A Week with a Prince

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕱𝖎𝖋𝖙𝖞-𝕺𝖓𝖊

"So here they are, finally... They took their time, as if the young King Arthur had no greater worry than seeing his bride home personally," Myrddin said, laughing even before his Ealasaid slapped him on the arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

"Of course he doesn't. It is the least he can do before leaving her here and vanishing for the next three weeks... They will be long for Guinevere, I remember how she was pining for her fair 'Sir Lancelot' before I sent her to the convent, and back then, she had her friend Morag around. Now she will only have me and old Arwen for company."

"They will be long for Arthur too, I'm sure," Myrddin muttered thoughtfully, remembering Arthur in the times when they could not find his Guinevere, "but they will pass. And then, after the wedding, unless he decides to disobey Avalon, which I really hope he won't, they will never be separated again for long." Myrddin bestowed a quick kiss on Ealasaid's cheek before he turned to the riders just reaching the end of the drawbridge. "I saw you coming," he called to Arthur, smiling. "Not you, Guinevere, that Sword of yours makes you perfectly invisible to my Sight. However, seeing our Lord Arthur headed this way was enough. We have spoken to your father already, and he agrees that you spend the weeks left before the wedding here, with your aunt, my lady."

"Thank you," Ginny said, smiling at the wizard looking like her cousin's older brother rather than a father.

She let Arthur help her off her horse, then rushed to embrace her aunt. "Thank you for everything. Your friend, Abbess Agatha, treated me and Morag well. And so did Lady Nimue," Ginny added, looking at Myrddin again. "Without your help..." She turned back quickly, reaching for Arthur's hand, as she recalled the awful Kind Gwynedd pursuing her to the shores of the Lake. "Well, I understand that you have already met. There's no need to introduce my Lord Arthur." She giggled shyly, happily, a blush spreading over her cheeks like wildfire.

"Oh yes, we have met," Aunt Ealasaid said, smiling at him.

"It is a great honour to see you again, Countess," he replied, kissing her hand.

Garreth and Lancelot, who had been waiting politely behind, now stepped forward and were promptly seized by Countess Ealasaid, who embraced and kissed them both as if Lancelot was her own son just like Garreth.

Ginny used this moment when the attention was taken away from them to step closer to Arthur, whispering, "You will stay a day or two, won't you? You mustn't leave immediately..."

"Actually, Princess," Myrddin, who had overheard her, said, "I'm about to leave-- your father is expecting me at the army camp not far from Mount Badon." The wizard looked from Ginny to Arthur, his eyes implying that those words carried more meaning that she could understand. "And he was hoping that you would come with me, my lord, he needs advice."

Arthur sighed deeply. "Of cour..."

"No. Please. With all due respect to my father, I won't let him leave with you tonight. He needs to rest," Ginny said decisively.

Aunt Ealasaid rushed to her aid. "Tell my King Leodegrance that Lord Arthur is my guest until he and his men will be well rested and ready for another journey. Garreth can take him to the camp in a couple of days."

Myrddin sighed, shrugging. He knew he couldn't win this battle. Women... There was no point in arguing with them once they put something in their heads. In a way, it was easier to fight against the Saxons than arguing with women...

"As you wish, my ladies," he said, smiling to himself, resigned to leave Arthur in their hands. "I'll be off then."

He kissed Ealasaid, not caring in the slightest about all the Arthur's men looking at them, making her blush just like Guinevere. He pulled Garreth into a fatherly embrace, shook hands with Lancelot and Arthur, then stepped back.

A veil of silvery mist enveloped his figure momentarily and when it dissipated, the ancient wizard with a floor-length, silvery-white beard and a pair of tiny, round spectacles stood in the place of Garreth's middle-aged father. Then, with a bemused look and a cheeky wink at Ginny, who gaped at him, still unused to his magic, and a strange 'pop', he was gone.

"Right, let us go in," Ealasaid muttered, looking as amused by her wizard's performance as if she had just seen it for the first time. "Aden, show Lord Arthur's Knights into their quarters," she said to a valet waiting for her orders by the entrance, "and please send one of the maids into the kitchens, to tell the cook to serve our dinner in the Great Hall, in an hour."

The knights disappeared inside the castle following the valet, leaving Aunt Ealasaid, Garreth and Lancelot, and Ginny with Arthur in the courtyard alone.

"Well, you know where your rooms are, Son," the Countess smiled at Garreth then, "and you decide where your guest will stay."

"Thanks, Mother," Garreth replied with a shy smile, lacing his arm through Lancelot's, leading him inside.

"And now you two..." Aunt Ealasaid sighed. "I'm to watch over you, your father appointed me your chaperone, Guinevere. Until the wedding, you are not to spend any time alone..."

"No! You can't be serious, please," Ginny said, wrapping her arm around Arthur's waist, even as he laid his over her shoulders, pulling her closer, kissing her on top of her head. "We have just spent a whole week together... if we wanted to break the promise I gave to Lady Nimue about our wedding night being on Beltane... we would have done so already, right?" she stammered, then hid her blushing face into his chest.

"I do realise that," the Countess replied seriously, "his rooms are next to yours, of course. But your father doesn't understand. And that's why he insisted on sending Arwen."

"Nooo..." Ginny sighed, even as the old nurse ran out of the door, across the courtyard and into Ginny's arms.

"My lady, I thought I'd never see you again, you gave me such a fright... And look at you... Well, never in my life... Dressed like a man again... Let me take care of her, my lord, you won't recognise her when I bring her back..." she rattled on, pulling Ginny away from Arthur, rushing her inside as she kept talking, not leaving a gap in her stream of complaints about Ginny's looks and behaviour for her to protest.

Ginny survived the next hour in Arwen's hands following her orders obediently, knowing that the faster she was bathed and clad in one of the gowns Arwen had brought from home for her, the sooner she would be with Arthur again. Her eyes kept strolling to the stone wall that separated their chambers, knowing how little time they had left before he would have to join her father in that camp Myrddin mentioned.

Were the Saxons invading their shores again? She realised that she had no idea about what was going on in the country, she had spent more than a year in Avalon-- an island hidden in magical mists, a world of its own-- and during the week since her return she had not thought about anything beyond her and Arthur... She sighed, thinking that such selfishness did not suit a future queen, the sigh making Arwen flood her with tens of alarmed questions.

"I love you, Arwen," Ginny told the old woman, embracing her, when she finally declared her ready to attend the dinner. "You must come to Camelot with me when Lord Arthur comes for me, have all your things sent here in the meantime, I don't want you to go back to my father's castle... Unless you want to return there?" she added uncertainly, seeing the old woman melt in tears.

But Arwen assured her quickly that she didn't want to go back, and accompanied her Princess personally down the corridors and staircases to the door of the Great Hall, where Arthur and his Companions were already seated at long tables laden with food, waiting for her.