Chapter 8
Morgana discovers who kept the second letter to Rumple.
Rumple got Morgana and Merlin a place with Arthur and Guinevere not far from him and Belle, so they could all be together and then not worry for each other in this strange new world. After both Merlin and Guinevere had gone up to their own rooms for a nap after the days strange events, Morgana sat downstairs in front of the fireplace with Arthur, both nursing whiskeys.
"Arthur, do you remember when, just before my wedding I sent a letter to Rumple inviting him?" Morgana asked form her armchair, Arthur was sat on the sofa near her but to next to her.
"Yes."
"He didn't get it. Do you know what might have happened to it?" She asked, the conversation she'd had with Rumple earlier that afternoon, playing through her mind.
"Yes," he admitted in a monotone. "It wasn't sent."
"Why? Who didn't let it be sent?" Morgana asked sitting up now in her seat and looking over at him worriedly.
"I didn't let it be sent."
"Why? It was harmless, a simple invitation to give me away." Morgana was shocked. Although she knew Arthur cared little for her, she never thought he's stoop that low and stop her mail.
"I feared that his presence in the castle and the kingdom would worry the peasants, they could have considered him a threat to their lives." Arthur said sternly.
"You feared he was a threat to you. Not Camelot. He's the only family I have."
"You have me." Arthur roared, turning on her. Morgana recoiled.
"I never had you, you hated me because I was the bastard child of your mother with another man who wasn't your father. You treated me like scum after I came to the castle to help Merlin with his duties as Physician."
"I never hated you. I hated what you were capable of. Magic was banned in Camelot, you know that..."
"Yes I do. But that's not the point. If you truly loved me, which I doubt, you would have shown me more respect and been kinder to me. Especially when I was pregnant." Morgana shouted back and sipped her whiskey.
"What did I do when you were pregnant?" Arthur asked, unsure of his actions.
"You sent me away to tend an elderly woman who lived in the forest, in a dangerously cold autumn not far before All Hallows' Eve. I could have died. I nearly did if it hadn't have been for Robin Hood, a thief you hated but who turned out to be a kinder man than his king who ruled from Camelot Town to the far edge of Sherwood Forest including Nottingham Town and Loxley village." Morgana said with finality.
"Yes I hated him, he stole from my knights who owned the land, the 'tableau' or table, around Camelot." Arthur protested.
"Oh you are a petty man, Arthur Pendragon." Morgana said with disgust and drained her whiskey.
"How dare you..." Arthur began but Morgana waved her hand and he fell silent.
"Enough. Do you have my letter?" Muted Arthur nodded and handed it to her out of his jacket pocket. "Thank you, goodnight Arthur." She said and left for bed.
Half way up the stairs she took her spell off of Arthur and made her way to her room with Merlin as Arthur began cursing from the living room. She hated him, hated him for his pettiness and his immaturity. You couldn't really hate a king, for he was your lord and master. But sometimes she wished he would grow up and grow a pair... Of what she didn't know, but a pair of something useful.
She was determined to make sure Rumple got his letter, even if it was 6 years (or more) late. Damn Arthur Pendragon, damn him the darkest corner of Rumple's dangerous vault from which her mother had appeared.
