A Legendary Love

Chapter Eight

The following few weeks passed quite quickly, and Jen found herself thinking less and less of the life she had left behind in the 21st century.

One early evening while she was embroidering, she took a moment to consider what had changed.

There was certainly the aspect of spending more time with Arthur – they had both remained true to their word and had escaped into the secret garden at least once a week. However, the pair had also made efforts to spend more time together in a socially acceptable manner – i.e. with chaperones present at all times. Whilst Jen much preferred her secret rendezvous with Arthur, she enjoyed sitting with him in a comfortable silence as they read books in the library or went on hunts in the nearby woods. They would often walk through the streets of Camelot, meeting the locals and hearing their woes. Walking along the narrow streets also gave the opportunity for Arthur and Jen to walk a little closer than society would deem acceptable, with the occasional touch of Arthur's hand on Jen's hip as he guided her in one direction before jumping away like he'd been electrocuted when he heard Lady Helen's disapproving cough.

Every time the pair touched; Jen felt her stomach jump into her throat. She was certain that she wasn't in love with Arthur – nowhere near close. Her most recent explanation for the jitters she felt was that Arthur made her nervous. She was all too aware that her life hung in Arthur's hands; he was King after all and could decide on a whim what quality of life Jen was going to have.

That sense of female empowerment that Jen had lost was potentially the biggest adjustment she had to come to terms with. The concept of feminism was non-existent in the middle ages, and the suggestion of such a concept was likely to result in her being accused of witchcraft.

Jen had always thought of herself as quite demure and quiet. Often, she would daydream of being in another time period other than her own and thinking of how she would cope; this habit started when she was at university and would often imagine herself in the time period that she was studying. She had thought that she would adjust perfectly, in some cases believing that she was born in the wrong time period.

How ironic that turned out to be, now that she found herself transported into the Arthurian legend.

The more she considered her liberties that had been taken away in terms of gender equality, the more she realised just how much she had taken it for granted.

Although she was in the fortunate position of being royalty herself, as well as engaged to the King, she still very much felt like a second-class citizen. Jen found that Arthur was quite respectful and seemed to value her perspective and take on matters, however it was abundantly clear to her that he was in the minority. Uther was the worst offender, rolling his eyes and talking over her when she spoke in public, however that was only to be expected – he was a vain creature, used to being centre of attention.

The librarian would refuse to give her access to some parts of the library related to matters he deemed 'unladylike'. Sometimes this was historical documents, other times it was medical journals. Strategies of war was obviously too much for her 'delicate female sensitivities', that much she had assumed (yet attempted, nevertheless). She had expected that fiction would be her safe space, where she would have freedom to pursue any book she desired, however she had also been stopped on multiple occasions from removing certain fiction stories from the library which the librarian had deemed 'inappropriate' for her to consume, and she had been denied the opportunity to question what made these tales so dangerous for a woman to read.

This left Jen feeling quite confused – in a lot of regards, she felt at home in Camelot. In other regards, she felt that she was out of place.

Jen also found it quite hard to develop meaningful relationships with any of the people around her. She was too high in rank to socialise regularly with the staff in the castle, or her washerwomen acquaintances – she found that she had no real-life experiences that she could share with them in order to develop a deeper bond.