Love's Charade

Guinevere was enjoying the evening revelry. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, her husband was smiling, some of the tension gone from his shoulders and his eyes glittered. Arthur had aged gracefully despite the harsh years. He was still fit and hearty, his hair was peppered with gray, and there were more wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and around his mouth. She herself had also been treated nicely by Time. She still had her toned girlish figure, her hips slightly wider after the birth of her daughter. This night, her daughter Cassandra, was merry, which had not been the case lately. She was growing up, not quite a woman, but Guinevere knew that her daughter was impatient to become one. Cassandra reminded Guinevere of herself at that age. Headstrong, eager to take the world on, eager to prove to everyone that she was tough, and could do anything as well as any man.

"She looks happy this evening," Arthur said.

Guinevere smiled and nodded. "Ah, yes, but how long shall it last?"

Arthur chuckled. "She is young and temperamental. There is no telling." Arthur put on a mock expression of contemplation. "I find the weather less capricious." King and Queen laughed.

Ardeth avoided Cassandra's presence at the table with his usual aplomb; though, he could feel the heated pressure of her jade eyes upon him. He wished she would be more circumspect lest someone – like her mother and father - notice the person of her rapt attentions. Ardeth was sitting next to his mother and she patted him on the hand and said in Arabic, "You are handling this well, Ardeth."

So Father had already told her, he thought. Ardeth couldn't help but blush a little.

When the evening's food supply began to wane, people started to excuse themselves to return home or take drinks at the tavern. Lucan walked beside a buoyant Ardeth on their way to the tavern. Many a woman's eye took notice of both of them as they entered the crowded building. They took a seat with some fellow soldiers and ordered cool, frothy beer.

Two women were quick to pounce upon them. Lorelei, a healthy brunette who was keen on Ardeth – though artfully subtle in her perusal - sidled up close to him. Her chestnut hair was wavy and held back with a clip. Her dress was clean, but simple with a low-cut neckline, revealing the smooth skin of her modest cleavage. Ardeth grinned at her, showing off straight, white teeth.

Lucan discreetly rolled his blue eyes at the ensuing game of flirtation. He tuned it out while trying to be accordingly polite to the woman who had latched herself onto him. He wasn't quite the conversationalist as his friend, but among the ladies he was known as a gentleman. Lucan was momentarily distracted by a head of shiny auburn hair among the patrons. He knew that hair as if it were his own. His heart rate increased and he felt his body flush with heat just looking at her. What was she doing in here this time of evening? he wondered. The object of his hidden desire gazed around the room before falling and landing in his direction. Did she notice him? His hope dwindled as he followed her line of sight which locked on Ardeth. His heart sunk, and his eyes dropped to his half-empty cup. When he looked back he saw her retreating from the tavern.

--

"Did you see him?" Cassandra asked the second the door to her chambers opened. She'd been waiting with snappy nerves for a quarter of an hour as Rhiannon did a quick recognizance of the tavern.

Rhia's face was placid, lips taut with disapproval at the mission she'd been dispatched on. She had not wanted to follow Ardeth to the tavern to see if he was flirting with a wench. Of course he was! That was what she had tried to tell Cassie, naturally her words falling upon deaf ears. But, no, her friend needed visual confirmation. "Yes, I saw him," she answered.

"And?" Cassie prompted impatiently.

Rhia put her fists on her hips. "Did you think I would actually come back and tell you truthfully that he was sitting alone in a corner pining away for you?" She shook her head at her friend's folly. Good God, was she ever weary of this charade. Rhia paid no attention to Cassie's now desultory mood. Her mind had wandered to the other man she had searched for. How she longed for his beautiful blue eyes to gaze at her with longing. But he had barely noticed her.

"Where are you going?" Rhia asked when Cassandra got off of the bed and put on her cloak.

"I need air."

The two girls went to the roof of the keep where three other young ladies already occupied one corner. They turned when they heard the new arrivals. One, Grace, smiled and waved them over, quickly making a motion for them to be quiet. The five girls were hidden in the shadows, but hunkered down, facing a part of the parapets where two people stood.

Freya moved over so Cassie and Rhia could see better.

"This is all rather intrusive," Wellsie whispered with faint disdain.

Freya snorted inelegantly. "Then why are you still here? Admit it, Well, you find them just as fascinating as the rest of us."

Freya, Grace and Wellsie were from two of the wealthier families that occupied the villa-farms around the fortress. Freya and Wellsie were sisters, Freya younger by two years. And they were enraptured by Tristan and Raja. Their "story" was well known, but had become fantastical over the years. Mostly the time when Raja had been captured by the Saxons fourteen years ago. Stolen by "thousands" of Saxons. Tristan had mounted his steed with nothing but his armor, bow and arrow, and deadly sword. He rode across all of Britannia, searching for his lady love, until coming upon the Saxons and slaughtering them all, saving Raja from their evilness.

Of course, the real happenings were not so easily told, the truth enough to give someone nightmares.

"It is so romantic," Freya said wistfully.

The others concurred with breathy sighs of their own. It was spoken among them how wonderful it would be to have a man treat them like Tristan treated Raja.

"He's not conventionally handsome," Wellsie commented.

Rhia rolled her eyes. The same observations were always voiced; some shallow, some offhand. Although Rhia did agree that Tristan was not "conventionally" handsome, and some might wonder how he and Raja had ever came to be. She was of noble blood, would she not have been better suited for someone of her own class? A man with a formal education, riches and land? Such were the idle thoughts.

Rhiannon had a basic idea of their history. Raja had come from Egypt with her uncle when she was eight, a little girl capturing the hearts of all the knights. Rhia thought the beginnings of their love was the most interesting, but no one else ever focused on that. Maybe one day Rhia would get up the guts to ask Raja about it.

"Well, they certainly produced a son that is more breath-taking than Adonis!" Freya said.

Cassie and Rhia's eyes met furtively.

"I would love to get Ardeth in a dark corner..." Grace said coyly, and Wellsie gasped at her lewdness.

"Bite your tongue, Grace!" Wellsie chastised.

"Get off your high horse," Grace retorted. "Can you honestly say that you've never imagined a flirtation with Ardeth?"

Even in the relative darkness they knew Wellsie was blushing indignantly.

Cassandra was tempted to tell them that she had seen Ardeth in his most natural state. The gloriousness of the structure of his body. She didn't like them musing about possible clandestine flirtations with Ardeth. By God, his rejection had only kindled her desire, and she was convinced that he pined for her too, as evidenced by his erection.

"Do you think he'll marry soon?" Freya asked. Then she smirked at the girls, "Think me too young for him?"

"Yes," Rhia replied. "And I doubt he is thinking about marriage. He's only twenty."

"Nevertheless..." Grace continued.

--

"I think we have an audience," Raja said, half-smiling.

Tristan noticed the forms crouching in a huddle on the keep's roof. It was not the first time the nosy girls had sat up there to gossip. He knew their names, and what families they belonged to. Why they were so interested in he and Raja, he did not know. Tristan never claimed to know the minds of young girls. It seemed an over-complicated terrain to ever venture in. He would stick to the forests.

Raja and Tristan liked to come to the parapets up on the Wall after dinner, provided it wasn't too cold. They were wrapped in one another's arms, Raja's around his waist under his cloak; his around her back, fingers running through her hair.

Her hand reached up to caress his cheek. "They listen to all those stories."

Tristan snorted, then saw two more girls join the other three. Cassandra and Rhiannon mostly likely, he figured. He'd seen Rhiannon walking towards the keep from the direction of the tavern not too long ago. "Silly girls. Nothing better to do than spy upon others."

Raja put her forehead on his chest, muffling her soft laughter. A breeze passed and she shivered.

"It's getting late," he said. "And I plan to do things to you this night that are for no eyes but our own." His mouth, which curved up in a sly grin, kissed her lightly on the lips. Then he scooped her up in his arms, carrying her back to their chambers.

TBC...