Hello dear readers, I'm back! :) Actually I came back a while ago but Uni got ahead of me. But I stayed up til 3am to update this.
My Ghost Named Merlin
Chapter 6: Guinevere, Tack and Horses
They were going into town for what felt like the zillionth time this week. Arthur reckons his car probably did a bazillion miles since moving into the old, wooden house in some obscure location of rural England.
The younger male Pendragon was zoning out from the older Pendragon's currently one sided conversation about cars (probably his still un-roadworthy Mercedes) and horses? But the blond quickly pushed the droning of his father to the back of his mind and concentrated on the road once again, stopping at an intersection, waiting for the traffic to pass by.
In that time, he briefly glanced at his rear view mirror, looking at the reflection. It was of an unusually quiet Morgana (unusual because the raven haired girl spent most of her time teasing him). The reason for this abnormal silence was because she was texting like her life depended on it. Her fingers flying across the screen and then randomly looking at her left window, smiling to herself.
"Who are you texting Morgana? Cause their replies make you grin like the Cheshire cat," commented Arthur as he accelerated the car.
Morgana's fingertips froze above her screen and the green eyed girl looked up, seeing Arthur's reflection on the rear view mirror. "Not anyone that you know of," she replies curtly and begins to resume her texting.
"Really? Not some idiot boyfriend we're not aware of?" he teased.
Uther's eyebrows rose at the comment. He did not like the idea of Morgana having a boyfriend and him never having to meet him. The last one she had he vehemently disliked.
"No. Not a boyfriend Arthur, just a friend. And by the way, actually all my past boyfriends were actually geniuses by simply being my boyfriend. Well except Valiant, that guy was just a clotpole, I must have been out of my mind to date him."
"Agreed about Valiant, but clotpole?" Arthur's forehead furrowed at the strange insult, "What kind of insult is that? Some gibberish?"
"Would you like me to define it to you in simple terms?"
"Yeah sure, if that is even possible for some made up word."
"Arthur Pendragon," she grinned.
"OI! You little b-"
"Arthur! Concentrate on driving," intervened Uther sternly. Though he couldn't help but grin slightly at the prattle coming from his children's mouths, but the Pendragon senior had an image to uphold, "And Morgana that is no way for a lady to behave," he reprimanded.
"Sorry Daddy," she replied meekly in the sickly, sweet innocent voice that Arthur detested and Uther was oblivious too.
"Humphh that's what she always says," Arthur mumbles beneath his breath.
"What did you say Arthur?"
"Umm we finally made it to town today. And here's your shop Morgana, for all your gardening needs."
Arthur pulls the car to the side of the curb in front of a huge maroon shop that looked very much like a shed. It had large words painted in white at the top saying ' Leondegrance Hardware, Bric-A-Brac and Tack'.
"Leondegrance? Isn't that your mechanic's surname father?" asks Arthur.
"Yes, yes I remember Tom saying that they run the local hardware store. Looks like you may meet his daughter Guinevere after all Morgana. Tom said his daughter often manages the shop during summer break."
"I would be delighted to meet her Daddy. Well gotta go, see you soon Daddy, Arthur." Morgana gets out the car with her side bag in tow.
Arthur rolls the window down, "We'll pick you up in an hour or so at the corner cafe. I'll text you when we're finished with whatever we're doing."
"Sure, thanks Arthur," she acknowledges in a civil manner and then watches the car drive off.
Morgana opens her bag and retrieves her speaker ear phones and plugs them into her phone and lazily eying the red, silk material tied on her wrist.
"So Miss Pendragon, what was with the use of my favourite insult? And previous boyfriends?" asks Merlin in his opaque glory yet invisible to the world except her.
He was genuinely curious about her boyfriend comment. The idea of courting many people to find a person to marry was still an idea he couldn't wrap his head around. It just didn't happen in his day. Then, you found a person and courted them with the permission of their parents or your parents just arranged a marriage for you and that was the end of it. When he was introduced to the concept of dating in the 70's, it seemed foreign and bizarre to him. Then again, apparently the 70's was a time of sexual freedom...not that he wanted to remember those times too much.
Merlin looked at Morgana's phone expecting a written reply. He couldn't believe how far the telegram, to telephone (the funny 70's) to mobile has advanced. It was amazing the 'touch screen'. But it was Morgana's ingenious way for them to communicate without her actually verbally speaking out and still appearing normal, whilst he would talk out loud since he was invisible.
"It's an amusing insult. And yeah, had a few boyfriends in high school, none at university though. Most of them were nice but it never lasted. And let's not start on Valiant, he was a true clotpole, actually that is not even a harsh enough description. Who cares though? That was the past and let's finally get into this shop and buy all these gardening tools."
"Don't speak out loud Miss Pendragon, you'll look like a nut case again," Merlin reminds her.
Morgana rolls her jade eyes in a playful way. "Not with these on," she gestures to the speaker ear phones in her ears. To the people who walk pass she was just another teenager talking on their phone via the accessory.
"Alright, let us head in, lead the way Miss Pendragon."
"Please call me Morgana Merlin," she firmly requests, almost orders and walks towards the store entrance.
"No thank you Miss Pendragon. My mother raised me to be a respectful gentlemen, ingrained it into me, body and soul. Soul mainly as you can see. Also it's a die hard habit you may say. And that is saying something since I am already dead. Oh what do you know? This establishment hasn't changed much. Looks pretty similar to how it was back in my day."
Merlin observes the store. The general architecture of the building remained the same, wooden beams, cobblestone floor oddly and large roof openings to let natural light in. Though back in the day those had no glass coverings and aisle upon aisle of hardware products.
"Really? What was it before?" Morgana headed to the gardening tools.
"A blacksmith's forge. See those ceiling windows," he pointed to the ceiling, "They weren't covered before, so to let the smoke from the forge out. They only had shutters at night. And you see the cobblestone floors. Not particularly common back then for an indoor kind of place, but that was because horses were brought in here to be shod and thus any mess they made could be washed away."
Morgana collected the items on the list and listened to Merlin intently. He was sort of indirectly referring to his life. Her lack of knowledge about him frustrated her, while she pretty much spilled out her life story in the days she had known the ghost.
"Wow! How do you know all this?"
"Friend used to work here, he was an apprentice blacksmith and I often brought the Master's horses here to be shod," he replied nonchalantly, "At least horse tack is still sold here, keeping to the original feel." Merlin headed towards the horse tack section and looked through the various bridles and stirrups.
When Morgana finished collecting all the gardening tools shegoes to find Merlin. He couldn't be very far as he isn't able move further than twenty metres of the neckerchief. She finds him admiring a mahogany brown saddle with embossed edging. He has a contemplative expression, as if remembering a fond memory. Morgana moves closer, watching him trace the embossed pattern. Merlin seemed so much in tune with the horse tack, like he was in his element.
"It's a beautiful saddle isn't it?" a feminine voice asks from behind her.
Morgana turns around to see a petite, mocha skinned girl about her age. She was quite pretty in a very girly way, which was saying something since she was wearing a pair of worn jeans, brown boots and a lilac polo. But her curly hair was tied up into a loose bun and had a few flowers pinned into it.
"Yeah the detail is amazing."
"I know, it's made of the finest leathers from Italy and embossed by this old man who lives a few counties away. I hear he only does embossing in candlelight since apparently that's how you can tell the shadowing will be nice and that- wait I'm rambling again. Sorry," she blinks shyly and her cheeks slightly flushed, "Would you like any assistance by the way?"
"I would just like to pay for all these," Morgana lifts her arms full of gardening tools.
"Oh of course, silly me. Here let me carry some and I'll take you to the counter."
Morgana passes some of the products to the mocha girl, lightening her load immensely and walks to the counter, leaving Merlin to his thoughts.
At the counter Morgana and the girl begin some small talk as she processes the various goods.
"That's quite a few tools you have. Big landscaping project I suppose?" she asks.
Morgana smiles, "I suppose so. It's more along the lines of cleaning and weeding."
The girl laughs melodically, filled with good natured warmth, "Ahh one of those projects. You have horse by any chance too? You seemed to really like the saddle."
Morgana shakes her head, "Never even ridden a horse in my life much less own one. You own any horses? I bet you do since you work in a tack shop."
"Use to. Until my mother died from a horse riding accident. Since then, my father has banned my brother and I from horse riding. I miss it. He use to be an avid horse rider too but now he devotes all his attentions to the cars he fixes," she replies sadly.
"I'm sorry to hear that about your mother."
"It's ok, it was a long time ago. And these all come to fifty-seven pounds."
Morgana opens her purse to get some notes out and hands it to her. Poor thing, she has only one parent like herself, a mechanic for a father. Now that Morgana thinks about it, this girl could be...
"Are you by any chance Guinevere Leondegrance?"
The girl widens her doe-brown eyes in surprise, "Yes I am. How do you know?"
"My father is currently getting his car repaired by your father."
"Uther Pendragon?"
"That's the man," confirms Morgana.
"So that must mean you are Morgana Pendragon unless Arthur has become a girl's name."
Morgana giggles at the thought, "The one and only Morgana Pendragon. Arthur is actually my prat of a brother. Nice to meet you Guinevere." She shakes hands with Guinevere.
"Please call me Gwen, Guinevere is just too much of a mouthful. And welcome to the middle of nowhere England," Gwen re-greets.
"Thanks Gwen, I think you are actually my first friend here."
Gwen blushes, "Aww I'm flattered Morgana. But thank you." She hands Morgana her bags of gardening tools and the other things that don't fit in the bag.s
"Thank you." Morgana then hears her phone chime, "Well I think that's my prattish brother telling me his coming. Gotta go, I'll see you around. Bye." Morgana exits the shop with Gwen waving at her.
Morgana was at the corner cafe having a milkshake and reading the newspaper with Merlin leaning over reading it too. When she left the store Merlin awoke from his thoughts and was practically dragged to follow Morgana.
She watches the ghost read the advert for the annual summer fair intently. It was one of the highlights of the county seemingly. It had fair rides, craft and produce markets, but the popular exhibits were the animal contests which ranged from best pig, trained dogs to horse dressage competitions. However, the main highlight was the final horse race, the race the kicked off the racing season in the county. Morgana then looked and admired a photo of a horse and its rider snapped during a dressage competition. They looked impeccable and in total synch with each other, even if it was only an image.
Thinking of horses it reminded her of Merlin's intrigue with the saddles and various bits of tack. "So Merlin, you like horses a lot it appears?" her earphones are still on so she doesn't look like a total weirdo.
"One usually does after they spent a good chunk of their life looking after the creatures."
"Oh yeah, you were a stable boy right?"
"Sure was."
Morgana had nothing to go with that two word response. However, at this stage she could see Arthur driving down the street toward her.
"Where's Uther?" Morgana asks the blond as she hops into the front passenger seat and looks at the rear view mirror to see Merlin whoosh into the back seat. She smiles to herself, amused by the weirdness yet comfortableness of it all.
Arthur pulls the car out and starts driving, "Going to pick him up now. He's at Mercia Stables."
Morgana frowns, confused at the answer, "Mercia Stables. Stables as for horses?"
"What other kind stables are there Morgana? Of course for horses," sarcastically replies Arthur.
"What's he doing there?"
"No clue."
"Weren't you with him he whole entire time?"
"Nope," he pops the p, "Was off doing other things."
After about twenty minutes of driving they arrive at a posh estate with grand stables at the back. She could see Uther leaning against a fence post with a long haired man, and judging by his expression, discussing something intently.
The siblings get out of the car and head to their father (accompanied by Merlin unbeknownst to Arthur). When they reach him, Uther is shaking hands with the man, and smiling broadly.
"It will be a pleasure doing business with you Uther. I see this racing partnership taking us very far," the man states.
"It will indeed Cenred. When will I see the horse in action?"
"In a moment. My son Alvarr is currently tacking the beast and you'll see how grand this partnership will be Uther."
Uther smiles and realises his children have arrived and ushers the two closer, "Ahh Cenred these are my children, you have already met Arthur my eldest son and this is Morgana, my daughter."
"Morgana, Arthur, this is Cenred Mercia of Mercia Stables. He trains racing horses and I now officially own half of one of his finest racing stallions Nero."
Morgana smiles at Cenred, she doesn't like him much, something about his appearance seems manipulative and lecherous. "Pleasure to meet you Mr. Mercia."
"Please call me Cenred Morgana. Mr. Mercia makes me sound like my father. Uther you have a beautiful daughter."
Uther swells up with pride, "Yes Morgana is beautiful."
Before Uther could continue, the four people hear the heavy pounding of hooves and then suddenly a magnificent black stallion jumps the already tall fence and lands to where they are standing.
Merlin up until now has been unresponsive and uninterested at the situation. But seeing the pitch black giant of a horse was amazing. It was at least 18 hands tall and muscles clearly rippled beneath the sleek coat. But its rider had an air of arrogance, which is a big thing considering he was in close proximity to Arthur the Prat.
Morgana was in awe of the horse like everyone else. She has never been so close to one. Her private school offered riding lessons but she opted for fencing classes instead. Now she regrets that, seeing the gorgeous stallion. She then watched the rider get off the beast and take of his helmet, releasing his ash blond locks from confinement and then look at her intensely with his grey-green eyes. Morgana immediately feel herself warm up under his gaze.
"Well, Mr. Pendragon, half of this beautiful stallion belongs to you. Did you see how easily he jumped the fence? It shows the true power in those hindquarters, those powerful racing legs." Alvarr reaches to shake Uther's hand whom grips it firmly
"Indeed Alvarr, but you shouldn't be so reckless with such an expensive horse and investment," sternly says Cenred.
"Sorry father."
"It's ok Cenred. Alvarr seems to be a fine lad here. Alvarr this is my son Arthur and my daughter Morgana. I believe Arthur and yourself are the same age and Morgana two years your junior," introduces Uther.
Arthur and Alvarr shake hands in a very manly way, gripping each other to see who would forfeit. Neither do of course. But ultimately Alvarr let's go so he could greet Morgana.
Morgana holds out her hand for handshake, "Nice to meet you Alvarr, that is a beautiful horse you have."
Alvarr instead twists the position of her hand and kisses her knuckles softly and greets, "Pleasure to meet you too Morgana. I don't think the horse is beautiful when compared to your beauty beside it." He smiles charmingly and releases her hand.
Morgana blushes immediately, her ivory cheeks becoming rosy red. "Thank you Alvarr."
Arthur looks between the two and wants to puke. But Merlin on the other hand looks at Alvarr suspiciously. He gets a funny feeling from the man. He denies the feeling is jealousy and settles it as concern.
Author's Notes
Another introduction/filler chapter. Next update is where the actual plot of the story is coming about (in a more foreseeable way) and more Morgana-Merlin interaction. And for your information I've planned this story to be about 12-14 chapters, so yes the first half was a slow mover but the pace should quicken from here on. Comments and reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!