Chapter Three

"Camelot! Really? I thought King Arthur was a myth," Rose said.

The Doctor smiled at her. "And what do we say about myths Rose Tyler?"

She looked up and smiled back at him. "Most myths have a grain of truth in them?" she said tentatively.

"Exactly! You're thinking of 'Le Morte d'Arthur' by that old rogue Thomas Malory. He made the whole thing up. Never was one for letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Actually you'd have liked him. Reminds me of Jack Harkness."

"And isn't Camelot supposed to be in Cornwall? Tintagel?" she said, recalling the stories that she thought she knew.

"Now you're getting your myths, your legends and your history mixed up," he told her.

"Oh, silly me," she said, rolling her eyes.

"This time period wasn't well recorded due to the Saxon invasions and the loss of Roman rule. There's no Sir Lancelot, no Holy Grail quests, just a brilliant king trying to unite a kingdom. So c'mon Rose Tyler, let's go and play dressing up." He grabbed her hand and they headed up the spiral staircase to the wardrobe.

For the Doctor, it was quite easy to pick a simple green robe with a hood that he could wear over his brown suit, along with a broad leather belt.

He was first back to the console room and set about scanning the castle and familiarising himself with the floor plan.

"Well?" He heard the simple question from the doorway and turned around to look at Rose. His breath caught in his chest. There, standing in front of him was a vision from a Robin Hood film or something similar.

She wore a simple, pale blue shift dress which hugged her figure in all the right places. A low square collar gave a hint of her cleavage and a broad leather belt hung on her hips, accentuating her narrow waist. She had braided her hair along her temples and behind her ears ending in small ponytails behind each ear. She had a white linen scarf on her head that fell across her shoulders, held in place with a silver headband which sat on her head like a small crown.

"What'cha think?" she asked him. He just stood there, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish, lost for words.

"I, er... You, er... Blimey!" is all he could manage. Rose gave him that special smile, the one with her tongue just poking between her teeth.

'Yep. Still got it' she thought to herself.

"Y'know, me and Shereen used to love dressin' up when we were kids. Never thought I'd still be doin' it as an adult," she giggled.

"R-R-Rose? You know when I had big ears and wore a leather jacket?" he started to ask.

"Yeah?" Rose replied cautiously.

"I was an idiot! I can feel another compliment coming on, a real one this time. Rose Tyler, you look stunning. You really are beautiful."

Rose blushed and looked down at her hands. "Why thank you my lord. Thou art too kind." She looked back up at him, still smiling.

The Doctor snorted a laugh. "Well that's an improvement on your Scottish," he laughed.

He held out his hand for her and together they headed for the door.

The first thing Rose noticed when she stepped out of the TARDIS was the stink! The TARDIS had materialised in one corner of the outer bailey, under a wooden lean-to. It appeared to be a makeshift stable and they were surrounded by sheep, goats and chickens.

Rose hitched up her dress and picked her way past the animals and their droppings, over the straw and onto the flagstones. The Doctor smiled to himself when he saw that she had kept her trainers on, ready to run.

She wrinkled her nose as she looked around and took in the view.

To the left of the TARDIS was the barbican with the main arched passageway, complete with a raised portcullis and a drawbridge over a moat. Each corner of the octagonal castle wall had a round tower with a wooden door at the base which allowed access to the spiral staircase that led to the battlement walkways on top of the walls.

Directly opposite them were the walls of the inner bailey and the passageway to the keep. Through the open doors, Rose could just make out the manicured gardens in front of the great hall. The outer bailey was similar to a small market town with traders setting up stalls and carts, selling a bewildering array of goods.

The Doctor looked at Rose with a raised, questioning eyebrow as she snorted a laugh. "I was just thinking that after one and a half millennia, we still have car-boot sales. And then I thought that they'd be called cart-boot sales." She cracked up at her own play on words.

"Greetings sire. Yonder maiden seems amused this fine morning." A tall, handsome young man was smiling at them. The Doctor suspected from his clothing that he was a knight.

Rose waved her hand in front of her mouth in an attempt to stop the giggles. "Ooh, I'm sorry, I just had a funny thought," Rose said. What came out of her mouth was, "Pray forgive me kind sir. An amusing thought came unbidden to my mind," Rose looked up at the Doctor with an amazed expression. Had she really just spoken like she was in a Shakespearean play?

The Doctor bowed slightly. "Greetings sire. It is indeed a fine morning." The Doctor held out his hand in greeting. "I am Doctor of Tardis, a Lord of Gallifrey, and this is the fair Lady Rose of the estate of Powell in London. We have travelled from... Shrewsbury to visit this fine castle."

The stranger shook the Doctor's hand firmly, and then took Rose's hand and kissed it in a very gallant fashion. Rose blushed slightly at the appreciative gaze of the handsome stranger and felt herself giving a small curtsey.

"My name is Patrice, and a more beautiful rose I have never seen," he said, flashing his brilliant white teeth.

"Sir Patrice?" the Doctor asked. "One of the King's knights?"

"The very same. You have heard of me?" he said with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Who has not heard of King Arthur and his knights of the round table? Trust me, the stories of your courage and deeds will be told for centuries to come." The Doctor grinned and held out his arm for Rose. "Come Rose; let us explore this fine castle. Good day to you Sir Patrice, mayhap our paths shall cross again."

"I look forward to it," he said, winking at Rose and making her blush again.

They walked towards the 'cart-boot' market arm-in-arm.

"Doctor? How come I'm talkin' like I'm in a Shakespeare play?" she asked him.

"It's the TARDIS; she's translating your English into Olde English. Normally you don't hear the words if it's a foreign language, but in this case it's..., Well..., English," he said with a shrug.

"Forsooth!" is definitely not what she said.

They wandered through the stalls examining the goods on offer and chatting to people. On any planet, in any time period, this is what they enjoyed the most, interacting with the locals.

The Doctor had spotted that one of the locals had body language that was 'off'. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he would spot him watching them as they browsed the market.

The morning sun had risen above the outer walls of the castle and the marketplace was now bathed in sunlight. As the air temperature increased, so did the smell from animal and human alike.

"Pheww! It's gettin' a bit ripe around here," Rose said quietly to the Doctor.

He grinned at her. "All part of the experience my dear. You don't get this at the movies, do you?"

"You'd never get anyone in the theatre if it smelled like this," she laughed.

The Doctor spotted the mysterious stranger again. He was leaning against the wall by the doorway to the keep. His arms were crossed and one ankle was crossed in front of the other, in a very 'boy-from-the-Powell-estate' sort of fashion.

The Doctor turned to face Rose with his back to the suspicious stranger. "Casually look past my shoulder," he told her. "See the guy who looks like he should be wearing 'bling' and listening to a ghetto-blaster?"

Rose looked at the stall to her left and saw a polished metal platter. She picked it up to examine it, angling it so that she could see the door of the keep.

"I see him. What's the problem?" she asked.

"Don't know. But he's been watching us, and his body language doesn't quite fit."

Just then, the echoey sound of recorders and lute came from the keep. A troupe of minstrels in brightly coloured clothes entered the courtyard playing a simple melody that Rose couldn't resist tapping her foot to.

They stood and watched the minstrel's parade through the marketplace as people clapped and swayed to the rhythm. The music was suddenly drowned out by a fanfare of horns on the battlements.

"The King!" someone shouted.

"The King has returned!" someone else called out.

The minstrels continued playing and headed to the main gate of the barbican, where they turned around and danced toward the keep. A corridor of bodies formed to await the passage of their King.

The clip-clop of hooves echoed through the entrance tunnel and a large, black horse entered the courtyard. Mounted on the horse was a large, impressive, middle aged man. He exuded charisma and authority. There was no doubt that this man was the King.

He wore a colourful padded gambeson under a ring mail vest. He cradled a helmet under his left arm, holding the reins in his right hand. Behind him followed his retinue of equally impressive knights on horseback.

King Arthur looked left and right, smiling at his citizens, seeing awe and respect on their faces. Except for two.

A tall man with impossibly unruly hair, and a young maiden who hung on his arm with great affection, were positively beaming excitement. His head rotated as he went passed so that he could continue to observe them.

The Doctor leaned down to speak to Rose. "There he is Rose. Arthur Pendragon, King of the Britons. Now tell me he's a myth."

Rose's smile was positively beaming. "This is fantastic. He's really handsome," she said, winking at the Doctor playfully. "Who are the other guys?" she asked him.

"Those are some of his knights. Oh, see the guy with one hand directly behind the King? That's Bedivere, the Kings marshal. So the guy next to him is probably Sir Kay, his best mate. The other three I don't know, I'd need to see their coat-of-arms," he informed her.

"That Bedivere's fit!" Rose said. "I bet Captain Jack would like to be his mate," she mused with a wicked grin.

As the entourage went passed the Doctor spotted the King's sword. "Rose! Look! Hanging from his belt! The King's sword!"

"Is that Excalibur?" she asked in awe. "The magical sword?" She noticed that his enthusiasm had turned to concern.

"Rose, there's no such thing as magic, only misunderstood technology," he whispered, almost to himself. "Do you see the intricate pattern on the scabbard?" he asked. Rose nodded as he continued. "It's Tezzarian, an alien language, which means that sword is off-world technology."

Rose's mouth fell open. "No way!" she exclaimed. "You mean we've landed in the middle of an adventure...? Brilliant!"

In the darkened passageway of the keep entrance, a local man, with odd body language was holding an open book, paying a great deal of attention to the King's sword.