Gwen grinned. She could see this was just the beginning of a whole new chapter in Merlyn’s magical reputation. Better to leave them to it, she thought – things might get dangerous in there for the next twenty-four hours or so.
“Dear Merlyn, please allow me to take the medicine you have ready. And perhaps a bit more of the orange juice? I’ll go and take it to the queen’s quarters straight away and we’ll see if the king will like it. If it doesn’t blow his head off, of course!”
Merlyn did as he was asked. A few minutes later Gwen had left her two knights behind and was climbing the large central staircase of Camelot, accompanied by Kate who was carrying a tray with two large goblets of orange juice and herbs up to the royal suite. They were welcomed enthusiastically by Queen Guinevere.
“Lady Gwendolyn, how it pleases me to see thee safely returned from thy excursion. Merlyn tells us that thou didst ride to Caerleon on some errand. Was my carriage to thy liking? Didst thee receive a royal welcome? And pray tell, what is it thou hast brought us?”
“Medicine for the flu, your Majesty. I heard that King Arthur is now suffering. Perhaps you…I mean…perhaps thou shouldst drink a little if thou art still afflicted. It…er…it pains me awfully for bringing this evil virus to Camelot. I feel terrible about that. So I thank thee most sincerely for the loan of thy carriage. The trip to Caerleon was entirely successful, as I hope the king will see when he drinks this…”
Gwen silently kicked herself for being still so nervous speaking to royalty. She ushered Kate in first, who dutifully curtsied low before the queen and held up the tray for royal approval. Kate, of course, had been raised at Camelot and knew instinctively what was expected of her when in royal company. For Gwen it was still nerve-wracking. She was aware that she was supposed to be one of the queen’s closest confidants but she struggled to fulfil that role, not knowing quite what language and comportment was appropriate and frightened that somehow she would be found out as some interloper in disguise. Fortunately, however, the queen did not appear to notice her difficulties and simply folded her arms into hers and took Gwen into the royal chambers, calling out enthusiastically to her husband.
“See here, my King: the Lady Gwendolyn has returned and brought us this potion of most divine flavour to ease thy ailment!” She took a sip from one of the goblets as she ordered Kate forward.
King Arthur was lying across a large, curtained four-poster bed and looked feverish and bad-tempered. He rose up on one elbow and beckoned the three women to approach. Gwen and Kate stood back while the king reached out for the goblet that the queen proffered. He took a quick drink as if to see it was to his liking and that it was not going to poison him. His face relaxed a little. It met with royal approval. He looked keenly at Gwen.
“You prepared this, milady?”
Gwen curtsied. “Not I, your Majesty. ‘Twas Merlyn who prepared this potion from oranges that I went to find in Bristol…”
“Thou didst well!” The king looked up at his wife. “My Queen, I wish to speak with the Lady Gwendolyn now. If thou wouldst favour me by retiring for a moment…?”
Queen Guinevere bobbed down graciously and then backed away out of the bedchamber. Kate followed as far as the door where she sank down to the floor, out of earshot but ready to be called for if needed.
The king coughed and spluttered an apology to his young attendant. “Milady, excuse my ill temper, but I regret that this castle is indeed suffering from an evil affliction which I fear thou hast brought amongst us!”
Gwen nodded, her face fearful of what might be coming. “Yes, sire, I am indeed sorry, I didn’t mean…”
King Arthur waved a goblet-filled hand as if to dismiss any excuse. He took a deep draught of the potion, still spluttering as he did so.
“No matter, milady. What is done is done. This plague is all about Camelot now, though there are those like my dear Queen who have now recovered from this affliction. I am told that there is some mischievous demon within thee that causes this grief but at the same time thou art battling to overcome it. What say’st thee to this charge? Art thou battling with success?”
“Your Majesty, I hardly know what to say. I do not intend any harm…but it seems that since my own collapse I…I have sort of upset any number of people and ways of doing things here. It’s like I’ve forgotten all about the customs of Camelot and have fallen into this world from another time and place. I cannot explain it, sire, but I am trying my best to make things better…Really I am – like this orange drink for you, sire…”
“And the sword above the battlements to attract a dragon’s fire. Yes, I have seen thine efforts, milady. Fair maiden, I see that thou art truly engaged in a magical transformation, a battle for thine own soul. Merlyn has spoken thus and I see it for myself now.”
A noise outside in the antechamber caught King Arthur’s attention. A voice he recognised drew a scowl upon his face.
“Milady, wilst thou instruct thy maid to draw the door shut to this bedchamber? I do not wish to be disturbed.” He was clearly annoyed and, feverish as he was, his face coloured rapidly.
“Kate, will you shut the door please?” Gwen called out. “And if you will let me attend thee, your Majesty, I think that with your temperature you should not have these curtains drawn so close and if the door is to be shut then you need as much air as possible from these windows!” Gwen quickly busied about, pulling aside the drapes on the bed and those that obscured the light from the long slit windows.
Despite his sour mood, the king could not resist a wry smile at this young woman fussing over him. “Merlyn hath said thou art full of ideas to address all manner of ailments and occurrences in this castle. What art thou doing to me? I am sick and in fever and thou strips back the bed and the window as if thou wishes me to die of cold!”
“Your Majesty – you suffer from high temperature! How is that to come down if thou art wrapped up like a babe in swaddling clothes? I’m trying to sort you out. Have I not been away for a day and a night to fetch you some medicine to lower your fever? And all you can think of is to shut the door and heat up some more in here!” Gwen grinned. She quite liked scolding the king and lord of all Camelot.
King Arthur growled. “The door is shut because ‘tis Lancelot without. No doubt he wants to report back to me on his quest but I fear ‘tis no more than an excuse to visit the queen and fawn all over her. He was once my most loyal and trusted knight, the first amongst equals of the Round Table…but his infatuation with Guinevere much tests my patience…” A fit of coughing and spluttering suddenly overcame him. “And worse! I fear my beloved wife is responding to his advances. This is unfor-giveable. If this continues one or both of them must be banished! It…it is unbearable!” The king roared in anger and his face turned blood red.
Gwen hurried to the bedside. She raised the goblet to encourage the king to drink again.
“My King, leave Sir Lancelot to me. I’ll do what I can to turn his head in my direction and away from the fair Queen Guinevere. You just see if I can. How does that sound? Will thou trust me to do that? To save thy Queen for thee? I’m anyway sure that she loves thee more than any other and if I can capture Lancelot’s attention she’ll soon see where her true love lies…”
The king caught hold of Gwen’s arm. “Ye thinks that that can be done?” He looked at Gwen with sudden interest.
“If I’m as bad as you all think I am then I’m sure it can be done,” Gwen grinned. She rather liked the thought of royal approval to go and chase the hunky Sir Lancelot. Then she paused and looked at the king conspiratorially: “Even more so, your Majesty, if I might suggest that you praise my youthful looks to the queen and arouse her jealousy…”
“By God, milady!” King Arthur cried aloud, this time with laughter. “Thou art indeed full of the most mischievous ideas…but if thou canst accomplish this and win back the heart of my dear Queen to me then I shalt forever be in thy debt. I’ll even forsake the cold and accept thy blandishments to freeze halfway to
death in here! Go to, my lady! Go to!”
The king raised his goblet in salute, finished the last of the orange drink and bade her leave to go about her business. Gwen sank to the floor in one final curtsey and turned to go, remembering just in time not to turn but rather to back away in the king’s presence. Getting used to this Camelot was really quite a challenge. She was beginning to revel in it.
Kate opened the door and Gwen emerged from the king’s bedchamber to find the queen and Sir Lancelot waiting outside. By the look of them, they had been having something of an argument. This was an opportunity to exploit.
“The king was so grateful, so appreciative of the potion I brought him!” She raised her hand to her brow, feigning much emotion. “Kate, did thou see’st his reaction?” Gwen looked round at her maid and gave her a sly wink.
“Indeed, my lady,” Kate dutifully replied. “Thou art truly honoured by his attention.”
Gwen smiled at the others, smoothed her dress down and did her best to show off her figure.
“Sir Lancelot! Art thou here to see the king, the queen…or wert thou following my shadow to these chambers?” She flashed a teasing look at the knight.
This time, Sir Lancelot caught the look in her eye. He bowed in return. “No, my lady, on this occasion I fear it is not thy footsteps but those of King Arthur that I am chasing. He is ready to receive me now?” Sir Lancelot looked at Gwen and then Queen Guinevere, as if waiting for permission. The queen did not actually snort, nor toss her head, but with the slightest movement of her bearing gave every indication that this man was out of order, looking to her junior for permission to see the king. She glided wordlessly forward, nose in the air and passed Gwen on the way into the king’s bedchamber. She closed the door behind her with a determined and proprietorial clunk.
Gwen shimmered across the floor and bade Kate to follow her. She stopped before leaving the antechamber and turned her head to look over her shoulder. It was a classic pose, accompanied by a delicious wiggle, designed to arouse the passions of a man who she guessed had been away from female company for a fortnight or more. Of course, for a ladies’ man like him that was not certain, but then – as she had constantly been reminded since arriving here – there was nowhere else on the planet in these times with the same style as Camelot, and Gwen was determined to flaunt that.
“Sir Knight, my lord, I confess my disappointment that thine eyes have not seen fit to follow me like thou hast alleged. Must I content myself only with the attention of others?” A flash of sparkling white teeth smiled at him. “When thou hast finished in the king’s chambers…do not tarry here…” Gwen blushingly lowered her eyes. It was more than a subtle hint. The clear implication was for him not to stay with the queen but to search for another.
Sir Lancelot did all he could to stop crowing like a cockerel. He began to make a move in this young creature’s direction but Gwen resumed her smooth waltz away and out of the royal suite, pausing only momentarily to sway her bottom at the exit, this time confident that someone’s eyes were indeed following her all the way until she disappeared from sight.
The two young women descended the grand central staircase. Kate was bursting to speak. Like the good servant she was, she had affected invisibility whilst in the presence of the king, and in the antechamber with the queen and Sir Lancelot, but she had missed nothing and was beginning to understand and appreciate the artful ways of her mistress. Whilst they hurried down the last flights of the staircase and along the corridors to their own quarters, Kate could hold her tongue no longer.
“Truly, my lady, I have not seen thee like this before…not before thy swoon, nor since. Thou hast initiated a most delicate courtship. For a lady to encourage a knight in so bold a manner is…is…very unrestrained! But if thou dost achieve the king’s desires it will be magnificent! For Camelot, and for thee.”
The two passed alongside the courtyard. There was a distant ‘kerwhump!’ again from a certain workshop that momentarily caught their attention, but did not distract either of them from the seriousness of their conversation.
“Thank you, Kate. I think I am going to enjoy this. Sir Lancelot will be quite a catch, don’t you reckon?”
“Indeed, my lady. He is the senior knight of Camelot whose reputation has travelled far. There are many ladies of this citadel and elsewhere who seek his company and, I’ve heard it tell, a fair number have received his favour. But take care, my lady. He has broken many a heart.”
“Not mine, Kate. He won’t break mine.” Gwen spoke forcefully. She was determined to stay in control of this liaison and, thinking on it, she was pretty sure she did not really fancy the man, anyway. He was nearly twice her age, after all. They reached the spiral staircase that led to her’s and Kate’s quarters and began to climb.
Gwen did not notice the look of another knight, some distance away across the flagstones that she and Kate had just crossed. It was a broken-nosed big man, expressionless, standing alone and thoughtful, sadly watching all the movements of the Lady Gwendolyn and Sir Lancelot.
Chapter 12
INVASION
As it happened, and not entirely to the surprise of Gwen, Sir Lancelot turned out to be a real rogue. Chivalrous to a fault at a distance, after a week of subtle and daily manoeuvring, once he had at last gained entrance to Gwen’s bedchamber alone he behaved like a wolf unleashed. Gwen had to use all her wiles to prevent him from grabbing hold of her and throwing her onto the bed, there to have his sexual advances rewarded. She was having none of that, thank you, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, there were no contraceptives in this day and age. Secondly, she had no idea where this dirty dog had been and who he had slept with recently. Thirdly, she guessed that once he had got what he wanted with her then the fascination would wane and off he would go back to try and seduce the queen. No, that was not the plan. And anyway, Gwen concluded, handsome though he was she really did not fancy the man anymore and was not going to waste her newfound virginity on this selfish and unappreciative bastard. Not that that stopped her from continuing to flirt with the beast and have him follow her around like a salivating hound.
Gwen felt sorry for Sir Gareth whom she met on a couple of occasions and who looked at her despairingly but never close enough to talk too. He was too much the chivalrous knight to ever approach without invitation and now he no longer hovered near enough to attract one. For him, she was a lost cause. For Gwen, engaged in a noble quest, the dilemma began to hurt her – seeing how the man she had come to appreciate was condemned to suffer in silence but she could do nothing about it.
Meanwhile, Merlyn had been closeted away in his workshop for days and she had seen nothing of him. That was something she decided should cease. She went down there and knocked on the door.
“One moment!” a voice cried from the interior. Then a minute later: “Who is it?”
“Someone who wants to see what the devil you are up to before you blow us all up to kingdom come!”
The door opened a crack and a quizzical eye peered out. “Who sayeth that I am going to blow anything up? Where did thee get that idea from?”
“Oh, come on, Merlyn! This is just about the oldest cliché in chemistry. Mad scientist peers over strange experiment; waves a magic wand, and Boom! The door flies off in a puff of smoke and the scientist staggers out with his clothes in rags.”
“Milady, as always I do not know where thou deriveth such strange notions. Never in my long years have I ever heard of such a thing. True, my Chinese friend here has come up with some interesting experiments and much smoke and noise hath on occasions been generated. But nothing remotely like releasing forces to remove the door…’tis made of solid oak…”
“Just the thing! The more solid the better. Let me in and have a look at what you are up to.”
“Milady!” Merlyn protested but Gwen would not be dissuaded.
Things were certainly looking interesting inside. Gwen knew what she was looking for – anything remotely like gunpowder – and variou
s small piles of powder were on the nearest bench that might serve that purpose. She did not know enough about the chemistry involved to make anything like it herself, but she had watched as boys in her school had opened up a couple of rockets and spilled the stuff out. She had seen it fizz and burn up rapidly when lit. She wondered if Merlyn and Chen Ka Wai’s powders had done the same.
“So what exactly are you experimenting with, Merlyn, Ka Wai? What are you trying to do down here?”
“Make fire, mistress. Help make fire when kitchen is wet. Also now make smoke. Maybe use smoke to hide people? What you think, Merlyn?” The Chinaman turned to address his older companion – clearly he liked making up all sorts of wizardry.
To Gwen, that sounded rather like theatrical magic: all smoke and mirrors. Not much future there, she thought.
“What about making rockets? China’s famous for that.”
“Eh?” the two men didn’t understand.
Here we go again, thought Gwen. Ideas way ahead of their time! I’ll see if I can explain it…
“Look – if you pack that powder into a tube, pack it in tight, and set fire to the open end, then it fizzes and fires something awful and shoots out like crazy. Well, it might do, if you’ve got the right powder. The thing is, if the fire shoots out one end, then the tube flies off at the other end. See? Gareth Jones could tell you all about it, I’m sure. Not the Gareth here, of course. He hasn’t seen it any more than you have. But that’s how you make rockets. Put the tube on a stick, stand it up pointing to the sky, light the bottom end of the tube and off it flies up, up and up until the powder is all gone. Here, let me draw it for you…”
Merlyn looked at the Chen Ka Wai and both nodded. Gwen had caught their interest. Fireworks are not difficult to draw, thankfully, since Gwen had never been a good student – not of art or science, or anything. But a few arrows to show direction of movement and the two men soon got the idea. Gwen issued a warning.
Welcome to Camelot Page 18