"Guinevere, it is time for you to return to our chambers for our wedding night."
Arthur spoke in a low voice, but several courtiers nearby overheard, and began chanting bawdy words. Gwen blushed scarlet and nodded to her new husband, bobbing him a curtsey before rushing from the banquet hall. Once outside however, accompanied by her new maids, she stopped dead, fear etched across her face. Her maids noticed this but said nothing, and instead took her arms. She allowed herself to be half dragged to her new chambers, her heart beating wildly in her throat.
Arthur was not a cruel man, she knew that, and he loved her, as she did him. But he was angry, very angry. Last night, the night before their wedding, he had caught her kissing Lancelot. Her stomach flipped and she felt sick as she thought of it. She didn't know why she had done it, but she was even more shocked at his reaction.
He had locked her in the dungeons for the night, but the next morning instead of banishing her or even having her executed, as she had expected, he had personally escorted her without a word to the Queen's chambers, where her new maids had arrived to dress her in her finery for the wedding, which had taken place without a hitch. But she knew that she had not been mistaken about the dark look in Arthur's eyes as he had looked into hers and vowed to take her as his wife till death do them part. It was a look that was dark with desire and lust and anger, a look she had never seen before in his eyes; he had always been so tender and gentle with her. Its fierceness frightened her, though she hoped he hadn't realised that. But now, walking back to their shared chambers for their wedding night, she could not hide her fear at that look that she had not recognised in her beloved Arthur's eyes.