Part 7: link
Arthur lifts Guinevere in his arms, carrying her over to the bed, his eyes locked on hers the entire time. He sets her down gently on the mattress, halik her softly as he leans over her. He removes his boots and sits at her feet, gently removing her shoes and dropping them behind him, over his shoulder. He lifts one foot in his hand and kisses her toes, making her giggle softly. This small noise pulls a slight smile at the corners of his lips, and he kisses her arch, then the inside of her ankle before lowering her foot back down to the bed.
He crawls forward, over her, occasionally planting kisses on her still-clothed body as he goes. He drops his head, kisses the swell of her breasts where they rise above the bodice of her gown, and trails madami kisses up to her neck. Gwen arches her head back, sighing his name as his tongue teases the sensitive skin beneath her ear.
She reaches her hands up and plunges them into Arthur’s hair, running her fingertips along his scalp, holding his head gently, still letting him take the lead. He pulls the shoulder of her toga down, halik the skin he exposes there.
Arthur moves off of her, and Gwen scowls at the cold air that she feels in his absence. He lifts her shoulders so she is sitting and he slides in behind her to undo the laces on her dress.
She moves her hair out of his way while he diligently pulls the laces free of each eyelet, and as the dress opens in back, he feathers kisses on each inch of skin as it comes in to view. Her skin is soft under his lips, and he closes his eyes and allows the sensation to mix with her scent and fill him up.
The last puntas comes free and he slips his hands inside, around her middle and pulls her back against him, where he kisses her neck again. Gwen pulls her arms free of her sleeves and lifts one hand back, cupping his cheek in her hand. He turns his head and kisses the inside of her wrist.
Arthur stands again and pulls his sando off over his head. Guinevere lays back and watches, admiring him from her place on the bed. She makes no moves to remove her dress any further. He smiles when he sees she has waited for him, and he returns to her, sliding his hands down her torso to where he has left the gown, and he slides it down over her hips and legs, removing it to the floor.
I never get tired of seeing her in her shift, he finds himself thinking, realizing that the tantalizing nature of almost being able to see her, the anticipation of it, is nearly as good as having her completely naked before him. Nearly.
“Arthur?” Gwen asks softly, noting his pause.
“Hmm?” he says, focusing on her face again. “Just enjoying the view.”
With that he drops onto the kama again, scooting up susunod to her to halik her lips, her neck, her shoulder. He nudges the thin strap of her shift down over the brown creamy skin on her shoulder with his teeth, skimming his lips across the surface as he does so. His other hand makes quick but not as enticing work of the other strap, and with Gwen’s help he shimmies the thin damit down over her body, his hands never losing contact with her skin.
Guinevere sighs under his ministrations, letting him have complete control. It’s what he needs right now. To feel in control of something again.
She expects him to once again crawl back up over her, but he stays sa pamamagitan ng her legs, running his hands up along the slender limbs, his large warm hands gentle and arousing.
He begins his ascent again, starting low, halik her knee before settling himself between her legs, halik upward, his intent clear in his mind.
Guinevere, on the other hand, is caught unawares as he kisses up her inner thigh. Her eyes are closed, her hands thrown up on either side of her head, enjoying his kisses, expecting him to work his way up her stomach, to her breasts…
“Oh!” she exclaims as she feels an open-mouthed halik between her legs, Arthur’s tongue sliding within her. She nearly shoots from the kama and he presses a forearm down on her stomach, holding her still.
“Stay put, you,” he surfaces just long enough to mutter these three words to her before returning to her warmth, flicking his tongue across her most sensitive point before sliding it down to plunge into her.
“Oh… oh, God… Arthur…” Guinevere gasps. This is too much. Her fingers grasp at the unan under her head, gripping it tightly, her knuckles white.
Arthur cannot help but smile at the effect he is having on her, and somewhere in the back of his brain he realizes that pleasuring her this way is increasing his own arousal as well. He shifts slightly, adjusting his weight off of his erect member.
He runs his tongue slowly along the length of her folds, tormenting her, causing her to cry out once again. She grabs his hand that is on her stomach and brings it up to her breast, which he happily strokes and squeezes, rubbing her nipple with his thumb, teasing it hard as he once again thrusts his tongue within her, as deep as he can.
“Ohhhh…” a long, drawn-out moan escapes her lips, followed sa pamamagitan ng “Yes…” as she writhes beneath him, squirming as her climax approaches.
Arthur’s tongue continues its assault on her senses, aided sa pamamagitan ng his skillful hand at her breast. He returns his tongue to her swollen nub, licking gently again, drawing the sensation out, torturing her.
Gwen starts to whimper, pressing her hips pasulong into him, trying to get him to go faster, harder.
“More…” she begs, beyond all reason now.
Arthur acquiesces and not only flicks his tongue across her, firm and fast, but slips two fingers of his unoccupied hand into her as well.
“Oh… oh my… oh!” she finally shouts out, her release finding her, sudden and glorious, intense and draining.
Arthur feels her muscles contract around his finger as she shouts and bucks her hips, and he slides his fingers out slowly. The feeling of her inner walls squeezing his fingers intrigues him and he is a bit reluctant to retract them.
Finally he climbs up as she was originally expecting, halik his way up her stomach, pausing to dip his tongue into her navel, leaving a trail of kisses up between her breasts. He stops, sliding over to lie close beside her, his head on her chest.
He can hear her puso beating under his ear, rapid but starting to slow as her breathing also returns to normal.
“Ah, Guinevere,” he sighs, snuggling his head into her. She brings a hand up and strokes his hair.
“Where did that come from?” she finally asks.
“Did you not enjoy it?” he sagot her tanong with a question.
“I think we both know the answer to that question, Arthur.”
He snorts a small laugh. “Did you not know about…?”
“Well, certainly, yes. But I guess it just didn’t occur to me that you would want to…”
“Of course I wanted to. Have been wanting to since our wedding night,” he kisses her neck.
“What took you so long?” she asks.
He bursts out laughing now, shocked and amused at her question. He squeezes her.
“You’d be amazed at the things some of the maids talk about when no one else is around,” she muses. “Positively improper, some of them, openly discussing acts of pag-ibig as if they don’t have any meaning.”
“My ever-proper Guinevere,” he says, halik her hand. “Well, except in here, where I thoroughly enjoy how improper you get with me.”
“Oh!” she laughs, slapping his shoulder playfully. At least he’s feeling better, she thinks, delighted to hear him teasing her again.
They are quiet for several minutes, Arthur’s hand straying idly over her stomach, fingers dragging around in a series of whispery caresses.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I do hope that you’re not with child right now,” he says suddenly.
What? Gwen is taken aback sa pamamagitan ng this statement, but hears him out. “Explain,” she says.
He lifts his head and looks at her. “What I mean is that the stress of this morning wouldn’t be good for you or our baby.” He puts his head back down and his hand comes to rest on her stomach again, low, where a baby would be.
Gwen sighs, remembering their disappointment two weeks earlier. “Well, as you recall, my monthly was two weeks ago,” she begins.
“I do remember. Very frustrating so soon after our wedding,” he chuckles. “And disappointing that my seed hadn’t yet taken hold,” he adds softly, turning his face into her neck.
She strokes his cheek, touched sa pamamagitan ng his admission. “Patience, my love.”
“I know, it was too much to expect that you’d get with child right away.”
She sighs and kisses his forehead.
“Sorry. Continue.”
“So my womb wouldn’t be ready to receive a child until this week at the earliest,” she explains, her fingers twining in his hair.
“Really?”
“That’s what the midwives say, anyway.”
“Hmm. Apparently there’s a lot I don’t know. About women, anyway.”
Gwen laughs at him, and he cannot help but sumali her.
“It’s good to hear you laughing again, Arthur,” she says.
“Lord Roderick, welcome,” Merlin says as the visiting lord approaches. He dismounts and fixes the servant in his stare.
“King Arthur has not come to greet me? What is this?” he blusters.
“Well, my lord, we were not expecting you until susunod week, I’m afraid.”
“Nonsense! I clearly specified that I would be traveling through this—”
“Lord Roderick, good to see you, my lord,” Sir Leon interrupts, striding pasulong on long legs, his cape billowing behind.
“Ah, Sir Leon, finally a noble here to welcome me,” he casts a sneer in Merlin’s direction as he hands him a satchel. Roderick’s own servant takes another bag and hands the reins of his master’s horse to a stablehand.
“But surely, you were to arrive susunod week, yes?” Leon asks. They make their way toward the palace doors.
“Really? I must have gotten my weeks confused; I do apologize,” he says. Merlin rolls his eyes behind him, carrying the man’s bag and suppressing the urge to give the rude lord a pig’s tail.
“Where is your King?” he asks.
“I do not—” Leon starts.
Merlin catches them up and bails Leon out. “Um, unfortunately the King is indisposed today. He will not be able to receive you until tomorrow, probably late morning, I’m afraid.”
Roderick glares at Merlin again. “What do you mean, ‘indisposed?’ I have come for an audience, and audience I shall have.”
“And you shall. Tomorrow morning. My lord,” Merlin replies, through gritted teeth.
“Sir Leon, what is the meaning of this?”
“Well, my lord, if Merlin says the king is indisposed, then he is indeed indisposed, I’m afraid.”
“You let this… servant speak so?”
Leon stops, having had enough of the lord’s attitude. “Lord Roderick. Merlin is King Arthur’s personal servant and a trusted member of the king’s inner circle. We treat him with respect because our king treats him with respect. He knows the king’s schedule and if he says that the king is not to be disturbed, it is because King Arthur has commanded it.” He turns and strides up the stairs, taking two at a time, saying over his shoulder, “The knights are just sitting down to lunch. You must be hungry; sumali us.”
Merlin smiles, not realizing that Leon thought so highly of him. He jogs up the stairs behind them.
Leon leads the way to the great hall, where the knights are sitting and servants are just starting to attend them. “Knights, may I present Lord Roderick of Clarence. He has stopped for a visit and will be joining us for lunch as the king is unavailable at the moment,” he announces. There are faint rumbled greetings. The knights really don’t care who they dine with, as long as they dine.
“Please, take a seat, my lord,” Merlin instructs, and Roderick spies an empty chair at the head of the table.
“Not there,” Gwaine says, looking in his direction. “That’s Leon’s chair.”
“Sir Gwaine, Lord Roderick may sit where it pleases him,” Leon says.
Something in the brash knight’s manner unnerves the Lord, and he moves to a different chair. Merlin heaves a sigh, and walks over to him.
“My lord, I will go to the royal chambers and see if I can discern whether or not the king would be open to receiving a visitor,” he says, knowing full well that he is only going to retrieve their lunch tray if it is waiting.
“Yes, do that, boy.”
Merlin turns to leave and Leon stops him, his hand on his elbow. “What’s going on?” he asks quietly, the concern plain on his face.
“Long story, I’ll tell you all later.”
“Short version?”
Merlin takes pity on the knight, knowing his loyalty to the king and fondness for the queen. “Okay. We found out this morning that Gwen was under an enchantment when she betrayed Arthur with Lancelot.”
“What?” he says, a little too loud. A few heads turn. He pulls Merlin further from the table, and repeats, softer, “What?”
“Gwen didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Oh my God, Arthur must feel awful. This is the Lady Morgana’s doing, surely?” Leon looks as though he’s seen a ghost.
Merlin nods.
“And Lancelot?” he asks.
“Wasn’t him. Not really, anyway. Look, I’ll explain it all later, to you and the others,” he says, turning to leave.
“Where’s Elyan?” Percival asks, looking around.
“Hmm. Don’t know,” Leon says, joining them, though he suspects his absence might have something to do with the news Merlin just told him. “I’m sure he’ll be along shortly,” he says noncommittally and sits.
“If he’s still alive,” Gwaine mutters, a smirk on his face, remembering the scene he and Leon walked in on that morning. Leon shoots him a warning look across the table. Gwaine widens his eyes, the picture of innocence.
Merlin walks quickly through the corridors to the royal chambers. As he suspected, the lunch tray is sitting outside the door. Merlin frowns at the half-eaten food. He knows Guinevere never finishes, but it is most unlike Arthur to not clean his plate.
As he bends to pick up the tray, muffled sounds drift to his ears from the other side of the door.
“Oh… oh, God… Arthur…”
Feeling the blood rush to his face, he lifts the tray quickly, almost dropping it in his flustered embarrassment. He recovers himself and makes a hasty retreat.
I don’t know why I let it embarrass me so, he thinks, cursing the burning sensation in his ears as he walks to the kitchens to return the tray. We didn’t see them for two entire days after they were wed. He is still hungry, and plucks a roasted carrot from one of the plates and pops it in his mouth. Arthur is a man of action, after all, and they pag-ibig each other with a passion that most can only dream about… His thoughts drift to his lovely, doomed Freya, at peace at the bottom of the lake. Shaking his head to clear it, he deposits the tray in the kusina and returns to the hall.
“I’m sorry, my lord, but the king will not be receiving anyone today,” he says. Except Gwen, he mentally adds, unable to help himself.
“So what is it that is so important that the king cannot see his visitors?” Lord Roderick asks.
“That is none of your concern, my lord, but suffice it to say that King Arthur and reyna Guinevere are to remain undisturbed for the balance of the day,” Merlin says shortly, only thinly veiling the immediate dislike he seems to be feeling towards this visitor.
“Your master allows you to speak so, boy?” the lord snaps, turning towards Merlin, only to find he has disappeared for the moment.
Leon speaks again, ever the peacemaker. “My lord, Merlin is only doing his duty to his king. The king and reyna are dealing with an important matter that is, in fact, nothing you need concern yourself with.”
“Ah, yes, ‘Queen Guinevere,’” the Lord sniffs. “The serving wench-queen.” His voice drips with disdain.
At these words, every knight leaps to his feet, and hands fly to the hilts of swords around the table. Gwaine has actually drawn his sword and holds the tip unwaveringly at Lord Roderick’s throat.
With a deadly gleam in his eye, he speaks, his voice soft and menacing. “Insult our reyna again and they will be the last words you utter on this earth.”
“Gwaine,” Percival lays his hand on his friend’s arm. “I’m certain he meant no offense,” he says, looking pointedly at Roderick, whose eyes turn in his direction and track up, up until they reach the giant man’s normally gentle face, which has now turned stony. “His foolish words are most certainly spoken from ignorance and short-sightedness.”
Percival stares hard at the Lord until he acquiesces. “Yes, um… yes. Surely,” he stammers, feeling the icy stares of a room full of knights suddenly on full alert. “I do most humbly apologize. It was most hasty and unfair for me to… pass judgment on your… queen…” he still has trouble disguising his contempt over that word, “before having met her. Forgive me.” He quickly reaches for his goblet as Gwaine slowly withdraws his sword.
“I recommend, my lord, that you keep a closer watch on both your tongue and your tone in the king’s presence,” Leon says calmly from the head of the table. His head turns as Elyan strides into the room.
“And his,” Gwaine adds with a smirk, nodding towards Elyan.
“What’s this?” Elyan asks, sitting in the empty upuan beside Gwaine.
“Oh, nothing,” Leon says dismissively. “Lord Roderick, this is Sir Elyan. reyna Guinevere’s brother.”
“Oh. Ah. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Sir Knight,” the lord says, very carefully. There are some assorted stifled chuckles around the table.
“Where have you been off to, Elyan?” Percival asks.
“Just an errand for the queen,” he mutters. Gwaine looks at him, puzzled. He glances at Leon, who raises his eyebrows and shrugs.
“What kind of errand?” the ever-curious Gwaine presses. Merlin appears with a plate for Elyan, and delivers a segundo helping to Percival.
“Nothing that concerns you, you old gossip,” Elyan shoves him in the shoulder, but then mutters, “I will tell you and the lads privately, later.” He glances at the visiting lord pointedly.
Gwaine notices something on Elyan. “What have you got here?” he says, grabbing a misshapen malaking piraso of metal hanging on a leather sinturon around Elyan’s neck.
Elyan quickly snatches it away. “Never mind,” he snaps. He catches Merlin’s eye across the room, where he is refilling goblets. Merlin smiles at him and nods ever so slightly, understanding perfectly what is hanging around the knight’s neck.
Part 9: link
Arthur lifts Guinevere in his arms, carrying her over to the bed, his eyes locked on hers the entire time. He sets her down gently on the mattress, halik her softly as he leans over her. He removes his boots and sits at her feet, gently removing her shoes and dropping them behind him, over his shoulder. He lifts one foot in his hand and kisses her toes, making her giggle softly. This small noise pulls a slight smile at the corners of his lips, and he kisses her arch, then the inside of her ankle before lowering her foot back down to the bed.
He crawls forward, over her, occasionally planting kisses on her still-clothed body as he goes. He drops his head, kisses the swell of her breasts where they rise above the bodice of her gown, and trails madami kisses up to her neck. Gwen arches her head back, sighing his name as his tongue teases the sensitive skin beneath her ear.
She reaches her hands up and plunges them into Arthur’s hair, running her fingertips along his scalp, holding his head gently, still letting him take the lead. He pulls the shoulder of her toga down, halik the skin he exposes there.
Arthur moves off of her, and Gwen scowls at the cold air that she feels in his absence. He lifts her shoulders so she is sitting and he slides in behind her to undo the laces on her dress.
She moves her hair out of his way while he diligently pulls the laces free of each eyelet, and as the dress opens in back, he feathers kisses on each inch of skin as it comes in to view. Her skin is soft under his lips, and he closes his eyes and allows the sensation to mix with her scent and fill him up.
The last puntas comes free and he slips his hands inside, around her middle and pulls her back against him, where he kisses her neck again. Gwen pulls her arms free of her sleeves and lifts one hand back, cupping his cheek in her hand. He turns his head and kisses the inside of her wrist.
Arthur stands again and pulls his sando off over his head. Guinevere lays back and watches, admiring him from her place on the bed. She makes no moves to remove her dress any further. He smiles when he sees she has waited for him, and he returns to her, sliding his hands down her torso to where he has left the gown, and he slides it down over her hips and legs, removing it to the floor.
I never get tired of seeing her in her shift, he finds himself thinking, realizing that the tantalizing nature of almost being able to see her, the anticipation of it, is nearly as good as having her completely naked before him. Nearly.
“Arthur?” Gwen asks softly, noting his pause.
“Hmm?” he says, focusing on her face again. “Just enjoying the view.”
With that he drops onto the kama again, scooting up susunod to her to halik her lips, her neck, her shoulder. He nudges the thin strap of her shift down over the brown creamy skin on her shoulder with his teeth, skimming his lips across the surface as he does so. His other hand makes quick but not as enticing work of the other strap, and with Gwen’s help he shimmies the thin damit down over her body, his hands never losing contact with her skin.
Guinevere sighs under his ministrations, letting him have complete control. It’s what he needs right now. To feel in control of something again.
She expects him to once again crawl back up over her, but he stays sa pamamagitan ng her legs, running his hands up along the slender limbs, his large warm hands gentle and arousing.
He begins his ascent again, starting low, halik her knee before settling himself between her legs, halik upward, his intent clear in his mind.
Guinevere, on the other hand, is caught unawares as he kisses up her inner thigh. Her eyes are closed, her hands thrown up on either side of her head, enjoying his kisses, expecting him to work his way up her stomach, to her breasts…
“Oh!” she exclaims as she feels an open-mouthed halik between her legs, Arthur’s tongue sliding within her. She nearly shoots from the kama and he presses a forearm down on her stomach, holding her still.
“Stay put, you,” he surfaces just long enough to mutter these three words to her before returning to her warmth, flicking his tongue across her most sensitive point before sliding it down to plunge into her.
“Oh… oh, God… Arthur…” Guinevere gasps. This is too much. Her fingers grasp at the unan under her head, gripping it tightly, her knuckles white.
Arthur cannot help but smile at the effect he is having on her, and somewhere in the back of his brain he realizes that pleasuring her this way is increasing his own arousal as well. He shifts slightly, adjusting his weight off of his erect member.
He runs his tongue slowly along the length of her folds, tormenting her, causing her to cry out once again. She grabs his hand that is on her stomach and brings it up to her breast, which he happily strokes and squeezes, rubbing her nipple with his thumb, teasing it hard as he once again thrusts his tongue within her, as deep as he can.
“Ohhhh…” a long, drawn-out moan escapes her lips, followed sa pamamagitan ng “Yes…” as she writhes beneath him, squirming as her climax approaches.
Arthur’s tongue continues its assault on her senses, aided sa pamamagitan ng his skillful hand at her breast. He returns his tongue to her swollen nub, licking gently again, drawing the sensation out, torturing her.
Gwen starts to whimper, pressing her hips pasulong into him, trying to get him to go faster, harder.
“More…” she begs, beyond all reason now.
Arthur acquiesces and not only flicks his tongue across her, firm and fast, but slips two fingers of his unoccupied hand into her as well.
“Oh… oh my… oh!” she finally shouts out, her release finding her, sudden and glorious, intense and draining.
Arthur feels her muscles contract around his finger as she shouts and bucks her hips, and he slides his fingers out slowly. The feeling of her inner walls squeezing his fingers intrigues him and he is a bit reluctant to retract them.
Finally he climbs up as she was originally expecting, halik his way up her stomach, pausing to dip his tongue into her navel, leaving a trail of kisses up between her breasts. He stops, sliding over to lie close beside her, his head on her chest.
He can hear her puso beating under his ear, rapid but starting to slow as her breathing also returns to normal.
“Ah, Guinevere,” he sighs, snuggling his head into her. She brings a hand up and strokes his hair.
“Where did that come from?” she finally asks.
“Did you not enjoy it?” he sagot her tanong with a question.
“I think we both know the answer to that question, Arthur.”
He snorts a small laugh. “Did you not know about…?”
“Well, certainly, yes. But I guess it just didn’t occur to me that you would want to…”
“Of course I wanted to. Have been wanting to since our wedding night,” he kisses her neck.
“What took you so long?” she asks.
He bursts out laughing now, shocked and amused at her question. He squeezes her.
“You’d be amazed at the things some of the maids talk about when no one else is around,” she muses. “Positively improper, some of them, openly discussing acts of pag-ibig as if they don’t have any meaning.”
“My ever-proper Guinevere,” he says, halik her hand. “Well, except in here, where I thoroughly enjoy how improper you get with me.”
“Oh!” she laughs, slapping his shoulder playfully. At least he’s feeling better, she thinks, delighted to hear him teasing her again.
They are quiet for several minutes, Arthur’s hand straying idly over her stomach, fingers dragging around in a series of whispery caresses.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I do hope that you’re not with child right now,” he says suddenly.
What? Gwen is taken aback sa pamamagitan ng this statement, but hears him out. “Explain,” she says.
He lifts his head and looks at her. “What I mean is that the stress of this morning wouldn’t be good for you or our baby.” He puts his head back down and his hand comes to rest on her stomach again, low, where a baby would be.
Gwen sighs, remembering their disappointment two weeks earlier. “Well, as you recall, my monthly was two weeks ago,” she begins.
“I do remember. Very frustrating so soon after our wedding,” he chuckles. “And disappointing that my seed hadn’t yet taken hold,” he adds softly, turning his face into her neck.
She strokes his cheek, touched sa pamamagitan ng his admission. “Patience, my love.”
“I know, it was too much to expect that you’d get with child right away.”
She sighs and kisses his forehead.
“Sorry. Continue.”
“So my womb wouldn’t be ready to receive a child until this week at the earliest,” she explains, her fingers twining in his hair.
“Really?”
“That’s what the midwives say, anyway.”
“Hmm. Apparently there’s a lot I don’t know. About women, anyway.”
Gwen laughs at him, and he cannot help but sumali her.
“It’s good to hear you laughing again, Arthur,” she says.
“Lord Roderick, welcome,” Merlin says as the visiting lord approaches. He dismounts and fixes the servant in his stare.
“King Arthur has not come to greet me? What is this?” he blusters.
“Well, my lord, we were not expecting you until susunod week, I’m afraid.”
“Nonsense! I clearly specified that I would be traveling through this—”
“Lord Roderick, good to see you, my lord,” Sir Leon interrupts, striding pasulong on long legs, his cape billowing behind.
“Ah, Sir Leon, finally a noble here to welcome me,” he casts a sneer in Merlin’s direction as he hands him a satchel. Roderick’s own servant takes another bag and hands the reins of his master’s horse to a stablehand.
“But surely, you were to arrive susunod week, yes?” Leon asks. They make their way toward the palace doors.
“Really? I must have gotten my weeks confused; I do apologize,” he says. Merlin rolls his eyes behind him, carrying the man’s bag and suppressing the urge to give the rude lord a pig’s tail.
“Where is your King?” he asks.
“I do not—” Leon starts.
Merlin catches them up and bails Leon out. “Um, unfortunately the King is indisposed today. He will not be able to receive you until tomorrow, probably late morning, I’m afraid.”
Roderick glares at Merlin again. “What do you mean, ‘indisposed?’ I have come for an audience, and audience I shall have.”
“And you shall. Tomorrow morning. My lord,” Merlin replies, through gritted teeth.
“Sir Leon, what is the meaning of this?”
“Well, my lord, if Merlin says the king is indisposed, then he is indeed indisposed, I’m afraid.”
“You let this… servant speak so?”
Leon stops, having had enough of the lord’s attitude. “Lord Roderick. Merlin is King Arthur’s personal servant and a trusted member of the king’s inner circle. We treat him with respect because our king treats him with respect. He knows the king’s schedule and if he says that the king is not to be disturbed, it is because King Arthur has commanded it.” He turns and strides up the stairs, taking two at a time, saying over his shoulder, “The knights are just sitting down to lunch. You must be hungry; sumali us.”
Merlin smiles, not realizing that Leon thought so highly of him. He jogs up the stairs behind them.
Leon leads the way to the great hall, where the knights are sitting and servants are just starting to attend them. “Knights, may I present Lord Roderick of Clarence. He has stopped for a visit and will be joining us for lunch as the king is unavailable at the moment,” he announces. There are faint rumbled greetings. The knights really don’t care who they dine with, as long as they dine.
“Please, take a seat, my lord,” Merlin instructs, and Roderick spies an empty chair at the head of the table.
“Not there,” Gwaine says, looking in his direction. “That’s Leon’s chair.”
“Sir Gwaine, Lord Roderick may sit where it pleases him,” Leon says.
Something in the brash knight’s manner unnerves the Lord, and he moves to a different chair. Merlin heaves a sigh, and walks over to him.
“My lord, I will go to the royal chambers and see if I can discern whether or not the king would be open to receiving a visitor,” he says, knowing full well that he is only going to retrieve their lunch tray if it is waiting.
“Yes, do that, boy.”
Merlin turns to leave and Leon stops him, his hand on his elbow. “What’s going on?” he asks quietly, the concern plain on his face.
“Long story, I’ll tell you all later.”
“Short version?”
Merlin takes pity on the knight, knowing his loyalty to the king and fondness for the queen. “Okay. We found out this morning that Gwen was under an enchantment when she betrayed Arthur with Lancelot.”
“What?” he says, a little too loud. A few heads turn. He pulls Merlin further from the table, and repeats, softer, “What?”
“Gwen didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Oh my God, Arthur must feel awful. This is the Lady Morgana’s doing, surely?” Leon looks as though he’s seen a ghost.
Merlin nods.
“And Lancelot?” he asks.
“Wasn’t him. Not really, anyway. Look, I’ll explain it all later, to you and the others,” he says, turning to leave.
“Where’s Elyan?” Percival asks, looking around.
“Hmm. Don’t know,” Leon says, joining them, though he suspects his absence might have something to do with the news Merlin just told him. “I’m sure he’ll be along shortly,” he says noncommittally and sits.
“If he’s still alive,” Gwaine mutters, a smirk on his face, remembering the scene he and Leon walked in on that morning. Leon shoots him a warning look across the table. Gwaine widens his eyes, the picture of innocence.
Merlin walks quickly through the corridors to the royal chambers. As he suspected, the lunch tray is sitting outside the door. Merlin frowns at the half-eaten food. He knows Guinevere never finishes, but it is most unlike Arthur to not clean his plate.
As he bends to pick up the tray, muffled sounds drift to his ears from the other side of the door.
“Oh… oh, God… Arthur…”
Feeling the blood rush to his face, he lifts the tray quickly, almost dropping it in his flustered embarrassment. He recovers himself and makes a hasty retreat.
I don’t know why I let it embarrass me so, he thinks, cursing the burning sensation in his ears as he walks to the kitchens to return the tray. We didn’t see them for two entire days after they were wed. He is still hungry, and plucks a roasted carrot from one of the plates and pops it in his mouth. Arthur is a man of action, after all, and they pag-ibig each other with a passion that most can only dream about… His thoughts drift to his lovely, doomed Freya, at peace at the bottom of the lake. Shaking his head to clear it, he deposits the tray in the kusina and returns to the hall.
“I’m sorry, my lord, but the king will not be receiving anyone today,” he says. Except Gwen, he mentally adds, unable to help himself.
“So what is it that is so important that the king cannot see his visitors?” Lord Roderick asks.
“That is none of your concern, my lord, but suffice it to say that King Arthur and reyna Guinevere are to remain undisturbed for the balance of the day,” Merlin says shortly, only thinly veiling the immediate dislike he seems to be feeling towards this visitor.
“Your master allows you to speak so, boy?” the lord snaps, turning towards Merlin, only to find he has disappeared for the moment.
Leon speaks again, ever the peacemaker. “My lord, Merlin is only doing his duty to his king. The king and reyna are dealing with an important matter that is, in fact, nothing you need concern yourself with.”
“Ah, yes, ‘Queen Guinevere,’” the Lord sniffs. “The serving wench-queen.” His voice drips with disdain.
At these words, every knight leaps to his feet, and hands fly to the hilts of swords around the table. Gwaine has actually drawn his sword and holds the tip unwaveringly at Lord Roderick’s throat.
With a deadly gleam in his eye, he speaks, his voice soft and menacing. “Insult our reyna again and they will be the last words you utter on this earth.”
“Gwaine,” Percival lays his hand on his friend’s arm. “I’m certain he meant no offense,” he says, looking pointedly at Roderick, whose eyes turn in his direction and track up, up until they reach the giant man’s normally gentle face, which has now turned stony. “His foolish words are most certainly spoken from ignorance and short-sightedness.”
Percival stares hard at the Lord until he acquiesces. “Yes, um… yes. Surely,” he stammers, feeling the icy stares of a room full of knights suddenly on full alert. “I do most humbly apologize. It was most hasty and unfair for me to… pass judgment on your… queen…” he still has trouble disguising his contempt over that word, “before having met her. Forgive me.” He quickly reaches for his goblet as Gwaine slowly withdraws his sword.
“I recommend, my lord, that you keep a closer watch on both your tongue and your tone in the king’s presence,” Leon says calmly from the head of the table. His head turns as Elyan strides into the room.
“And his,” Gwaine adds with a smirk, nodding towards Elyan.
“What’s this?” Elyan asks, sitting in the empty upuan beside Gwaine.
“Oh, nothing,” Leon says dismissively. “Lord Roderick, this is Sir Elyan. reyna Guinevere’s brother.”
“Oh. Ah. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Sir Knight,” the lord says, very carefully. There are some assorted stifled chuckles around the table.
“Where have you been off to, Elyan?” Percival asks.
“Just an errand for the queen,” he mutters. Gwaine looks at him, puzzled. He glances at Leon, who raises his eyebrows and shrugs.
“What kind of errand?” the ever-curious Gwaine presses. Merlin appears with a plate for Elyan, and delivers a segundo helping to Percival.
“Nothing that concerns you, you old gossip,” Elyan shoves him in the shoulder, but then mutters, “I will tell you and the lads privately, later.” He glances at the visiting lord pointedly.
Gwaine notices something on Elyan. “What have you got here?” he says, grabbing a misshapen malaking piraso of metal hanging on a leather sinturon around Elyan’s neck.
Elyan quickly snatches it away. “Never mind,” he snaps. He catches Merlin’s eye across the room, where he is refilling goblets. Merlin smiles at him and nods ever so slightly, understanding perfectly what is hanging around the knight’s neck.
Part 9: link
