Gwen's parents were so excited that Gwen was engaged to Arthur that they didn't notice that the supposedly engaged couple weren't as happy as they should have been. Tom had had Gwen put away the food that she had prepared and insisted on them going to Raven House, the royal residence of the Kingdom of Drina in London, where proper celebrations would be held.

"We'll have a small family party," Tom said, they were in the car headed for the royal residence, "and then leave tomorrow to prepare for the huge engagement celebrations that are going to take place in Camelot. You don't know how happy this has made me, dear Gwennie."

At the house, Gwen went off with her mother to discuss wedding dresses and the like – Gina had been appalled to discover that Gwen had done no shopping at all, and that she had no thoughts about what she was going to wear – while Arthur was led to family sitting room to wait until proper arrangements for the impromptu engagement party had been finalized.

000

Gwen's phone rang. It was Morgana.

"Finally," Gwen said, "what happened to you?"

"I'm so sorry," Morgana said, "but you'll never believe what happened to me. I met Alan, you remember him, anyway he…"

"You'll never believe what is happening to me," Gwen interrupted her, only to be interrupted by Morgana, "I'm sorry about the guy; can you imagine he called me about ten minutes ago saying that he couldn't make it? So, of course I got concerned. What did your parents say about his absence?"

"I'm at Raven House," Gwen told her.

"What?" Morgana, "why did they take you home? Surely an absentee fiancé didn't warrant such a reaction."

"A guy showed up at my door and I thought he was the one you sent," Gwen was speaking furiously into the phone, "so I let him in, asked him to play along…you'll never guess who the guy turned out to be."

"Please, not some sort of psycho serial killer," Morgana said.

"Worse," Gwen replied, "it turned out to be Arthur Pendragon."

"What?" Morgana was shouting. "It must be fate. Arthur Pendragon turning up at the flat on the night your parents come over to meet your fiancé."

"It's not funny," Gwen told her friend, Morgana was laughing so hard, "get yourself here at once. This is entirely your fault."

000

Arthur called Merlin. "Why did you send me to 303 Cherry Tree Lane, Merlin, was it some kind of joke?"

"I didn't send you to 303 Cherry Tree Lane, I asked you to come to 3 Cherry Lane, and I'm still wondering why you haven't shown up."

"What?" Arthur couldn't believe he had gone to the wrong address. He was going to get engaged to the very person he'd been running from because he'd gone to the wrong house.

"So are you coming or what?" Merlin asked him. "The girl is getting tired of waiting and she has two very good looking friends."

"I'm at Raven House," Arthur said.

"What are you doing at the Drina Royal residence?" Merlin asked, and then, "I'm on my way."

"Thank you."

000

The door opened and a young man came in. "I'm Elyan," he said, holding out his hand to Arthur, "Gwen's brother."

"Arthur Pendragon."

"My sister would like to talk to you," Elyan said, "she asked me to take you to her."

Elyan led Arthur out of the room through a series of corridors to a small room at the back of the house where Gwen was waiting.

"Thank you, Elyan," Gwen told her brother.

"You have about five minutes 'til they start wondering where you've disappeared to," Elyan told them, "I suggest you talk very quickly."

"So, now what?" Gwen asked Arthur. "How do we get out of this?"

"We could ask them to postpone," Arthur suggested and Gwen shook her head, she'd tried that, many times, Tom and Gina had refused point blank. Arthur also remembered the numerous times he'd tried to get Uther to postpone this marriage thing but Uther had refused, and even Ygraine hadn't backed her son on this.

"I'm open to any and all suggestions," Arthur said. "To think all this would have been avoided if only we'd introduced ourselves properly to each other earlier this evening."

"I think all this would have been avoided if both of you hadn't been too pigheaded and had actually met before this time. It's not like it was forbidden or something," Elyan said, "or if you'd looked at even one of the pictures of Arthur Mother tried to get you to look at, Gwen."

"Thank you, Elyan," Gwen said sarcastically.

"Seriously, there's no other way out of this," Elyan continued, "unless one of you drops dead, like tonight."

"Does he really have to be here?" Arthur asked Gwen, pointing at Elyan.

"It's hard to believe," Gwen replied, "but he's usually not as useless as this."

"Hey," Elyan said, hurt, "I'm in the room and I'm your big brother. I've been through this as well, remember."

"I know," Gwen said, "but as I recall you didn't try to get out of your arranged marriage."

"Not at this late stage, no," Elyan told them, "but I had tried to run away from home several times and even told Father that I didn't mind being disinherited, all to no avail. Anyway I married Elena and I must say that I don't regret it at all, in fact I can't imagine not being married to her; I love her."

"So what are you saying?" Arthur asked, "That we go through with this in the hope that in future we - ."

The door was thrown open and Tom entered the room.

"You needed some time alone?" he asked laughing, "to be young and in love." He looked at his son, "I should have guessed that you would be here as well. Guinevere, your mother is looking for you, and Morgana has arrived as well."

As Arthur and Gwen went their separate ways, they were lost in thought. Arthur was wondering if he could actually do it, marry a person that his parents had chosen for him? Looking at Gwen, she wasn't a bad choice; she was beautiful, well educated and smart but could he really be happy with someone knowing that she had been chosen for him? Gwen was having similar thoughts, could she really be happy with the choice their parents had made for them at birth?

Arthur went back to the sitting room to find Merlin there waiting for him.

"I'm sure I've told you hundreds of times that your poor sense of direction and general carelessness would lead you into serious trouble one day," Merlin told Arthur, laughing, "and now here we are."

"It's not funny," Arthur said, "not funny at all. And I do not have a poor sense of direction."

"I beg to differ."

Arthur's phone rang; he was surprised that it had taken Uther this long to contact him. He listened to his father congratulate him on coming to his senses and doing the right thing. How proud he was of him, how this decision showed his readiness to rule the people of Camelot with justice and fairness, etc, Arthur wasn't really listening; he was seeing his freedom slip away.

"Look on the bright side," Merlin told Arthur, after Arthur got off the phone – looking utterly unhappy, "you're not married yet, a lot can happen in three days. Trust me."

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