Chapter 50: I don't own Merlin. Also, to Twinia1, all I'm going to say is that Cassie will have at least 3 children. Why three, you may ask. Cuz I ran out of names, suggestions very much appreciated! :D
"I'll miss those two boys. They were really sweet." Gwen said with a fond smile as they entered the gates of Camelot.
"I agree, they could light up your day." Morgana said.
"My Lord, my Ladies. King Uther is expecting you in the council chambers, Sire." Sir Leon said, running up and helping the Ladies Morgana, Eleanor and Cassie out of the carriage.
"Sir Leon." Arthur greeted, dismounting and walking up the steps, his cloak billowing behind him as Morgana, Gwen and Merlin followed.
"How was the wedding, my Lady? To your expectation, I hope." Sir Leon asked as he greeted the two brothers.
"Oh, it far exceeded my expectations, Leon! Morrigan and Alys outdid themselves in the preparations and the dress Gwen made me was beautiful." Cassie gushed, accepting his hand and walking up the steps with him as Owaine just looked at his brother and sister-in-law and rolled his eyes.
"Seems you've just lost your bride to gossip." Pellinore teased, patting his brother's back reassuringly.
"She can speak with whomever she likes. It's me she comes home to at night." Owaine said with a simple shrug.
"Has she had the pleasure of hearing your poesy, yet?"
"That's for me to know and you to wonder, brother." Owaine replied, smiling cheekily.
"Come on, you smell and need to wash." Pellinore said, pushing him towards the stairs to go to the nobles' wing.
"I think that's you brother." Owaine replied, pushing him away with a brotherly smile.
"So, my love? Who is it?" Pellinore asked, looking to his wife for the answer.
"Who is what?" Ellie asked with a light laugh, bouncing her daughter playfully in her arms.
"Who smells." Pellinore answered, hugging her around the waist and kissing her cheek.
"You both do." she replied honestly, laughing at their huffs of affront. "I believe I will go and visit with Lacy Cealia. Give you time to wash before I go near you again." she teased, cooing at her daughter and turning to knock on Lady Caelia's door.
"Finally, took you long enough!" Cassie said when Owaine opened the door to his chambers. "Leon was helping me move some things down from my chambers in the physician's tower."
"Thank you, Leon. How are Thomas and Isabelle?" Owaine asked, serving himself some wine and taking a seat near them.
"Thomas and Isabelle?" Leon asked, confused.
"Gaius said they've left, but a few days ago. Said both the baby and mother were in perfect health. Look at what they left us as payment." Cassie said, holding out a parchment for him to see.
"Thomas is quite the artist. He certainly captured your beauty." Owaine observed, turning the painting of the two of them and Alex and Taran around in his hand.
"I still don't know what you're talking about." Leon said, looking between the two of them.
"Thomas came to us a week before we left, his wife was in labor and Cassie successfully performed the Cesarean, kept both mother and child alive. It was quite spectacular, really. The way she saved their lives and made it seem so easy." Owaine answered.
"He exaggerates, Leon. It was far from easy. And very messy." Cassie said with a roll of her eyes.
"And she's too modest, believe me." Owaine argued back.
"I believe that, and I should go. Overseeing training sessions." Leon said, clasping Owaine's forearm and kissing Cassie's hand, congratulating them both.
"I wonder how to hang this. It's far too beautiful to just leave it laying around." Cassie said, looking around for a place to put it.
"I think you have an obvious answer on how to hang it." Owaine said, a pointed look in his eyes.
"I cannot, my love. It's far too dangerous to use it as such, even more if every time we make love I need to use it." Cassie said, setting the painting down on a table and walking up to him, placing her hands on his chest and leaning up to kiss him. "But for now, you need to wash, my love. I thought it was just Pellinore, but I was wrong." Cassie told him, wrinkling her nose at him and turning to leave, her tinkling laughter in her wake.
"Cassie! Morgana wants to know if you would like to- what is that?" Gwen asked, barging into her chambers without knocking and eying the book in her blonde friend's hands.
"Oh, it's nothing, what does Morgana want to know?" Cassie said, hiding Edurne's spellbook behind her back nervously.
"She wants to know if you'd like to go riding today, that's not nothing. What is it?" Gwen asked slowly, her eyes narrowed.
"I'd love to go, It's been far too long since I've gone riding! I am criminally out of practice." Cassie joked happily, trying to change the topic. "Blaze was such a good horse, I miss her. She always knew just how I liked to ride. There was this one time we went on a hunt, and we jumped right over this low hanging branch, it was magnificent! I showed my brother up too, he was fuming with jealousy, he could never get Blaze to jump. Oh, I miss her. So what time should I meet you out there?"
"After lunch. Morgana's dining with the King. Apparently King Bayard and his retinue are meant to be coming in a few days, signing some treaty or other." Gwen said, forgetting about the book Cassie held behind her back.
"Oh, that's so exciting! There's bound to be a feast, right?"
"Yes, I assume you'll be going with Owaine, now that you're properly a Lady of the Court."
"Owaine hasn't mentioned anything, but I certainly hope so. The first feast I went to here I was stuck refilling Gaius' wine glass." Cassie said, remembering the night clearly, her face showing her mood.
"Oh, the King's birthday, yes I remember. So after lunch?" Gwen said, giggling at Cassie's expression.
"I'll meet you in the courtyard. Just need to tell Owaine I'll be taking his horse." Cassie said, walking towards the door and opening it for Gwen, closing it softly and hiding her glowing eyes as she locked the door magically. Couldn't have someone walking in and seeing the trunk wide open.
"All right. See you then!" she said cheerily, walking down the corridor with her and saying goodbye at the corner where she turned towards the Royals' Wing and Cassie went to the training fields.
"Hello wife." Owaine said lovingly when he spotted her watching and took a water break.
"Hello, husband." Cassie replied, kissing him chastely on the lips. "Just letting you know, our chambers are locked. Gwen walked in after I'd opened my trunk and I never got to close it."
"Just out of precaution, then. I'll probably just go to your chamber in the Physician's Tower."
"Or we can go to lunch now, I'll close it and unlock the door." Cassie suggested.
"Can't. Knightly duties." Owaine said, looking out at the field. "Dinner?"
"Definitely. And if not there's always dessert." Cassie said, kissing him once more and trying to hide the excited flush to her cheeks.
"Or, we can have dessert right now, take fifteen minutes, there's an alcove just around the corner past the armory." Owaine said suggestively, smiling down at her blushing cheeks and her excited breathing.
"I think not, Owaine. We'd make too much of a habit of it." Cassie said reluctantly, batting her eyelashes.
"What better habit to have?" he asked, laughing at her spluttering and kissing her cheek. "Tonight." he whispered in her ear.
"Tonight, I can't wait." Cassie breathed back, her cheeks flaming and her eyes dancing with anticipation. "I'll be taking your horse, by the way."
"What's mine is yours, my love." he said, rolling his eyes as Sir Bruin called him back to training. "Training awaits."
"Have fun!" Cassie sang-songed.
"I'll get you to agree to my proposition, my love. Just you wait and see."
"Challenge accepted, my husband. I'll see you tonight."
"So Cassie, are you excited for the first feast as Lady Cassie?" Morgana asked after they'd found a nice clearing to spar in.
"Moderately. And it's technically my second." Cassie pointed out.
"Well, I only remember part of your first. I had a few drinks too many that night."
"What, after the consummation?" Gwen asked, surprised.
"Before, really. If her congratulations were anything to go by." Cassie said with a smirk.
"Oh, you have to tell me everything!" Gwen said, throwing her sword down and pulling the others down with her.
"Me too, what happened? We want every last salacious detail." Cassie said, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head on them while the raven haired princess spoke.
"There may have been someone. And he may or may not have been my first." Morgana said.
"No! And you didn't tell us?!" Gwen said in surprise, her green eyes bright and wide.
"Well, it wasn't my proudest moment! I was drunk, and I don't even remember who it was. I just remember not waking up in my bed." Morgana said defensively, not quite convincing Cassie.
"So what do you remember?" Gwen prodded.
"I remember him being…gentle. Loving, really." Morgana said with a smile.
"Was he drunk as well? I mean he had to be, to lay with the King's ward and all." Cassie said with wide eyes, knowing well what her brother would have done to her hypothetical lover.
"He'd had his fair share of drinks, but not as drunk as I was." Morgana admitted.
"How do you know it was a he?" Gwen taunted, "You said so yourself, you were too drunk to remember. And you're not very shy about your comments. What if it was Arthur?!" she gasped, enjoying the blush she'd gotten from her friend.
"It was not Arthur! And I may admit to other girls' beauty, but that doesn't mean I care to lay with them." Morgana said indignantly.
"How do you know?" Gwen demanded teasingly.
"Because I wasn't in Arthur's chambers."
"Whose chambers were you in?" Cassie asked shrewdly.
"I…can't remember."
"Oh, you wench! Tell us! Who was it?" Gwen exclaimed, her eyes dancing with delight.
"I'm telling you, I truly cannot remember." Morgana said, "And don't call me wench!"
"Sorry, but you are withholding information! We've never done that before!"
"Cassie has."
"You have heard far more than anyone should be comfortable hearing or telling." Cassie responded indignantly.
"Okay, forget who, tell us everything else then!" Gwen demanded, getting comfortable and forgetting their sparring session.
"Well, he certainly wasn't lacking. Very well endowed. And I remember leaving with him and going to the first empty chamber and…proceeding with the act."
"You know, for someone who annoyed me to no extent because I was scant for details, you are proving just as difficult, my Lady." Cassie teased, shoving her playfully and demanding details.
"Okay, fine! If you really must know, I was incredibly drunk and incredibly turned on and I grabbed him and practically tore his tunic off. But he stopped me before I could get to his trousers and took control. And I liked it. No, I loved it. And just before, he looked at me and asked me if I was certain and his bright blue eyes were so tender that I didn't even doubt in that second the answer. I did regret it for a split second the following morning, but then I remembered how good it felt, and all that regret was put to rest." Morgana said.
"Boring! We. Want. Details!" Gwen said, as Cassie nodded along and agreed to not breathe a word of it to anyone when Morgana demanded.
"How were his hands?" Cassie asked.
"His hands? They were fine, I guess. I was more interested in his member than I was his hands."
"About how big was he?" Gwen asked with, dancing eyes.
"Very big. Length and girth." Morgana said, giggling at the blush on Cassie's cheeks. "Honestly, after literally locking yourselves away for a week you still blush at this?"
"Well, yes. I do! It's not something we made a habit of speaking about in Hispania, me and my friends." Cassie cried indignantly. "And besides, I told you every last detail, don't be stingy, Morgana!"
"Well, I can't remember that much. Honestly." Morgana said, standing up and wielding the sword. "But we came here to practice, not gossip. We could have just stayed in Camelot to gossip. Who first?"
"Me, and if I win, you tell us everything you remember. With details." Gwen said, outlining the terms of the fight.
"Deal. If I win, we drop this." Morgana said, getting ready to fight.
"Can't believe you let her win, Gwen!" Cassie said as they rode back to the city.
"You barely beat her." Gwen argued back.
"Yes, but my conditions were that she stop teasing me about Owaine."
"Girls, you can argue later, we can't be heard talking about this. Uther'll have his head."
"Whoever he is." Cassie agreed, smirking as Morgana went red and they entered the gates.
"Lunch tomorrow? Uther will be busy welcoming King Bayard and his retinue." Morgana asked.
"I was planning on having lunch with Owaine. Perhaps breakfast?"
"If you can pry yourself off him early enough, sure." Morgana said, dismounting and handing the reins to a stable boy who was trying hard to hide his smirk.
"Morgana!" Cassie cried, going completely red as she dismounted and handed the reins to the smirking boy.
"Oops."
"Maybe I'll let a few comments slip here and there." Cassie challenged halfheartedly.
"You wouldn't, you love me too much." Morgana said, a wide smile on her face.
"Ugh, I hate you right now." Cassie said, annoyed. "Oh well. I'll do my best to try and figure just who it was you spent that passionate night with. And I will find out. You already gave us a clue about his 'bright blue eyes' and his fine hands." Cassie said, a triumphant smirk making its way onto her face.
"I'd say something about you and Owaine, but you won."
"Thank you. Now, my Lady, I must see to my husband. Don't want him to grow bored of me too soon. I have dinner to prepare."
"You realize you can now have something from the kitchens." Gwen said, looking at her as if she was crazy.
"Yes, but I am still his wife, and I should keep him happy."
"Ugh, that is so something you would say." Morgana said in disgust.
"Well, I finally trapped him, now I have to keep him happy, lest his eye wander."
"Yeah, his eye would never wander from you. You're a freaking goddess." Gwen said with a snort.
"You and Morgana are both beautiful, just wait for tomorrow at the feast. Every eye will be on you." Cassie said, stopping where their paths diverged and kissing them on the cheeks. "See you tomorrow."
"Bye, Cassie." they said.
"Thought I'd be locked out all day." Owaine said, pulling her into an alcove when she rounded the corner and kissing her fervently.
"And I thought you'd go to my chambers in the Physician's Tower." Cassie replied against his lips.
"No, figured I'd start the challenge now, you see. I saw you and Gwen and Lady Morgana walking up and figured if I waited for you to walk by without them…" he said with a smirk, trailing off suggestively at the end.
"And you think, even if it's an alcove, that others wouldn't notice or see us?" Cassie said, her cheeks flushing at the thought.
"Which is why there's a tapestry, my love. Didn't you notice I'd pulled it back? It's always down." he said, seductively roving his hands down her arms.
"I hadn't actually. But what makes you think I'd agree?" Cassie asked, her eyebrow quirking.
"Well…" he said, drawing the tapestry to block any prying eyes. "I can see just how much you really want to do this." he whispered salaciously, his breath hot against her ear.
"I may want to, but what's to say my control and my desires aren't equal in power?" Cassie said, shivering slightly.
"Well, do you want the prose version, or the lewd version?" he demanded, trailing kisses down her neck.
"Wh-why don't we just go to our chamber?" Cassie asked with trembling breaths against his lips, the challenge being the only thing keeping her from succumbing to his touch.
"Because where would the fun be in that. I want to win our challenge, lambkin. And I will do everything in my power to do so." he said, letting his hands rove even farther down her body to grab her buttocks and squeeze.
"And that, my love, is why this is a dangerous game we're playing. At the end, our pride will keep us from having our pleasure." Cassie mumbled against his lips, breathing hard and keeping her hands firmly on his shoulders, not allowing them to wander south.
"You're not going to give in are you?" he groaned against her lips, taking her hand and guiding it down.
"Not at all, my love. I will win." Cassie said, winking triumphantly and straightening herself up before walking out from behind the tapestry.
"You will be the death of me, woman." Owaine mumbled to himself, following her out and into their chambers and quickly closing the door, her clothes already on the floor by the bed.