"I think I can make it so that both things will happen." He assured her, and then he was already stepping back, receding into the frigid night. --- "A message for you from the Queen, sir," he told the captain, with a lot more deference in his manner than he felt; the Captain was a man wearing plate armor, very intricate and gilded in places, polished quite lovingly. [i]Bet you have a servant that gets the back of your hand if he misses a spot, don't you?[/i] "Yes," the captain replied brusquely, "Well out with it, lad!" He shuffled his feet in apparent discomfort and didn't look the man in the eyes -- a meek servant didn't do such things after all, "Well, uh, she said...uh..." he gulped a bit under the withering gaze of the captain, "She'd like to see you in private, but in the Royal nursery." Such was empty and unused, the sort of place where privacy could be had. "What for?" the captain demanded, while obviously a certain idea or two occurred to him. "I couldn't say milord," he told the captain humbly, "but she swore me to secrecy." "Then don't say anything of this, oaf," the captain suggested as he strode off, "It wouldn't do to keep the Queen waiting, especially since she's waiting for me." He said that with a suggestive growl to his voice, and a swagger to his walk, as if he were about to be crowned king by virtue of riding the Queen. --- It actually took several hours for anyone to notice ought amiss with the Captain of the Guard, because no one under him was all that eager to find him. Eventually, however, the King called for his loyal guardian...and when he did not respond to the summons, the King had the palace searched. When they did find him, it looked as the knight had slipped and fallen on the stone floor of the Nursery and hit the back of his head on some furniture on the way down, a fatal and unpleasant accident. The knock caused his head to swell, while he lay there, trapped on his back in his armor. When he tried to vomit, it choked him. A terrible accident, they said, not realizing that the spell that put grease all over the floor of the room had expired long since, along with any evidence of foul play. In this time, the Servant played his role as a groom, and even helped in the search. That, of course, was whe he took it upon himself to search the back tunnels to the Queen's chamber. He padded through the darkness, feeling his way by fingertip and memory, before emerging from behind a statue in her chambers, "It's done. The King will no doubt be too distressed at the loss of his great friend to be overly concerned with the demands of marital duty tonight."