"I miss music," he mumbled into his beer stein.

"Do you play? What instrument? You're welcome to play my piano or harpsichord, but if you need another instrument I am sure I can-"

"No. No, thank you. I mean, I don't play anything. I miss going to see performances."

Alexander took a pull from his stein. Daniel watched the other man's throat work as he swallowed the appalling liquid, the play of muscles and shadow in it. Such a beautiful thing. He wondered why it didn't seem as marked by age as the baron's face.

"Daniel."

"Yes."

"You're staring at me."

"Sorry!" He blushed, averted his eyes.

A chuckle and a warm curl of fingers around his hand. "I didn't mind. But we might…Ah, well. Who cares?"

"Who cares about what?" Daniel turned back to Alexander, his fingers catching the man's own when he tried to pull away.

"It truly does not matter. I was about to make a small jest but you might have thought it in poor taste."

"What? Tell me, please."

"I was going to say that we might be giving the townspeople much to talk about."

Daniel's brow creased in a frown. "Whatever do you mean?" Again the baron tried to untangle his hand from Daniel's and again Daniel stubbornly held on. He seemed to give up and let his fingers entwine with the young man's with a smile. "Never mind."

Daniel looked around the pub, noting how many of the patrons had left once they had entered. The few that remained were trying their hardest to ignore their existence. "Are they upset by my presence?"

"How could you ever upset anyone by your presence, Daniel?" Alexander took another drink of the awful beer. Daniel had tried to match the man in his cups but gave up when he realized that the more he drank the more vile it became.

"I thought maybe my being a stranger to these lands." He shrugged. "It is the same in my town, Mayfair. Strangers are seen as suspicious and the quicker they leave the better is the most common thought."

"Hm. I don't think it's that."

"Oh." Daniel's face fell. "Do you think they can sense it then? My…taint?"

Alexander's eyes widened. "No! A thousand times no. Don't upset yourself so. No one but me can sense your affliction."

"Are you sure?" Daniel's voice was almost a wail.

"Yes. I think it's my presence that is casting a shadow over their evening. They have no love for Brennenberg."

"Why not?"

Alexander studied Daniel's face, looking for signs of sarcasm but finding only honest confusion. "They think it a cursed place."

"How could anyone think it cursed?" His voice rose. Several of the patrons sitting closest to them winced and slunk further down in their chairs. Alexander didn't try to hush him, seeming bemused by his outrage.

"You yourself tried to escape it today. Do you not find it dark and dreary?"

"No! I fell in love with it the first time I laid eyes upon it!"

"Truly?" Alexander's eyebrow rose. Taking it to mean the baron didn't believe him, Daniel clutched the hand he was already holding with the other.

"I did! Don't think me a liar, please! I thought it something from a fairytale."

"One about an evil lord that must be vanquished no doubt. Hush, hush." He quickly added seeing Daniel's face go distraught. "I believe you. I believe you and am thankful you find my home so appealing. Don't be distressed." He brought Daniel's hand up to his lips to place a quick kiss on his knuckles. Daniel blinked. It was Alexander's turn to avert his eyes.

After a moment he cleared his throat. "To return to our previous topic, I never took you as a music aficionado. Do you like symphonies, the opera?"

"Anything, everything." Daniel wanted to disentangle their hands, to rub the cooling patch of skin and prove to himself that he had not imagined it. "I would take my sister into the city when she was well enough and we would see whatever was playing, whatever I could afford at the time. If I couldn't get us into any of the cheapest seats at the halls, I would sneak her into a pub where some lively band was playing. She was like me; anything was a delight, an escape."

"And did you need much escape in your life?"

Daniel closed his eyes. "She liked the operas best. I think because they told stories. The love stories she tolerated, but the more fantastical the better. She'd be ecstatic for weeks if one had some mythic themes to it. Gods, fairies-"

"Deals with the devil?"

Daniel laughed. "She loved fairytales too. Maybe that's why she took to them so. I was always partial to the symphony. I tried to explain to her that you could make up your own story in your head when it was just music, but I don't think she ever understood."

Alexander smiled. "That is very like you."

"You, my lord? I know you play the instruments scattered around the castle, though I've never heard you, so I assume you also enjoy music. What is your passion?"

"I have no passion for the music here."

"What do you like then?"

"I can tolerate some opera and some of the less ornate of your symphonies I guess."

"Oh." Daniel tried to hide his confusion. "What do you play then?"

"Whatever I can remember from my…younger days. Whenever a nostalgic mood overtakes me."

"I would like to hear you play."

"And you shall, though I do not know if you would care for it."

Daniel rested his head against his forearms. "I'm sure I would. I am sure I would fall in love with anything you liked."

"You are too kind to me at times, Daniel. I wonder if you realize how cruel it can be."

"Hm?"

"Don't fall asleep here. Come. I am sure the carriage will be waiting for us on the edge of town by now."

"I'm not drunk," he protested as Alexander helped him rise to his feet. He only wavered a bit and that could easily be blamed on his fatigue from the walk to town.

"I am not suggestion that you are. Here, put your arm through mine. Help an old man to his carriage." Daniel realized that the baron was supporting his weight and not the other way around. He also realized that if not for Alexander to lean on, he would have fallen to the floor. Oddly he couldn't remember a time where Alexander had seemed happier.