Chapter 2: Welcoming

With his arms wide opened and a happy glow on his face Uther walked towards the young woman: "Lady Mary! What a pleasure to welcome you in Camelot."

Cocking her head she looked at him.

"The only reason for me being here is that my parents have died", she said.

Uther flinched.

"Oh, yes", he babbled. "I forgot. It must be awful for you." He embraced her, squeezed her and looked at her in a fatherly way. "If you need to talk about it, please come to me at any time."

"Why would I want to talk about it?", she asked confused. "They are dead and I'm not. I mean, it's not like their death was completely in vain."

Everyone in the room stared at Mary.

How could she talk about the death of her parents like that? Her voice carried grief but also pride in it, even a bit of joy.

Merlin tried to read Mary's eyes. They were blue. Not golden. This calmed him down a bit.

Uther looked questioning at the young woman: "Not in vain? Isn't death always in vain?"

"It isn't", Mary answered fevered. "They died for a good thing. They fought and they won. Well, the price wasn't a small one to pay but that is the way it is."

"Naïve", was the word going through Merlin's head. Mary seemed to be so naïve.

"In battle?" Uther clearly was confused. „I heared a riding accident caused them to die."

Mary flinched, her face blushed, her hands formed fists and Merlin had the feeling that she kind of slapped herself to the forehead because of saying something she should not have said.

Mary was thinking of an explanation.

"Yes, a riding accident. They were fighting for … uhm …", she stuttered along, biting her lower lip and could not go on.

All of a sudden she looked up, her eyes filled with tears and in the end she started to cry: "Oh, I know, it's horrible. Over and over again I try to give it a positive spin but I always fail. Riding accident, yes. My father would have loved die in battle."

The king looked at her pitiful and embraced her again to comfort her: "Your father truly was a brave man. He stood beside me in many battles and he did great things."

He turned around to walk back to his throne and Merlin saw Mary breathing a sigh of relief.

"I always imagine him riding to battle. With my mother at his side to…uhm…aid him. This version of the story helps me through nights filled with tears and to banish my nightmares." Speaking the last words she nodded like a little child wanting to tighten the story she just made up.

"You are suffering from nightmares?" Uther asked. "My physician will help you to get rid of them. Go find him as soon as you can. But not today. I imagine that you must be pretty tired and want to rest. Your rooms are prepared already and you will be escorted to them."

"I thank you, King Uther", Mary replied formal with a little bow. "I'm truly exhausted indeed."

Merlin realized that all she wanted was to get away. He just did not know why.

The king pointed Gwen to take their guest to her rooms. The maidservant dropped a curtsy and waited for Mary to turn around and walk towards the door.

The young dark-skinned woman walked fast and Mary had a little trouble to follow her. The maidservant had something on her mind, this was clearly written on her face. And she did not say a word.

Mary was not used to this.

There always had been a family-oriented mood in her parental home. No matter if it was a maidservant, a servant or a Lord. All residents of the house had been familiar to her since she could remember.

"What is your name?", she asked the maidservant.

"Gwen", she answered dryly.

"A beautiful name", Mary started babbling. "Once I had a doll called Gwen. It was my favourite doll. I used to play only with her, took her with me everywhere I went. To the woods, to the lake, to the stables, to every room of the house, travelling. My Gwen had been with me all the time. And then such a stupid worm came and broke it."

Surprised Gwen stopped.

"A worm?", she asked.

Mary bit her lips.

"Uhm, yes. Worm. There was this ... uhm … stupid guy working at the stables."

Mary could feel herself blushing. The maidservant watched her with a doubtful look on her face, slighly squinting eyes.

"Ah yes", she said slowly, turned around, walked a few more stepps and finally opened a door. "Your rooms. If you need something just let me know."

She held open the door and Mary stepped inside.

The room was big. And comfortable. Mary took a look around.

"I think I will be fine here", she said and turned to Gwen happily. "Thank you. And you can call me Mary. Well, at least when we are alone. There might be one or two Lords not liking that.", she said twinkling and caught a slight, quick smile on the face of the maidservant, who dropped a curtsy and closed the door behind her after leaving the room.

Mary was alone. Again.

She sighed.

Then she saw her luggage, laughed and went to her bags to unpack her books.

She found her favourite book, took a seat on the soft bed, reading a story about a griffin and fell asleep shortly after that.