Phyllis Baxter crept as silently as she could along the corridor leading past the servants bedrooms on her way to the bathroom, the creaking floorboards not making it easy for her. It was early morning, and they all still had several hours of sleep left until 6am. The hallway had electric lighting now, though she didn't turn it on, for fear of waking someone due to the light. If she had turned it on, she wouldn't have noticed the light coming from underneath Mr Barrow's door. She thought that was odd, given the hour and automatically wondered if he was alright. Maybe he had fallen asleep with the light on, being in charge must be very draining sometimes, she thought. She stopped near the door and was thinking about knocking and seeing if he was okay, when she heard noises from inside the room, from another person. Another man. Talking and even a few giggles. Now that surprised her, never thought Thomas would giggle. She quietly stepped away. It didn't take much thinking to know who was in Thomas' room with him.

Several moments earlier

Thomas and Richard lay entwined in bed, Richard lying half on half off Thomas, their legs perfectly tangled up below the covers, Richard lying partly on his side, one arm around Thomas' hip, the other up underneath the back of Thomas' head. Thomas' arms wrapped around Richard's muscular back, his hands taking full advantage of this rare moment that they are having together, by slowly moving up and down Richard's spine, giving Richard pleasant shivers in the process. Each giving the other slow and passionate kisses, whilst enjoying the feel of their skin touching fully for the first time in what had felt like years. Earlier in the evening, after everyone had gone to bed, when Richard had knocked in the agreed pattern- three quick knocks, a gap then another single knock, Thomas wasn't sure if this was a good idea. He knew it wasn't. The walls weren't thick and the door didn't have a lock. Whilst people seemed to be okay with his relationship with Richard, he couldn't be sure they'd be okay with all aspects of their relationship. But he couldn't resist him. The way he slipped in through the door without making a sound, taking a chair in the room, and propping it up underneath the doorknob as a kind of makeshift lock- again without making a sound. He said nothing as he took off his shirt and took Thomas in his arms, pulling him close as he kissed him, with the sort of kiss that would only happen when the two of them were truly alone. It had been far too long, and there were far too many moments in recent months when he wondered if he'd ever be with Richard like this again. What followed in the next couple of hours was shear perfection as far as Thomas was aware, the only complaint he had was that they both had to use a pillow or a hand to muffle their cries and moans during those moments of euphoria, where neither could control the sounds coming from their mouths.

They had left the light on, and whilst it was probably a good idea to switch it off to stop drawing any unnecessary attention to Thomas' room, Thomas was so comfortable in Richard's embrace that he didn't want to disturb the moment to get out of bed to switch it off. Their kisses had stopped either of them from talking for a while, although Thomas eventually pulled back and looked into Richard's eyes for a little before speaking. "You know, you never told me about how you solved that trouble with the person who tried to blackmail you?"

"You want to talk about that now?" Richard asked, as he looked back into Thomas' eyes.

"You know me, I'm curious. It worked so must have been brilliant," Thomas said, pressing a kiss into Richard's lips, by way of encouragement.

"It was risky. I knew that giving into his demands would never work. He'd only try to blackmail me again, and I could never report him for doing so. I decided the only way was to give him a bitter taste of his own medicine so to speak."

Thomas raised his eyebrows, intrigued. "That sounds like something I would have done once."

Richard chuckled, "I actually got the idea from you. I was at a loss as to how to fix this, and I was thinking about you one evening, when the idea came to me. I don't know, I guess I must have been inspired by some of the things you told me you did years ago to get back at people."

"Things I'm not exactly proud of."

"No, but I'm very glad you told me. It was inspiration for a cunning plan indeed." Richard said, with a note of mischief in his voice.

"Anyway, I decided to blackmail him back, in a way. I took some valuables from the King's rooms and planted them in his room. These items were reported missing and Mr Wilson, demanded that all our rooms would be searched. As I planned, they found the stolen items. However, it worked out better than I thought as it turned out they discovered other items that had been missing for a while in his room too. My scheming actually caught a real thief!"

"So, was he arrested?" Thomas asked.

"No, I managed to persuade Mr Wilson not to report this to the police and to dismiss him with a reference."

Thomas looked confused, "Why would you help him? After what the bastard did to you, to us?"

"I wanted to see him marched away by the police badly, believe me, as it's what he intended for me. But it wouldn't have suited us Thomas. He would have been released years later, he'd know who was behind his arrest and he could have come for me. Besides it gave me the opportunity to ensure that he'd never hurt you or me again. I made sure he knew that if he ever said anything about what he knew about us, that his crimes would be exposed too. I reckon stealing from the crown would land a very severe punishment indeed."

"Wow Richard, I am impressed, probably shouldn't be but I am," Thomas said,not bothering to hide the note of pride in his voice. "So you stole from the King himself to be with me again?"

Richard smiled, "I suppose I did."

"I love you," Thomas whispered as he kissed Richard again, the two men quiet for a moment. "Don't take unnecessary risks in the future please?"

"You'd do the same though right?"

"Of course, though my plan would probably not be so well thought through. You are better at all that than me." Thomas shifted and the two of them ended up swapping positions, Thomas now looking down on Richard. "This is real isn't it? I'm not dreaming, that for once things actually worked out in my favour?"

"No you're not, Mr Barrow. I'll prove it to you." And with that Richard suddenly released himself from Thomas' embrace and ducked down underneath the covers, causing Thomas to release a very unmanly giggle, which was soon followed by a deep gasp. Thomas gripped the sheets with his fists. He was gonna need the pillow again.