Chapter Twelve

"What is that supposed to be?" Merlin was seated cross legged on a bench inside the workshop, watching as Arthur worked.

Arthur held the object up, clamped tightly in the tongs and examined it doubtfully. "A horseshoe?"

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"What?"

"It just looks more like it would be about the right size for an elephant," but Merlin added quickly, "Maybe it's just for a horse with very big feet?"

Arthur sighed. "This is pointless." He slammed the shoe down on the anvil and dropped the tongs to the floor. "How anyone ever manages to make anything out of metal I don't know. It's useless."

"You've only been working at it a few weeks," pointed out Merlin consolatory. "You can't expect to be perfect right away."

"Look at this," said Arthur walking across the room and holding something up.

Merlin examined it for a long moment. "What is it?"

"It was supposed to be a cooking pot."

"Ah yes," said Merlin, tilting his sideways. "I can see it. If you move your head this way and squint really hard it definitely resembles something like that."

"Thank you Merlin," said Arthur dryly. "I appreciate it." He sighed and shook his head. "I've never been this tired, and I have nothing to show for it."

"Gwen said you knew something about blacksmithing."

"Well…when she asked…I mean I do know something."

"Like what?"

"That's an anvil? Those are tongs. This is a hammer?"

"Ah."

"This was the only option. I have to make good at this," said Arthur, picking back up the hammer and surveying the horse shoe.

"It's not that bad," said Merlin encouragingly.

"It is that bad. I have a horseshoe that could fit an elephant and I have to shoe that horse outside by this evening."

"But it is around the right shape if a little large," pointed out Merlin, "And I have heard you've been doing good on some repair work. Look you need that horse shoed? I have an idea. I'll go visit the royal stables. I know one of the grooms there. I'll hang around; see if I can't nick a few shoes. They have a whole lot stock piled."

"You can't just steal horseshoes from the royal stables!" said Arthur, horrified.

"Look, it shouldn't be a problem just to swipe a couple. Then I'll come back and help you shoe the horse."

"You know how to shoe a horse?" asked Arthur doubtfully.

"I did grow up in a village Arthur. We had horses."

Before Arthur could protest further Merlin was off like a shot.

Sighing Arthur shook his head and picking up the horseshoe with the tongs and placed it back near the fire. At least he could reuse the metal for repairing the shovel a farmer had brought in yesterday.

His first forays into blacksmithing had certainly been less then inspiring. Repairing pots and pans he was fairly alright at, and as he worked cheap so he got business. But trying to make something from scratch…he looked woefully towards the pot he had been showing Arthur. He had tried to make it for Gwen. It wasn't much but after everything she had done for him he had wanted to present her with the fruits of his labor, labor she had made possible. It had failed utterly.

It had been nearly three weeks since he'd started working. Merlin came by most days. It had taken awhile to get used to it. Merlin had always been much freer then most servants when talking to Arthur but it had always been there, Arthur was the prince. It had proved difficult to remember he wasn't anymore. The first time Merlin had dropped by there'd been some friction. Arthur, already losing his temper as he got increasingly exasperated at the work had been extremely short, cutting Merlin off. Merlin had uttered only one retort. 'Ass'. Arthur had turned on him to yell and then he had just started laughing. Merlin had stared at him somewhat startled. But since then things had been going smoother, though Arthur was still reminding himself he had to make requests and not order Merlin when he wanted help. And Merlin was helping him with learn the work. While Merlin was certainly no blacksmith, he had as he said, grown up in a village. There had been a blacksmith and the children of the village had used to watch him. While Merlin hadn't ever done any blacksmithing himself, he had watched enough of it and remembered enough of what he had seen, that he could make helpful suggestions that were very frequently right. Arthur had slowly begun to think that maybe Merlin was not quite the idiot he had often thought.

There came a knock on the door frame of the workshop and Gwen entered. She was holding a basket which she placed down near the fire.

"I brought you some lunch, I thought you might not have eaten anything."

Arthur quickly stepped to block the view he felt would show Gwen the worst examples of his blacksmithing (though he needed a second to decide which view that was) and smiled at her.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. I have to get back to castle. I'll see you later Arthur." She turned to leave and ran into Merlin in the doorway. He seemed to be clutching his side, but he grinned at her.

"Hello Gwen!"

"Hello Merlin, I was just bringing Arthur some lunch. There's probably enough for two."

"Thank you."

Gwen left. As soon as they were alone, Merlin pulled the horse shoes out from under his shirt where he'd been clutching them.

"Ta da! Told you!"

Arthur considered whether he should be angry for a moment and then shrugged. If he ever got his life back he would improve security at the stables, until then there wasn't really anything wrong with using them, he reasoned, after all, he was the prince even if no one else knew it.

"Thanks."

"That's was awfully nice of Gwen," said Merlin, laying down the horseshoes.

"What?"

"Bringing you some lunch." He looked at Arthur out of the corner of his eye and continued in an innocent tone, "She's been awfully nice to you."

"Yes," said Arthur not quite catching on.

"I mean, she took care of you while you were sick, and now she's given you this place to stay…"

"What you're point Merlin?" asked Arthur finally noticing something in the man's tone.

"Nothing. Just that I see you two together a lot…you're both always talking and smiling and…"

"Merlin." Arthur frowned at him.

"What?"

"No."

"Why not? She likes you, I can tell. And you like her, you always watch her whenever she's around. You seem to find everything she does, even if it's just darning a sock, really really interesting to watch."

"It's not like that," Arthur picked up the hammer and used it to gesture towards the horseshoes, "Can we shoe the horse now?"

"What do you mean, it's not like that? You don't like her?"

"Of course I like her Merlin, she's a very compassionate and caring woman. But…"

"But what?"

Arthur sighed in exasperation. "Even if I thought about her in that way, which I'm not saying I do, we could never pursue a relationship. There are too many…we're not of the same spheres of life and there are too many responsibilities and duties to prevent it."

"As I see it, you're a blacksmith, she's a blacksmith's daughter, can't get a much better match then that," said Merlin. "Sorry, you're a 'blacksmith'." Grinning he made quotation marks in the air.

Arthur sighed. He found this conversation oddly unsettling, and felt for some reason he could not understand as if he were on the verge of danger. "Please Merlin, could we just shoe the horse?"