The Man in The Cave

Chapter 30

As she entered what would be her chamber during her wedding night, Morgana felt her heartbeat was relentless to the point she could feel it in her throat. Urien had been courteous the limited time they had been around the other. Although a bit stoic, he was able to tell her a couple of comments that had made her laugh the first time they met.

They had barely seen each other while the wedding preparations took place. Needless to say, Morgana knew little to nothing of the man, she had heard a couple of the her ladies in waiting talking about it wasn't entirely abnormal for people to marry after barely meeting each other, but it wasn't what Morgana had envisioned when she thought about marriage.

She had talked with Morgause during the party, the first time she had seen her sister in a long time. It had been unexpected, and the kids had to stay home. Morgause tried to comfort to the best of her ability and despite the tension between them, insisting on the fact that this was only the proof that Arthur was heinous person who had taken just after his father. She also tried to tell Morgana that, if her husband was nice enough, he should be able to understand that the marriage was, at its best, unexpected by the twenty-eight year old; at its worse, an undesirable product of obligation.

Morgana begged it was the case, she had heard enough horror stories from people who had married out of convenience. Her mother had lived one of them, and so had her sister.

"You don't need to fret, or undress for that matter," Urien's voice brought her back to the moment she was in, and she saw him sitting in the edge of the bed, taking off the newly-made boots he had worn to the ceremony. Morgana looked at him, blue eyes scanning him up and down, looking for any hints in his voice that denoted irritation.

"Oh?"

"Why don't you sit down?" he invited, gesturing to the chair next to the bed. Morgana furrowed her eyebrows, following his indication, adjusting her soft yellow dress, "I'm sure this must come as a surprise for you, but I'm not really interested in you,"

Morgana was taken aback, a half-amused smile rose to her face, and she was finding it hard to decide if she felt offended or relieved by the man's statement.

"Excuse me?" she managed to say reclining against the back of her chair. A small smile, visible through his thick beard escaped Urien's lips as he rose his hands.

"No, you're beautiful of course," he was quick to add, Morgana rose an eyebrow, waiting for him to finish, "but I'm not interested in you, or laying with you, or anyone at the moment, I hope you take no offence to my words nor tell them to anyone, the talking it would cause would prove too much for my patience to handle"

Morgana scoffed, a hint of amusement, "Then why did you set the marriage?" there was genuine curiosity in her voice. She was certain he had been the one to arrange the marriage, or at least that was Arthur had said.

"Why did you agree to it?" he shot back at her, raising an eyebrow. Morgana rolled her eyes.

"I asked first?".

Urien sighed, raising his hands in mocked defeat, "My council was pestering me to marry, I'm the king and they find it strange I have no eagerness to look for wife or an heir, so when Arthur questioned me about granting him free passage through my land, one of the members of my council mentioned he had a sister so I thought about it, and asked for your hand"

"Why?"

"I initially thought you'd say no," he shrugged, a sheepish smile rose to his lips, "I still would have said yes to the deal, I had no intentions of actually marrying you, it was just so I could say to my council, 'oh, well I tried' to placate them for a little while, marrying implies sharing the crown, and having kids with your partner it's setting the ground for feeding other people's murderous' intentions from an early age. If anything were to happen to me, my brother would take the throne, but my council don't seem to be as relieved as I am on that matter," he explained, Morgana nodded, half understanding, half still trying to grasp her head around the situation as strange as it was.