Forget This Love

Chapter 3

"Is there a problem?" Morgana asked, startled by Gwaine's contorted look of loathing.

"No."

"You seem to have taken badly to who i am."

"Not in the slightest. I am only concerned about those you spend your life amongst."

"And by that you mean...?"

"My family fell apart many years ago, when i was young. Forced me into a life of travelling, homelessness and loneliness." Gwaine replied, hurt in his watery dark eyes, pain creased across his handsome face."Uther owes me more than you could imagine."

"How much does he owe you?"

"Not much; just two lives and a half." he shrugged casually. Morgana sucked in her breath.

"The king is not a bad man..."

"You haven't had to face what peasants and villagers have had to struggle with all their lives, myself included."

"What did he do?"

"It's not about what he did, it's about what he didn't do. My father was once a knight. He served loyally under Uther's reign but he died fighting for Camelot. My mother, my brother and sisters and I, we were left to starve without money for bread, for water. She died soon after he did. The king never helped, never bothered to think about this brave knight who had fought for him and he left my shattered family to toil through lives of hardship and pain. My brother, i know not if he is dead or alive, my sisters only infants when i left home, surely they are gone from this earth. And all through my family's death and devastation, Uther turned a blind eye on the suffering family of a man who had served him so well. Not once did he allow us the money to feed ourselves, to clothe the children. He betrayed my father, my family, myself." Morgana became aware that she was listening to a heart-breaking account of death and hardship from a man she hardly knew but her heart seemed to melt as she stared up into his innocent eyes torn with love and hatred and cold sadness swept through her.

"I'm sure it wasn't on purpose or with harmful intention that Uther turned a blind eye." she said,"He is not a bad man. There are many kings far worse than he."

Gwaine looked on as if her words were swirls of mist floating off into the cool air, blind to the comfort she wished to offer. "They are all the same. Tyrants, brutes, traitors, royalty and I just don't mix." he laughed a melancholy laugh,"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Morgana, perhaps i may see you again, perhaps not but I will remember your face, your words."

With that, he turned and began to walk away.

"Gwaine!" Morgana found herself calling after him.

He turned and stopped as she rushed up to him.

"Here, take this." she selected a flask of wine from her basket and a paper-wrapped smoked fish. She smiled and placed them in his worn brown hands. Looking both shocked but grateful, the handsome traveller stared at the goods and shook his head.

"I couldn't possibly take that salmon. Expensive stuff that is, I'd know. Haven't tasted one in years. You keep it."

"Fine but take the wine." she said, as he fiddled with the paper on the fish. Handing the package back to Morgana, Gwaine smiled a casual lop-sided grin and clutched the flask tight.

"Thank you."

Morgana smiled and they departed.

Sitting at her french-gartered windows looking out onto the courtyard from her chamber, Morgana sat as Gwen stood behind her, brushing her lady's long glossy black hair.