Written in the Summer of 2009

Gwen's week started out badly. She kept telling herself that it could not get any worse. As luck would have it, Gwen found herself in the middle of a squabble between her lady, Morgana, and Prince Arthur. Some silly argument they had, Gwen thought it was nothing new. Morgana was always butting heads with Arthur over some such trifle.

More or less, Arthur and Morgana were arguing who had the better servant. Gwen was positively mortified at this particular fight. How could her lady and Arthur be able to settle an argument about her or Merlin being a better servant? Oh great, Gwen has to be Arthur's servant for a week.

"Gwen, you are making Merlin look competent right now," Arthur chided Gwen, "Morgana is going to owe me for this mistake." Gwen had knocked a plate off of the table while serving Arthur his dinner the first night. It did not help that she brushed across his hand accidently, and her stomach got those pesky, little butterflies.

Blushing, Gwen avoided looking Arthur in the eyes before answering, "I don't mean to be a bother to you, sire, I was only startled is all."

Arthur stared at the plate that clattered to the floor. Its contents spilled out over the stone surface. Sighing, he picked it up himself and looked curiously at Gwen. Curiosity got the better of him, he asked her, "Did you see a mouse in this room? I swear to God I will kill Merlin if he let that infernal mouse breed before he killed it and tried to feed me rat stew."

The silence in the room was heavy. Gwen didn't know what to say. It wasn't like you could tell the prince that his mere presence makes you hot under the collar or the way he says your full name makes your heart go a flutter.

"Guinevere? Are you going to answer me or do I have to put you in the stocks for disobeying my orders?" Arthur cracked a smile, proud of his little quip. There was a cross between a shudder and a laugh in Gwen's body language when Arthur joked about putting her in the stocks. She knew it was possible for him to do it, too. The crown prince had as much power as the king himself, but he still has to follow what the king dished out. There was no other easy way to get out this sticky situation, Gwen started balling her eyes out.

"I'm sorry, sire, I missed my father so much, and I have no family in this world to turn to about my loss. I don't think I'll be a very good servant this week. If only I knew how to make everyone understand, my father wasn't a sorcerer or a conspirator against the king. I would have him pardoned, and he would get a proper burial as opposed to a traitor's grave site." Gwen babbled incoherently, sobbing. She tried to keep her lip from quivering. This apparently softened Arthur's heart, he stood up from his chair, lifted up Gwen's chin with a gentleness of hand.

As he met her eyes, their gaze locked on each other, he caressed her cheek gently with his thumb. Soothingly, he whispered, "Guinevere, don't cry, I couldn't bear it to see you cry. The first item of business, when I am king, I will pardon your father for the false accusations that led to his death. You have my word on that."

Calmed down by Arthur's assurance, Gwen replied, "I thank you for your kindness. I don't know what Camelot would do without you."

"Or what you would do without me?" Arthur smiled knowingly, still holding Gwen's face in his hands. Gwen's breath hitched, heart raced again, faster this time. Arthur leaned in towards her when they both heard a voice on the other side of the door to Arthur's chamber.

" Arthur? Morgana wants to know if you have any cutlery." Merlin walked in without knocking; Gwen jumped away from Arthur and went to work on cleaning up the mess still on the floor. "Was I interrupting something?"

"Merlin! Do you knock? It's rude to barge in here in the middle of someone's dinner unannounced." Arthur scowled at Merlin.

"Don't worry about it, Merlin, there is some extra cutlery over there at the serving station," Gwen offered.

Having picked up on the tension that was still in the room, Merlin went to the serving station and grabbed what he needed. He winked at Gwen and smiled at Arthur before he left.

"What was that about?" Arthur asked, ticked that the idiot had to walk in on him and Gwen.

Confused, Gwen decided it was best to return to the work needed in Arthur's bedchamber. "The mess is cleaned up now. You can get back to eating if you want."

"I don't care about the mess."

"Well, it's cleaned up now. I have work to do, Arthur." The blush creeped up on her cheeks again, but she wasn't going to let him get close to her this time. She went to get the basket of dirty laundry in the corner.

Arthur watched her as he ate. She was surely a mystery to him. There was something about her that he couldn't quite put his finger on if he tried. He was going to find out why she couldn't be around him without her acting all weird all the time if it took him all week.