Chapter 18: Good Things Start Somewhere

On the day of his coronation, Arthur paced his chambers in complete nervousness. He, Elaine and Geoffrey had rehearsed the coronation a number of times but still he thought the coronation would go wrong. He wore his regal clothing which consisted of his chain-mail, tunic with the Pendragon symbol upon it and his knight's cloak. Upon his brow was his Prince's crown. During the ceremony he would have the Prince's symbol removed from his head and replaced with the crown of his father.

A small knock came to his chambers and his cousin entered the room. "Oh Arthur. Stop your worrying. It will go off without a hitch. Please relax for a moment." Arthur turned to face her and smiled at her appearance. She wore a regal purple dress with long sleeves and gold trimmings and on her brow was the coronet of a Pendragon Princess. Her own coronet for Corbenic was not recovered so Arthur gave her the coronet of his family's. "What?" She chuckled when he did not speak a word.

"You look beautiful, cousin." Stepping forward and kissing her cheek. "It is my right to be nervous. I just hope nothing goes wrong."

"It shan't." Elaine tried to reassure her cousin. "You will do brilliantly and I know that you will be a brilliant King." She held his hand in her own. "I have come to fetch you. It's time." Arthur nodded silently and allowed Elaine to lead him out of his chambers and to his coronation.

The coronation went without a hitch and there was a large banquet followed to celebrate the ascension of a new king. The room was filled with guests of great importance and many of Arthur's friends. Arthur now sat in the King's throne with Elaine on his immediate right and surrounding them were people of importance. The whole room was filled with laughter and happiness as they celebrated the ascension of Arthur to the throne.

Arthur stood up and the room fell silent. "I thank you for being here to celebrate this day." In his hand he held his goblet. "My Lords and Ladies, I invite you to enjoy this evening." Raising his goblet high and smiled widely. The celebrations continued into the night. With the feast over, the music and dancing began. Arthur and Elaine began the dancing by dancing together. The pair of the laughed and enjoyed their dance together. "My Lady." Arthur bowed over her hand when their dance came to an end.

"Your majesty." She curtseyed and smiled broadly as he led her back to her seat. "You still dance well." She smiled as he sat next to her again. "Are you enjoying your day?"

"Truthfully?" He said with a sincere face but it broke out into a large smile. "I am enjoying it." He reached for his goblet. "Yes, it shows that my father is dead but this is a new time and I'm going to enjoy every second of it."

"Even with the hard times?" Elaine chuckled and sipped her wine.

"Well, not all the time." He laughed softly as he too drank his wine. "Looks like King Lot is coming over to either talk politics or ask you to dance." He laughed as Elaine glared at him. "Be nice."

"To him or you?" She raised an eyebrow as King Lot moved closer to them both. "King Lot." She bowed her head slightly as he reached their chairs. "Are you enjoying yourself this evening?"

"I am, my Lady. It is a splendid celebration." He bowed to both Arthur and Elaine. "I was wondering if I could possibly claim your hand for a dance. Only if the King allows it."

"Tis up to my cousin, my Lord." Arthur chuckled as he turned his attention in another direction.

"I accept." Elaine spoke softly. Lot held out his hand and Elaine took it. She stood up and he lead her to the middle of the floor. "My cousin has spoken to me about your wish to court me."

"Yes, my lady." He nodded as he led her around the floor. "May I ask your answer?"

Elaine remained silent for a moment as her eyes flickered over to the knights, who were all laughing and talking. She returned her attention to her dance partner. "I do wish to be courting right this moment, my lord. My son is still young and I want him to be a little older before I think of courting." She smiled gently at him but the smile fell as his hand tightened on her own. "You are hurting my hand." She spoke with a lowered voice and tried to pull her hand away from his.

"You are a stupid girl." He spoke in a quiet voice. "Do you really think any other man would have you with a bastard child on your hip?" His hand tightened around her own, to the point of painful. "I'm offering to take you and your son."

Elaine stared at him in fright. "Let go of me." She tried to pull away but he held her tighter. "My lord." She spoke through gritted teeth. "You are making a scene."

"I give you a choice: Marry me or live a life as a whore." He spoke softly but with a smile on his face, as if they were enjoying themselves. Well he was enjoying himself, but Elaine's face was stone cold. "I will give you until next week." He stepped away and bowed to her.

Elaine quickly curtseyed and walked away. She was frightened. Lot frightened her. She returned to her seat and snatched her goblet of wine, to quickly drink it. Lot was wrong but deep down she thought he was right. At the moment, Galahad was her life. He was illegitimate but she didn't care. Nobody in Camelot cared. It was outside Camelot who cared.

"Elaine? Elaine?" Arthur waved his hand in front of her face, causing her to jump. "Are you all right?"

"Yes." She lied. She did not want to tell Arthur about Lot. "He asked me if he could court me. I told him I would think about his proposition." She looked at Arthur and smiled.

"What? Why?" Arthur looked at her in shock. This was not his cousin speaking. She was headstrong and made decisions with her heart and not her head. "This doesn't sound like you, Elaine."

"I know. I have to think about the future and not the present." Elaine looked away from Arthur. "I am not saying that I will marry him. I have to have my options open." She sipped her wine, avoiding looking at anybody. "I need to check on Galahad." She announced to Arthur and stood up. "I shan't be long." With a twirl of her purple dress she left the room. Once outside she broke down. Tears fell fast down her cheeks and fear swept of her.

"Elaine?" Gwaine spoke, coming into her view. She started to turn and leave. "Don't go." He rushed over to her, gently holding her upper arm. "What is wrong?"

"Nothing." She lied and rubbed away her tears.

"My lady. You are crying." He gently rubbed her arm and pulled her into a hug, which she shockingly excepted. "What has happened? I saw the way King Lot was with you."

"He's trying to force me to court him." She whispered against his chest. "I do not have the heart to tell Arthur. It will be a danger to the Kingdoms."

"Kingdoms?" Gwaine asked curiously as he gently rubbed her back in comfort.

"Arthur's Kingdom and my own Kingdoms." She stepped away from him. "He could make an excuse and a reason to invade any of the Kingdoms. So I have to consider it for the safety of the people, rather than my own safety."

"What of your son?" He held out his arm to her, which she took and he led her down the corridor.

"I do not know. Lot would possibly separate him from me." A sigh fell from her lips and her shoulders slumped. "I cannot do that. Galahad has become my life." She forced a smile but it was no use. She was still afraid of King Lot. "What can I do?" She asked herself but out loud.

"Could you hide?"

"No. I do not know what to do." She sighed heavily as they walked up the stairs together. "My heart is telling me not to accept but my mind is arguing with my heart." She gave another sigh.

"I think I have an idea." He smirked slightly as they reached her chambers.

"Do tell." She smiled as they remained outside her chambers and removed her arm from his.

"Arthur spoke of you wanting to visit your Kingdom. Why not make that your excuse to avoid King Lot? I will come with you. To stop King Lot if he comes anywhere near you."

"You think I shouldn't tell Arthur about King Lot." She smiled softly and cocked her head to the side a little.

"That's right." Gwaine nodded, he held the door handle and opened her chamber door. "We can talk about it tomorrow." He smiled as she walked inside.

"Why tomorrow? Why not now?" She asked curiously and quietly, when she saw Amy asleep in a chair. "She does so much." Elaine said quietly and walked up to her. "Amy." She spoke quietly and knelt next to her maid. "Amy." She spoke a little louder, waking the maid. "Go to bed or you can join the feast again."

Amy yawned and stretched. "Are you sure, my Lady?" Standing up. "You should be at the feast."

"So should you." Elaine smiled. "Enjoy yourself." Amy curtseyed and left the room. "Let us discuss the plan of action." Elaine sat on Amy's previous chair and Gwaine sat in the opposite. "We can't let Arthur know that I am leaving because of King Lot. I do have to um... be... Crowned." She avoided looking at him.

Gwaine chuckled. "That can be your excuse. You wish to go and prepare for your coronation." He smiled his usual lopsided smile.

"Gwaine, I'm confused. You are helping me but usually you are fawning over any woman, who has been having a few drinks." She chuckled softly and sat back in the comfortable chair.

"Not tonight. I saw my own damsel in distress." He grinned cheekily towards her, causing her to blush slightly. "My lady, you seemed to be more important than any woman in that room this evening." He continued to grin in her direction, causing her to become very flushed from the blushes. "Are you blushing?"

Elaine chuckled nervously and stood up, turning her back on him and looking into the fire. "No. It's warm in here. This dress." She stammered and kept her back to him. "I should get some sleep. You should rejoin the celebrations." Staring into the fire as it crackled and burned in the grate.

Gwaine stood up. "Of course, my Lady." He bowed and silently left the room. Silently he closed the door but he stood outside the door for a moment, listening to the soft movements inside the room. He felt sorry for Elaine. She was stuck in so many decisions. He could see that she just wanted to be a mother to her son, a Queen to her people and be there for everyone she loves but everything was stopping her from doing so. In his eyes, she was perfect but he couldn't tell her as it wasn't his place. He was the mere son of a lowly knight and she was a Princess. There was also the fact that Lancelot was her former lover and he was the father of her son. Another obstacle in his way. He gave a heavy sigh and returned to the celebrations, but not without heavy thoughts weighing him down. Thoughts that he could not get rid of, no matter how much he drank.

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A/N: Wow! That was hard to write. The chapter after the next one will be entirely Arthur/Gwen. :D Due to high demands. :D

Responses from Chapter 17:

ForeverTeamEdward13: Sorry for slow updates. Hope you enjoy.

Lara Smith: Elaine will be returning to her Kingdoms quite soon. You'll have to wait and see what happens with Lancelot. Morgana and Morgause did have a third sister and coincidently she was called Elaine, not Anna. In both Malory and T. H. White say that a lot of women in "that time" were called Elaine. I think there are about 5 Elaine's. :D I want Elaine and Gwen to have a really good friendship as Elaine and Gwen have had hardly any female friendships, so it's good for them to connect instantly. I don't think this story will be smooth running and there will be fireworks from many characters. Ahhhh, the man in her dream will be revealed in time. I cannot say. I have made a promise for an ARWEN chapter, in chapter 20. Well, Uther is gone but it doesn't mean that there won't be any troublesome Kings around. Vortigern will slowly come into play but Lot takes front row at the moment. I'm halfway through reading The Once and Future King as well as reading Le Morte D'Arthur, just to get my legends fresh in my mind. But both are difficult to read so it's a lot of googling for information for this story. :D There won't be many enemies from the legend making appearance. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Acklesaddict: Awwww! I'm glad you caught up and you are enjoying it. :D I love Gwaine too! :D I will continue writing, since you asked nicely. :D As for mature scenes, there will be very few; probably a maximum of 2 more. :D I'll warn at start of a chapter if you do not wish to read the scene. :D Thank you so much for reading, alerting and reviewing. :D