Merlin: Return of the Monarch

Gwen?

~†~

"Merlin, I don't think this is a good idea." Arthur muttered, as they walked through the tourists entrance of the palace. Merlin pulled up his unnecessary sunglasses and looked around, before he grinned toothily at his good friend. "Don't worry Arthur, you fit in perfectly." He consoled teasingly, earning a harsh glare. "I swear Merlin-"

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Buckingham Palace." A very posh woman's voice echoed through the welcome hall, cutting Arthur off before he had a chance to threaten the warlock. The two turned, along with the rest of the crowd of tourists, to face the sweeping staircase, as a young woman made her way silently down the red carpeted steps. Her pretty smile was cradled in her soft cut cheek bones, and her hair, shining in the light of the chandelier from above, was curled in tiny swills that bounced with every step. Her eyes were a coppery brown, and twinkled with the delight of her smile.

Merlin stared at her- he couldn't help it. Arthur was staring too, as she came to a halt at the bottom of the staircase, her heels clicking on the marble floor as she continued her introduction. "My name is Gwen, and I am happy to tell you that I shall be your guide as we explore the realms of this wonderful building." She said, as the two young men kept staring at her. "If you'll all follow me, I can take you through to the glorious entrance hall, where we can begin our tour." Gwen gestured to a pair of enormous doors to he right, and the crowd of tourists shuffled off towards it, Merlin and Arthur lagging behind.

As Gwen made her way to the front of the group, Merlin moved to follow, but was stopped by Arthur grabbing his collar. "Did you see-?" He asked, staring at their tour guide as if she was a ghost. "I did." Merlin said, his eyes still wide. "She looked-" Arthur tried to continue but couldn't seem to finish his sentence, but Merlin knew what he meant. "I know."

"Hurry up you two!" Gwen called from the front of the crowd, and the two friends hurried over to join the back of the party. Gwen was enchanting, as she brought the party through every room available to view, and the way she described the goings-on and purpose of each room brought to life images of scandal, love, and despair, which brought them all to tears of joy and sadness.

As they passed a closed door on the third level, Gwen turned again to face her eager followers. "And this here is the wing where the Young Windsors reside when they stay in Buckingham- normally this door would be open to view past into the family home, but due to the fire damage and repairs, we have had to keep them closed for the time being. Now, over here we have a lovely family portrait from the royal wedding. Unlike most other framed works, this is the first large photo print instead of a painting..." Gwen took the crowd away from the closed doors, but Merlin pulled Arthur back.

"Ok, this is it. You know the plan?" He hissed quietly. Arthur nodded, his eyes still on Gwen. "Arthur! Please focus!" Merlin pinched the old King who yelped in protest. "I am focused!" He hissed back, as the party trailed off round the corner, leaving the two of them alone in the corridor outside the closed doors. Merlin looked around cautiously, before trying the handle. To his surprise, it swung open.

Arthur looked at Merlin incredulously. "For a place that's supposed to be heavily secure that's not very comforting." He pointed out. Merlin rolled his eyes and stepped through. "Don't start complaining. It makes our job easier." He said, and Arthur shrugged nonchalantly.

The corridor was deathly silent, and a very faint scent of smoke was wafting down with the breeze from an open window. A turn table was crackling at the end of a vinyl in a room at he very end of the hall, and Arthur grabbed Merlin by the arm. "Merlin, there's someone here." He muttered, his face paling. Merlin put his finger to his lips, and carefully, quietly tip-toed towards the open door.

Inside, a young woman was sat, the runt of a cigarette in her hand, her head lolling a bit as she snored. Her other hand was loosely gripped around a glass of what looked like sherry, as she heavily breathed in the choking aroma of her smoke. Arthur coughed slightly, and Merlin shot him a warning look, one of those ones that said "Do that again and I'll throw you out of the open window".

They backed out of the room quietly, carefully shutting the door more than it had been before, and the breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Who was that?" Arthur asked, as Merlin moved on to look into the room opposite. Merlin shrugged, shutting the door on the totally black room and moving onto the next. "I don't know. She looked a bit like Catherine Windsor's sister, but I can't be certain. She shouldn't bother us." He waved off Arthur's troubles as he found the door he was looking for.

"Yes. This is it." He whispered, and opened the door fully, his hand fondling the wall until he found the light switch. Flicking it on, the two peered around the room, to see it was entirely remade, with no hint of fire damage.

Arthur gaped. "You really can't tell that there was a fire in here." He mused, looking around with a glint in his eye. Merlin shook his head as he too took in the expense of the surroundings. "But the guide, Gwen, she said it was shut due to fire damage repair. This has clearly been repaired, and even improved to a higher quality, so why tell the world it's not ready?"

"Because." A cold voice said behind them, and the two men jumped, spinning on the spot to face the person at the door. The woman who had been sleeping took a drag of her cigarette before continuing. "They wished to keep one small part of their public lives private." Her voice was hard and cool, and Arthur gulped nervously. Merlin opened and shut his mouth several times in a row, trying to come up with a good explanation.

The lady snorted, and took another puff. "Don't bother. You're the sixth set of people to sneak in here. And I'm too tired to call security, so if you two run along now, I won't say a word." She sighed, holding the door open. The king and the warlock cast a glance to each other, before nodding and fumbling over words of thanks, and escaped back to the original hallway, which thankfully was still empty.

"Wow." Arthur said sarcastically, leaning against the door. "That told us everything we needed to know!" He said, waving his hands in the air in fake excitement. Merlin rolled his eyes, and shook his head.

"It told us more than you think Arthur." He replied, as they heard the returning voices of Gwen and their tour group coming round the corner on their way back down to the welcome hall. "What do you mean?" Arthur asked, trying to read Merlin's expression as they joined the back of the crowd just as before. "Well, we learnt that there is something to hide in that nursery. There's no way that woman "just woke up", she was far too deep in her sleep when we saw her. Something woke her up. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't us."

Arthur rolled his eyes at Merlin's melodramatic nature. "You should be on the stage if you're going to be that dramatic." He chuckled, as the party headed back down the stairs to the original hall where they first came in. His eyes wandered to Gwen, who was confirming something with one of the Korean translators at the front of the group. "I just can't get over how much she looks like my Gwen."

A/N: hey all! Surprise update! Hope you enjoy it! It'll start to get a bit more adventurous soon, as I can tell you, we've met two new VERY important characters, and they aren't what you might expect, so watch out!! Read, vote, comment and follow to get notifications of my updates!! Much love my fellow Merlinians!!xx