<hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/e/e4/Natehunter.png/437px-Natehunter.png)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Nathan Hunter<br/><strong>Faction:</strong>Senior Deputy (Law Dogs)<br/><strong>Date:</strong>May 2nd, 1876<br/><strong>Time of Day:</strong>Night<br/><strong>Location:</strong>The road to Vigilance Ranch<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Margeurite, Closed<br/><hr/>He watched her puzzled look, saw the gears turning, and his own brow knit.  He helped slip her up on the horse, then mounted gracefully, patting Ergo's neck and getting them moving.  He frowned and looked over his shoulder as he gently eased the horse along.<strong>“Middle height... but soft, yes.  Curly hair.  Irish blood, I think.  Pale skin, brown haired... don't think he's worked a day in his life,”</strong>he chuckled.<strong>“He went on and on about his business in Boston folding.  Tried a few investments out here, but the bank wasn't keen on lending him credit.”</strong>He gave a small chuckle.<strong> “Or maybe they just couldn't understand with that accent.”</strong>He smiled, good natured, over his shoulder.  He hid the jealous pang, reading the subtext of her words that she was, indeed married – though the prospect of her being married to Alfred seemed exceedingly narrow.<br/><br/><strong>“Yes, Eklain,”</strong>he nodded.  He blinked when she asked if he thought she'd married him.<strong>“Because he's got a marriage license?” </strong>He heard the strange edge in her voice, the sound that bordered on madness, and he turned in the saddle once again, looking back at her, the wet sound of the sob under the laugh puncturing him deeper than the knife.  His brow knit, and as she started to slide backward off the horse, his hand reached out to her waist, pulling her close again, keeping her there as he steadfastly ignored the stab of pain.<br/><br/><strong>“But you are married,”</strong>he said, trying to keep the disappointment from his voice.  She deserved far better from him.  Some romantically foolish notion of wooing her, wedding her died with the realization, the certainty her heart belonged to another.  The pure happiness he'd seen in her smile cemented that.  He kept his arm partly around her – not quite a hug, but an attempt to keep her on Ergo while she laughed, or cried, or whatever it was she was doing.