Claire was the one with the look of disbelief then, but she forced herself to keep her tone as even as possible, “well, if we pretend that you didn’t practically abduct me tonight,” she began pointedly, “how exactly do you think I can help you? You don’t even know my name!”

“I know that you’re a young... attractive female” he stated with an odd unease to his tone then before quickly continuing the sentence, “who just happened to be in the same place at the same time where my actual betrothed was supposed to be. And I’m sure she is the perfect noble girl who can’t wait to give me a few heirs, just in case my brother does succumb to his illnesses and I have need of those heirs after all.”

Claire wasn’t even sure what part of his statements to address first, but before she addressed any, she had to get a clearer picture of what he even wanted from her in the form of ‘help.’ “Again, how can I supposedly help you?”

Eliot sighed as he looked away a moment, seeming to be suffering even more discomfort than she, now that he was the one who was in need of some sort of help, “I know that they picked the perfect little wife for me, regardless of who she actually was, and regardless of my opinion on the matter. They just wanted me married as soon as possible. But again, thanks to my illegitimacy, they don’t honestly care who I marry. They just want it done...” he then looked back at her a moment to watch for any reaction to his words.

“What are you saying here, Eliot?” Claire raised a brow.

Eliot took a deep breath to compose himself before answering, his voice actually developing a bit of a nervous stammer as he did, “what I’m saying is something I never thought I’d be saying to any woman, but,” another breath, “would you consider being my wife?”

Claire let out another gasp of disbelief as she tried to comprehend his ever so romantic proposal to her, a woman who he barely knew, and who’d already been married for two and a half centuries already. With her own stammer, she finally managed, “we’ve known each other for less than an hour! You don’t even know my name, still” she reminded. “Are you completely mad?”

“Some would say” he stated, more under his breath, then continued, “but I don’t mean I want you to really be my wife, obviously” he assured, “but if they thought I had run off and had some passionate affair with some woman they don’t even know either” he began with a slight roll of his eyes, “and then fell so madly in love that I just had to make her my wife... Then it would solve their problem with me, as well as my problem with their ideas of who they want me to be prepared to be, if I have to be.” he added more quietly.

Claire took another long moment to digest his words before finding more of her own, “Even if I did agree to some crazy fake marriage with a complete stranger, do you honestly think that would ever work? Marriages are supposed to be until death. You really want us to pretend to be man and wife til you--- we die?” she quickly corrected. “You can’t possibly think that that will ever work. At least not for very long.”

“It could,” he argued. Seeing her obvious doubt, he clarified, “We tell them our lie, we play the happy couple for a few days, then I spend the rest of my life living it the way I want while I simply tell them that my wife is back at one of our family’s many residences. Most are so remote that no one even knows how to get to them any more. It could work...” his words broke off as he obviously was about to finish the sentence by calling her by a name that he still didn’t know.

“Claire,” she told him through her teeth.

“Claire,” he smiled, “but honestly, it could actually work. You’d only need to to even go along with our story for a few days at best. Then you can return to your own life and I to mine. All problems solved” he stated with a wary smile, hoping she would see the merit in his plan.

“It’s not that easy to just pretend to live as the husband or wife of a complete stranger, Eliot. As I said, we don’t even know each other.” She then mentally added that he didn’t even know what she was, let alone who she was. Explaining her sleeping pattern alone would be sure to cause just the first of many problems with his ‘plan.’

Eliot then replied softly, “I’ve pretended all my life, Claire. I’m better at it than most.”

Something about his words made her let out another soft sigh. Regardless of how they even came to meet that very night, it was obvious that he was very desperate to avoid what he saw as a completely doomed life that was already being planned for him, and just as desperate for her to help him avoid it.

“You could ask this of any other woman though. Why me?”

“I guess as strange as it sounds, something about you just makes me think I can trust you. Am I wrong?” he asked with what seemed to be a sincere smile back over at her as she sighed once more. Claire did know full well why humans so easily were drawn to her and why they had so much blind trust in her. It was just one of the many strange facts of what she now was.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Claire was silent for several more long moments as she looked at the countryside passing by the tiny window. Finally, she spoke again, “Everything about this ruse is insane, you know that, right?” she told him, though weakly. To which he only offered another nearly sheepish smile. “And are you forgetting that I did come here to meet someone who most likely has noticed my absence by now?”

“The girl I was set to marry was arriving tonight because I was supposed to marry her tomorrow. If we’re to make them believe any of this story at all, it honestly can’t wait, Claire,” he told her worriedly, then added, “you can always send a messenger, telling whoever is waiting that you’re going to be delayed by a few days. It does happen” he offered.

With further worry, Claire spoke again, “does going along with your current insanity at least mean we will be stopping in Paris after all?”

“If you honestly are willing to help me feed them this lie, then I have no reason to take you elsewhere now that I know that you aren’t actually the woman I was supposed to marry, for real.”

Another sigh from Claire, “and how long until we arrive there?”

Eliot simply nodded to the window as the train began to slow to a stop. “Welcome to Paris” he offered with a slight apprehension of his own then.

“I thought you said that this train wasn’t going to Paris” she told him as she gave him a dark look.

“Most trains from the coast pass through here at least” he admitted, “I just didn’t plan on me and my actual wife-to-be exiting it here. But since you are not her and are hopefully agreeing to help me, well... welcome to Paris” he stated more softly as she offered him another glare.

Once they gathered her few belongings and stepped onto Parisian soil, Claire just had to stop to look up at him once more. He actually stood less than two inches shorter than her husband, which made her seem that much more tiny next to him now that they were no longer simply seated across from each other in a train car.

“Yes, my love?” he couldn’t help the slight smirk as she looked up at him with some defiance still apparent underneath all that doubt.

“Before we actually go and tell this lurid tale of forbidden love or whatever it is you actually plan to tell them, I have to know.”

“Know what?” Eliot asked, somehow finding her more amusing when he noted that simmering anger packed into such a tiny frame.

“I want you to tell me why, I mean really tell me why you are going to such lengths to avoid marrying the woman they chose for you. Especially if you’ve never even met her, I can’t imagine that your reasons for trying this hard to avoid the marriage have anything to do with she herself.”

Eliot sighed as he glanced at the city streets around them, “it is getting rather late. We should make an appearance before too long. And you still have that messenger to send, don’t you?”

“I’ll wait here all night until you tell me the real reasons you’re doing all of this just to avoid a wife you could just spend the rest of your life ignoring anyway. Like you plan to do with your fake wife, right?”

He sighed once more, “she agreed to this marriage, even without ever having met me. I think we can imagine why she would have done such a thing, can’t we?”

“We can?”

“She would only agree to a marriage if there’s something she wanted from it. You obviously have nothing you want from me, other than a ride to the lovely city we now stand in. It seems obvious why I’d rather pretend to be your husband than to actually try to be hers.”

“You’re a bastard though” Claire began, the words coming out harsher than she had planned. She quickly continued, “what could she possibly hope to gain from the marriage?”

Not seeming that ruffled by the reminder of his illegitimacy, Eliot managed a fairly prompt response, “our children would still have Bonaparte blood. That name does still carry quite a bit of weight” he stated in a slight monotone, continuing to look around the city rather than at his companion. He then had to add, “and then there’s the fact that my father only has one legitimate son. A very sickly nine year old boy” he stated even more quietly, “what do you think she wants from me?”

Claire looked down a moment before replying, “but isn’t that par for the course for any arranged marriages between the aristocracy?”

“Yes” he admitted with a sigh, “but it doesn’t mean I have to allow myself to be part of it when I can find any way I can to avoid it. And this is the way I found” he added more quietly.

“So all of this just to keep some noble girl from possibly having a claim to your family’s name?”

“It’s not just that” he stated, though his words were nearly a whisper as he looked away again, seeming suddenly very agitated with continuing the conversation at all.

Then all the clues suddenly seemed to click in Claire’s head, even without the ability to read thoughts that others of their line had. She took a moment to ponder what to even say as she now understood all his willingness to go through with such an insane plan, and it did finally start to become clear to her. That, and the fact that he was probably one of the only mortals she had ever met who didn’t have his aura flooded with desire the moment he laid eyes on her. Now it suddenly did make so much more sense.

“It’s not just the marriage you’re trying to avoid though, is it?” she finally let herself ask him. He looked back at her only a moment, caught by her question. She allowed another sigh, this one actually sounding sympathetic. “It’s the marriage bed you’re trying to avoid, isn’t it?” she asked softly.

“Please” he immediately went on the defensive, “that’s probably the only part that...” but even he couldn’t make himself finish that sentence, as she had already seemed to peel away the layers hiding the true reason he was trying so hard to avoid the life that his family had planned for him.

After another moment of silence, it was obvious that Eliot was not able to hide the panic in his eyes after she called him on those actual reasons. Claire was then compelled to try to assure him that she actually could be trusted with that secret. After all, she had more than her share of sexual desires most of the world would never approve of either.

She offered a smile up at him at last and took his arm, “what are we waiting for? We have a marriage to announce, don’t we?”