Forbidden Love - Merlyn [2]

Chapter Seven: Jousting Tournament

With Arthur's face hidden beneath the hood of the cloak, Merlyn and Arthur were able to walk through the Lower Town undetected. Merlyn had found a place for Arthur to lay low in by some miracle; it took some rattling of her brain along with some great persuasion on her behalf to get the person to allow Arthur to stay. Quickly the pair walked to a small wooden house that was common to those of the Lower Town. It was a quaint little place. Merlyn's gaze scanned the surrounding area as she knocked on the door, waiting patiently for the owner to answer the door. Soon enough Gwen's smiling face appeared behind the door.

Once they were inside the house Arthur moved further into the room, removing his hood as he did. It was a simple, typical house filled with a small wooden table and bench a single bed against the right wall, a curtained off back room and a small hob and oven with a couple of cupboards around. Merlyn knew that Arthur was not exactly impressed with the house he would be staying in, however, it was not his decision - he wanted to play pretend so he had to go along with what she chose. Merlyn took a place beside Gwen who was clearly very nervous about having the prince in her home.

"My Lord" Gwen finally greeted with the door shut tight behind them. Arthur turned to look at Gwen with a smile.

"Guinevere. It's good of you to let me stay in your home" Arthur formally said.

"I'm happy to help" Gwen replied before an awkward silence filled the house. Merlyn tried her hardest not to laugh before she leaned in close to Gwen and whispered "food", giving the young servant something to run and do.

"I'll prepare some food for you" Gwen suddenly said before she made her way over to the stove whilst Merlyn moved to Arthur's side. His face said it all.

"You can't really expect me to stay here" Arthur whispered harshly. Merlyn could only roll her eyes it was typical that he couldn't spend a few days without his luxury.

"We need to keep you out of sight" Merlyn started as she began to remove his cloak while he frowned at her. "We can trust Gwen not to tell anyone you're here."

"I doubt anyone would believe it" he muttered as Merlyn took the cloak from his shoulders and carefully placed it on the table.

"You have spent days out in the woods when you have gone on a hunt and you're telling me this is as bad as that?" Merlyn said as she stood before Arthur her hands on her hips, "if you like you can sleep in the woods."

"This will be fine" Arthur replied grumpily. Merlyn just smugly walked off to Gwen who was filling one of her bowls with the food she had prepared on the stove.

"I can't believe you talked me into this" Gwen muttered with panic on her face. Merlyn did feel bad for doing this to Gwen. Merlyn knew first hand that Arthur was a pain in the ass on top of that he was a prince.

"I'm sorry" Merlyn replied as she grabbed the bowl and brought it over to Arthur who was sat at the table.

"How are the preparations coming along? Have we found someone to play our knight in the tournament?" Arthur asked as he took the bowl off Merlyn and began to eat the surprisingly good food.

"Absolutely. He's a farmer from one of the outlying villages, and no one will recognise him" Merlyn assured, after all she had gone to the furthest village she could in the limited time she had been given.

"But does he look the part?" Arthur questioned, that was the main issue he had with it - the man had to look the part. And from Merlyn's face it didn't look good. Gwen quickly disappeared whilst Merlyn moved over to Arthur's side. The pair watched as Gwen led a peasant farmer into the main part of the room, his hair and skin filthy from the fields he worked in all day. Merlyn watched as Arthur's face dropped at the sight of the farmer. He was pretty much as far from a Knight as he could be.