Glad you all enjoyed my last one. Thanks for the reviews! Here's Chapter 29:

As the days passed Clarisse and Joe were quite busy with things to do. On one particular evening after dinner Clarisse had the urge to play some card games out on the patio as the sun set in the distance.

To have more of a challenge she decided to invite both Charlotte and Shades to play with them.

As dinner ended and was being cleaned up, Clarisse scanned the halls and corridors for Charlotte and put Joe on the prowl for Shades.

"Darling if you find either of them please tell them to meet us in twenty minutes outside, that is if they want to play," she shouted as she ascended the staircase and he went under it, down the hall towards the security quarters.

As he walked he could have sworn he faintly heard Charlotte's voice, but when he stopped to listen there was no sound. "Maybe it was one of the maids," he thought to himself.

Meanwhile upstairs… as Clarisse walked towards her suite for a light sweater she decided to keep her eyes open for the two. As she rounded the corner she almost crashed into Olivia, Brigitte, and Brigitta who were coming from the other way.

"Oh my Your Majesty!" Olivia shrieked as she stopped herself before hitting Clarisse.

"Oo Olivia, ladies, I almost didn't see you there."

"Pardon us Your Majesty," Brigitta said as the three diverted their eyes downward and curtsied.

"No, no it's quite alright my dears, I came around too quickly."

"Is there anything we can do for you Ma'am?" Olivia asked.

"No, I'm fine. Thank you."

"Well your bed has been turned down for the night and we placed fresh towels in your bathroom as Sir Joseph requested, but if there's anything else please let us know." Brigitte declared.

"Ok thank you very much." She said as she began to walk away from them continuing on towards the suite.

"Of course Ma'am." Brigitta said as they turned to go the other way.

Then a thought occurred to Clarisse. "Oh ladies?" she shouted trying to call them back. "Ladies?"

The maids stopped and turned. "Yes?" Olivia asked for them all.

"Have you seen Charlotte or Shades anywhere?"

The maids looked at each other a bit nervously. "Um no Your Majesty actually we haven't," Olivia began. "Ah yes we ah haven't seen either of them for a while now," Brigitta added. "Yes maybe the last we saw them was around 3:00 o'clock?" Brigitte said as the three maids nodded agreeing to their answers.

Clarisse noticed right away how strange this was. Her assistant and head of security are missing…together…and the maids are trying to convince her that they don't know where they are and they know everything.

"Is that so?" Clarisse asked as her eyes narrowed to a pondering squint.

Nodding nervously they all replied simultaneously, "Yes Your Majesty."

"Well… then… if you see Charlotte or Shades will you please tell them that I am looking for them?"

"Yes, yes of course Your Majesty," they said as they watched as the Dowager Queen turned and continued on her way.

Clarisse turned back for a second as she heard their heeled feet quickly clanking on the marble floor in a hasten retreat.

"What on earth was that about?" she said out loud to herself as she opened the door to the royal suite.

While retrieving a sweater that matched her outfit, her husband came into the room.

"Did you find them?" she asked when she saw him.

"Ah yeah, I found them." He said not making eye contact.

"Well, where were they?"

"In Shades' office."

"Shades' office? Oh? What were they up to?"

"You don't want to know." He said a smirk on his lips.

"They weren't?" Clarisse asked with a huge surprised smile.

"Oh I assure you they were." Joseph said with a laugh as his face turned red.

"And you caught them? Like I caught them?" she asked laughing.

"Wait you caught them? Where?"

"The day of your birthday, when the motorcycle was delivered. I caught them in the utility closet necking. Oh I'm sorry that's right I forgot to tell you, I told Mia though."

Joseph did a double take. "How could you forget to tell me something like that and they were in the utility closet? The one Mia and Nick were spotted in?"

"The same."

"And they were "necking"?" Joseph asked.

"Yep."

"Well they weren't necking this time. There was more to it then just necking," Joe smoothly described.

"Oh my God and you walked in on them?" she laughed as her hand covered her mouth. "Did you knock, because I mean really we scolded Mia for that one time she didn't knock and interrupted us,"

"No I didn't knock, but then again I didn't enter either. I heard them."

"Oh so you didn't actually break the moment then?" Clarisse acknowledged with relief for all involved.

"No see I thought I heard Charlotte down the hall at one point, but when I stopped there was nothing. I proceeded to Shades' office and as I was about to knock "noises" aka moans were coming from within."

"And you're sure it was both Shades and Charlotte?"

"Well I think when I heard "Oh Shades…and oh Charlotte" that it gave it away."

They both laughed hysterically.

"So I suppose they're too busy to play cards with us then?" Clarisse said.

Joseph made a face, which made his wife laugh.

The two headed for the door to go play a game of cards by themselves.

As they walked hand in hand down the hall they heard in the distance heels as if someone were running in the other hall by their suite. They stopped and looked back at their door from down the hall. They were about to continue on their way when they saw Charlotte rushing up to the door and adjusting her skirt and blouse. She had come from the other hallway so there was no way she would have seen them standing down at the other end.

Clarisse and Joe looked at each other and chuckled. They watched as Charlotte knocked her usual knock on the door.

Just as Clarisse was about to shout to Charlotte, Shades suddenly came barreling down the hall from the direction they had been heading and ran right past them just missing them by inches. It was if Clarisse and Joe were invisible.

Since his shoes made noise as he ran Clarisse and Joe had to wait till he stopped by the door before they spoke.

They heard him whisper to Charlotte "Do I look ok?"

Joe cleared his throat and Clarisse spoke up her voice echoing off the large walls. "Ah Charlotte, Shades here we are."

Charlotte and Shades froze for a second and exchanged glances thinking the other had said something.

When it registered to Charlotte that the voice was actually Clarisse's and that she was down the hall behind them, she spun around and hit Shades to get his attention.

With a slight giggle Clarisse said, "Ah hello you two. We were looking for you before."

They began to walk towards the royal couple acting cool and calm though embarrassment set in when they realized they must have seen them running.

Joe whispered through his teeth to his wife, "Funny how they made it seem as if they came from different places."

"Umm." Clarisse replied quietly. "Decent attempt."

"Yes Your Majesty what could we do for you?" Charlotte instantly asked.

"Well we were wondering if you two would care to join us for a card game on the patio?"

Charlotte and Shades looked at one another.

"Ah…. sure," Shades replied.

"Yes I would love too as well," said Charlotte. "Thank you for the invite."

"Great then we have another couple to play with…I ah mean pair, we have another pair to play with," Clarisse said correcting herself.

Joe smiled and nodded. He was amused at his wife's slip.

"All right then let's go," Joe said gesturing to the stairs.

As they descended the stairs Charlotte's guilt got the best of her and she apologized for not being available before. "Your Majesty I apologize as I was tending to some things before when you were looking for me."

Knowing she was lying Clarisse replied, "Oh my dear it's fine, I fully understand how it is." Clarisse then winked at her husband as she thought of how they had to keep their relationship a secret for so long.

As they proceeded outside and sat down the assistant was relieved that her boss had forgiven her and bought the excuse she gave.

Finding it a funny situation, Joseph commented on how pretty Charlotte's skirt was.

His wife joined in "Oh yes Charlotte, what a lovely skirt…but my dear I think it would look even more lovelier if it were on the right way. You have it on backwards."

"What?" Charlotte said as she turned bright red and darted a look at Shades.

The night continued and Joseph and Charlotte had each one a game. Throughout the games Clarisse and Joe noticed even by a dim glow of the outdoor lights how their friends didn't talk much or look up from their cards.

Once they had finished, Charlotte and Shade's left the couple out on the patio where tea and coffee were brought out for them.

As he enjoyed the beautiful brisk night he glanced over at his wife. "Mia and Nick will be home soon," He reminded.

"Umm I hope they had a wonderful trip, they deserve it, and when they get back she has so much to do which I'm sure she's dreading about tackling."

"Yes it's tough being the Queen of Genovia," Joe said as he teased his wife.

"That it is," she agreed as she stared off into the distant garden.

"Hey," he said reaching over for her hand. "How about I take you up to our spot, the willow tree tomorrow? We can picnic there"

"Really?" she excitedly asked.

"Yeah we'll take the motorcycle up there and spend the day reminiscing. Does that sound good to you?" he said kissing her hand.

"That sounds splendid."