She growled and swatted at him. "Fine, I have full parental approval. Drag me away to a closet," she answered cheerily.

"I don't think I have that much parental approval." While she was swatting, he tweaked a letter out of her hands.

She shrieked. "Give that back!" she said, color rushing to her cheeks. "If you had parental approval for everything you did last night, I don't see why you wouldn't have parental approval to repeat it."

Of all the ways he had expected her to react--most of which involved hitting him again--screaming was low on the list. He shot a frightened look back toward the closed door, then thrust the letter back at her. "Here! Gods, they're going to think I'm killing you!"

Goneril snatched the letter, and burst out laughing. "I wasn't that loud, you lout," she retorted, clutching the letters to her bosom. "You'll have to be craftier if you want to sneak your letters before you have permission."

"You're going to have to give them to me eventually," he said, threatening. "As it is, I'm starting to resent them for covering up your breasts."

She snorted, and whipped them behind her back, hopping a little in place. She thrust her bosom forward. "Better?" she asked.

"Better," he agreed, stepping near enough to cup a hand around the side of one breast. The other hand crept around her waist to her back.

Goneril giggled, and slid up against the wall, squeezing her hand against the wall to keep the letters away from him. "My mother is in that room right there," she pointed out, a twinkle in her eyes. "Do you really want her to see you accosting her daughter?"

"I'll tell her you're holding on to my property," he countered. "Then she'll want to see it and then where would you be?" He tried to wrangle her against a stone joinery so that she couldn't escape. "Let me read just one word and I'll leave you alone. But it must be a good word. No cheating me with pronouns."