Carrick threw a glance at Eterna with his shark-like smile. "I'll start on Ancient Rome," he answered.
He felt he should explain why neither Russ nor Noctis were wearing very much. "Russell and his boy were in a car that went off the road in the storm. They were soaked throguh bythe time they got here. Hence the dressing gowns."
Carrick no longer spoke the Ukrainian that Karena had taught him - most of the languages he had learned over the centuries were now hazy at best excepting Greek and Latin - but he remembered enough to pick up the gist of her speech. He turned baleful eyes on her, hoping very much she wouldn't start making jokes about Russell's nakedness that would turn out to be more truthful than she'd realise...
"I need a drink," he said, perhaps more fervently than he wanted to. "And i expect I'm not the only one. I don't want to make my house servants blunder around in the dark, though, especially with the good crystal. Who'll join me?" he glanced at Russ, hoping that he could have a few moments alone with him to explain. Eterna didn't know about the two of them, after all, and if Carrick was lucky she wouldn't have to know.