emma ( Read more... )

And finally because while he'd never spoken to the woman she was a Manor tenant and he was outraged at what had happened, these with a ( note: )

Breakfast had just been put on the table when Charlie's phone rang. As usual he glanced at the screen and would have let it go to voice mail only he saw the +44 at the beginning of the number. "Oh - Mum?" he said to Deacon. "Excuse me please," and he picked it up and answered it.

Edward Fanshawe was 'at lunch' and on the way to the Dorchester, but paused for a while when he heard his son's voice. "Charlie?" he said. "Hello, is Deacon there too? And Nia?"

"Dad!" Charlie yelped and put the phone on speaker. "Hello, yes, we're all having breakfast."

Technically they shouldn't have put it in the pool, but the Manor could afford to replace it if necessary and it had to be admitted that a genuine floating pirate ship was a lot more fun than one on the grass.

Nick tied it off securely at one side of the pool so the prow was in the shallow end and the stern over deep water for jumping in, and wondered who would be the first to find it. There were plenty of posters up, that was for sure.

{Standard party post - get your pups' scantiest swimmers on and come and say 'Aaaaar'}

Loki was working today, which was just as well because Charlie was quite prepared to admit that today he wasn't much use for anything beyond amusing Nia.

So they had lattes and juice and cookies and a very nice colouring book and some crayons. charlie had learned not to get annoyed when Nia scribbled on his meticulous colouring in but Nia still got stroppy when he kept within the lines.

"Noooo," she squeaked. "Nia do!"

Charlie let her have the blue crayon with barely a pout.

Charlie bounced the last few steps to the door, opened it and called "Honey I'm ho-ome," which might have been a cliche but was still fun.

Having found a rather nice inflatable the logical thing was to go and try it out. So there was Charlie struggling out of the lift with his arms around a large ice floe complete with rubbery inflatable penguins, with Nia bouncing at his heels.

Both were in their swimming costumes - hers was pink with blue kitties - and both ready for fun. Though charlie intended to spend some time admiring the other member of the family. D in swimmers - phwoar.

Home for the afternoon, Andy had spent most of it alternately sunning herself and swimming up at the pool. Now she was pleasantly tired and thinking about making dinner. Salad - she could make salad NO problem.

From the music room came the sound of Erik composing - utter silence for the moment though he'd been playing a little while ago - so the knock on the door was perfectly audible.

"I'll get it," Andy said to herself and headed for the door still in her swimsuit and pareo.

She opened it and stared. "Well hello," she said then grunted as a red headed toddler launched herself into her arms with a yelp of "Tee Andy!".

"Pleased to see you too," Andy said, settling Nia on her hip. "Well come in then and stop cluttering up the hall."

Coming up to ten Leo left his office for a moment to speak to his secretary and ask her to make a pot of the decent tea. So he was in the outer office when the door opened and his appointment arrived.

"Hello," he said. "Oh! And is this Nia? How do you do?"

Charlie grinned and hitched Nia a little higher on his hip. "Yes, this is Nia. Say hello, baby. Nice to see you Leo. How are you?"

"Fine," Leo said. "Come on in."

Nia bounced in her high chair and sang her own version of the song about the little fishies - "Boo, boo, dibba dabba bottom wee" - while Charlie tried to ignore it and carryied on with writing his list.

"Passport," he said. "Shall we get Andras to do a photo or shall we make do?"

Ringing Mum on Sunday while she relaxed after her Sunday roast and while Charlie was waiting for his spuds to brown was routine by now and they had had a nice long chat and, as usual, his dad had takent eh phone for a few minutes to ask after Nia and extend his best wishes to Deacon. But for Dad to have telephoned Charlie made this a bit of a red letter day.

Vastly pleased, Charlie multitasked, chatting to his father and playing football with Nia. ( Read more... )

Charlie picked Nia up and cuddled her while she boo-hooed and hiccupped, and amused himself by dribbling the ball back towards the Mocha to bbe handy for when Nia stopped crying and demanded a cookie to 'make it better'. Whether she'd get one or not remained to be seen.

This morning for the first time for quite a while, Nia felt quite cheerful. She had been bathed and dried and Daddy D had put calamine on her remaining spots. But now - oh now she had escaped and was thoroughly enjoying the freedom of scampering around the living room, dragging a towel and squealing, naked as the day she was born.

"Where Daddy?" she said and headed for the bedroom, little feet pattering on the hardwood floor.

Charlie had worked in the morning and now it was daddy time, so he was indulging in the time-honoured occupation of lounging on the lawn and letting his offspring pile stuff on him.

They had drinks, Nia was slavered in sun-block and was wearing a very fetching hat and all was right with the world.

With Brian in the middle of his chest he chatted to Chester on his almost new iPhone, it still had the plastic film on the screen, and watched Nia chatting to her penguin as she tried to balance it on his stomach.

"So no ... no .. no announcements ... no we certainly don't want a banner and streamers!" He gave a shout of laughter. "If Maurice jumps out of a cake D would make him eat it - all! Hah, no nice try. It's all under control - I think. Oh hang on Chester, someone's coming. Talk to you again ... yeah byee."

Nia was playing in the bath as Charlie continued with his phone call. "It's all set," he said. "Oh it's brilliant. Yes. Thanks Mum, so much. I couldn't have managed it on my own." He laughed. "Yeah, well guys are hard to buy for so it's helpful for both of us then. Whoa!! Big splash! Nia's being a penguin again."

he glanced around as the door opened and he grinned at Deacon. "And here's D come to watch as well," he added. "D - Mum says no matter what."

Happy Birthday Emma,

with love from Deacon, Nia and Charlie x x

Plus a package containing this and a rather blobby picture that might be a penguin.

Being carless was a pain. Of course they could use the van, which was handy, but charlie thought it wasn't really D. The van was Charlie's much loved work horse. D was used to thoroughbreds.

However, for the moment they needed something practical. "What about that?" Charlie asked, pointing to a Jeep.

"... and they are all doing really well here!"

Ricky had risen much earlier than usual to day and was trying to shine while he was showing his garden plot to an older woman in ostentatiously eccentric clothes.

She was sipping a chai latte from the Mocha, and nodding at all the plants.

"This is a lovely place," she said, "full of growth and beauty! Green things seem to love it here."

Ricky nodded, as if the praise was a personal badge of honour.

It had been a long and medium stressful day. Both Deacon and Charlie had had to do some work - the gallery in particular demanded Charlie's presence - plus there were all the problems involved in claiming for insurance on the Aston Martin. That had been 'vandalised by muggers'. They had also had to arrange for replacement of phones and other possessions, and send Freddie the biggest soft fuit basket they could find.

Then home and a nice family dinner, cooked by Bella and Charlie, and some time playing with Nia.

She was on the floor in front of the TV poking a large cardboard box with the tube out of the middle of some kitchen roll. Bella watched her, smiling and turned to Deacon to say, "I would never have believed until I saw it that charlie could fold himself up small enough to fit in there."

The box moved and Nia squealed and poked it again.

The flight had been horribly early, which meant getting to the airport even more horribly earlier, but they had done it, just one small carry on bag between them, and were now leaving the airport and looking for the lift Bella had assured them would be waiting for them.

Inevitably they saw the driver first - Nick head and shoulders over most of the others waiting - but it was Nia's piercing squeal that drew their attention to him in the first place.

"Oh wow," Charlie said, trying for a cynical detachment not matched by the light in his eyes, "the family has turned up mob handed!"

Deacon looked up and smiled then gave Charlie a nudge.

"Well go on. Cuz if you don't I'm gonna." ( Read more... )

The Mocha was teaming with people today.

Seth and Zack took up one table, sipping coffee and both working on their own individual things - Zack on the phone with a client and jotting down notes as he talked and Seth working on a sketch of Nick, sprawled in a hammock on a beach in nothing but shawn off denim shorts.

****

Kara was curled up in one of the comfy arm chairs with a huge mug of coffee. She'd been in Boston for a wedding she'd been trying to get out of going to but had been informed by her mother that she'd be in serious trouble if she didn't show up. So she had and was now recovering from massive amounts of family time.

****

Max was also at a table with a cup of coffee and the newspaper. For once he was dressed casually - jeans and a dark blue, tight, t-shirt. He didn't have to be anywhere until much later and had decided to take the day to relax. Maybe even go for a swim later. One never knew.

****

Erik was in the garden, tending the herbs he'd planted in one of the tenant plots. He too was dressed casually in jeans though his shirt was a button up and the sleeves where rolled up to his elbows. The great composer, usually seen dressed to the nines if he was seen at all, looked even more at ease here, on his knees with his hands covered in dirt.

****

In the gym Demitri was working out. Wearing black track pants he'd shed his shirt a while ago. His strawberry blond hair was pulled back at the nape of his neck as he took a break from the weights and went through a series of stretches on the mat to keep himself limber.