Claire spent nearly an hour chatting with her only customer, whose name she came to find out was Kristofer. He very slowly nursed his drink as he spoke to her about a nice, safe subject such as the growth and progress of the little Spanish settlement into the large port town that now had grown up around them. As he continued taking the slowest, smallest sips possible, almost as though he were loath to end their conversation, another customer finally found his way to the door of the saloon to interrupt their chat.

“Sorry, the prostitutes are gone” Claire greeted him automatically as she pulled her attention from Kristofer.

“Maybe you should put a sign on the door” Kristofer couldn’t help the slight smirk, though he kept his voice too low for the other man to have made out his words.

“Then what are you darlin?” the man asked in a tone that slurred a bit as though he had already started his drinking before arriving at her door.

Kristofer tensed slightly at the man’s words as Claire glared back at him before finding her own, “I’m the new owner, thank you” she corrected him coldly.

The other man scoffed at that answer as he took another step into the saloon, “you don’t exactly look like a saloon owner to me” he disagreed as he cast an unconcerned glance toward where Kristofer remained in his seat, taking another slow sip of his drink. “You do look like you might have some other nice uses though” the man added as he moved his eyes over Claire with a lick of his lips.

That was when Kristofer finally turned in his seat, “I believe the lady told you that you are mistaken. You should probably either sit down and just enjoy another drink, or go find the nearest brothel” Kristofer defended coolly.

The man scoffed again, though Kristofer’s words did do well to take his attention from Claire however momentarily. The man then looked over Kristofer’s appearance with a dismissive laugh, “you’re almost as pretty as her; maybe I’ll give it to you both” he growled as he puckered his lips and made a kissing noise.

That action did cause Kristofer to get to his feet and land a punch across the other man’s jaw. The mere unexpectedness of the action did cause the man to stumble backward a bit before regaining his balance and moving to return Kristofer’s attack. Only Claire’s hand reached over to clamp down hard on his shoulder and stop him from delivering that return blow.

“What, you wanna go first, bitch? That works for me” he growled back at her as he turned his full attention back to her.

Claire glared back at his words before speaking in a measured, forceful tone, “I think you need to leave, now” she stressed the last of the slow words as they left her lips.

The man seemed startled for more than a moment before mumbling, “I think I need to leave, now” and with that he turned away from them and moved toward the door, a blank look replacing the anger that had etched his face only moments earlier.

As the door closed behind the belligerent man, Kristofer couldn’t help the look of surprise he centered on Claire then, “you are apparently very convincing” he stated in a quiet, skeptical tone.

Claire looked down quickly, “he was drunk. He probably didn’t wanna take his chances at being sober enough to win that fight” she attempted to excuse as she busied herself shining another already clean glass.

“He looked like he wanted to take his chances. Considering he did have a physical advantage over the only two of us who are here” Kristofer denied, though softly as he reclaimed his previous seat, still watching her warily.

“He was drunk. Who knows what was really in his head?” she attempted to write it off again, though her eyes remained averted.

Kristofer attempted to watch her skeptically as he finished his drink at last, “I think I may need another” he requested quietly a moment later.

Claire allowed only a slight smile as she finally looked up at him, “I hope you don’t think you have to stay here to protect me” she told him worriedly as she went about getting him his next glass.

“Would that be so bad?” Kristofer smiled over at her as he took the glass, his fingers just slightly brushing hers and causing his breath to catch.

“I don’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt trying to protect my honor, or some such thing” she assured him with the same worry.

Kristofer took another sip and another breath as he bravely offered his next sentence, “I can’t help wondering why no one else is here trying to do just that.”

Claire scoffed, though smiled slightly, “I don’t really need protecting from drunken lechers, I promise” she attempted to assure him, knowing darn well that she was a lot more capable than Kristofer when it came to the mortal variety of villains.

“Not that I don’t admire your bravery, but I can’t help imagining what would happen if you were left here all alone and he came back; perhaps with more of his drunken, lecherous friends who got it in their head to take advantage of a beautiful woman being here alone at night” he stated gently.

Claire couldn’t help smiling at his chivalry, despite the strangeness of some unbound mortal ever thinking he needed to protect her. “I just really don’t wanna see you hurt” she assured again, “you’re one of the few... ok, the only decent and sweet gentleman I’ve met tonight” she told him softly.

Kristofer couldn’t help a slight blush and a smile, “I find it very strange that you seem more worried about my safety than your own.”

Claire looked down awkwardly, “I guess I’m a strange woman.”

“The strangest” he agreed with another smile, and then added “not that that’s a bad thing.”

Claire couldn’t help another slight chuckle as she quickly turned away to hide a red tear that had inexplicably been trying to surface.

“Is something wrong?” Kristofer asked with concern at the way she had suddenly turned her back to him.

“You just really remind me of…” she then shook her head, knowing that remembering a time so long ago when she had met some other man who had seemed so similar to him, would not push away those tears as she thought on how many things had changed since that time.

“Remind you of?” Kristofer asked, though gently.

“Someone I met a long, long time ago” she offered with a slight sniffle as she moved to take a visual inventory of the bottles of liquor behind her, if for no other reason than to buy herself another moment to regain her composure.

“Someone you’ve lost?” Kristofer dared as he watched her closely, his eyes inadvertently wandering to that wedding band he had noticed on her pale hand quite early in the night.

“Someone I’ve just… grown apart from” she decided on, then as she felt the tears again, she spoke once more, not turning back to him, “excuse me” she whispered as she headed to the privy, closing the door tightly behind her as letting him see any trace of those bloody tears would be sure to make the evening take a decidedly darker turn.

It was nearly fifteen minutes later when Claire somehow managed to push back her own upset and return to her place behind the bar. Kristofer attempted a sad smile as he looked up at her reappearance, “I was beginning to think you snuck out a back door” he teased.

“Surprised you’re still here” she attempted another smile.

“Were you hoping I’d leave?” Kristofer dared, despite his fear that that had been her intention in leaving him there alone at the bar.

“I wouldn’t be a very good businesswoman if I was trying to scare off my one paying customer” she returned with another small smile.

“So, how did you become a businesswoman?” he asked, trying to push the conversation away from the subject that had so obviously upset her earlier.

“How?” Claire asked, a little caught by the question.

“Not meaning to offend, but there aren’t all that many women who own businesses” he attempted to explain the reason behind his question.

Claire sighed slightly as she looked down. She wasn’t sure why she felt hesitant about explaining to him that her husband had simply bought the place for her. Perhaps she wasn’t ready to bring Sean into their conversation just yet, as just thinking of Sean had brought about those tears that would have shattered the Masquerade right then and there.

“The saloon was a gift” she finally answered quietly.

“A gift?” he asked as he raised a brow.

“Yes. Someone bought it off the last owner and decided to let me run it instead” Claire managed further.

“Someone?” Kristofer repeated with the same skeptical look.

Claire then allowed another awkward laugh, “are you writing a book?” she attempted to tease.

“I think I’d need to ask you more than one question to have enough material for a book” he called her on her apparent resistance to even providing that one straight answer to a rather simple question.

Easily catching the slight suspicion in both his tone and his aura, she finally added that further explanation, “my husband bought it for me” she confessed as her eyes inadvertently turned to her wedding band, just as Kristofer’s had then as well.

Kristofer allowed a slight chuckle, sad though it was, “I’m not sure why you’ve been so wary of mentioning him. I did notice the ring about two seconds after I laid eyes on you” he admitted with another nervous smile.

Claire offered her own nervous chuckle then, “I just… I don’t know either” she admitted as she looked down once more.

“Well, now that the husband cat is out of the bag,” Kristofer teased, “I’m even more curious why he’s not here with you” he then quickly added, “I don’t mean to run the place instead or anything. But it is a bit dangerous to leave you here alone; as evidenced by our last guest” he added as he gestured toward the door.

“Sean has… other duties” she settled on.

“Sean?” Kristofer narrowed his eyes at that.

“My husband” she clarified in a near whisper.

That’s when Kristofer’s eyes moved over her rather expensive looking dress and then toward the window nearest that thick brick wall that was barely two miles off from the tavern they now stood in. He then swallowed a bit as his eyes came back to her face, “not Sean Beringer?”

Claire seemed a little caught by the question as she allowed herself to focus on his aura again. Seeing no real sign of malice there, she answered “you’ve heard the name?”

“Everybody in this town has heard that name. He owns literally, everything” he told her with a bit of shock apparent in his voice.

Claire looked down once more, “to be fair, he inherited just about all of what he now owns.”

“Still,” Kristofer shook his head, “that makes you like the richest woman in town.”

Claire just scoffed, “my husband is rich. I just run a saloon” she attempted to dismiss the claim.

“But why?” he had to ask.

“Why?” Claire asked, caught again.

“Why are you here trying to run this place? It’s not like you need to” he stated quietly.

Claire sniffled a bit at the question, “I guess I wanted to do something more than just…” a sad sigh, “more than just sitting around in a huge house waiting for my husband to have time for me” she admitted in a near whisper.

Kristofer was then the one caught by Claire’s words. He took another sip to gather his thoughts, “so, again, not trying to offend; but I’m assuming that means that you have a less than happy marriage?”

Claire looked down quickly again at the words that almost felt like a knife piercing her heart, despite the fact that he didn’t seem to have any real malice behind his observation. “We used to have the happiest marriage in the world. But now that he’s… who he is… I guess our marriage is only a secondary part of his life… our life” she finished sadly.

Kristofer was quiet another long moment as he took in her obvious sadness, “it sounds like you’re still very in love with him though.”

“If only that were enough” Claire whispered as she turned away to hide those tears once more.