A Week with a Prince

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖜𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞-𝕱𝖔𝖚𝖗

"Promise we will sleep by the fire again," the knight whispered and Ginny nodded, only too happy to oblige, before they sat by the fire close to each other, opposite Garreth and the prince.

"I was just asking Sir Garreth if the absence of people on the roads is normal," the prince turned to them while Garreth pulled four fish wrapped in leaves from the hot stones surrounding the dancing flames carefully. He left the parcels, sending mouthwatering aroma into the night, to cool a little, making Ginny realise how hungry she was. She could hardly focus on the man's words as he continued, "It's nearly as if the country was at war, and the people ran off, or hid..."

That got her attention. Has anything happened since they left Iseabail's inn? They had not met anyone in two days...

She exhaled with relief when she heard her knight reply to him, "I'm sure that if something happened, we would have heard from home. Have you forgotten, Arthur," he said, his blue eyes boring into the prince's brown orbs, "that your father knows well where we are, and promised to send for us should the Saxon troops move."

"Oh yes, I have quite forgotten that," the prince admitted, looking as relieved as Ginny.

"I've been wondering," the knight continued, his eyes now following Garreth who passed the fish around, "if the empty roads have anything to do with the strange mist, and the great distances we travel each day. I wasn't sure we would reach Tintagel in only six days when we left Dudley Castle, and yet, we are nearly there..."

Ginny saw Garreth's cheeks flush in the moving light of the fire. Was it really his doing? she mused, then, seeing how uncomfortable he looked under her knight's scrutiny, she rushed to his rescue. "Well, it must be the peregrine falcon then," she said, giggling, "he must be a wizard in disguise, sent to watch over us by Lord John, who loves Garreth like his own son. Have you noticed how it's been at our heels, or rather above our heads, since we left Dudley?"

Ginny thought that she had seen the strange bird even before, in the woods close to Aunt's Ealasaid's castle, but she wasn't sure. Too many things had happened since they set out on this quest.

Garreth smiled at her thankfully even as Sir Lancelot replied, "You might be right, Gwendolyn. We might just have some magical guardian, watching our every move."

"Why don't we take a boat to Glastonbury?" the prince asked suddenly, changing the subject. Following Garreth's example, he tossed the leftovers of his meal into the fire so their food wouldn't attract wild animals at night. "There must be a village with at least one inn on the island; I'm sure I have seen lights through the fog before."

Ginny laughed, letting her knight dispose of their leftovers while she washed her hands, then held the water flask to him. Prince Arthur was incorrigible; did he ever think of anything else but cards and ale?!

"People call it Holy Isle for a reason, my lord," she told the prince. "There is only a church, a small army of monks, and a handful of nuns living in a monastery built on its shores. Unless you wish to visit the monks..."

The prince frowned; that, apparently, wasn't his idea of fun.

"I always thought that it was more suitable for a woman to become a nun, and spend her life in prayers, than for a man..." he mused. Like his friend, he had not realised how the new religion, brought to their isles by the Romans, had spread in this part of the country.

"I think I agree with you, Your Highness," Ginny said, surprising all the men, her eyes searching the prince's above the fire, "I'd rather be a nun than an obedient daughter, respectful of her father's order to wed a man without love. Women... seem to have become mere chattels of men, bartered, and trapped in loveless marriages... expected to sit quietly at the hearth and give birth to male heirs..."