A Week with a Prince

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕰𝖑𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓

After lunch, they mounted their horses again and rode south, along the river, until sunset. However, as if both Garreth and Prince Arthur had agreed that leaving Ginny and Sir Lancelot alone was a very bad idea, the two men did everything in their power to keep them apart this time.

Following Garreth's advice, the travellers decided to set up camp on the very border of his family's lands. He knew his people well and could guarantee for them, Garreth explained, but he also knew that their neighbour wasn't quite as concerned about the welfare of his people as his mother.

"Which means that they can't be interested in the contentment of their landlord, or the safety of his guests," Sir Lancelot concluded gloomily.

"Exactly. It will be safer to spend the night here," Garreth said.

"All right, let us pitch the tents here tonight," Prince Arthur agreed. "But I would really like to visit a town or a village too. Isn't there any close enough where we could have a proper dinner, ale, and a game of cards or dice?"

"No, we are too far from any settlement here, my lord. Maybe tomorrow night?" Garreth said, the vague promise lying in his words, making Ginny frown at him.

Weren't they supposed to avoid towns and villages? Lancelot grinned at her as he noticed the dark look she shot at her cousin, and she barely resisted the temptation to roll her eyes at the all-seeing knight.

The prince simply nodded, resigned for the moment, and helped Lancelot unload their horses while Ginny assisted Garreth.

With the last wide circle high above their heads when the dusk started to fall, the peregrine falcon, apparently content with the day's events, flew away, up-river, back towards Warwick Castle.

Ginny giggled as she thought that maybe it was Aunt Ealasaid who sent the bird after them... Garreth stepped on her foot in a silent, painful warning even as Lancelot grinned at her again from behind his horse. Only Prince Arthur seemed to have noticed nothing.

Once their tents were ready and a small fire brightening the night that had fallen in the meantime was burning nearby, they gathered around it for dinner. Ginny was feeling bored of stale bread, cheese, and a piece of dried meat again. She was sure that the prince would protest such a meal, but he did not.

He must be used to this sort of travel and adventure... she mused, then sighed as she realised that both the prince and his knight were old enough to have been in one or even more of the endless battles against the Saxons, and must be accustomed to worse food than this. She had never thought about this before, about how it would actually feel to be married to a warrior, seeing him leave, never knowing when or if he would return to her from a battle... Letting her thoughts ramble, the princess observed the three men absorbed in a conversation she was too tired to take part in.

"If only someone pulled that Sword from the stone finally," she heard Lancelot say, "God knows how much we need a king who would unite all the kingdoms of Britain once and forever, a man whom all the tribes, and even unworthy dukes like your neighbour, Warwick, would follow and obey..."

Just what did all the men have with that Sword? Did they really believe that the piece of metal would somehow make the one who managed to take it out the one and only king? Did they really think that anyone could just... take it, carry it away, stuck as it was in that rock at Tintagel by some dark magic, since the beginning of times? Ginny mused.

She pulled at Garreth's sleeve inconspicuously and shook her head in disapproval when she noticed the prince taking out a deck of cards and a pouch full of money from his pocket. But when Garreth only shrugged, letting her know that there was nothing he could, or would do to prevent this game, she stood up and excused herself, saying she would rather rest, than play cards tonight.