A few days after Joseph's uncomfortable discussion with Rupert...

Clarisse kept her eyes on the document in her hands as she spoke to Joseph, who sat across from her at the small table in her office.

"This is the third day in a row you've eaten nothing but a salad for lunch. What is going on?"

"I'm not as young as I used to be. The time has come to lighten my fare."

"There isn't even dressing on it."

"I've lost my taste for it," he lied. He tried not to grimace as he pushed another forkful of naked lettuce into his mouth.

She looked up and watched him skeptically as he tried to enjoy his meal. "Hmm."

He decided to change the subject. "Is the museum visit still on for tomorrow?"

She returned her eyes to the document. "Yes. This time I will remember to wear sensible heels. Honestly, that place has more stairs than the palace. It's exhausting."

"You know, you're not getting any younger either." Her head snapped up and she shot a cautionary look at him. "I only mean, your job is physically taxing and in order to keep up with it, perhaps you should consider exercising. An aerobic routine, for example."

Her expression changed from guarded to amused. "You do say the funniest things."

"What's so funny about that?"

"Queens don't do exercise. Especially not aerobics."

"Maybe they should."

"Whatever for?"

"Why ever not?"

"Because every aspect of it is unseemly. The skin-tight clothing, the exaggerated motions and crazy positions, all the sweating."

"Funny, your description of it is, um, rather appealing." The faintest blush crept onto her cheeks. He smiled apologetically. "Sorry. It was there."

The flirtatious banter between them was naturally occurring. It took a conscious effort to keep it in check. He sighed as he speared a tomato wedge and held it up, inspecting it thoughtfully.

She laughed when he plucked the tomato off the fork and dropped it back onto his plate with a disappointed look. He gave her a wounded glare.

"Well, I can't possibly eat another bite of this." She pushed away her plate with a good deal of quiche still on it, making room for the sheaf of papers. "And it's a shame because it's obscenely delicious."

Joseph eyed the plate. Quiche wasn't his favorite, but it was one of Chef's specialties. At least it had fat in it, and not a speck of green. "Oh alright, give it here."

She smiled as she pushed the plate the rest of the way over. "I can't have you fainting from hunger while you're on duty at the museum tomorrow, with all those stairs."

"I suppose as long as you're consuming gooey, cheesy quiche and mocking exercise, there's no point in my going to extreme measures to prolong my own life."

"Do you plan on following me into the Great Hereafter?"

"Maybe not right away, but at this rate…"

"Fine, then, I'll save you a seat. I bet we don't have to eat salad there."

"If there are tomatoes, I will seriously doubt whether we are actually in heaven." He sat back in his chair and smiled at her. "I suppose under normal circumstances this would be a perfect time to give you some sugar-sweet cliché about heaven and being so close to it when I'm with you…"

She smiled back at him warmly. "Please, Joseph, I just ate."

He chuckled.

"I meant to tell you," she said, her attempt at nonchalance not fooling him. "Do you remember the time Genovia hosted the economic summit?"

"You mean, when shots rang out and a bullet went through my jacket as I knocked you to the ground to keep us from dying? Yes, that does stick in my memory." For those, and other reasons. Joseph's eyes darkened from the memories - the ones he spoke of, and the ones destined to remain on the outskirts of words, undefined and unrepeatable. To distract himself, he returned to his - well, her lunch, but the food turned to dust in his mouth.

She squirmed slightly, and he thought she blushed again as she regained her composure. "I thought it might," she murmured. She watched him carefully as he chewed the last bite of quiche. "For Rupert, too, apparently. He's citing it among a list of reasons to consider you for knighthood."

Joseph nearly choked. He reached for a glass of water as he coughed and sputtered.

Clarisse's eyes got big. "Are you choking? Do I need to do the Heimlich maneuver?"

"No," he finally managed. "I'll be fine." After a calming sip of water, he cleared his throat. "Clarisse, I was doing what I had sworn to do. And that was nearly two years ago. Why would His Majesty want to knight me now?"

"To repay your valor, to honor your dedication."

"After all this time?" A wedding present. Something helpful if Rupert died first and Joseph aspired ridiculously to marry the queen. He felt slightly nauseated. "I would be happy if he simply bought me a new jacket," he muttered.

"It's to be a quiet and simple ceremony. Stately, but without all the usual fanfare. He thought it would suit your preferences."

"I told you what would suit my preferences. It was black, leather. My tastes haven't really changed. Anyway, you said he was considering it. Now you make it sound like a done deal."

"You know how he is when he gets an idea in his head. Why is this a surprise to you? Did he not mention it in your meeting earlier this week?"

"He did not," Joseph responded quietly, suddenly wary. He was no better at fooling her than she was at fooling him. She was fishing again, and if she asked the right questions, he would not lie to her, and she knew it.

"I know you don't want to tell me, but I can't figure out why. You're still here, so you haven't been fired. Rupert's mood has drastically improved. It must have been positive, overall." She paused, but Joseph didn't say anything. He only picked up his fork and began toying with the salad. "Joseph?"

"He said he believes you - that we haven't been…" More squirming, but this time it was him. Proper wording was essential. "Well, that there is no affair. And he said you have given too much to Genovia to have your character maligned. He felt keeping me on wasn't a sufficient expression of his trust in you and his disbelief in the rumors. He wanted people to know." He gave her a sarcastic smile. "What better way to say, 'I know you're not sleeping with my wife,' than to elevate me to the knighthood, right? If I'd known…" he trailed off as he set down the fork and looked directly at her. "I don't want it. You know me. But I can hardly say no, especially if it will exonerate you."

"I don't know that it will. Besides,…" She searched for the right words, but none came.

"I know. It's supposed to prove my honor, but I'm not sure I have any."

Her eyes flashed and she responded with feeling. "Of course, you have! Anyway, it was I who came to you."

"Only because you got a head start. Ten more minutes, and I would have been at your door. I'd been trying to resist taking that walk to your suite all evening. But there's something else." Joseph took a deep breath. "Clarisse, I think he knows. He didn't say it, but…"

She nodded as he trailed off, not quite surprised. "I rather thought." She frowned. "I know he believed me, yet somehow, he seemed to know there had been something…" She bit her lip and chanced a look at him. "He said he was certain you loved me too much to risk a long-term affair with me."

He smiled wryly. "Ah, but not enough to risk a night."

She started to respond, but thought better of it. It really wasn't necessary. He loved her more than his own life, and she knew that.

They sat in silence for a long minute, and Joseph contemplated Rupert's scheme. He wanted to use a thwarted assassination attempt that was almost two years old to prove his faith in his wife and her bodyguard, despite suspecting that attempt had somehow resulted in a lapse in his wife's fidelity and his servant's loyalty. It was a backhanded compliment, a power play disguised as a favor. Joseph's title might prove one thing to the people of Genovia, but to him, it would only ever be a reminder of the opposite. A reminder Rupert intended for Joseph to carry with him into a legitimate relationship with his wife, should the two of them ever have the opportunity to pursue one.

Then again, maybe that was an unjust accusation, thrown up by Joseph's guilty conscience. Rupert had pronounced him the better man, had said he was pulling for him.

Of course, he also said Joseph could never be enough for Clarisse.

He had to stop thinking about it. His head was starting to hurt.

Clarisse spoke again first. "I'm not sure the timing is right. It's an obvious ploy. The current sensation is dying down, and any ceremony, no matter how much the fanfare is toned down, will only revive interest. There were rumors before it, and I'm sure there will be rumors after. Not that you don't deserve it, but I don't see that it would be particularly helpful. Unless there is another reason…?"

"His Majesty is not as open with his thoughts around me as you are. I couldn't say anything for certain."

She was quiet for a long moment, staring at him intently as she analyzed all the evidence. He finally broke away from her gaze. It was a mistake, but he couldn't bear her scrutiny any longer. "Clarisse, I will do anything if it will help you. But I agree: the timing is wrong. Do you think you could convince him -"

"Why do you want to live longer, Joseph?" she asked abruptly. "Why do you want me to live longer?"

Damn. "I am your bodyguard. It is my job to see that you live longer. Since no one can protect you as well as I can, I'm trying to improve my own health as well."

"Are you trying to outlive Rupert?"

"No," he said, perhaps a little too emphatically. Her eyes widened slightly, startled in part by the intensity of his response, in part by this revelation and its consequences. "I can see by your face that you're jumping to conclusions."

"I'm not sure they're the wrong ones," she said, almost in a whisper.

"They are, I promise you." Oh Lord, how to explain? "It's not that I want us to outlive him, I just…" He stood up from the table and started pacing. "There is the chance, isn't there? Or we could all live well into a merry old age together, but there's still the possibility that, well… That we…"

"That you and I might be the last ones standing?"

"Something like that. But even if we aren't," he hurried on, "I want to be around you as long as possible. Clarisse, I can't take care of you unless I'm in excellent physical condition. And as I said, I'm not getting any younger. I have to try harder. Do you know what it would do to me to be replaced?" He stood with his hands gripping the back of his chair, hoping she understood.

There was another long silence, this one more agonizing than the last. "David is approaching retirement."

"He is, some time in the next few years."

"Has he mentioned candidates for the position?"

"He is planning to recommend me as his replacement when the time comes, or was before everything happened in Paris. I think he's hesitant to mention my name to His Majesty right now."

"You could be head of security even if you gained a few pounds or your knees went bad?"

"It wouldn't be ideal."

"Possible though." She drummed her fingers on the table. "It is a position of supreme trust, is it not?"

"Without a doubt. I still would have to face the task of training my replacement for you."

"Eventually. Not right away. David is head of security as well as Rupert's personal bodyguard."

"He is." Joseph sat back down. "I'm not sure it would…prove anything though. An appointment still two years down the road."

Clarisse shook her head in disagreement. "Ideally, you would begin training now, while David is still here. Then you would take over a year before his retirement, during which time he would act in an advisory capacity. This could be announced internally at any time. It would be proof enough to the palace staff, and word would spread from there. What the staff believes, the rest of the country holds to as well. It's certainly a more low-key display of trust, but ultimately just as effective. Perhaps more so, since it wouldn't be such an overt tactic."

"And I would still be taking care of you. I just don't want to leave you unprotected. I don't want to leave you. Period."

"I don't want you to leave." She started to reach her hands across the table, but hesitated. He saw the almost gesture and smiled. Under normal circumstances, it would have been something small - to reach out and take his hands, to give them a reassuring squeeze or sweep her thumbs back and forth across them. It would have been quick and discreet. Now, with the pictures still not a week behind them, they had been even more careful to maintain an appropriate distance, even when they were alone, which it seemed more and more, they never really were. "I'll talk to Rupert this afternoon. I'm sure he'll reconsider once he weighs all the options. Tell me, has he been eating salads for lunch as well?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, my dear, but in our meeting at 11:00 on Monday morning, he was smoking a cigar and drinking scotch."

A peal of laughter rang from her lips. "Rupert relates to the life-is-short motto. Embrace the moment."

"There is certainly something to that."

"There is." Her eyes twinkled. "All those stairs - that's rather like exercise, isn't it?"

"Yes, if you wanted to look at it that way."

She responded with a scowl he could not help but think was adorable. "I'd prefer not to. But you were willing to be knighted for my sake. I suppose the least I could do is incorporate a little more exercise into my day."

He pushed his salad plate toward her. "And eat more leafy greens."

She wrinkled her nose. "Let's not go overboard."

He laughed. "Maybe we should go with the moderation-in-all-things motto."

"Tienes mi corazon por siempre."

"I will never leave. Te amo, mi reina."

To be continued…

Thank you, Marjorie Nescio, for asking very important questions that, among other things, helped Joseph keep his sense of propriety (well, he tried, anyway), and gave Rupert the benefit of the doubt. Honestly, I was too biased for the second part; you kept me true to Rupert's character as I had already written it. What really goes on in His Majesty's mind will stay an enigma to Joseph. And to me. Heck, maybe even to Rupert, ha ha.

Thank you for all the reviews with reactions, comments, questions. I love them all. Hearing from you makes me happy. I hope you're still enjoying the story. One chapter left...