Queens

Ros

The day had started off great, but she wasn't always the one to see the good in things. The minute she walked into the great hall, things were different. A tall man stood, talking to her father. He was young, quite handsome, but she couldn't help but wonder why he was here.

No matter, she just began to walk over to her seat at the table until she heard Uther's thundering voice, "Roselyn! Come my child, come meet our guest!" She stopped mid step and turned to look at him, he had a smile on his face, but hatred burned in his eyes. Cautiously making her way over to her father, she stopped once she was near them.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," she bowed her head and slightly curtsied, as a princess should do.

"Why don't you show him around the grounds Roselyn? You seem to take a liking to this place," her father said, giving her a knowing smirk. "You two have fun, I have some business to attend to." He walked out of the room, a few guards following him.

"This might just work out then, your father didn't lie when he spoke of your beauty," the man said to her. Of course it was flattering to her, she had never had someone call her beautiful before, besides Merlin and her brother.

"I didn't catch your name," she said to him as they walked.

"My name is Dane Foy, I'm from Tamerel." She had read about Tamerel before, in one of the books that Giaus had let her read. It was a kingdom that was across the North Sea, so he had traveled for quite some time.

"You must be tired from your journey, Tamerel is quite a trip to Camelot." The two of them had reached the gardens, and it was the first time she actually got a good look at him because of the dull lighting inside. His hair was a dark red color, freckles scattered his cheeks. She knew that Tamerel was located on steep rocky cliffs by the sea and had large lakes scattering throughout the kingdom, so it made sense that he was muscular, he probably swam a lot.

"I was quite exhausted yes, but I seem to have an extra boost of energy from walking around with you." It was obvious that he was flirting with her, and she didn't mind it, but Merlin kept coming to mind. It was obvious now that this was a suitor prepared by her father for her, but she wasn't sure how to take it.

"Well, I welcome you to Camelot. How long are you staying?"

"As long as I must, I have a mission to complete here in the city."

"And what would that mission be?" She took a seat on a bench in front of the fountain, where her and Merlin had first kissed.

"To get you to fall in love with me," he stated simply. "Your father has told me so much about you, and you are precisely what I'm looking for in a queen." A queen? That meant that he was either a prince or a king, but she was going to go with prince, because she had read that the king of Tamerel had brown hair, his queen red, but she had passed while giving birth to their son.

"What exactly did my father tell you?  That would make me what you want as a queen?"

"He said that you read a lot of books, as do I; you spend a lot of time in the garden, which I only assume is because you love flowers; he also mentioned that you care a lot for animals, he wasn't lying about this correct?" For the most part, it seemed like he had gotten her spot on, but there were still large gaps in what he was saying.

"Yes, yes that's correct. Although it's not just the flowers that I love to see. I love the outdoors, you see my father hardly lets me leave the city, so all I really know about the outdoors is what I read about in books and what I've seen here in the garden." It wasn't really a lie, she did love the outdoors.

"Well, I-" he was interrupted by the sound of the large bells that stood on top of a few of the watch towers. She looked beyond Dane, only to see Gwen running towards the two of them. She stood up at once, ready to hear what Gwen had to say.

"Your highness, they've taken Anastasia to the dungeon, she is to be taken to the block first thing in the morning," she said to her, out of breath. "She's, she's sentenced to death in the name of the King."

"What? Why? Oh no, I must go, I am so sorry your highness," she bowed to Dane and then began to walk away, only to see him following her, quickly.

"Who is it that's being sentenced to death then?"

"My handmaiden, she's also my friend, and I can't imagine why my father would-" a thought occurred to her, had he found out about she and Arthur? "Oh no."