Chapter Two: The Knight's Family

After she had left the kitchen, Hunith did a little more exploring and visiting before heading back upstairs for lunch. However, she'd had only made it half way when she encountered her uncle approaching from the opposite direction.

"Gaius? Am I late?"

"No, it's fine. I was asked to deliver this," he replied, waving a small, sealed pot at her. "Rather easier for me than it is for her at the moment, you see." Then he frowned before continuing, quickly reaching a decision. "Actually, you might as well come along too."

"Your patient won't mind?"

Gaius' only answer was an encouraging smile and so Hunith followed him to an area of the castle she was less familiar with; one where only the most noble residents and guests were accommodated. The physician knocked on the large, wooden door and waited patiently for a reply whilst a number of unusual sounds could be heard from within the room. As the door opened, the noise became louder and more obvious; the sounds of small children talking and laughing.

"Ah, Gaius. Thank you so much for coming to us. We have our hands rather full this afternoon as you can see."

The tall, blonde lady was obviously noble, wearing a dark blue dress and jewels that were so beautiful that it left even a practical girl like Hunith gaping. As the pair were ushered into the large chambers, she quickly took note of the others there; a small boy and girl – also finely dressed – playing with one smiling baby on a mat, whilst a dark haired servant comforted another infant who was sobbing on her lap; his pale cheeks red and wet with tears. Almost without realising what she was doing, Hunith observed the complexions and features of all those present and made a guess at what she was seeing.

"I hope you don't mind Hunith being here," Gaius said. "She's my niece come to visit from out of town you see."

"No, of course, that's fine." Despite her obviously regal bearing, the woman's smile was open and genuine – unlike many nobles Hunith had come across recently.

"This is the lady Nerys," Gaius continued. "Her husband is Sir Lionel, one of Uther's most trusted knights."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my lady," Hunith said with a curtsey.

"Such lovely manners, but there's no need to be so formal around me in private. Please, call me Nerys. Here let you introduce you to everyone here." She nodded at the two children who stood, tall and proud, despite their young ages. "This is my son, Leon who's five and my daughter Nessa who's three."

"How do you do," Leon said politely before nudging his sister, who giggled.

"Hello," the girl said shyly.

"Hello," Hunith replied. "It's a pleasure to meet you too. You're very tall for five, Leon. Are you planning to follow your father's footsteps and become a knight of Camelot?"

"Yes, I am," he answered confidently.

"I want to be a knight too," Nessa added, whilst Leon shook his head in an exasperated manner but didn't comment.

"Wouldn't that be interesting?" Nerys said, laughing. "I'd love to see Uther and those old lords' faces when she turns up for training." She nodded to the dark haired serving girl then; her mid-toned skin seeming all the more obvious against the very fair child she was holding. "This is Bethan who's kindly taken on the role of our nursemaid."

Hunith again glanced over at the happier baby on the mat – his skin even darker than his mother's and then back at the paler child that Bethan was holding.

"And so this baby is your youngest, Nerys?" she guessed, as Gaius went over and knelt down next to Bethan, gently inspecting the grizzling infant.

"Oh no, he's not ours," Leon pipped up. "Not really. He's our very special guest."

"Oh?" she turned to Nerys who grinned and nodded knowingly.

"Our royal guest," Leon continued proudly. "This is Prince Arthur."

"Oh!"

"Who is definitely teething as you suspected," Gaius interjected.

"Well, I wasn't sure. Elyan doesn't seem to be suffering at all yet, despite being the same age," Bethan replied.

"Well, all babies are different," Gaius replied with a smile. "Anyway, I have some ointment to put on his gums which should ease his discomfort." He started to move a finger towards the young prince but the baby was having none of it, pulling away from the physician and beginning to take a huge breath in.

"Oh, here we go … brace yourselves," Nerys joked just before Arthur let out a loud wail which had the adults wince and young Nessa cover her ears. Leon quickly moved over towards Elyan in order to distract him with some colour ribbons and Hunith took a red one for herself before going over to the blond baby and using it to get his attention. The child took one look at her and instantly stopped crying - his gaze suddenly curious. Meanwhile, Bethan had dabbed her finger in the gel and, now nicely distracted, Arthur let her apply it whilst he continue to watch Hunith – apparently more interested in her than he was in the ribbon.

"Good," the nursemaid said firmly. "Our young prince does have very particular tastes in the company he keeps, so perhaps he'll be good enough to let you hold him for a while and give me a chance to feed Elyan."

Hunith was quite certain that Arthur would start crying all over again but, once she was seated and he was deposited in her lap, the baby seemed perfectly happy. Again he looked up at her curiously, frowning slightly, before his eyes started to blink sleepily, apparently now more comfortable as Gaius' ointment started to have an effect.

"And that one's your son?" Hunith asked Bethan as the nursemaid picked up the other baby.

"Yes, my first. I'm married to Tom the blacksmith?"

"Oh yes, of course." She smiled brightly. "I met him the last time I was here."

"Bethan used to be my servant before I was married," Nerys explained then. "Well, before either of us were married, but we stayed in touch afterwards as she's a brilliant needlewoman and so I often have need of her help."

"And you had Elyan around the same time as Arthur was born?"

"Yes," Bethan replied. "And Sir Lionel was good enough to suggest me as nurse when the poor prince was suddenly left without a mother." There was a long, uncomfortable pause at that.

"All too common, unfortunately," Nerys said. "Although Uther obviously believes there was more at work in that case."

"So I hear," Hunith replied carefully, exchanging a knowing look with Gaius.

"Anyway, having a nursemaid is one thing, but Arthur is a prince and the king is a busy man and so it was decided that the boy should be fostered onto a noble family, and we were only too happy to help out – with Bethan's assistance, of course."

Just then the door opened and a tall knight with a mane of blond-red curls entered in full uniform; a rich red cloak falling from his shoulders and bearing the gold Pendragon crest.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise we had guests. Hello Gaius and …?"

"This is Hunith," the physician replied. "From Ealdor."

Hunith frowned at the obvious emphasis her uncle had used, never mind the fact that he had mentioned the name of her village at all.

"Ah …" Lionel said with a very knowing smile. "Ealdor. I understand. Well then, this concerns her too. King Uther has just received some disturbing news and has called a meeting in the square in half an hour."

"The square?" Nerys asked. "Not the Great Hall?"

"No, this is for everyone, apparently. Nobles and commoners alike."

"Oh, I really don't like the sound of that," the physician complained.

"No and, unfortunately, this announcement is going to seriously effect your latest plans, Gaius." Obviously this knight was in on their secrets. A very useful contact indeed.

"Everyone is to attend?" Bethan asked.

"Yes, so you'd better get the babies ready. Nerys should probably take Arthur, but if you could look after our two that would be great."

"I can help if you'd like?" Hunith said, worrying how the nurse would take care of two small children and a baby during all of this.

"Thank you," Bethan replied with a smile. "That really is very kind of you."

Hunith carefully handed the prince over to Nerys before moving towards the two children. Little Nessa instantly took her right hand with a big smile and Leon took the other with a confidence that implied that he believed he was looking after her rather than the other way around. Lionel was needed on duty, but the knight had one more thing to say before he left, moving closer to Gaius and leaning in to talk quietly to him. Hunith knelt down to retie Nessa's hair ribbon, using the action as an excuse to eavesdrop.

"Uther's panicking, Gaius and that's not a good sign," Lionel was saying. "He's also sending a large party of knights and foot soldiers to raid a known Druid camp just north of the Valley of the Fallen Kings tomorrow, as he's convinced they're helping to organise these escapes and assist fleeing sorcerers."

"They're not though," Gaius said.

"I know but they support magic – practice it even. Uther's clamping down even harder now and saying that he needs to purge everything connected to magic from the whole land." He sighed. "I don't suppose you can get word out to those people to warn them, can you?"

Gaius shook his head. "Not if it's happening tomorrow, no. I really can only deal with one issue at a time, I'm afraid."

"I understand. I just thought I'd mention it."

Lionel then quickly left them to go back on duty, whilst the others headed for the square; Bethan holding her own son and Hunith looking after the two children, highly distracted all the way down as she wondered what it was that the king was going to announce.

~o~0~o~

A/N: Thanks for your early comments on this and I hope you enjoyed the little appearances of some of our future, favourite knights. :)

This story has inevitability required me to include a number of 'new' characters but I found myself with three different types in the end. (a) Ones that have been mentioned by name but had small or non-existent parts in the show. ie Audrey. (b) Relations of canon characters that were only ever mentioned in passing. ie Leon's family and (c) OCs that I've made up. ie Carrie & Nessa. There are quite a few more of these type of characters to come and some of them have been great fun to write. It's also been fun finding ways of expanding on the few facts we do know, such as Gwen's mother having worked for Leon's family.

The third main character named at the head of this fic makes an appearance on the next chapter which should be out within the next few days. :D

25/8/13