Meaghan woke hearing a thump and a muffled curse in the darkness. She sat up and switched on the bedside light to see Charlemagne, half-dressed pulling on his boots. He looked up a little sheepishly.

"Sorry, Meg. You were sleeping so peacefully that I didn't want to wake you."

She checked the time. "I'd have to be getting up in an hour or so anyway." Then, a little wistfully. "You weren't going to kiss me before you left?"

Charlemagne laughed softly and sat on the edge of the bed. "Trying to tempt me to stay, Meg?" he inquired, brushing her hair back from her face.

She shook her head. "You don't need to let people start talking, word could get back to your wife." Then a thought struck her. "What about Haedmon? Is it possible he might..,"

"Shh." He silenced her with a quick kiss. "Haedmon could talk till the end of time and I seriously doubt anyone would listen to him. Besides, what if Elsbeth does find out? I've tolerated her affairs."

"You're sure?" A puzzled expression crossed her face. "Then why the secrecy?"

"Reasonably sure." He smiled down at her, wanting nothing more at the moment than to be able to crawl back under the covers with her. "The reasons for secrecy are more political than personal."

"Nietzschean politics." She grimaced.

"Exactly." Charlemagne felt a bit of a fool with a silly smile on his face so much, but he just couldn't help himself. "See you this afternoon in the gym."

Meaghan made a face. "Do I have to?" she asked plaintively.

"Yes, you do." He bent down and kissed her soundly. "Just because we've become lovers doesn't change the need for you to learn how to defend yourself. I expect you to be there, and to do your best to do some damage to me. Are we clear on that point?"

"I suppose so," she grumbled.

Charlemagne finished dressing. "This afternoon then, and you don't want to make me hunt you down, do you, Meaghan?" Without waiting for a reply, he left.

Meaghan sat staring at the door after he left, but surprisingly, her thoughts were not all for Charlemagne. She now knew who and what she was, and the most damnable thing of all about it was that she couldn't tell anyone, especially the man she was falling in love with.

&&&&&&&&&

What a busy morning it had been! All of her extra duties occupied a large portion of her time, then it seemed that everyone on the ship had suddenly developed personal problems and just had to talk to the morale officer, immediately. She changed into her work-out clothes in record time and was out the door, but was running so nearly late that she half ran down the corridors.

Just when she thought she would make it in the nick of time, when the door to the gymnasium was in sight, Haedmon appeared.

"Your captain is obviously in dereliction of his duty if he allows you to appear in public corridors in such revealing attire." Haedmon spoke scornfully, with his nose in the air, but his eyes inspected every inch of her from head to toe. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, trollop."

Meaghan sighed. "I apologize if my work-out garb offends you, your majesty, but I am running late for an appointment, so if you would please excuse me..?"

He grabbed her arm. "I am sure there must be some regulation against you wearing such scandalous.., things. I intend to take you to Captain Hunt immediately."

"I'd advise you to take your hand off my pupil." A lazy drawl came from the door to the gym. "You've already made her late."

Haedmon turned to face Charlemagne, still holding Meaghan's arm in a bruising grip. "Stay out of this, Nietzschean. It's bad enough that you seduced her away from me, but I will not tolerate this.., this public nakedness."

Meaghan grabbed the wrist of the hand that was holding her and found the pressure point, but did not yet apply any pressure. Her eyes were glittering emerald points as she said coldly, "Your majesty, I am forced to say that I care little or nothing about your feelings on the lack of a dress code for off-duty personnel on this ship. If you want to complain to the captain, feel free. But I really would appreciate you releasing me. Now."

The monarch of Cygnus V, two and a half times her size sneered down at her. "You would dare to give me.., ow!" His voice broke off in a gasp of pain as Meaghan suddenly applied the needed pressure. He abruptly let go.

As Haedmon stood there cradling his aching wrist, she looked up at him and throwing diplomacy to the winds said coolly, "And one last thing, your majesty. Don't ever, ever touch me again." She turned away from him and flounced past both of them into the gym.

Charlemagne, with a pleased smirk on his face, followed her. "Meg, that was wonderful! If you can do that well against me, I'll have no worries about you."

She looked at him incredulously. "You thought that was amusing? That I actually had to hurt someone?"

Charlemagne shrugged. "The pompous ass had it coming. Actually, I think you let him off rather lightly. I guarantee that he would have had more serious damage to deal with if I had had to step in." He went over to Meaghan and wrapped his arms around her. "I really didn't like seeing that brainless hulk manhandling my woman." He kissed her forehead and released her. "Did he hurt you?"

"Just bruises," she replied, "Nothing worth mentioning."

"More damage than you did to him." Charlemagne's face clouded over slightly. "I'm seriously thinking of teaching Haedmon a little lesson."

"He hasn't the intelligence to appreciate it," she said lightly, hoping to get him off the subject. A sudden impish grin appeared on her face. "Since I did so well, does that mean that I can skip the rest of the lesson?"

He grinned back at her. "No, it means that the standards have been raised. I expect you to do well, Meg."

Meaghan stuck her tongue out at him, then started circling him, moving almost as smoothly and gracefully as the Nietzschean himself. Charlemagne pivoted slowly, moving closer to her as he did so. Suddenly she lashed out with a foot that could have cracked one of his ribs had it landed. Charlemagne barely dodged it, then managed to grab her ankle and with a deft twist, flipped her over. Meaghan lay still on the floor until he thought he had winded her, and went over to investigate. As he got in range, one of her legs flickered out and caught the back of his heels and tumbled him over.

She threw herself at him to pin him, and hit empty floor. Some sixth sense warned her of a trap, and she rolled out of the way just as Charlemagne's foot came swishing by her head.

Charlemagne grinned. "Much better, Meg, but you still have a long way to go."

&&&&&&&&

Afterwards, aching and sweaty, they walked to their respective quarters together, near, but not touching, nothing anyone could make comment on. Just outside her door, though, Charlemagne turned to her.

"Meg," he said softly. "Will you come to me tonight?"

Suddenly tongue-tied, she just nodded and slipped into her quarters without a word.