Between the Order's security concerns and what Alain himself had gleaned about Sophie's own worries, regardless of it being voiced, Alain had been finding every possible excuse to limit his business between New Haven and St. Aldwin for a couple of weeks: it put him closer to home, closer to the Order's sometimes tenuous web of security, and closer to Sophie.

With Beltane just around the corner and an obscene number of kegs promised for the event by Silver Mark, he'd been spending a lot of time in the cellar of his and Sophie's New Haven home, working on Baron's Batch, his Belgian-style ale. It was later on a weekday evening, after supper but well before bedtime, and Alain was sitting on his workbench near his brew kettles, sipping at two small glasses of the wort and taking notes.

Only one of these, the better of the two batches, would be sent to Beltane.

An hour. That's how long Sophie had grilled Chase on exactly what had happened at Elsie Rhovnik's home on the banks of Lake Erie during her annual Easter dinner. Showing no symptoms of the head cold that had supposedly kept her from attending herself, Sophie had made him run through every detail, every conversation, every expression. It was as if she was suddenly suspicious of even her own family.

It stirred vague, undirected fear as he watched her unravel, feeling that not another soul was able to see it as well. His cousins still followed her religiously. Their employees still stuck firmly to the company line. Even the great Elsie Rhovnik continued to put more and more trust in her eldest grandchild as the family's venerable matriarch transitioned towards retirement. Only Chase seemed to recognize that something was very wrong.

With the exhausting conversation finally drawn to a close, Chase watched as Sophie withdrew to her study for her nightly round of calls, reassuring dictators, the heads of old families, diplomats, and monarchies large and small that a Rhovnik-DeMuer union was nothing to fear. With a heavy exhale, he thumped his way down the steps and into the cellar, searching out the Baron himself.

Alain breathed a French curse as he blotted the page at the sound of unfamiliar footsteps; it took him a few moments to conclude it was the short-tempered Rhovnik cousin on his way down for a visit. He took a couple of quick temperature readings, then shut his notebook and moved to the stairs. Wiping the hop stains from his fingers with a handkerchief before offering a hand to Chase with a grin.

"Welcome to my workshop."

A calloused hand reached forward for a firm handshake without a second thought as to whether or not Alain's fingers were still stained. He was well aware that the man before him often had his hands dirty. In fact, it made him a bit more relaxed around him. They were both used to fixing problems by whatever means were necessary. His smile was tight but friendly. "Soph told me you had a full set-up down here but I didn't actually believe her."

He laughed: "Not enough to call it a brewery, but I keep a couple kettles down here. Enough to make our specialty ale... when I've got the time," he added. His smile was steady, but Chase would likely know what he meant by it. Wasn't often he had all the time he wanted to devote to brewing. "How was, what do you call it -- Ohio? The place in America by the lakes?"

He slipped behind the small wooden bar that had been set up in a corner of the cellar, patted one of the wooden stools for Chase on his way there. Without asking he snagged two glasses, only a half pint apiece, and picked one of the gorgeous wooden casks set up behind the bar.

He allowed a flicker of an amused smile at the description of his home state as he took a seat. Spending so much time around the Gallican Church and the barony's knights had given him ample exposure to the Newbretons and their version of Earth. They never failed to be interesting. That was for certain.

"It was a typical Rhovnik family gathering -- loud and the alcohol flowed freely. It sucks that Sophie wasn't feeling well enough to attend." There was a hidden question in the comment. He'd never come out and call his cousin and employer a liar, particularly not to an outsider. But had Alain fallen for it? Did he truly think that Sophie was spending so much of her time over the past week in the upstairs rooms of this house because the infamous Sofia Rhovnik had been taken down by the common cold?

"Perhaps next time. I'd like to see it myself, one of these days." Alain passed the glass over to Chase, lifted his own, took a slow sip. Unfortunately failing to answer the unspoken question was an answer in itself. "How's Cait?"

There was an exhale of air as his hand wrapped around the glass. He studied the liquid within for a long moment as he responded to the question. "As good as can be expected, I suppose. How exactly are you supposed to react to finding out the father you thought you watched die is actually alive and on some sort of tour of the world's greatest golf courses?"

His dark eyes lifted from the glass and he lifted it but didn't yet take a sip. "You know, I'll be damn glad when you and Sophie finally get married. Grandmother was on me about marrying Cait and getting started on popping out the next generation of little Rhovnik warriors. Unfortunately, Cait's all too willing to go along with the idea. I swear to God the whole damn thing's enough to make me want to run right back to the Sutton Province."

"Not sure you want to be in Sutton right now," Alain said with a little flicker of a smile, rubbing at a spot just under his jaw with his thumb. He took another sip, set his glass down and asked, "But why's that so unlucky?"

Chase set the glass back down after a long swallow. The mere thought of Cait caused him to turn his wrist over to glance at his watch, brows knit. His dark eyes then jumped from the hands on the face of the watch to Alain's face. The similarities between their two situations were suddenly striking. Chase tread carefully. After all, Cait had said it wasn't his place to get involved. Let Alain deal with it, she'd encouraged. He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "You know how it is. One day you're living for yourself. You can pick up and head to some far corner of some remote world on a whim. Then the next, there's somebody there wanting to go with you. Nothing's safe in our life. Nobody's protected. I suppose if you give into the fear it can be pretty... crippling."

The similarities struck him immediately, at least once Chase gave voice to them. "You're right... it isn't safe. Not ever. You've never been safe on your own to begin with, but when there's one more person's safety riding on your shoulders, it's impossible not to worry about them, worry about them worrying about you." He curled his hand around the glass, let it cool a bit.

"You know the other side of it, Chase?"

His head nodded slowly along with Alain until the question. He peeled the glass away from his lips to respond. "What's that?"

"You get the one and only safe place men like you and me can ever have. One person you don't have to hide from, and after a while, you won't even want to. You can be open and honest and throw your trust around like the whole world isn't one big poker game, but it's just one place, with just one person. The only reason it's so hard, Chase, is because you've finally got something to lose that's close to you." Alain paused, then smirked a little into his next sip.

"Forgive the advice column. Blame the ale."

Honesty? Well, wasn't that just the answer that could save them both? It's what Cait was demanding. It's what Sophie had to be spurred into giving Alain. Chase's lips peeled back into a smile after he took a final sip from the glass and set it back down. "Yeah. I think I'll go to my sister next time, man."

"Look, the reason I came down here is that we need your help." He slid to his feet after another glance to the watch. Alain should know the details by now but Chase was done wrongly assuming that Sophie was keeping him up-to-date on anything. "Stefan enjoyed... a friendship with the daughter of the Governor of Heatherhill. You know the youngest one? The redhead? Anyway, my grandmother doesn't know the details for obvious reasons but I explained to her that the Governor is not exactly happy with us at the time being. She suggested that you give him a call. She said that he's always talked well of you. Something about him having business dealings with the barony. Soph's dealt with Stefan but we need the Governor on our side right now."

Alain had given Chase his shot of honesty, and was satisfied with it. He finished off his beer, collected Chase's glass too and rinsed them off. "I've heard a few things about that bastard. Likes his toys." An idea was already forming in his head, a tour of a few choice R&D facilities, and topping it off with a trade deal for his favorite gizmos. He nodded slowly, to himself. "...I'll take care of it."

"Yeah. Might want to advise him to lock away that girl of his. She's certainly something else." He mused with a shake of his head and a distant smile. Something else that he seemed to know a whole lot about. He lifted a hand by way of parting and as he jogged back up the steps, called over his shoulder, "Thanks for the beer."

"Anytime. Take care." He paused for a moment with the glasses... chuckled, shook his head, and went back to work on his ale.