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The morning of the battle for Ealdor started out quietly. While everyone else was preparing to eat breakfast, Arthur snuck out of the house. A pair of dark eyes watched him go and followed, carrying breakfast with her. Two other pair of eyes watched her go, but stayed to eat a bit before following.
“Have you noticed anything odd about Gwen and Arthur?” Morgana whispered to Merlin.
“Not in particular, no. Why?”
“I have my suspicions. Look.” She grabbed his arm to stop him and pointed up ahead to the small clearing where Arthur and Gwen stood. They crept closer and listened for a moment. “She only rambles on like that when she likes someone.”
“How do you know that?”
“She used to talk to you like that, remember?”
“Gwen likes me?”
“Liked. You really are an idiot sometimes, aren’t you?”
He sighed. “Apparently.”
“But look, she’s standing up to him. That takes some major courage for her. I always knew she had it in her.”
“Uh oh, here she comes.”
Merlin and Morgana beat a hasty retreat back to Hunith’s house, where they pretended not to know anything about anything except the upcoming battle.
oo0O0oo
Several weeks later, Arthur lay dying from the bite of the questing beast. Morgana sent Gwen to help nurse him since Merlin couldn’t be found anywhere. At one point Morgana decided to go visit the Prince, perhaps to wish him goodbye, but she found Gwen there, already talking to him.
Morgana stayed behind the door to listen to what her friend had to say to the dying Arthur: “You are going to live to be the man I've seen inside you, Arthur. I can see a Camelot that is fair and just. I can see a king that the people will love and be proud to call their sovereign. For the love of Camelot, you have to live.”
For the love of Guinevere, Morgana thought. If she could cure him through her will alone, Arthur would be saved this instant. Morgana had never seen Gwen like this about anyone, up to and including Merlin. There was definitely something there, at least on her end.
Fortunately Gaius came up with a miracle cure sometime later, and Arthur was saved. Merlin had also turned up and was on his way to see Arthur after Gaius gave him the good news. He was getting ready to walk into the room when he heard Gwen and Arthur’s voices. He peeked through the door to see the look on Arthur’s face as he teased her about something she’d said while he was ill. The Prince looked utterly infatuated! Morgana was definitely onto something.
He reversed his steps back to Morgana’s room. At her answer to his knock, he slipped into her chambers. “I just saw Arthur and Gwen talking . . . I know I didn’t believe you before about there being something between them, but I saw the look on his face and . . . he looked smitten.”
“I told you so!” Morgana crowed. “They are utterly perfect for each other, aren’t they?”
“I wouldn’t know about—”
“Oh come on. She’s openly gentle, kind and compassionate but made of steel. He’s strong, arrogant and noble. The effect she could have on him would be enormous!”
“I see your point.”
“We should help them along.”
“Are you kidding me? No. No way. I’ve seen matchmakers at work and it was a disaster every time!”
“But think about the benefit for the kingdom if they got together. They could be the best monarchs Camelot has ever had.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Come on. The hard work’s practically done. They’re already interested in each other. We’d just have to nudge them now and then.”
“All right. But if this goes south I’m blaming you.”
“Whatever! It won’t though, you’ll see.”
While Arthur was still recovering, Merlin and Gaius disappeared but Hunith turned up, very ill. Gwen’s time went to nursing her until the two men returned with quite flimsy excuses. Morgana didn’t have time to dwell on the matter though, because Uther had declared a feast for Arthur’s recovery and as the woman of the castle, she had to oversee every detail of preparation.
oo0O0oo
A few weeks later, Morgana started having bad dreams about crows. All she knew was it had something to do with the recently uncovered tomb of a powerful sorcerer. Then said sorcerer showed up in the form of Arthur’s new servant and began taking Camelot apart. Gargoyles came to life and began terrorizing the people.
The wounded fled to the castle where Gaius had set up an infirmary. Of course Arthur went charging out there with his knights to futilely battle the stoneworks. After a while, Gaius ran out of water and Gwen charged out to the war-torn courtyard to get some. Arthur, who’d retreated there, saw her and called her name. She turned toward him as he jogged over in time to save her from a gargoyle. Morgana, who’d run out onto the steps when she noticed Gwen missing, saw Gwen tackle Arthur. This gave him a decent view down her bodice, and Morgana couldn’t tell for sure, but they both might have blushed at that before they came running inside.
Morgana watched Gwen tend Arthur and Arthur fall temporary speechless before her. Both of them blushed for sure this time and Morgana cooed inwardly. They were so adorable together! She lost focus for a few moments just thinking about them before Gaius nudged her back to work.
The next morning, after Merlin was released from the dungeon with apologies, Morgana pulled him into an alcove in the griffon corridor. “I have to tell you what I saw!” she crowed brightly.
“Well hello to you too!” Merlin replied, trying to calm his heart down from the abrupt surprise.
“Gwen and Arthur in the courtyard last night—she snuck out there to get water and ended up saving Arthur’s life!”
“Seriously?”
“She tackled him out of the way of a gargoyle and landed on top of him! He got a good look down her dress before they came inside.”
Merlin flushed. “Morgana! What a thing to say!”
“It’s true—I was right there.”
Merlin smacked his forehead. “I can’t believe you.” He tried to pull away but she held him fast.
“Then they stared at each other while she was tending him. He actually went speechless for a moment.” She sighed. “It was so adorable.”
Merlin just watched her for a moment. “You’re hopeless you know.”
“Yeah. I guess part of me is living vicariously through them. I wish I had a great love.”
“You will. You’re too beautiful not to attract some handsome, strapping knight who’ll sweep you off to his castle.”
She giggled. “Why thank you.” She let go of his arm. “Go on, get back to work.”
“See you later, Morgana.”
oo0O0oo
Within a few days, Camelot was all cleaned up and preparing for the first tournament of the summer. All the knights trained hard, especially Arthur. But he became disaffected when he realized his knights were being careful not to injure him. After a few ill-timed words by Merlin, Arthur decided to participate as an unknown in the tournament. He wanted to win based on merit rather than rank. A farmer would be his face while Arthur did the actual jousting.
Of course the Prince needed someplace to stay. Merlin suggested Gwen’s house and Arthur jumped on it. It would be difficult to live as a peasant for a few days, but at least he knew Gwen.
It was more difficult than he’d imagined. Not the hiding and jousting part, because that came easily to him. Living as a peasant was difficult, especially when Merlin made fun of him and Gwen dressed him down. Granted, he deserved the dressing down. He had behaved appallingly in Gwen’s home. And the dinner he’d arranged was supposed to mollify her not upset her.
Merlin arrived to tell Arthur about the assassin who had surfaced but stopped when he heard raised voices. He heard Gwen say, “A good king should respect his people, no matter who they are.”
He paused with bated breath to listen to Arthur’s reply, reprimanding himself for being as bad as Morgana: “Guinevere. I know I have much to learn. There are some things that I am terrible at—cooking being one of them. But also, knowing what to say to someone I care about.”
Arthur cared about her! Morgana wasn’t imagining things after all. But the news about the assassin couldn’t wait any longer and he burst into the room to find their faces mere inches apart. They both jumped back a bit as he gave them the news. Had they been about to kiss? Ooh, he definitely had to tell Morgana about this! She’d be ecstatic!
The next morning found him back at Gwen’s house. Arthur was talking an inordinate amount of time and they were getting ready to start soon. This time when he got there, there was complete silence within. He went back to the window and pushed the thin curtain aside just a bit and holy cow! Gwen and Arthur were kissing, and the sun’s rays were shining down on them so perfectly . . . oh rats. Maybe he really was turning into a girl. He dropped the curtain and ran back up the street so he wouldn’t get caught there.
When the tournament was over, Arthur had won, of course, but had surprisingly not revealed himself. Merlin thought it had something to do with Gwen’s influence on him. She was already helping him become a better man. Morgana was right again, and boy was she going to love that.
On his way back to Arthur’s chambers, he saw Morgana walking down the same corridor. He motioned her over to an alcove and waited until she was inside to speak. “You’re never going to believe what happened!”
“What, besides Arthur being in the tournament all along?”
“How did you—?”
“No one jousts like Arthur.”
Merlin sighed. “Fair point. But you don’t know what happened last night . . . or this morning.”
Her eyes lit up. “Tell me.”
“Well, he was staying with Gwen the whole time, and they must have had a heart-to-heart, because last night I caught them almost-kissing!”
“Ooh! And what of this morning?”
He took Morgana’s hands. “They were kissing! I had to fetch him and it was quiet, so I peeked inside and there they were.”
“Eeep! This is wonderful!”
“I know. So maybe we don’t need to push them as much as afford them opportunities to be together.”
“You’re right.”
He looked into her eyes and saw the excitement there. She’d never looked more beautiful, in his opinion. Then he realized he was still holding her hands and let go. “Thanks. But I’d better get back to work.”
“Bye Merlin.”
oo0O0oo
Morgana next went through the horror and delight of discovering her magical abilities. It was a heady thing to learn what she could do, but sad that all those druids had to die. But through it all was Merlin, risking his own life to help her. There wasn’t time to worry about Gwen and Arthur but she felt closer to Merlin than ever.
Within a few days, she’d made plans to go to her father’s grave, taking Gwen and a few knights, of course. But the extra protection didn’t prevent bandits from kidnapping her and Gwen. She’d always be grateful to Gwen for letting her get away, but neither did she want to lose Gwen permanently.
After the disastrous meeting with Uther, a plan formulated in her mind. And it wouldn’t even take any acting on her part! She just had to appeal to that part of Arthur that was in love with Gwen.
It had been easy and Arthur had taken off with Merlin in tow. Now Morgana just had to wait. And wait. The place Gwen was being held must be far away. Still, Morgana didn’t give up hope and watched out the windows every day until one afternoon Arthur came up the steps with Gwen behind him.
After a long embrace, she sent her maid home and thanked Arthur profusely. He looked a little downtrodden, but in good health. When she tried to ask him what was wrong, he put her off, claiming it had been a long, tiring journey. She let him get away with this and resolved to waylay Merlin later.
In the evening, she went down to Gaius’s chambers under the ruse of procuring a sleeping draught. She found Merlin there, alone. She threw her arms around him and immediately began questioning him. “What happened? Why does Arthur look like his best friend died?”
Merlin looked a bit surprised at her enthusiasm, but opened his mouth to explain. Morgana backed up a bit. “Well, it was a really long journey. But Arthur finally admitted to me that he loves Gwen!”
Morgana’s eyes lit up. “Ooh! What else?”
“When we got to Hengist’s place, Gwen was trapped in a cage with Lancelot and a hungry wilddeoren.”
“Ew. But Lancelot?”
“Yeah. And I think we both know how she reacted to him.”
Morgana frowned. “Unfortunately. Poor Arthur.”
“But the good, well I say good but it really isn’t—”
“Merlin.”
“Right. Lancelot didn’t come back with us. He felt Arthur was the better man and so he left Gwen to him.”
“Shouldn’t Arthur be happier?”
“Well, Gwen was quite sad and when Gwen’s sad Arthur is too.”
“All too true.” She sighed. “Well, I’m glad you’re all back safely. And thank you, you know, for risking your life to save her.” She stepped up to embrace him again.
Mid-embrace, she looked up at him only to find him looking down at her. She was suddenly conscious of their bodies pressing together. His hand lifted and threaded into her hair, bringing their heads, their lips closer together. He stared into her eyes intently, giving her a chance to break away, but she didn’t and finally their lips came together.
It was light and sweet at first, but increased in intensity after she “mmmed” into it. His other had drifted to hold her waist and hers wrapped around the back of his neck to hold on. But they eventually had to break for air and when they did, he pressed their foreheads together. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while now,” he whispered.
“Me too,” she replied.
“Should we—”
“—talk about this? Absolutely. But first . . .” she leaned up to press their lips together again softly.
“Mm,” he said as they broke apart. “My room?”
“Lead the way.” He took her hand and led her back to the room where talking- and kissing -occurred, but mostly talking. Morgana knew this was the start of the great love she had been hoping for all her life.