Part 22: link
There is a decidedly efficient knock at the door.
George. Great. “Come.”
The door opens precisely, and George strides in carrying a tray. “Dinner, your majesties,” he declares proudly, as if it was he who was slaving over the ovens all afternoon.
“Thank you, George, just leave the tray on the میز, جدول and آپ may go,” Arthur says casually, waving his hand in the direction of the table. Gwen appears in the doorway separating the two parts of their chambers, fresh from her bath, and Arthur goes to her.
“Feel better, Love?” he asks, lifting her hands to his lips.
There is a distinctive throat-clearing noise behind him.
“What is it, George?”
“Sire, it is my job to serve آپ dinner, not to deposit the tray and leave.”
“I assure آپ we are quite capable of dining on our own,” Arthur turns around and stands اگلے to Gwen, tucking her hand into his elbow.
As she comes into view, George gasps and spins around, his back to them. “Sire! Queen Guinevere is… not dressed! It is not… proper for me to see the queen in this state!”
Gwen stifles a giggle. She is wearing a very demure, high-necked nightdress covered سے طرف کی a thick red dressing gown. Nothing revealing about this at all. I even have socks on.
Arthur bites back his own laughter. “Well, I guess you’ll be leaving after all, then.” He can see the consternation in the back of George’s head as he struggles between what he perceives as his duty and the orders he’s being دیا سے طرف کی the king.
“Very good, Sire. I will return in exactly two hours to retrieve your tray,” he says dejectedly.
“We’ll leave it outside the door for you,” Arthur says, just to irritate him further.
“Ah—” George starts, and gives up.
“George,” Arthur calls as the fussy servant starts to head for the doors.
“My bags are there from our trip. آپ may take them to the laundry.”
“Thank you, Sire,” he says gratefully, picking up Arthur’s bags and leaving quickly.
“Arthur, آپ shouldn’t tease him,” Gwen says as Arthur laughs, pulling her chair out for her.
“It’s the only thing that keeps me sane when he’s around.”
“Well, if Merlin isn’t your servant any more, آپ may be stuck with him, آپ know.”
The color drains from Arthur’s face. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I told Daisy, obviously,” Gwen says to Arthur as they finish their dinner. It is now full dark outside and they dine intimately سے طرف کی just a few candles.
“Of course,” Arthur nods, “I expected as much. I’m going to tell Leon, Gwaine and Percival tomorrow morning. As my lead knights, they should know. They are the most protective of آپ anyway. After me, that is.” He looks over at her, sitting there, tiny in the large wooden chair. She has her hair braided over one shoulder and her skin glows in the candlelight. His face softens, his eyes taking on a light with which Gwen has become very familiar.
Love. I saw it the first time that morning at my house, and almost every دن since I broke that love enchantment. He cannot hide anything from me and he knows it. And I am so glad he no longer needs to try. She smiles at him and reaches over for his hand.
“I love you, Guinevere,” he says suddenly, lifting her hand to his lips, turning it to kiss her palm.
“I know, Love, it was written all over your face just now,” she smirks at him, curling her fingers into the hair سے طرف کی his ear.
“Am I that transparent?” he chuckles.
“Only to me. And probably Merlin,” she says, her eyes turning worried.
“He’ll be back, Guinevere.”
“Am I that transparent?” she laughs now.
“Only to me.”
“Done?” she asks, indicating his plate. He’s been rearranging beans for a few منٹ now.
“Yes. I really don’t like green beans,” he admits, setting his fork across the plate.
Gwen stands and lifts his plate, placing it on the tray. “I know.”
“Of course آپ do.” He stands and stretches, intending to reach for the tray to put it outside, but سے طرف کی the time he’s done stretching his back Gwen is already at the door. He sighs.
“Come,” he says, holding his hand out to her.
“Where are we going?”
“Fireplace.”
She takes his hand and he leads her to the rugs in front of the fireplace. She throws some مزید wood in before settling in against Arthur. He is sitting against some pillows, wearing just his trousers and red shirt, boots discarded en route somewhere in the room.
Gwen drops gracefully to the floor, nestling in between his legs, lying on her side against his chest. He wraps his arms around her, placing a kiss on the سب, سب سے اوپر of her head.
“I thought of something this evening,” he says, staring at the fire.
“What’s that?”
“Well, I remembered something, مزید accurately. Something from when I was a boy.” Can’t tell her what made me think of it; it would give away the surprise.
“Yes?”
“I used to like to play out in the fields outside town, when I wasn’t studying یا training. I’d pretend I was a knight, obviously.”
“Obviously,” she smiles.
“I thought the entire kingdom was at my disposal, that I could do anything I wanted.”
Gwen snorts.
“What?”
“Don’t آپ still kind of feel that way?”
“Hey!” he pokes her in the ribs, and she jumps with a giggle. He grabs her and pulls her face up to his for a kiss before continuing.
“Anyway,” he continues pointedly, “for some reason, one particular دن floated into my brain today. Perhaps it was crossing all the fields on the way home, who knows.”
“What happened?”
“I was leading an imaginary charge into a particular field, and imagine my surprise to discover that there were people already using my field.”
“The nerve!” she smiles against his chest.
He laughs. “It was two other children, actually. A boy and a girl. The boy wanted to play with me and I’m afraid I was quite rude to him. His big sister told me off. Took my toy sword and threw it.”
Gwen sits up and looks at him. “That was you?”
He nods, grinning sheepishly. “Who else would have been such a little prat?”
Now Gwen laughs, lying back down against him. “Sorry I threw your sword.”
He squeezes her. “I completely deserved it. I was an obnoxious child. Though I will admit, I thought آپ were a horrible girl.”
She laughs again, louder. “Never mind, I’m not sorry after all.”
He chuckles, the laughter a rumble against her ear as he squeezes her. “It took me an گھنٹہ to find that sword, آپ know.”
She still laughs. “I was having fun with my flowers and آپ completely ruined it. And آپ were mean to my baby brother. I was very protective of him.”
“I’m sorry I was mean to you.”
“You were a child,” she shrugs dismissively. A child being raised سے طرف کی Uther, no less.
“No excuse, really, though I will admit that I was everything my father was raising me to be,” he says, as if he had read her thoughts.
She looks up at him and he kisses her again, longer this time, lingering over her lips, savoring them.
“Do آپ want to know something, though?” he asks against her lips.
“Hmm?”
“I went back to that field almost every دن for the rest of that summer.”
Her brows furrow as she leans back slightly to look at him.
“I was looking for you,” he says, dropping another kiss on her lips.
“So آپ could yell at me again?” she asks casually, eyes opening slowly to look up at him.
“No.” Now his brows furrow. “I may have thought آپ were horrible, but you… intrigued me. I wanted to see the little girl who dared to yell at me again. I needed to figure her out. I thought about آپ مزید than I would have cared to. Heh,” he chuckles, “I guess even then I was drawn to your impertinence.”
“Four years after that I came here to work for Morgana,” Gwen says. “Surprised I didn’t recognize you.”
“I grew a lot during those four years. Well, physically, anyway,” he admits, and she laughs again, toying with the ties on the neck of his shirt, twisting one around her finger, then releasing it, watching it unwind and fall against his chest.
Arthur pulls her up to him again, hungry for مزید kisses. He kisses her softly, his hand resting on her cheek, trailing down her neck. She presses her lips against his, teasing them apart with her tongue, demanding مزید and receiving it. He holds her gently but kisses her passionately, indulging in her soft lips, nibbling and sucking at them till they are slightly swollen. Gradually he pulls away from her, kisses the end of her nose, and strokes her cheek again with his thumb before settling her back against him again.
He gives her another squeeze, his hand sliding over her stomach. “I want آپ to see Gaius tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, dear, that was the plan. Oh! Did anyone tell him that Merlin went to Ealdor?” she sits up again.
He pulls her back down against him. “I had Elyan deliver that message before he went off to the tavern with Gwaine and Odin’s knights.”
She sighs, mildly exasperated. Men are only just large boys.
“I told Gwaine to go easy on them. They are our guests, after all.”
“Think he’ll listen?”
“Possibly,” he chuckles.
“Mm. I asked Queen Annis’ midwife if she knew of any good midwives in Camelot. I figured we did not actually have a royal midwife, seeing as how the last royal baby born was you.”
He nods, “And?”
“Her sister is here in Camelot. Also a midwife. Her name is Fira.”
“We shall send for her and meet with her, then. Any credentials?”
“Apparently she delivered Sir Kay’s child last year.”
“Sir Kay has a child?”
“Arthur!”
“I’m kidding, of course I know he had a child.” She eyes him suspiciously, so he adds, “It was a girl, and they named her Lily.”
Hunith is working in her front garden, picking weeds from in between her carrots. She sits up straight and stretches her tired back, having spent the last گھنٹہ hunched over on her knees in the dirt. Getting old, she thinks vaguely. She turns her tired eyes to the small road in front of her house, and sees a figure approaching on horseback.
Is that...? No. He wouldn’t be here alone, would he? The figure approaches. It is! Hunith stands, stepping to the road. “Merlin!” she exclaims, and her son’s face breaks into a bright smile, transforming his features so that he looks much like the little boy she cradled in her arms so long ago.
He reaches the house and jumps down from his horse, embracing his mother tightly.
“This is a surprise indeed!” she says as she hugs him. He holds tight to her. “What’s wrong, dear?” she asks, her hand reaching up to stroke the hair on the back of his head as he tucks it into her neck.
“Mother, it’s so good to see you,” he says, finally releasing her, looking down at her sweet face. His پسندیدہ face.
“You are alone?” Hunith asks, eyes scanning for signs of Arthur یا Gwen.
“Yes, Mother, but Gwen and Arthur send their love,” he tells her as he reaches for his bag.
“Merlin,” Hunith says, placing her hands on her hips. “What is wrong?”
Never could hide anything from her. “Can we go inside?”
“You’re going to tell me about it?”
“Yes. Inside.”
“Very well. Are آپ hungry, Chipmunk?”
“Starving,” he says, blushing at the childhood nickname and very grateful that she’s never addressed him thus when he was here with Arthur.
She bends to pick up a bucket full of weeds, and he grabs it from her, lifting the heavy bucket and taking it behind the house to dump while Hunith goes inside to prepare some food for him.
He stands, and looks around. Still so much ruin. Damn you, Agravaine! This village has had enough hardship already. He plunks the bucket down hard and walks back to the house, frowning.
“He did so much damage,” he says as he enters, letting the familiar environment surround him like a warm blanket. “I’m really sorry to have brought this to the village.”
“Merlin…” she starts, turning to look at him.
“No, it’s my fault Agravaine came and set آگ کے, آگ to almost everything. I feel terrible. Let me fix some things for آپ while I’m here, please.”
“How long will آپ be staying?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t know yet.”
“You are going back to Camelot, Merlin.”
“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” he asks the ceiling, flinging his hands in the air as he flops into a chair.
“Because everyone knows آپ are needed there. Arthur and Gwen need آپ there, Chipmunk.”
He sighs. “I know.”
“So what is wrong?” she asks for the third time, bribing him with dinner.
“I think I need to back up some first.”
He brings her up to تاریخ on all the حالیہ events. She actually bursts into tears of relief for Arthur and Gwen when he tells her of the bracelet and Gwen’s innocence.
“Oh, thank God! She was so distraught when she arrived here. I hate to admit it, but I kept a very close eye on her during the short time she stayed with me. I was just afraid she might do something… rash. Thank آپ for sending her here, though, I would have hated to think of her out there all alone in that state.”
“That’s why I sent her to you. I’m only glad she listened to me,” he chuckles, poking at his food.
“Oh, poor Arthur!” Hunith suddenly exclaims. “He must have felt just awful!”
“You have no idea. I’ve only seen him that upset one other time, and that was when he banished her.” He frowns at the memory. “When we found out she was enchanted, he actually fell to his knees and begged her forgiveness with his head in her lap.”
“Oh, my,” she gasps.
“It was very emotional. Gaius and I decided to give them some privacy after that.”
“Good of you.”
“Anyway…” he continues his tale, telling her of Lord Roderick and Bertrand and of Bertrand’s comeuppance.
“So. It comes down to this: Arthur wants me to be his personal advisor instead of his servant. ‘Royal Advisor’ would be the official title.”
“Oh, my,” she gasps, understanding his conflict completely.
“Thank you,” he breathes, leaning back in his chair. “No one else understands. Even Gaius was congratulating me. I’m so…”
“Scared?”
He looks up. Scared? Yes. I’m petrified. “Yes,” he whispers, blinking back the frustrated tears that are threatening.
“Love, I don’t know Arthur near as well as آپ do, but I know he has a good heart. And I know he also has a temper. He’ll blow, but he’ll come around.”
“It’s the ‘blowing’ that worries me.”
“I know.”
“He could have me killed, Mum.”
“He wouldn’t. Gwen wouldn’t allow it, for one.”
He smiles. “True.”
“You cannot accept the position without telling him, Merlin.”
“I know that. That’s why I’m here. I needed آپ to tell me. I needed آپ to tell me that it was okay to tell him, knowing that the consequences may be dire.”
She sighs heavily and walks around behind her son, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “It’s time. He’s ready to hear it, even if you’re not ready to tell him. Even if he doesn’t know he’s ready.”
“How do آپ know that?” he asks.
“Like I said, I don’t know Arthur as well as you, but I got to know Gwen pretty well while she was here. She grounds him, keeps his feet on the floor. And آپ are my only son. I know آپ as well as I know myself, Merlin, and I know آپ are destined for great things. I knew it the moment آپ were born. I knew it the first time I saw آپ amusing yourself as a toddler سے طرف کی spinning your toys in the air in front of you,” she chuckles, leaning down to kiss his cheek. “He won’t have آپ executed,” she concludes decisively.
He smiles, and she gives him a squeeze before standing again to return to tidying the kitchen.
He takes a few مزید bites of food. “I do have good news,” he says cryptically, smirking.
“I could use some good news,” she says, turning back to him.
“Gwen is expecting,” he says with a grin.
Hunith drops into the chair opposite her son. “That’s wonderful news!” she exclaims, smiling broadly. “And so soon!”
Merlin blushes a little and says, “Well, they are, um, very much in love…” he suddenly seems fascinated سے طرف کی a slice of شلجم, شلغم on his plate.
Hunith laughs, both at her son’s embarrassment and the joy of a new baby. “That does bring to mind a question, though, Merlin,” she says, angling her head at him.
“I told آپ already, Mother,” he says quietly.
“You cannot mourn her forever, my love.”
What is that infernal noise? Arthur’s sleep is interrupted سے طرف کی rhythmic tapping sound. Surely Merlin isn’t prowling around looking for woodworm again.
He opens one eye and remembers that Merlin is in Ealdor. The tapping sound reaches his ears again, and Guinevere stirs in his arms. Damn George’s eyes. If he wakes her I’ll have his carefully-trimmed head on a pike.
Arthur gently slides out of bed, pulls on a pair of trousers that he finds lying halfway across the room – where they landed after Gwen flung them the گزشتہ night – and walks to the door. He gets halfway there and turns around, heading back to the bed. He leans over and plants a small kiss on Gwen’s forehead, then closes the curtains around the بستر as the knocking comes again.
He stalks across the room with long strides, ready to give that ridiculously meticulous servant a piece of his mind. He slides the lock back and flings the door wide.
“George!” he hisses, stepping into the corridor, pushing a very surprised George backwards as he does so.
“My lord?” he squeaks.
“Why on earth are آپ knocking at my door?”
“To wake آپ so that آپ may start your day, Sire. Breakfast will be coming presently.”
“Did it perhaps escape your attention that the doors were locked?”
“No, it did not, my lord. That is why I was knocking.”
Arthur sighs. Patience. “George. I will say this once: In the mornings, if the doors are locked, that means the queen is still asleep and no one is to enter. یا knock.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Now, normally she would be awake سے طرف کی now, true,” he acknowledges, “but she is very tired from our journey and is still asleep. I am inclined to let her stay sleeping, and I suggest آپ do the same.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“I’m going to go back inside now. When the door is opened, fetch Gaius and bring him up.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Arthur turns around and goes back inside, locking the door once again. I need to find a different servant. I will kill him if he becomes my permanent servant. Never met someone so devoid of personality, he thinks as he walks back to the bed. Merlin at least knows the unwritten rules.
He stands سے طرف کی the side of the bed, looking down at Guinevere, curled into the blankets, looking surprisingly like the little girl in the field that took his toy sword and threw it. Smiling at the memory, he yanks his trousers off again and climbs back in, pulling her into his arms again.
She sighs and snuggles in. “What was that all about?” she asks sleepily, not opening her eyes.
“George doesn’t know the rules,” he mutters, stroking her soft warm back.
“He’ll learn.”
“I can’t have him as a permanent servant and still keep my sanity.”
She chuckles against his chest.
“Go back to sleep, Love,” he whispers to her.
Part 24: link
There is a decidedly efficient knock at the door.
George. Great. “Come.”
The door opens precisely, and George strides in carrying a tray. “Dinner, your majesties,” he declares proudly, as if it was he who was slaving over the ovens all afternoon.
“Thank you, George, just leave the tray on the میز, جدول and آپ may go,” Arthur says casually, waving his hand in the direction of the table. Gwen appears in the doorway separating the two parts of their chambers, fresh from her bath, and Arthur goes to her.
“Feel better, Love?” he asks, lifting her hands to his lips.
There is a distinctive throat-clearing noise behind him.
“What is it, George?”
“Sire, it is my job to serve آپ dinner, not to deposit the tray and leave.”
“I assure آپ we are quite capable of dining on our own,” Arthur turns around and stands اگلے to Gwen, tucking her hand into his elbow.
As she comes into view, George gasps and spins around, his back to them. “Sire! Queen Guinevere is… not dressed! It is not… proper for me to see the queen in this state!”
Gwen stifles a giggle. She is wearing a very demure, high-necked nightdress covered سے طرف کی a thick red dressing gown. Nothing revealing about this at all. I even have socks on.
Arthur bites back his own laughter. “Well, I guess you’ll be leaving after all, then.” He can see the consternation in the back of George’s head as he struggles between what he perceives as his duty and the orders he’s being دیا سے طرف کی the king.
“Very good, Sire. I will return in exactly two hours to retrieve your tray,” he says dejectedly.
“We’ll leave it outside the door for you,” Arthur says, just to irritate him further.
“Ah—” George starts, and gives up.
“George,” Arthur calls as the fussy servant starts to head for the doors.
“My bags are there from our trip. آپ may take them to the laundry.”
“Thank you, Sire,” he says gratefully, picking up Arthur’s bags and leaving quickly.
“Arthur, آپ shouldn’t tease him,” Gwen says as Arthur laughs, pulling her chair out for her.
“It’s the only thing that keeps me sane when he’s around.”
“Well, if Merlin isn’t your servant any more, آپ may be stuck with him, آپ know.”
The color drains from Arthur’s face. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I told Daisy, obviously,” Gwen says to Arthur as they finish their dinner. It is now full dark outside and they dine intimately سے طرف کی just a few candles.
“Of course,” Arthur nods, “I expected as much. I’m going to tell Leon, Gwaine and Percival tomorrow morning. As my lead knights, they should know. They are the most protective of آپ anyway. After me, that is.” He looks over at her, sitting there, tiny in the large wooden chair. She has her hair braided over one shoulder and her skin glows in the candlelight. His face softens, his eyes taking on a light with which Gwen has become very familiar.
Love. I saw it the first time that morning at my house, and almost every دن since I broke that love enchantment. He cannot hide anything from me and he knows it. And I am so glad he no longer needs to try. She smiles at him and reaches over for his hand.
“I love you, Guinevere,” he says suddenly, lifting her hand to his lips, turning it to kiss her palm.
“I know, Love, it was written all over your face just now,” she smirks at him, curling her fingers into the hair سے طرف کی his ear.
“Am I that transparent?” he chuckles.
“Only to me. And probably Merlin,” she says, her eyes turning worried.
“He’ll be back, Guinevere.”
“Am I that transparent?” she laughs now.
“Only to me.”
“Done?” she asks, indicating his plate. He’s been rearranging beans for a few منٹ now.
“Yes. I really don’t like green beans,” he admits, setting his fork across the plate.
Gwen stands and lifts his plate, placing it on the tray. “I know.”
“Of course آپ do.” He stands and stretches, intending to reach for the tray to put it outside, but سے طرف کی the time he’s done stretching his back Gwen is already at the door. He sighs.
“Come,” he says, holding his hand out to her.
“Where are we going?”
“Fireplace.”
She takes his hand and he leads her to the rugs in front of the fireplace. She throws some مزید wood in before settling in against Arthur. He is sitting against some pillows, wearing just his trousers and red shirt, boots discarded en route somewhere in the room.
Gwen drops gracefully to the floor, nestling in between his legs, lying on her side against his chest. He wraps his arms around her, placing a kiss on the سب, سب سے اوپر of her head.
“I thought of something this evening,” he says, staring at the fire.
“What’s that?”
“Well, I remembered something, مزید accurately. Something from when I was a boy.” Can’t tell her what made me think of it; it would give away the surprise.
“Yes?”
“I used to like to play out in the fields outside town, when I wasn’t studying یا training. I’d pretend I was a knight, obviously.”
“Obviously,” she smiles.
“I thought the entire kingdom was at my disposal, that I could do anything I wanted.”
Gwen snorts.
“What?”
“Don’t آپ still kind of feel that way?”
“Hey!” he pokes her in the ribs, and she jumps with a giggle. He grabs her and pulls her face up to his for a kiss before continuing.
“Anyway,” he continues pointedly, “for some reason, one particular دن floated into my brain today. Perhaps it was crossing all the fields on the way home, who knows.”
“What happened?”
“I was leading an imaginary charge into a particular field, and imagine my surprise to discover that there were people already using my field.”
“The nerve!” she smiles against his chest.
He laughs. “It was two other children, actually. A boy and a girl. The boy wanted to play with me and I’m afraid I was quite rude to him. His big sister told me off. Took my toy sword and threw it.”
Gwen sits up and looks at him. “That was you?”
He nods, grinning sheepishly. “Who else would have been such a little prat?”
Now Gwen laughs, lying back down against him. “Sorry I threw your sword.”
He squeezes her. “I completely deserved it. I was an obnoxious child. Though I will admit, I thought آپ were a horrible girl.”
She laughs again, louder. “Never mind, I’m not sorry after all.”
He chuckles, the laughter a rumble against her ear as he squeezes her. “It took me an گھنٹہ to find that sword, آپ know.”
She still laughs. “I was having fun with my flowers and آپ completely ruined it. And آپ were mean to my baby brother. I was very protective of him.”
“I’m sorry I was mean to you.”
“You were a child,” she shrugs dismissively. A child being raised سے طرف کی Uther, no less.
“No excuse, really, though I will admit that I was everything my father was raising me to be,” he says, as if he had read her thoughts.
She looks up at him and he kisses her again, longer this time, lingering over her lips, savoring them.
“Do آپ want to know something, though?” he asks against her lips.
“Hmm?”
“I went back to that field almost every دن for the rest of that summer.”
Her brows furrow as she leans back slightly to look at him.
“I was looking for you,” he says, dropping another kiss on her lips.
“So آپ could yell at me again?” she asks casually, eyes opening slowly to look up at him.
“No.” Now his brows furrow. “I may have thought آپ were horrible, but you… intrigued me. I wanted to see the little girl who dared to yell at me again. I needed to figure her out. I thought about آپ مزید than I would have cared to. Heh,” he chuckles, “I guess even then I was drawn to your impertinence.”
“Four years after that I came here to work for Morgana,” Gwen says. “Surprised I didn’t recognize you.”
“I grew a lot during those four years. Well, physically, anyway,” he admits, and she laughs again, toying with the ties on the neck of his shirt, twisting one around her finger, then releasing it, watching it unwind and fall against his chest.
Arthur pulls her up to him again, hungry for مزید kisses. He kisses her softly, his hand resting on her cheek, trailing down her neck. She presses her lips against his, teasing them apart with her tongue, demanding مزید and receiving it. He holds her gently but kisses her passionately, indulging in her soft lips, nibbling and sucking at them till they are slightly swollen. Gradually he pulls away from her, kisses the end of her nose, and strokes her cheek again with his thumb before settling her back against him again.
He gives her another squeeze, his hand sliding over her stomach. “I want آپ to see Gaius tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, dear, that was the plan. Oh! Did anyone tell him that Merlin went to Ealdor?” she sits up again.
He pulls her back down against him. “I had Elyan deliver that message before he went off to the tavern with Gwaine and Odin’s knights.”
She sighs, mildly exasperated. Men are only just large boys.
“I told Gwaine to go easy on them. They are our guests, after all.”
“Think he’ll listen?”
“Possibly,” he chuckles.
“Mm. I asked Queen Annis’ midwife if she knew of any good midwives in Camelot. I figured we did not actually have a royal midwife, seeing as how the last royal baby born was you.”
He nods, “And?”
“Her sister is here in Camelot. Also a midwife. Her name is Fira.”
“We shall send for her and meet with her, then. Any credentials?”
“Apparently she delivered Sir Kay’s child last year.”
“Sir Kay has a child?”
“Arthur!”
“I’m kidding, of course I know he had a child.” She eyes him suspiciously, so he adds, “It was a girl, and they named her Lily.”
Hunith is working in her front garden, picking weeds from in between her carrots. She sits up straight and stretches her tired back, having spent the last گھنٹہ hunched over on her knees in the dirt. Getting old, she thinks vaguely. She turns her tired eyes to the small road in front of her house, and sees a figure approaching on horseback.
Is that...? No. He wouldn’t be here alone, would he? The figure approaches. It is! Hunith stands, stepping to the road. “Merlin!” she exclaims, and her son’s face breaks into a bright smile, transforming his features so that he looks much like the little boy she cradled in her arms so long ago.
He reaches the house and jumps down from his horse, embracing his mother tightly.
“This is a surprise indeed!” she says as she hugs him. He holds tight to her. “What’s wrong, dear?” she asks, her hand reaching up to stroke the hair on the back of his head as he tucks it into her neck.
“Mother, it’s so good to see you,” he says, finally releasing her, looking down at her sweet face. His پسندیدہ face.
“You are alone?” Hunith asks, eyes scanning for signs of Arthur یا Gwen.
“Yes, Mother, but Gwen and Arthur send their love,” he tells her as he reaches for his bag.
“Merlin,” Hunith says, placing her hands on her hips. “What is wrong?”
Never could hide anything from her. “Can we go inside?”
“You’re going to tell me about it?”
“Yes. Inside.”
“Very well. Are آپ hungry, Chipmunk?”
“Starving,” he says, blushing at the childhood nickname and very grateful that she’s never addressed him thus when he was here with Arthur.
She bends to pick up a bucket full of weeds, and he grabs it from her, lifting the heavy bucket and taking it behind the house to dump while Hunith goes inside to prepare some food for him.
He stands, and looks around. Still so much ruin. Damn you, Agravaine! This village has had enough hardship already. He plunks the bucket down hard and walks back to the house, frowning.
“He did so much damage,” he says as he enters, letting the familiar environment surround him like a warm blanket. “I’m really sorry to have brought this to the village.”
“Merlin…” she starts, turning to look at him.
“No, it’s my fault Agravaine came and set آگ کے, آگ to almost everything. I feel terrible. Let me fix some things for آپ while I’m here, please.”
“How long will آپ be staying?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t know yet.”
“You are going back to Camelot, Merlin.”
“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” he asks the ceiling, flinging his hands in the air as he flops into a chair.
“Because everyone knows آپ are needed there. Arthur and Gwen need آپ there, Chipmunk.”
He sighs. “I know.”
“So what is wrong?” she asks for the third time, bribing him with dinner.
“I think I need to back up some first.”
He brings her up to تاریخ on all the حالیہ events. She actually bursts into tears of relief for Arthur and Gwen when he tells her of the bracelet and Gwen’s innocence.
“Oh, thank God! She was so distraught when she arrived here. I hate to admit it, but I kept a very close eye on her during the short time she stayed with me. I was just afraid she might do something… rash. Thank آپ for sending her here, though, I would have hated to think of her out there all alone in that state.”
“That’s why I sent her to you. I’m only glad she listened to me,” he chuckles, poking at his food.
“Oh, poor Arthur!” Hunith suddenly exclaims. “He must have felt just awful!”
“You have no idea. I’ve only seen him that upset one other time, and that was when he banished her.” He frowns at the memory. “When we found out she was enchanted, he actually fell to his knees and begged her forgiveness with his head in her lap.”
“Oh, my,” she gasps.
“It was very emotional. Gaius and I decided to give them some privacy after that.”
“Good of you.”
“Anyway…” he continues his tale, telling her of Lord Roderick and Bertrand and of Bertrand’s comeuppance.
“So. It comes down to this: Arthur wants me to be his personal advisor instead of his servant. ‘Royal Advisor’ would be the official title.”
“Oh, my,” she gasps, understanding his conflict completely.
“Thank you,” he breathes, leaning back in his chair. “No one else understands. Even Gaius was congratulating me. I’m so…”
“Scared?”
He looks up. Scared? Yes. I’m petrified. “Yes,” he whispers, blinking back the frustrated tears that are threatening.
“Love, I don’t know Arthur near as well as آپ do, but I know he has a good heart. And I know he also has a temper. He’ll blow, but he’ll come around.”
“It’s the ‘blowing’ that worries me.”
“I know.”
“He could have me killed, Mum.”
“He wouldn’t. Gwen wouldn’t allow it, for one.”
He smiles. “True.”
“You cannot accept the position without telling him, Merlin.”
“I know that. That’s why I’m here. I needed آپ to tell me. I needed آپ to tell me that it was okay to tell him, knowing that the consequences may be dire.”
She sighs heavily and walks around behind her son, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “It’s time. He’s ready to hear it, even if you’re not ready to tell him. Even if he doesn’t know he’s ready.”
“How do آپ know that?” he asks.
“Like I said, I don’t know Arthur as well as you, but I got to know Gwen pretty well while she was here. She grounds him, keeps his feet on the floor. And آپ are my only son. I know آپ as well as I know myself, Merlin, and I know آپ are destined for great things. I knew it the moment آپ were born. I knew it the first time I saw آپ amusing yourself as a toddler سے طرف کی spinning your toys in the air in front of you,” she chuckles, leaning down to kiss his cheek. “He won’t have آپ executed,” she concludes decisively.
He smiles, and she gives him a squeeze before standing again to return to tidying the kitchen.
He takes a few مزید bites of food. “I do have good news,” he says cryptically, smirking.
“I could use some good news,” she says, turning back to him.
“Gwen is expecting,” he says with a grin.
Hunith drops into the chair opposite her son. “That’s wonderful news!” she exclaims, smiling broadly. “And so soon!”
Merlin blushes a little and says, “Well, they are, um, very much in love…” he suddenly seems fascinated سے طرف کی a slice of شلجم, شلغم on his plate.
Hunith laughs, both at her son’s embarrassment and the joy of a new baby. “That does bring to mind a question, though, Merlin,” she says, angling her head at him.
“I told آپ already, Mother,” he says quietly.
“You cannot mourn her forever, my love.”
What is that infernal noise? Arthur’s sleep is interrupted سے طرف کی rhythmic tapping sound. Surely Merlin isn’t prowling around looking for woodworm again.
He opens one eye and remembers that Merlin is in Ealdor. The tapping sound reaches his ears again, and Guinevere stirs in his arms. Damn George’s eyes. If he wakes her I’ll have his carefully-trimmed head on a pike.
Arthur gently slides out of bed, pulls on a pair of trousers that he finds lying halfway across the room – where they landed after Gwen flung them the گزشتہ night – and walks to the door. He gets halfway there and turns around, heading back to the bed. He leans over and plants a small kiss on Gwen’s forehead, then closes the curtains around the بستر as the knocking comes again.
He stalks across the room with long strides, ready to give that ridiculously meticulous servant a piece of his mind. He slides the lock back and flings the door wide.
“George!” he hisses, stepping into the corridor, pushing a very surprised George backwards as he does so.
“My lord?” he squeaks.
“Why on earth are آپ knocking at my door?”
“To wake آپ so that آپ may start your day, Sire. Breakfast will be coming presently.”
“Did it perhaps escape your attention that the doors were locked?”
“No, it did not, my lord. That is why I was knocking.”
Arthur sighs. Patience. “George. I will say this once: In the mornings, if the doors are locked, that means the queen is still asleep and no one is to enter. یا knock.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Now, normally she would be awake سے طرف کی now, true,” he acknowledges, “but she is very tired from our journey and is still asleep. I am inclined to let her stay sleeping, and I suggest آپ do the same.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“I’m going to go back inside now. When the door is opened, fetch Gaius and bring him up.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Arthur turns around and goes back inside, locking the door once again. I need to find a different servant. I will kill him if he becomes my permanent servant. Never met someone so devoid of personality, he thinks as he walks back to the bed. Merlin at least knows the unwritten rules.
He stands سے طرف کی the side of the bed, looking down at Guinevere, curled into the blankets, looking surprisingly like the little girl in the field that took his toy sword and threw it. Smiling at the memory, he yanks his trousers off again and climbs back in, pulling her into his arms again.
She sighs and snuggles in. “What was that all about?” she asks sleepily, not opening her eyes.
“George doesn’t know the rules,” he mutters, stroking her soft warm back.
“He’ll learn.”
“I can’t have him as a permanent servant and still keep my sanity.”
She chuckles against his chest.
“Go back to sleep, Love,” he whispers to her.
Part 24: link