"But he is," Bastien said as he opened the door to eye the two people warily, unsure if he should intervene yet or not. "Creepy and weird that is." Smoothly he slide between his slave and his father. If Klaus, for whatever reason, had felt insulted by Alice's latest choice of words, he'd hve to go through Bastien to get to her. And Bastien was smug enough to know that Klaus would never put a hand on him. Klaus was capable of loving very few people in his life, but Bastien happened to be one of those few people.
"Is there a reason you're here, father? I would assume after the success of the ball that you'd have business to conduct. Surely you made valuable new contacts?"
He looked at Alice, gently brushing a strand of hair out of her face, "are you alright, little Sharrow?"