Dwyn's POV

Slowly, my eyes flickered open and I felt tiny snowflakes in my eyelashes. My cloak was draped over my shoulders, and I found I was actually quite warm. As everything came into focus, I realized that I was leaning over on something…or someone.

I lifted my chin, looking up to see Arthur, his firm authoritative face looking ahead seriously. In a second, he'd realized that I had stirred, and looked down at me warmly, his features immediately softening.

My face reddened and I sat up swiftly. He handed me my reigns from where they'd been wrapped around his saddle horn.

"Feel better?" He asked.

"Much." I answered, and then gestured at his shoulder uncomfortably. "Sorry…about that."

"I put you there, the fault is not yours."

"…oh." I blushed deeper and looked ahead, searching frantically for a subject to speak on.

"How is our pace?" I asked, nodding my head at the caravan in front of us.

"Not well." He answered. "We've hardly covered an eighth of our journey since we left. "I looked up at the sun, it had been nearly six hours at least since we'd left.

Arthur led his horse over to the side of the people, stopping and watching them pass, looking in pity at the elderly and crippled bringing up the rear.

He turned his horse, facing out over the landscape and the sinking sun.

"I couldn't leave them." He said.

"I would have done the same." I said quickly, then looked down again, thinking of my own people, whom I'd left behind.

I felt his eyes on me, reading me.

"What happened at Kosak…wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was." I argued, looking up at him sadly. "I left them, because I wanted an adventure, I wanted to be free, and now they-I made the wrong decision."

"But look what you found here. Perhaps you were led to leave because God has a greater purpose for you elsewhere. Everything happens for a reason, Dwyn."

"Then what was the reason for this? What did I trade my people's lives for?" Tears welled up in my eyes, although I didn't let them spill.

He stared at me intently, and I felt open once again. He appeared to be thinking hard on what to say, like his very future hung on the words about to escape his lips.

"Maybe…you are meant to meet the person you belong with. The one who will make you feel like you're worth more than you've thought your whole life. Like everything you've done and all you've been through was to lead you to them. Maybe you were meant…to find your king."

I stared at him in awe, my heart scarcely beating, waiting for the next moment. Never had someone known what I was thinking, and said it in a way so…right.

He reached out slowly, and I held my breath, his hand had almost met my cheek when…

Lancelot's horse barreled in-between us, knocking us apart and sending Maldwyn into a neighing frenzy. It took me a moment to calm him, and when I looked up, Arthur's face had passed back into the shadow of leadership in the presence of his Knight.

I shot Lancelot a glare, knowing there was no way his action had been an accident. He winked at me and smiled, as though he'd saved me from something I hadn't wanted

I quickly regained composure, then looked back out over the wilderness before us. If he thought what he'd done would make me leave, he was sadly mistaken.

"We're moving too slow. The boy's not going to make it. The family we can protect, but we're wasting our time with all these people." Lancelot said urgently.

"We're not leaving them." Arthur said in a final tone. I smiled at him, even though he wasn't looking at me.

"If the Saxons find us, we will have to fight."

"Then save your anger for them!" Arthur hissed.

Lancelot glared at him, and I saw his eye twitch in anger. "Is this Rome's quest?" He slightly cocked hi head in my direction and raised his eyebrows. "Or Arthur's?"

They stared at one another in anger and I suddenly felt out-of-place.

Finally, Arthur backed down, and trotted his horse up to the wagon to check on Lucan, what the little boy claimed his name to be.

Lancelot looked at me, lust emanating from his very presence.

"Please don't look at me that way." I said, raising my chin and looking out to the horizon, anywhere but at him.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because I asked it." I turned my palomino to leave, but Lancelot grabbed my wrist. I tugged at it, but he gripped harder, hurting me a little, though I'd never admit it.

"Let go of me." I said through clenched teeth.

"If he ever bothers you again, let me know and I'll teach him a lesson."

"It is you who needs to be taught a lesson!" I said, finally jerking my wrist away and turning Maldwyn toward the caravan. I had hoped he wouldn't follow, but soon, he appeared back at my side.

"I like a woman who plays hard-to-get." He said softly, then leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"What do you say we share a tent tonight?"

I couldn't stand to be near him anymore. I dug my heels into Maldwyn's sides and galloped him almost all the way to the front of the line. For my sake and his own, it was only luck that he didn't follow.

Arthur's POV

As I rode away from Lancelot, I cursed him heartily in my mind, for it also meant I'd ridden away form Dwyn. Only when I'd gotten to the wagon did I realize that I'd left her alone with him, Lancelot was famous for taking advantage of women.

I panicked and turned my horse back to go get her, only to find Dwyn galloping past me, not even noticing I was there. I looked back and caught Lancelot's eye, he stared at me, that look on his face I'd seen every time he saw a woman he wanted.

Lancelot was my best friend, my brother, but somehow, I wanted to kill him right that moment.

Never had someone meant so much to me. Never had I met a person I wanted to talk to and be near.

Never had I been so close…to being in love.