CHAPTER 20

Mary had woken me up early than usual this morning so I could help set everything up. I soon found out it was a whole group of people who were coming not just the pope.

"Jess, go through one more rehearsal with the kids." Mary shouted to me from across the courtyard.

I nodded to show her I heard and turned to see the kids running around hitting each other with the fake swords.

"Guys, lets go through the play one last time." I said to them. They all looked over and let out a cheer before rushing into place.

The play, I was surprised to admit was pretty good. It was mid morning and the pope and his companions would be here any minute. I was having a fake sword fight with James who was the main part in the play.

"How's school?" I asked as he took a few wild swings at my legs.

It wasn't really school just a few parents were teaching him and a couple of other kids reading and writing.

James shrugged before answering "Every single day telling me things I don't know, it's making me feel stupid."

I laughed and took a soft swing at his sword "What about your birthday? I heard its coming up."

"So? All I did was not die for 12 months." He said trying to run around the back of me.

I was a little worried about James he was a pretty cynical kid and always had a negative answer for things.

"Come on, you can come help me find a dress." I told him. I called over to Marty and asked if he wanted to come. Marty was James's best friend he had light brown hair and dark eyes. He nodded and ran after us.

We walked up to my room. Mary had put lots of dresses in my cupboard the day before for me to choose from. I found a white one it had feathers on it and a hood, it reminded me of a bear I didn't really consider wearing it but I thought James and Marty might find it funny. I went into the other room and put it on before coming back out.

"How about this?" I asked them smiling.

I could tell they were trying to hold back laughter.

"Stand absolutely still." James said to Marty as he froze.

"What if it tracks by scent?" Marty asked seriously.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." I mocked

"It's seen us, Run!" James said as he and Marty ran out.

I couldn't help but laugh, there were 3 dresses in the cupboard I choose a dress which had a slit up the side that went a bit above my knee. It was light blue with dark blue trimming. I brushed my hair and left it out; so it fell straight. I heard a whistle at the door and turned to see Lancelot leaning against it.

"I've never seen you in a dress before." He said looking me up and down,

"Well, don't get used to it." I replied walking up to him.

"You look beautiful." He said bowing and taking my hand.

I laughed and curtsied before kissing him lightly on the lips.

He kissed me again and started leading me back into the room.

"We have to get back; the pope will be here soon." I laughed and took his hands.

He sighed and nodded. "You go ahead; I've just got to get something." I said thinking I would have to find James and Marty so they wouldn't miss the play.

I could hear the sounds of trumpets as Lancelot left which probably meant the pope and company had arrived. The first two rooms I checked in had no sign of either Marty or James. After about 10 more minutes of looking for them I gave up thinking they might have just gone back to the courtyard on their own.

I had been away for awhile and didn't want to get in trouble with Mary for missing the Pope's introduction. So I started running I reached a corner and didn't slow down. I had to skid to a halt as I saw a person coming around the corner at the same time as me. I was going to fast though and couldn't stop in time.

I crashed in to them making me and him fall backwards onto the ground. I held onto my shoulder which hurt a bit other than that there was no damage. I looked up to see a guy holding out his hand it took it gratefully as he helped me to my feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked as I brushed myself off.

"Yes, fine." I nodded "Sorry."

"I'm Kaden." He said extending his hand.

"Jess." I said shaking his hand.

Kaden was my age maybe a few years older. He had light blonde hair which was messy and straight. His skin was tanned and he had hazel eyes. From my first impression he was very good looking.

"It was nice meeting you Kaden but I have to…"

"Go, yeah me too." He said smiling.

When I arrived at the courtyard I saw what I presumed were the pope and his comrades standing out the front of the group of villagers. One of them was giving a speech; I saw Galahad and headed over to him.

"What have I missed?" I whispered to him. There were 3 people including the pope they were all dressed very neatly and could just tell by looking at them they were extremely wealthy.

"I didn't think it was possible." Galahad said to me.

"What?"

"That you could get anymore beautiful." He smiled.

I laughed and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before moving through the crowd to get a closer look. I got to the front of the crowd and stood next to Arthur and Lancelot. I wasn't listening to what the Pope was saying; Kaden had just walked up and stood with the popes company, I guess he was one of them.

He saw me and gave a quick wave; I smiled back and noticed Lancelot looking at me puzzled. I shrugged and waited until the meeting was broken up. The villagers moved off and Mary came up behind me she started pulling me by the arm making me follow.

She stopped me in front of the pope. Kaden stepped forward when he saw me until he was nearly level with the pope. I noticed Arthur was standing on the other side of me. They introduced themselves.

"Jess will show you to your rooms." Arthur said clapping me on the shoulder.

"I will?" I whispered to him. A little surprised they trusted me with such an important job.

He nodded and pushed me forward a little.

"This way." I smiled as I led them across the courtyard. Mary had shown me were they would be staying and I hoped I could remember. I gave a sigh of relief when I saw the two oak doors that Mary had shown me earlier.

I opened them and led the pope his two friends and Kaden into the room. It was huge there was a fire place couches and beds and a large rug on the ground I started getting a little jealous of how much bigger this room was compared to mine.

The pope looked around and then turned to me.

"It's dirty." He said I looked around at the spotless room. I was about to argue when he kept going.

"The beds aren't large enough, the rug is to ruff, there's not enough light in here and it's not very well ventilated. The walls are cracked and so is the floor, the beds are to close together and these doors and to heavy." He said in a serious tone.

"But other than that it's OK?" I joked a little taken aback of his rudeness.

I saw Kaden hold back a laugh as they all walked further in the room.

"There's no view." The Pope said looking around.

"Um, here it is." I said motioning out the large window on the far wall.

He walked over to it and looked out.

"I expect to be able to see the sea." He said turning back to me

"You can see the sea; it's over there between the land and the sky." I said pointing out the window.

"I can barely see it."

"You could move to a village closer to the sea." I said as politely as I could. "Or preferably in it." I added under my breath so he couldn't hear.

"I suppose it will do." He said turning back to me. "You can go now. Leave us to freshen up."

"Did you want anything else? I mean would you like the room moved a bit to the left?" I asked

"What? Oh no thank you." He said not noticing my sarcasm.

I rolled my eyes and left the room. I came to the edge of the courtyard when;

"Jess." I heard someone call from behind me.

I turned to see Kaden.

"Sorry about that." He smiled

"It's OK." I shrugged. "So are you the Pope's son, cousin what?" I asked as we started walking out into the courtyard.

"Nephew." He answered

We walked over to Tristan and Gawain, they were sparing in a space in the courtyard a few people had stopped to watch. They were pretty evenly matched but as Gawain turned and lifted his sword Tristan was too quick and moved in. He pointed the sword at Gawain's neck and smiled. Gawain laughed and dropped his sword.

I was tired already I didn't have much sleep last night and the Pope had worn me out with all of his complaints. Tristan came over and handed me a sword.

"Spar?" he asked.

I nodded and stepped forward I thought I would be sparing Tristan but I guess he was too tired he handed the other sword to Kaden.

He stepped forward and stood 4 feet away from me. I smiled at him wondering if he was any good. He winked back and I felt a few butterfly's in my stomach. He was being a gentleman letting me make the first move.

I moved forward and swung the sword low which he blocked before spinning back around taking a quick swing at me. I just blocked it, I had underestimated him. I took two quick swings at him which he blocked before he had another chance to attack I spun around swinging at him again he wasn't ready for it and loosely blocked it. He was knocked back a few feet because of the impact.

I just noticed Tristan was yelling out advice. "Strike higher." I decided to take his advice and aimed an attack at his chest. He blocked it before swinging three consecutive strikes at me. I heard what I thought was Tristan giving advice but when I heard it again I realized it couldn't possibly be him.

"Jess, what are you doing, stop that this instant you have things to do." I heard Mary's voice yell at me.

I stupidly looked to where Mary's voice came from for just a second, in that second Kaden moved forward with an attack I lifted my sword to block it and took a step back. The impact was too much and I was knocked back to the ground.

I felt the warm stone on my back and the cold point of Kaden's sword pressed lightly onto my neck telling me he had won. I looked up to the sky for a minute annoyed that I had lost.

I sighed and sat up; Kaden smiled at me and held out his hand. I took it as he helped pull me to my feet.

"Good job." I said as I brushed some dirt of me.

"I underestimated you, you're better than I thought you would be." He smiled.

"Jess, you have things to do." Mary said walking over and stopping about 20cm away from my face.

"Can't I go and have a lie down?" I asked taking a step back. She didn't have to say anything the look on her face told me it was out of the question.

"She was going to show me around." Kaden said to Mary. She looked at him questioningly.

"Who are you?" She asked suspiciously.

"Kaden, the Pope's nephew." He said, I wouldn't have guessed it he was the only one of them that wasn't covered in fur and gold jewelry. He wore what everyone else was wearing.

"We can get someone else to show you around." Mary said politely obviously believing him.

"Yes but it's just such a beautiful village I thought I would need an even more beautiful girl to show me around It." he smiled

"Yes of course." She said politely to Kaden. "But be quick." she said to me and walked off.

"You're full of surprises." I laughed.

He shrugged and smiled. Mary walked past and stopped when she saw us.

"Are you two still here?" She asked annoyed.

"No, we left a few minutes ago, but I expect we'll be back soon." I said seriously to her.

She rolled her eyes and shot me an annoyed look before scurrying of.

Kaden laughed as we started walking. "So what do you want to see?" I asked.

"Oh, I've already seen the whole village." He smiled.

"What was your favorite place?"

He stopped and pointed. I followed his gaze to the stone wall. "Yes it's a very nice wall." I laughed.

He shook his head and smiled. He walked towards the stairs that led to the top of the wall were the guards stood to keep watch. I followed him up there; when we got to the top he walked to the edge and stopped.

I smiled when I saw why he liked it so much. You could see everything; the sea the forest the mountains. It was all beautiful the sun was just setting and it cast its remaining light out across the horizon making it almost eerie looking.

"Do you come up here much?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I've only been up here once before. And that was too see how long I had before the Saxons got here."

"Any injuries?" he asked concerned.

I smiled and thought of the scar on my side from when Galahad had mistaken me for a Saxon. I decided not to tell him that and pointed to a long thin scar on my shoulder that I had gotten from a Saxon.

He looked at it and smiled. "I think you'll live." he said running his thumb over it seeing how bad it was.

I shivered from his touch. "Thanks Kaden, for everything. You've been such a huge help today." I said not wanting him to notice me tremble.

"For you, anything." He smiled before turning back to the view.

Thank you for reviewing, I'm sorry if the last chapters have been disappointing a couple of you said that in your reviews and I tried to make this one longer, so please review again and tell me if I did a better job on this one XOXOXOXOXOO P.S SORRY FOR ANY HISTORICAL INACCURAICES

Irishfire- Thank u for reviewing, I tried to make this one longer, the play will be in the next chapter, pls review and say if you liked this chapter/ what you didn't like etc.

Zelina- sorry about the last chapter please review and say if u liked this one better, or what I could do to improve it?

Evanstar- thanks 4 reviewing, Ahh , not sure pope bishop; is there a difference?

LANCELOTTRISTANBABY- this chapters longer, review and tell me what you think. :)