Nearly two weeks had passed since Claire’s return to England, and now she was returning once more. This time, she and Nicolas had just come back from their revisiting of the site where the nightmare that was his childhood had taken place.

There were the expected reservations and moments of fear from him as he faced that past. But seeing the asylum now abandoned, fallen into disrepair, no remnants of the man who had tortured he and his sister, or any of the people who had somehow never managed to stop it from happening; those things did eventually begin to make him realize that his past was finally gone for good. Or so they all hoped would be the case for him. But as all of them had said at one point or another: Eternity is a very long time. So his extended Kindred family would always be keeping an eye on him, even if from afar, just to assure all of them that he would never truly become like his sire.

Upon their return, it wasn’t just Hollister waiting in the main hall to hear the tale of how their trip had went. Aidan had also stopped in upon finding out that his sire would be there once more that night. As she and Nicolas entered the room, she was more than a little surprised to first sense, then see Aidan, despite knowing that he had been living in London under Hollister’s rule for as long as Nicolas had in recent decades.

“Aidan? Hi...” she managed as she and Nicolas moved slowly toward where he and Hollister greeted them with smiles, Hollister’s polite, Aidan’s more jovial, as usual.

“Hi? All I get is a hi?” he chided as he took a step forward to reach out for a hug, completely unaware of how Claire might still be feeling the sting of his affair with Garnet making him seemingly forget about her altogether, despite the long, passionate past she and he now shared.

The embrace lasted a long moment before Claire finally made herself return it, and wrap her childe in her own arms as well. Though looking up into his dark eyes again, that she still had difficulty with, even after all this time; a probable side effect from never getting any real sort of closure with any of her previous lovers after they had abandoned her for that strange girl all those years ago.

“So, you both still appear to be in one piece” Hollister offered, cutting through the tension in the room that followed the awkward reunion.

“It was hard” Nicolas affirmed, “but it’s done. Hopefully it’s all really in the past now” he added more quietly.

“Good” Hollister smiled. He then glanced at where Claire stiffly stood between Aidan and Nicolas now, her eyes still locked to the marble floors beneath their feet. “Thank you, Claire, for following through on helping with such a matter.”

Though the tiniest nod seemed to be her only response. It was apparent that she was not feeling comfortable in that moment at all, even though two of the three men had been extraordinarily close to her in nights past. But now, the distance between she and them seemed palpable.

Thankfully a servant then interrupted that awkward silence in the room to inform Hollister of a visitor to his home. “And who might this visitor be?” Hollister asked the young woman.

“A human, sire. He said he was some sort of ambassador, from France?”

“Isn’t a bit late for human politics?” Hollister asked the question more to himself, “not that that emperor ever had much decorum” he added, Claire’s eyes flying up at the mention of Eliot’s father. “Fine, send him in.” Though, having caught that quick look from Claire, Hollister narrowed his eyes as he looked back her way, “you’ve met him, haven’t you?”

“Who do you mean?” she asked hoarsely, mainly to buy a moment to compose herself.

“Napoléon III. Their current emperor” he clarified unnecessarily.

“Briefly” was the only answer she managed.

“You don’t sound as though you liked him much either” he allowed a wry smile, “any idea why he would be sending me an ambassador at this hour?”

“You’re the politician” was all she could find to respond with. Though Hollister’s dark look seemed to imply that he knew that she must have had some suspicion on the matter, though Claire remained silent, her eyes returning to the floor.

Before they could discuss the matter further, all their eyes turned to the doors of the main hall as the ambassador in question entered. Claire was sure her heart would have stopped, could it have, once her deep green eyes fell upon Eliot entering the room, his expression saying plenty, even without the ability to read his thoughts.

After the long moment he took to pull his eyes from Claire, Eliot moved them over the others present as he slowly made his feet carry him across the room toward them.

“And you are?” Hollister greeted him, though his eyes easily caught the tension there between Eliot and Claire.

“Eliot Bonaparte, my lord” he replied, his voice shaking for more reasons than their combined presence affecting him all at once, as he offered a slight bow, his eyes never leaving Claire for a moment as she stared back, trying to find any words at all for him right then.

“Bonaparte?” Hollister raised a brow at that, “and you are here, why again?” Hollister continued.

Eliot needed another moment to finally pull his eyes from Claire, as well as move them from the other men present, before he remembered to speak, “it seems that the emperor’s daughter-by-law had gone missing. And then had returned to our shores again this very night, before being spirited away across the channel to your own shores once more. And now, it seems, to your own door. His son would very much like her returned to him” he added, his eyes locked on Claire once again then.

The way Eliot’s eyes remained upon Claire made it more than apparent who he was speaking about, which caused Hollister to take a moment of his own before responding to the young man, though his eyes too were on Claire then, “the emperor’s daughter-by-law?” he repeated in an almost accusatory tone.

“Yes, they were only married weeks ago before she... vanished. We were quite concerned that something terrible had happened to her. The royal family were nearly beside themselves, or her husband was, at any rate” Eliot replied more quietly, still watching Claire as she kept her eyes down.

“This would be a good time for you to speak up, Claire” Hollister told her in a muted tone.

“If we could just have a moment?” Claire made herself ask, her voice small.

Hollister shook his head before nodding his permission for she and Eliot to go ‘have a moment,’ as she had requested. She awkwardly took Eliot’s arm and led him from the main hall, easily noting all that suspicion, worry, and hurt in his aura right then.

When they finally reached her chambers, Eliot seemed at a loss for words but made himself form them nonetheless, “I suppose I feel a bit better now” was all he managed, nearly choking on the words as his eyes turned back to her.

“You do?” she asked, not expecting that response, as it was in direct opposition to everything his aura said he was feeling right then.

“At least now that I know that you abandoned me for a huge English castle, filled with extremely attractive men” he responded as he moved to lounge back on the edge of her bed with a shake of his head.

Claire almost allowed a small chuckle at the fact that his humor had somehow remained in tact, despite her unexplained abandonment, but quickly forced a more regretful expression. “How did you even manage to find me here though?”

“For all anyone else knows, you are my wife. Do you really think none of my father’s men would have told him that his missing daughter-by-law was seen boarding a ship tonight, with one of those... extremely attractive men” he added distractedly as his dark eyes turned toward her chamber door again.

“These are the friends I originally came to France to help. Before our... adventure” she attempted another smile, “seems they still needed my help after all, hence my leaving like that” she attempted the vaguest explanation she could while still avoiding any outright deceit.

“That’s all well and good, but it still doesn’t explain why you didn’t just tell me you wanted to go see those friends” he told her sadly.

“I’m sorry” she whispered as she moved to take a seat on the bed as well, “I’ve just never been very good at saying goodbye. Especially to people I really don’t want to have to say goodbye to at all. I was scared that you would be angry with me for... all we said, and did... and then for me to leave anyway, despite how close we were getting. I didn’t want to see that anger, any more than I wanted to leave at all” she assured him, leaving out the other factor of not wanting him to have to get any further involved in the lives of any more of her kind, considering the growing suspicions he already had about her own nature.

“But isn’t marriage for better or worse?” he chided.

Claire allowed a small smile, “Eliot, you know we’re not really married. I already have a husband, remember?”

“Was he one of those extremely attractive men downstairs?” he couldn’t help asking as he looked at the door again.

“No” she admitted with a small smile.

“Then it seems I’m the only one you have here. And I don’t want to give up that role, quite yet” he whispered as he moved to kiss her once again.

When their kiss ended, Claire’s relief almost matched Eliot’s, at the fact that their relationship, such as it even was, still endured. “I’m still shocked that you came here to find me, and get me back.” she smiled softly.

Looking down with that trace of a blush again, Eliot replied, “so who were all those very delicious young men surrounding you when I arrived, anyway?” he attempted to lighten the intensity of that kiss he hadn’t even planned, consciously anyway.

Claire took a moment to try and decide how to explain a room full of Kindred and their odd relationships with one another to a human who still did not even know they existed. “Well the one who did all the talking, that’s Hollister. He’s the... nobleman who owns this castle” she decided on. “The others were mutual friends of he and I.”

“And these friends don’t have names?” Eliot teased as he smiled over at her.

Claire had to take a moment with that answer too, “Nicolas and Aidan” she admitted, quickly looking up to see him quickly looking down.

“Well, at least you weren’t lonely during our separation” he returned, though his words had dropped to nearly a whisper then.

“It’s not like that, Eliot” she attempted, though her own tone was weak then.

“Like what? We’re not really married and you already have a husband stashed somewhere else as well. It’s hardly that shocking at this point.”

“My husband is back in America. And it’s been a... a long time” she made herself say once more, “since I was even with Aidan or Nicolas. Actually, I hadn’t even seen Aidan in years, until coming into this place and seeing him here again tonight.”

Eliot simply shook his head as he leaned back on his elbows to turn his eyes to the ceiling above them with a rather hard to read expression on his face. “This is the strangest relationship ever.”

“I’m kind of afraid of what you might say next” she admitted.

He then let out a shadow of a chuckle, “Everyone back home thinks we fell madly in love and were married, then that you abandoned me days later. And now here we are, together again, three weeks into our alleged marriage, still having not consummated it, despite what the nobility of France might think. And here I am questioning your sexual relations when I haven’t even properly made love to you yet, or any woman for that matter” he just shook his head again as he recounted those facts.

“Welcome to my life” she attempted her own smile, sad though it was, “are you sure you’re not the one who might run away from me now?”