Chapter 30
Saturday is another nice day, and we take the children outside to play, which is where Sly and the boys find us, early afternoon.
“Nox, Der,” Lyric shouts upon seeing them. He climbs off my lap and runs over to them.
“Hey, Sly,” I say as he joins us on the blankets.
“We thought we’d gate-crash. Ebby is in full-on chocolate mode, and the boys wanted to play with their cousins.”
“You’re always welcome, you know that,” Kean tells him.
Sly looks at us both. “Do you want me to look after the boys so you two can go and get some sleep?”
“Thanks for the offer, but Lyric still gets upset if both of us are out of his sight for too long,” Kean replies, tiredly.
“Why not go inside with River and have a nap. I’ll stay out here with Lyric, then we can switch over when Lyric falls asleep,” I offer.
Kean looks like he’s really thinking about it.
“Go on, handsome,” I say, gently picking River up from the bouncy chair and passing him to Kean.
Kean gives a big, tired sigh. “Just for a little bit, then you and Lyric can catch a nap.”
“Yep, we can,” I agree as Kean stands up, holding River close and walking back into the house.
“I love that little baby scrunch that River does,” Sly says.
I nod. “Me too. I’ll miss it when he grows out of it.”
We sit and chat for a bit, with the children playing happily together.
“We need drinks,” I say, standing up. “I’ll let Lyric know I’m popping inside.”
Sly stands as well. “I’ll come and help carry them out.”
“Thanks,” I reply as I walk over to Lyric.
“Tus,” Lyric says, smiling happily at me. “Play.”
“I will in a minute. Uncle Sly and I are going inside to get drinks. We won’t be long.”
Lyric looks around. “Clean?”
“He’s gone inside for a nap with River.”
Lyric walks over and hugs my legs and looks up and me, grinning. “Nack?”
I laugh and pat his back. “Yep, be back in a minute.”
Lyric nods and runs off to join Enoch, and I walk back to Sly, who is now stood by the kitchen door.
“Lyric looks okay with you leaving.”
“Yeah, I think it helps that he knows I’m just getting drinks and snacks and will be back out again soon.”
As we’re talking, we walk into the kitchen and see Emily mixing something in a bowl.
“Hey, Emily,” I say. “We’ve come to get drinks and snacks.”
Emily stops stirring and wipes her hands on a tea towel. “I made some lemon and raspberry biscuits earlier, and vanilla cupcakes.”
Sly walks over and kisses her cheek. “Thanks, Emily.”
Emily laughs. “You’re welcome, Sly. I know the biscuits are your favourite.”
“Not sure I’m going to share them though,” he says, grinning.
“You will, or you don’t get any,” Emily tells him.
I burst out laughing at the look on his face and start gathering the drinks.
“Fine, I’ll share,” he grumps out.
We’ve been in the kitchen a while, but I don’t hear loud crying, and Lyric hasn’t come to check on me, so he must be doing okay.
“I saw Kean and River going up for a nap earlier,” Emily says, putting a pot of grapes on the now full tray.
“Yeah, he’s having a nap with River, I’ll have one later with Lyric.”
“Good, you both look knackered,” Ben says, walking in with Temp and swiping a biscuit.
“Thanks for that,” I reply, laughing. I really don’t need it pointed out how tired I look.
Just then, Xander comes running in looking worried.
“What’s wrong?” Sly asks him.
“I’m really sorry, and I’ve no idea how it happened, but we can’t find Lyric. I swear we just looked away for a moment and he vanished,” Xander says, looking devastated.
I try not to panic. “He’ll be somewhere in the garden. Let’s go and look.”
“I’ll come, I can probably scent him,” Ben says.
“Thanks,” I reply, hurrying out of the kitchen and into the garden. The Lyric-free garden.
I see Nora and Enoch searching for him.
I’m about to call on my magic when Ben steps forward. “He went that way,” he says, pointing to a path that leads to the vegetable garden.
“I looked in there first,” Xander tells us, standing next to Sly, who has an arm around his shoulder.
“There are lots of places to hide there,” Ben says. “Come on.”
As we follow Ben, I do send my magic out, and yes, Lyric is in the vegetable garden. I breathe a sigh of relief.
I’ve not been in this part of the garden yet. It’s down a path and behind some beech trees, which give it an almost hidden garden look.
The vegetable garden is massive. It has ground beds, raised beds, things for climbing vegetables, and an orchard at the back. There are new shoots for some vegetables and some well-established ones, with thick leaves.
“He’s just down here,” Ben says, leading us to what looks like a freshly turned over patch of soil, behind some of those said leaves.
I see Lyric lying in the soil, picking handfuls of it up and dropping it all over himself. He has a big smile on his face.
I walk forward and smile down at him. “Having fun?”
“Mud Tus,” he says, grinning up at me, while grabbing another handful and dropping it on himself.
“Dirt,” I correct, and kneel down next to him. “Time to get out of the dirt.”
Lyric nods and stands up.
I brush some of the dirt off him and pick him up. He’s still covered in the stuff, and now so am I. “You scared your cousins, did you know that?”
Lyric shakes his head.
“They couldn’t find you. Thankfully, Uncle Ben found you. If you’re going to a different part of the garden, you need to tell someone so we don’t worry.”
Lyric looks at me. “I bad?”
I shake my head. “Not this time, but you still need to say sorry to your cousins.”
Lyric looks at Xander, Nora and Enoch. “I sorry.”
“We’re just glad you’re not lost,” Nora says.
“I play,” he says, pointing to where he laid.
“Yep, we can see that,” Enoch says. “Come on, messy, let’s go back and play on the swings.”
I put Lyric on the ground, and he happily walks back holding Enoch’s hand.
“I really am sorry,” Xander says softly.
“Hey, none of that,” I say to him, pulling him into a hug. I pull back. “I’m honestly surprised that it’s taken him this long to hide from us. He did that back at my flat one morning. Kean had to sniff him out.”
“Really?” Temp asks in surprise.
I nod. “Yep, he hid down the side of the bed in one of the spare bedrooms. With how big the manor and grounds are, I thought he would have tried hiding before now,” I look at Xander. “These things happen, so honestly, don’t worry about it.”
“Just maybe don’t take your eyes off him,” Emily says. “Ben was the one who always hid. You’d turn your back for a second, look back, and he’d be gone.”
Ben laughs. “I remember that. I hid up the chimney in the dining room once.”
The dining room is a room we never use. I’d forgotten the manor even had one.
Emily laughs. “He did. He was gone for hours, and we searched everywhere.”
“Dad found me when he heard me sneeze. I didn’t know I’d been hiding for so long.”
“How did you not get tired holding on to the inside?” Temp asks him.
“There’s a ledge in there. No idea why, but there is, so I sat on that.”
“And he was filthy when Hector got him out,” Emily adds.
I think that’s the first time I’ve heard Daddy Stone’s name ever mentioned.
Ben suddenly burst out laughing. “I ran around the house hugging my brothers and getting them as dirty as I could.”
We all laugh at that.
“I can imagine you doing that, Greasy,” Temp laughs at his lover. “You still like getting messy.”
He nods. “I really do.”
By this time, we’ve reached the main part of the garden. I look over and see Lyric on a baby swing with Enoch pushing him. Nora is pushing Xander, trying to get him as high as she can, to much amusement of the others.
Adhan comes walking out of the kitchen carrying the refreshment tray, which we abandoned in our search for Lyric.
“Thank you, darling,” Emily says, as we all sit down on the blankets.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, Lyric decided to go and play in the vegetable garden. Xander came and got us, and Ben sniffed him out,” I tell him.
“He was lying in one of the new veg beds, happily covering himself in dirt,” Ben adds.
“And then we found out about Greasy hiding up the dining room chimney,” Temp finishes.
Adhan burst out laughing. “I remember that. You ran up to me, hugged me and as soon as I was dirty, you ran off to find someone else to dirty up.”
“Your childhood sounds amazing,” Sly says, almost wistfully.
Yeah, I can’t see Sly having a happy childhood, not with his family.
He suddenly laughs. “There was the time I magicked crabs up and put them in my brothers’ bed. They screamed the house down, so worth the trouble I got in.”
We all laugh at that.
The children come over and join us for drinks and biscuits. Lyric plonks himself down on my lap, leaning against me. It’s quite cute actually, he ran up to me, turned around and walked backwards, before sitting on my lap. So cute.
“You tired, little man?” I ask him.
He nods and leans his head on my chest.
“Do you want some juice?” I ask, as I feel him fall asleep.
“While Lyric’s asleep, go and join Kean and get some rest,” Emily suggests gently.
I give a tired sigh. “Okay, just for a little bit. See you all later.” I stand up, cradling Lyric and walk into the manor and up to our bedroom. I pause by the door to River’s room when I see Kean asleep on the snuggle chair, with River asleep on his chest.
I magic my phone into my hand and take a picture. Yeah, that’s going on our wall.
I think of a soft blanket covering them and ask my magic to help.
A light blue light blanket covers them. I thank my magic and carry on to Lyric’s room, and sit on his snuggle chair.
I settle comfortably, and magic myself a light blanket, rest my head against the back of the chair, and with Lyric asleep against my chest, I fall asleep.
I suddenly come awake as I feel someone trying to take Lyric from me. I call on my magic to help protect my son, but it tells me it’s just Kean.
I open my eyes and see Kean kneeling in front of me, an awake Lyric holding his arms out to him.
“It’s only me, honey,” Kean reassures.
I sigh and nod. “Thank goodness my magic recognised you, you were about to be zapped.”
Kean grins. “Thank you, magic,” he plucks Lyric off my lap and drops a kiss on his head. “You two have been asleep for hours, and it’s Lyric’s dinner time.”
I run a hand down my face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep so long.”
“You needed it. River and I had a few hours as well. I woke up when he was hungry. But look at you both, you look like you’ve been playing in the dirt,” Kean says, looking at our dirty clothes.
“I do,” Lyric replies.
“You did,” I correct. “Lyric here snuck away from his cousins while Sly and I went to get refreshments. Ben found him in the vegetable garden, lying on one of the beds, dropping dirt all over himself. Xander was beside himself, thinking he’d lost him.”
“You need to tell someone if you’re going to wander off,” Kean says gently.
Lyric nods. “I sorry Der, Nox, Ora.”
“That’s right, little man, you did say sorry,” I say, stroking his head.
“Shall we change your stinky nappy, dirty clothes and then feed you?” Kean asks.
Lyric nods and sighs, leaning against Kean. “Mama, dada no,” he says softly.
Kean moves and sits cross-legged on the floor, and settles Lyric comfortably down on his leg. “No Lyric. It’s me and Tus.”
“Sad,” he says again softly.
“You’re allowed to be sad and miss them, Lyric. I bet they are missing you as well,” I tell him, moving to the edge of the chair.
Lyric sniffs and holds his hand out to me. I take his hand and kiss the back.
“Oou and Tus no leave?”
“No, little man. Tus and I won’t be leaving. You know mama and dada didn’t leave on purpose.”
“Car bump,” Lyric says.
“Yeah. The car bump hurt them, that’s why you have me and Tus.”
Lyric sniffs again, his eyes swimming with tears and his bottom lip trembling.
I get on the floor and kneel next to them, wrapping my arms around them both. We stay that way for a moment until we hear Lyric’s stomach rumble.
“Was that a hungry monster?” Kean asks, pretending to sound shocked.
“I think it was a very hungry monster,” I say, gently poking Lyric in his tummy, trying to make him laugh. “We need to feed you right now.”
Lyric nods, tears still on his cheeks and in his eyes. “Nack, duce pees.”
“Come on then,” Kean says, standing up, Lyric in his arms. “Let’s clean you up, then find you some food.”