Wait! Did you see Chapter 3 is up, too? It's very short and quite easy to miss.

"Your Majesty?"

"Mm."

"Clarisse."

In her mind, where her purest, long-term memories were untouchable by the mercurial whims of a random day's interactions, she matched the whisper with Joseph. And she smiled. "Joseph?" she mumbled.

"It can't be all bad if you're smiling when you say my name."

Now she was surfacing, and her mind tried to prepare her by throwing up bits of the evening's short but fateful encounter. An unplanned nap under normal circumstances would cause her to wake up disoriented; but Love of Her Life Joseph, coaxing her gently from sleep, was so at odds with the recent memory of Ranting Joseph that she was positively dizzy. She sat up fast – and smacked her forehead right into Joseph's.

"Ouch! Merde!"

"iAy! iMierda!"

Hand grasping her head, she glared at Joseph, who sat back on his haunches and gingerly prodded his forehead.

"I would say I'm sorry, but you were hovering over me when you scared the -… When you scared me."

"Alright then, I'm sorry. I might as well say it, I was going to anyway."

Clarisse dropped her hands to her side and pushed herself back against the arm of the couch. Then she started chuckling, quietly at first so just her shoulders shook, but then it became a full-on bout of laughter.

Joseph eyed her suspiciously. "What's so funny?"

"We are," she gasped. "We're going to have matching bumps."

Slowly, a smile cracked the serious set of his mouth, and soon he was laughing, too.

"Oh, Joseph," she said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "It does feel good to really laugh, even if it is over something so silly. Although I am sorry I clobbered you." She leaned in for a closer inspection of his injury.

"It's alright, it –" He stuttered slightly when her fingers made contact with his skin. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "It was an accident." He pulled away, partly to maintain his clarity of thought, partly to study her carefully as he added, "Wasn't it?"

She settled back against the couch again and smiled. "Yes, it was an accident. I did not attack you on purpose."

"I wasn't sure if it was payback for…earlier," he said, wincing at the memory.

"If I were interested in payback, I would take my own head out of the equation, don't you think?"

"Possibly…" He was on his knees again, and the teasing faded from his face. "I am sorry, Clarisse. Had I known –"

"Stop." She reached toward him again, this time cupping his cheek. He covered her hand with his and leaned into her touch, his nose grazing the inside of her perfumed wrist. She felt a pleasant shiver that she hoped escaped his notice. "It's been a long week. You deserve to have some time to yourself." She pulled her hand away and, swinging her legs around so her feet were on the floor, she patted the cushion next to her.

He gave a tiny grimace as he straightened up from the floor to sit with her.

"It's fun getting old, isn't it?" she asked with a sympathetic smile.

"You usually say something about how this happens to people who run when nothing is chasing them."

"It's true. I've warned you about that for years. Exercise can be bad for your health."

"Anyway, it's changing the subject. I'm not ready for that. Will you let me give you an explanation and a proper apology?"

"Honestly, it's not necessary –"

"Clarisse."

"Alright, fine. Go ahead."

"Thank you. You see, I've had nervous people knocking on my door at all hours of the night, and I thought you were one more person coming to report some suspicious thing that I would have to investigate, only to find it was something completely ridiculous…" He gave a small, apologetic laugh as he trailed off. "Explaining it to you now sounds like I was getting worked up over nothing, doesn't it? How can I sit here and complain about people being too zealous about their jobs, or too protective of their King and Queen?"

"As I said, it's been a long week. The kind that plays hell with emotions."

"Tell me about it. How have you been?"

"My complaint sounds just as hollow as yours, given the circumstances." He raised his eyebrows in question. "I'm bored, Joseph," she said, feeling terrible and relieved to finally confess. "Bored, bored, bored. I am so…bored!"

"Are you bored, my queen?"

"So bored!"

He laughed, and the sound of it was like a salve for every frayed nerve in her body. She smiled back and felt better than she had in days.

"How did you find me here? You know," she said lightly, her eyes twinkling, "you could've just called me."

"Ha ha. And I did call you, by the way. But you never went back to your suite."

"Maybe I did go back, and I knew it was you ringing and I simply chose to ignore you."

"Understandable, but I happen to know you've been wandering around aimlessly for the past hour until you finally passed out on this couch."

Clarisse turned toward the camera positioned discreetly near the bookshelves. She narrowed her eyes at it when she saw it was pointed straight at her. "You have an unfair advantage. I was trying to avoid you."

"Can't be done," he said smugly.

"Obviously. Not with cameras and a whole security team."

"Not to mention ear pieces, microphones –"

"- motion detectors –"

"- top-secret maps -"

"Maps?" She smiled indulgently. "Joseph, there I have you matched. I spent my younger years chasing two small and very active boys around this palace. I assure you, I know all the nooks and crannies to be utilized as hiding places at bath times, and the fastest routes to the sounds of irreplaceable antiques smashing against marble floors."

"Ah, but those are nooks and crannies and routes you can see," he said.

She pursed her lips as she tried to read his expression. He wiggled his eyebrows at her. She laughed.

"I suppose you're referring to the rumored existence of passageways."

"Not just rumors, Your Majesty."

"I'm sure there could be some, but my understanding is that any possibly in existence would be in a sorry state of disrepair."

He leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. "Not all of them are in disrepair."

Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.

"No, no. I've said too much already. That information is top secret, and may only be given out on a need-to-know basis."

"I am at the top, Joseph. You don't get any higher up than I am."

"Yes, but you also have to 'need to know.' And you don't. Need to know, that is."

"I do need to know."

"For what reason?"

"I am the Queen."

"Not enough."

"And this is my house."

He started to say something, but stopped, tilting his head as he considered her words. "You have a point there," he conceded.

"Naturally."

"Even still, I have said too much. I was only allowed to see The Map after I had been here for almost five years."

"I think I've met the residency requirement," she said wryly. "My length of...employment here at the palace definitely exceeds yours."

"Yes, well -"

"So not all the security guards know about it?"

"No. And the only reason I was allowed to see it was…" He trailed off and fidgeted, and she tried to determine if he was goading her again.

"Was…?"

He gave her a sheepish smile. "To be completely honest, I really am not supposed to say. I only meant to tease a bit, but I should stop here."

"So no other monarch has ever been allowed to know about these passageways?"

"I'm sure they have in the past. Some of them were probably commissioned by monarchs."

She sat quietly, and felt him grow tense next to her. He was nervous, but she didn't believe it was because of his oversharing. No, he had let something slip that she hadn't caught yet. He was worried she would catch it. He was hoping she wouldn't ask –

"Joseph. Does Rupert know about these passageways?"

He closed his eyes in resignation. He was a good liar, but she knew all his tells. There was no point in trying to bluff with her. "Yes." He opened his eyes again and looked at her pointedly. "Some of them."

"Well, that's more than I know!"

"Yes, but –"

"But what?"

He heaved a sigh. "Clarisse, most of them really are unusable."

"But not all of them."

"No, not all of them. But even the ones that are – they're poorly lit, and dusty..."

"I'm not deterred yet."

"You'll come out all sneezy and dirty."

"You know, once I was in the kitchen by myself late at night, and I thought I heard a sneeze coming from inside the pantry. But when I opened it up to look, no one was there."

"Nice try. There is no passage by the kitchen."

"There's a network of passageways, and none lead to the kitchen? That's a definite oversight."

"You can speak with David about it."

Her eyes lit up mischievously. "Can I?"

"Of course, you can't! You want to get me fired?"

"I would never." She allowed herself to be very serious for a moment. "I promise."

He gave her a wounded look, then held up his hand. "Pinky swear?"

"Pinky what?"

He laughed and waited for her to hold up her own hand as he did, then hooked his little finger around hers.

"I suppose that's binding."

"Yes," he confirmed. "It is a solemn oath."

"Alright then." They lapsed into a comfortable silence. After some minutes passed –

"Joseph?"

"Clarisse."

"I'm bored."

"How bored are you?"

"Very bored."

"I'll get my flashlight."

to be continued...