~1818~

By autumn of 1818, Claire’s little tavern was at least doing a bit more business and had even re-employed various ex-employees with new jobs waiting tables, tending bar, or even singing and dancing on the small stage had they possessed such a talent. The place had even adopted the unofficial name of Raven’s Loft, or The Loft, despite the fact that the upper floor was now only really used as a business office or a place for her still rather small number of employees to take breaks away from the customers.

Now that the place had been open for five years, and she had a small roster of employees, Claire allowed herself to step into more of a management role; and on most nights she spent a bit more time upstairs organizing the finances or planning the stage performances. On this particular night, Eliza had come in to tend bar for a few hours just for a change of pace, as she had taken to doing on a few nights each month when she had no new clan members to tend to back at House Toreador inside Sean’s Princely compound.

It was also on this night that Kristofer finally made his return from his five long years spent at the very first established medical school in the new world; which happened to be back east in Pennsylvania. Needless to say it had been a long time since his last visit to Claire’s establishment. When he stepped through the doors, his eyes immediately moved to the bar, barely noticing the fact that there actually were three or four other customers there that night. He couldn’t help his instantaneous fear at seeing that it was not Claire tending bar that night. Though this woman was near as beautiful and magnetic as the one he had hoped to find there, he couldn’t help letting his mind worriedly travel back to that night when Claire had told him about the possible fate she feared may be coming to her.

He took a deep breath as he forced his feet to carry him to the bar and take a seat. Eliza greeted him with a slightly impersonal smile as he sat, “what can I get you, handsome?”

Still a little too worried to have any other reaction to her greeting, his eyes moved around the room once more before he responded, “so Lady Beringer isn’t running this place anymore?” Kristofer forced himself to ask, despite his fear of what answer he may receive.

Eliza narrowed her eyes slightly at that greeting as this gentleman wasn’t a customer she had seen before on any of her visits to The Loft. She took a moment to focus on his aura before deciding on an answer. Seeing nothing but fear and concern in the colors surrounding him, she finally spoke “yes, she does still run it. She just doesn’t try to do it all herself anymore” she added with a polite smile, “your drink?” she added.

“Sorry, bourbon is fine” he offered her an answer with only a bit of relief as he looked around the room again, “so she’s ok then?”

“I didn’t realize there were friends of Claire’s I hadn’t met” Eliza returned as she poured him his drink, not quite answering his question yet.

“Well, I have been away for five years” Kristofer supplied as he took the glass.

“Oh wait, are you the doctor?” Eliza asked with a more sincere smile then.

Kristofer couldn’t help his slight blush at the realization that Claire had apparently mentioned him, “well, I wasn’t a doctor when I left for the University of Pennsylvania, back in 1813” he smiled slightly as he took a sip.

“So, you came back out here to the middle of nowhere instead of staying back in the slightly more populous east?” she asked him as she leaned back upon the shelf behind her that was stocked with various bottles of alcohol.

“More populous tends to mean they already have more doctors too” he smiled again, “besides, I needed to thank Lady Beringer for her generosity.”

“I see” Eliza smiled again, noting the slight desire that flared up in his aura whenever he mentioned Claire.

“So, do you know when she may be back?” Kristofer asked after another sip.

That was when Eliza smirked slightly and moved to call up the stairs, “you busy up there? There’s a doctor here to see you” she added with another smile.

It was then that Claire appeared at the top of the stairs and grinned down at him, “Dr. Harris I presume?” she greeted him cheerfully.

“Lady Beringer” Kristofer returned her grin with more than a trace of relief as he moved to the foot of the stairs.

“Come on up, Kristofer” Claire smiled down at him again as she gestured for him to join her on the landing at the top of the stairs.

“Thought it was employees only up here” Kristofer teased as he ascended the steps, trying very hard not to let his eyes openly move over her in response to the fact that she was every bit as beautiful as he remembered her five years earlier.

“Well, you have already acted as security, and given me good ideas for signs, and tended to another employee when he cut himself” she teased as she led him to her office, “we’ll call you an honorary employee.”

When they entered her office, Finn had already been inside with her earlier apparently. He looked a little startled by seeing Kristofer there again after five long years, but tried to hide any other reaction as he stood upon their return to the room. Claire simply nodded and smiled to Finn as he allowed a slight sigh before leaving the two of them in the office and pulling the door at least partially shut behind him on his exit.

Upon seeing Claire move to the seat at the side of the room that Finn had just vacated and gesture for Kristofer to join her there, he had to speak again, “good memory” he smiled as he awkwardly moved to take the offered spot on the small loveseat, casting another wary look after Finn upon his departure.

Taking a seat beside him, Claire smiled over at Kristofer again as he seemed to adopt further awkwardness as he glanced toward the door once more. “So tell me about medical school, and Pennsylvania.”

“A whole lot of studying; years of studying” Kristofer attempted another smile as he forced his eyes to not linger on her for more than a moment.

Narrowing her eyes slightly at how nervous he seemed to become just by the mere fact of sitting on that loveseat with her, Claire attempted to move the conversation forward, “so you are officially a doctor now though?”

“That I would be” Kristofer smiled again, still trying to find anything else in the room to keep his attention off of the beautiful woman who was literally inches from him in that otherwise empty room.

“And you came back here instead of starting a practice back in the col… states?” she corrected herself, as Pennsylvania was now among one of the current twenty states that made up America these days.

“There’s plenty of practices back in the states” Kristofer smiled again, “not so many here” he added.

“Plus, I guess your family’s here” Claire offered as he looked down at her words. Noting his reaction to the mention of his family, she had to ask “so you didn’t come back here to be close to them?”

Kristofer just shook his head sadly, “though I have mentioned my family in the past, I never really explained that much of my relationship with them. I honestly haven’t even tried to contact them since I returned west” he admitted softly.

“Oh dear, were you converted by all those puritans back east?” Claire asked, trying to sound like she was joking, despite her worry about that being an actual possibility.

Kristofer allowed another awkward smile, “actually my family and I parted ways quite a while before you and I even met, and before I ever went east” he stated softly.

“Not because of their beliefs I hope?” Claire asked worriedly.

“Not because of the…” he looked around once more before dropping his volume, “Pagan side of their beliefs, as much as because of other theories they have held for a long time on what they wanted me to do with my life.”

Claire narrowed her eyes at that, “you mean they never wanted you to become a doctor?”

“It wasn’t me being a doctor that they specifically had a problem with; though they did have a problem with me leaving the nest to go all the way to Pennsylvania for five years to become one. Mainly, they just wanted me to stay here and… do other things with my life” he finished quietly.

“That sounds a bit mysterious” Claire returned with another small smile.

Not ready to try and explain his family any more right then, Kristofer attempted a subject change, “speaking of mysterious; is it safe to say that the seer was wrong?”

Though Claire immediately looked down at that particular question, “guess I’m not the only one with a good memory” she replied softly.

“It is kind of hard to forget when someone says they’ve heard about some terrible fate coming to them” Kristofer replied, though gently.

Claire sighed slightly “as far as I know that fate is still in store for me. I just have no idea when it’s actually supposed to happen. So, I’ve just been living in fear of it for… years” she decided on, as admitting that Sean first heard that prophecy back in 1690 wasn’t exactly something she should mention.

Kristofer looked down with his own sadness then, “I guess now I understand why you seemed so sad that very first night that I met you.”

“Yeah, I guess knowing that does make it a little hard to play act being happy on most nights” Claire confessed quietly, just barely managing to force herself from tearing up at the fact of her supposed fate.

Kristofer spent the next few minutes arguing with himself over his desire to try to comfort her and his brain telling him that he should keep his distance for more than one reason. He finally found more words, “so I see you’ve gotten more customers as well as employees since I left.”

Claire smiled faintly at his subject change, but allowed it, “yes, business is at least a little better than it had been those first weeks.”

“I see Finn’s still here though” he dared.

“Like I said, he’s worked for us for a long time” Claire smiled back again.

“So your husband doesn’t mind Finn spending so much time with you?” Kristofer dared further, not quite able to push away those long held suspicions about how close she and Finn truly were.

That was when Claire looked up at him with a bit of surprise, “that’s a rather odd question.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend” he told her as he looked down with an embarrassed and worried blush.

“I’m pretty hard to offend” Claire assured him with another small smile, and then added “and my husband has never been the jealous type.”

Kristofer looked up at that, “considering how beau…” he then let his voice trail off, “I’m guessing that means he has managed to make up for that neglect you mentioned before, then?” he then quickly added, “not that it’s any of my business.”

Claire allowed a small chuckle, “if you want me to talk about my marriage, I may expect you to talk about your family” she chided.

“Sorry” he apologized again, “I guess I’ve just spent a lot of the last five years worrying that taking your husband’s money would put even more strain on the two of you.”

“You’ve honestly been worried about that?” Claire asked with another smile.

“And worried that you would have met that horrible fate by the time I returned. I’d hate to think that I made things worse for you when you didn’t have a lot of time left to make them better as it is” he admitted softly.

“You’ve really spent that much time worrying about me?” Claire asked with a sincere and admiring smile over at him.

That was when Kristofer looked down with an even redder blush, “sorry I know it’s not proper for me to spend so much time thinking about another man’s…”

Before he could finish that sentence, Claire just smiled, shook her head, and moved to place a gentle kiss over his lips. When she ended the kiss, Kristofer looked even more shocked and at a complete loss for any kind of words at all. He was terrified of such a transgression leading to a very real conflict with her very powerful husband; at the same time he wanted nothing more than to feel her lips on his again.

“I think that’s the first time my kiss has inspired such terror” she teased as she looked over at the expression on his handsome face.

“But your husband…” Kristofer stammered as his eyes quickly moved to the door to make sure no one had witnessed the kiss.

“My husband and I have… I guess what you would call an ‘open’ marriage” she admitted with another wary smile.

“Open?” he replied as though the word were spoken in a different language.

“In other words, he won’t fly into a jealous rage at the thought of me sharing a simple kiss with another man. I promise” she assured him.

Kristofer continued to look rather shocked as he tried to process her words. After another long moment, he finally managed to form more of his own, “so I wasn’t imagining the closeness between you and Finn?”

Claire allowed another small laugh, “like I said, Finn has been in me and my husband’s employ for years. Sean is quite aware of Finn’s attraction to me. And Finn is quite safe and well, as you’ve seen” she assured him again.

“So…open?” he repeated again, a moment later.

“So, you kissing me is not the end of the world, I promise you” Claire assured once more.

“Technically you kissed me” Kristofer managed, forcing the slightest smile.

“Are you saying you didn’t want me to?” Claire teased back.

“I find it hard to believe that any man on the planet wouldn’t want you to” Kristofer breathed the words more than spoke them.

Claire couldn’t help a small giggle at that statement before moving to offer him yet another kiss, which he couldn’t help returning after all.