Kersen finally turned around, and sighed deeply when he saw them dressing. "I truly am sorry for interrupting, you really could just..." What? Get back to it? But there was no denying the mood had been spoiled at this point.

"Nonsense," Alcuin said. He didn't bother with shirt, just went over to where he knew Aaron kept the wine, and pulled out a bottle of red. "Besides, what if Aaron had been captured by vampires? This would all be rather heroic of you. You certainly couldn't have known that all he'd captured was me."

Alcuin did, of course, hear Aaron's thoughts. He should probably pretend he hadn't. But mostly what he was thinking was how much Hannibal would hate this.