Life had returned to the secure state of normalcy for Tristan Drage. Well, as normal as the life of an ex-auror and ex-Death Eater could be. He wouldn't trade his new situation for anything of the former. Everything was zipping by so fast. Evan was already starting to crawl, Erik was in senior kindergarten, Eliza in grade one and Estrella had graduated. He often wondered how Christian was faring. The boy was over two years old now and bound to be babbling his head off. And his marriage to Julie was stronger than ever before. Tristan was even in talks to get a job as a healer. Nothing could take a turn for the worse.
It was near dinnertime. Tristan had offered to make dinner, and he had decided to go with spaghetti. He was reading a Canadian wizarding newspaper, flipping through it with little interest. He had charmed a ladle to stir the sauce every few minutes. Eliza and Erik were completely wired after the first day of school, storming the house. One might wonder if a tornado made a visit everyday. Julie was taking a quick nap before dinner. How she managed to sleep through the noise was beyond him.
He smiled at Evan as she crawled along the blanket he had set down for her. She was getting stronger every day. Right now she was able to wiggle around a bit and move herself around. In no time, she would be chasing her older siblings on foot. He made a face at her, sighed and returned to the paper. The ladle made its rotation and was still again. The large man started as a large bird swooped through the window, dive bombing him and resting on top of one of the cabinets. Evan squealed in delight, clapping her hands together as she stared at the owl. Tristan was pretty sure the animal would not respond well to the "smack-and-pet" that was characteristic of children, and he didn't want to put Evan in harm's way. He kept a wary eye on the bird as he reached for the letter it had dropped on the table.
The handwriting was unfamiliar. He weighed the envelope with his hands. It seemed to be light. After deciding it was probably not malicious he tore it open with a thick finger. The letter didn't take him long to read. His brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to remember the person behind the neat scrawl. Nothing. Who the hell was Sarah Springton? He had slept with a lot of women and downed many drinks when he was younger. He shouldn't be too surprised.
He was worried about the content of the letter, and hoped to Merlin it wasn't to do with what he thought it did. The man scribbled a hasty reply and sent it off with the owl. Now he had to figure out how he was going to get to England in such a short period of time.
