Inside the carriage were piles of fur blankets. Daniel crawled under them, grateful at the servants' forethought for it had grown cold with the coming of night. Alexander fussed with the furs, making sure Daniel was completely covered. He took his seat on the lone bench the carriage had, but after it had pulled out of the town, he sunk down beside where Daniel sprawled. A hand began to rub soothing circles against his back. "Do you truly love Brennenberg so?"
Daniel squirmed so his head was poking out. "I told you I do."
The hand left him. The carriage came to a sudden halt. "Come. Get up. I wish to show you something."
Protesting sleepily, Daniel let the baron drag him out into the chill.
The carriage had halted on a hill, all of Brennenberg and Altstadt could be seen spread below them. He shuddered at the stillness of the night. The dark seemed to press in on them on all sides and the cheery lights of the town were too distant to offer any comfort. He felt his breath begin to quicken.
"Look." Alexander extended his arm to encompass the scenery below.
"At what?" Daniel hugged himself, inching towards Alexander for warmth and the assurance that another human being might keep the dark things at bay. The baron put an arm around him and pulled him close. Daniel thankfully let himself be tucked into Alexander's side. His breathing was still faster than normal, but his heart was no longer banging painfully against his ribs.
"Do you see Brennenberg? My town of Altstadt?"
Daniel nodded.
"I own everything that you see here in addition to the lands of two more towns to the west. Did you know that?"
"Do you? That's admirable." Daniel wanted away, wanted to be safely tucked back in his room in the castle with the fire roaring high.
"What would you do if there came a day where you could have ten times as much as this? If you could live in a keep twice as large as Brennenberg, and so much more elegant and luxurious than it that Brennenberg would not be fit to be its shadow?"
"Is there such a place?" Daniel closed his eyes and let Alexander support most of his weight. "I find it hard to believe that there could be such a place."
"Would you like that?" Alexander persisted. "To live somewhere where you could be kept in a manner that you deserve?"
"Not really, no."
Alexander stiffened. "You'd have three times as many servants to answer to your every whim, so much wealth you could buy whatever took your fancy and being the…companion of the lord of such a place would afford you a good deal of power and prestige."
"I told you, I wouldn't want it."
Silence. Daniel could hear a fox cry in the brush and after a while the death scream of a rabbit. Alexander spoke between clenched teeth, "Can you tell me why?"
"I like Brennenberg. I wouldn't want to move away. I just want to stay here. It's enough for me. This is the manner which I would best be kept I think."
"You said Brennenberg reminded you of something from a fairytale. My… this other castle would truly be something fantastic to you. It would thrill your heart and seem as if it were conjured from the picture books you read as a child. You would fall in love with it, I know, and Brennenberg would fade to a pale shade in your mind, a place best forgotten."
"Don't talk about it like that. I love it, even if there are grander places out there." Daniel waved his hand in the direction of the castle. "It would sadden me to leave it."
"Why?" Alexander's voice was small, tight.
Daniel shrugged as if the answer were obvious. "It's become my home." He ducked his head, flustered by his presumptiveness but continued. "And I like there being only enough servants to keep us fed and the place tolerable. It feels like we are the only two there at times. That's all I've come to need of late: food, shelter…a dear friend. If it weren't for the dreams, the knowledge that what stalks me comes closer with every nightfall, I would be so very content. Almost the happiest I've ever been I'd say."
Silence again. No cries rent the night this time. Daniel looked up at the stars shining frostily down on them. It had been a long time since he had taken the time to notice stars. He remembered telling Hazel if she listened closely she could hear them sing. He wondered if she ever, while he was in Algeria, escaped the watch of the sanatorium nurses and crept outside on starry nights, holding her breath, straining to catch the slightest hint of sound. If she ever thought of him when she did. She would have been a girl of fifteen when she…She had probably been too sick to wander from her bed or too grownup to believe in her older brother and his lies.
He felt a tear course down his cheek. He turned into Alexander and rubbed it away on the satin of the man's red coat. He realized he had his face practically buried in the other man's chest when Alexander's other arm wrapped around him, enfolded him in an embrace.
"You don't even notice that you've brought me to my knees since you've arrived. I watch you as a man starving as you flit and flutter around my castle like a bird I've captured and forced to live in the ugliest of cages, not even offering me a scrap that would ease this hunger you've caused. And when I am in the deepest of despair of you, for you, you unwittingly give me such hope."
Lips brushed his ear as Alexander continued. "And if I had to leave Brennenberg? Would you follow? Would you live in such a place as I've described, though it be grander than your normal tastes, if it came about to be mine?"
"You would be there?"
"Of course."
"That would be all right then, I guess."
Alexander pressed a kiss to his temple. Daniel squirmed, still not used to the over demonstrative nature of the Germanic people.
"If you would let me, I would stay by your side forever." He paused. "But I don't have forever though, do I? Sometimes, after my dreams, I am left with the impression that I will be lucky if I survive to see the season turn to fall."
"Don't say that. There are…other methods we may try to stave off the Shadow. Ones we haven't tried yet. You won't like them, but I assure you they will be the only way to save you now. Have faith in me, Daniel. The events that transpire here may turn out to surprise you. But you would come with me in the end? You would give me your word that you would?"
He nodded though he didn't understand what exactly Alexander was talking about. It seemed to be the right response, for Alexander's arms tightened around him to a degree in which he thought his very ribs would snap.
He regained his composure and held Daniel from him. "We should go back to the castle now, Daniel. You're freezing." He briskly rubbed Daniel's arms. "See how you shiver? Let us go."
Daniel found that the night wasn't as intolerable as it at been a while ago. With his friend at his side, it gave him the sense of safety to enjoy the nostalgic feelings it conjured. He wanted to stay longer, he wanted to remember other nights he talked under these stars with Hazel and he wanted to make new memories of enjoying them with someone who had become like a second father to him. "Just a bit longer." He dug in his heels as Alexander tried to pull him back to the carriage. "The stars are so pretty tonight," he offered in lame explanation.
"You aren't even looking at the stars." Alexander sighed. "Come, let's sit down then. I find I can't refuse you anything when you pout like that. Let me put my coat around you. Don't refuse it. I am more adapted to this climate than you."
"For all your grumping at me, you're smiling like the cat who stole the cream."
"I am very happy right now. I think tonight you have made me the happiest man in this world."
Daniel let Alexander arrange him so his head was tucked under the older man's chin. They sat thus in comfortable silence for a long while. Alexander began to hum a melody, lilting and haunting, almost unearthly. It would be heartbreakingly beautiful on a harpsichord. As Daniel drifted off to sleep in Alexander's arms, he had the strange thought that if he had been a woman he would have suspected he had just been proposed to tonight…
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Hope everyone is enjoying it so far! Thank you for all the lovely feedback and story alerts. You really encourage me to keep going with this! Things will be getting dark and angsty starting next chapter. Again, all comments and crits are welcome! Seriously, I'm not one of those fanfic authors that gets offended when a typo is pointed out. If I've made a grammar mistake or something doesn't make sense, feel free to point it out!