Royal Enchantment. Sharon Ashwood

horse back unharmed. It looked valuable.”

      In a rush of fetid air, the barguest vanished to do his bidding. Talvaric finished his wine and dreamed of what he would do next.

      Morgan’s throne was vacant, and someone had to fill it—someone with courage enough to seize the opportunity and brave the consequences. Why not Talvaric? The titled fae might look down their noses at an upstart commoner—but not if he could prove, very publicly, that he was the most powerful of their number.

      Talvaric would succeed where Morgan had failed, and destroy the fae’s greatest enemy, Arthur of Camelot. And, he would do it in a way no one could ignore.

      * * *

      “See?” Clary turned her cell phone toward Gwen. “Wedding dresses look like cakes. Wedding cakes look like dresses. There’s a kind of weird symmetry involving layers and fluff.”

      They’d been talking forever, still sitting in the coffee shop. They were becoming fast friends in a matter of hours, and Gwen was thoroughly enjoying the process. “So when will Sir Gawain and your sister wed?”

      “When she’s done planning, which could be never.” Clary shrugged. “Tamsin wants what she wants, and Gawain lets her have her way.”

      “That hardly sounds like the same man,” Gwen said, shaking her head. “The knight I knew was gruff, to say the least.”

      “That hasn’t changed. If he was a dog, they’d say he was unsuitable for adoption.”

      “Except for Tamsin?”

      “Yeah.” Clary sounded unimpressed. “Meanwhile, it’s all wedding, all the time. Plus, she’s a historian, which means a medieval wedding has to be accurate to the period.”

      “Why?” Gwen wondered. “What’s the point of that?”

      “It’s a thing historians do. So what was a real medieval wedding like, anyway?”

      “Mine was—it was not at all what I had expected for myself.” Gwen had switched to tea and held the cup in her hands, warming her fingers. She hadn’t been cold until a moment ago, but memory changed everything.

      * * *

      Gwen recalled standing at the window with her nurse, looking out on the summer-green hills. Below, the sound of saws and hammers broke the morning peace. Growing bored, she leaned on the wide stone sill, her chin in her hands. “What are they making?” she asked.

      “A great wooden table, I’m told.” Nurse smoothed Gwen’s hair. She was a plump, homely woman who had been with Gwen since infancy. She’d fed and bathed her as a baby and been a mother when the lady of the castle died and Gwen had just turned eight. “The table will be your dowry.”

      “A table?” Gwen said with disgust. “That’s a silly thing for a dowry.”

      “A special round table,” Nurse said, “so all the knights who sit there will be equals. It will be grand, large enough to seat all of your Arthur’s mightiest warriors, and he has many and more champions, let me tell you. It will fill the whole of his feast hall.”

      “That’s a stupid idea,” said Gwen with all the certainty of her sixteen years. “I’ll go down in history as the queen with the silly table.”

      “You mustn’t call your father’s gift stupid, chickling. Men don’t like that.”

      “It’s my dowry, and it’s a poor design if it’s going to fill up a whole banquet hall. They should build the table like a ring. If they did it in sections, the servants could serve the food from inside the circle. It will take less wood that way.”

      “What a clever girl you are,” Nurse said, but she sounded sad. “Don’t tell your father.”

      Gwen didn’t understand why, but the wisdom of her nurse’s advice became clear once she went ahead and shared her idea with King Leodegranz. Her father saw the advantages of her design at once, and the round table was built her way. Gwen was delighted until he told everyone the innovation was his own. The world of men had no place for young girls with ideas.

      By the time she married Arthur, the table had been finished and delivered to Camelot and Guinevere had turned seventeen. The wedding itself was a dream—or a nightmare. Camelot was far larger than her father’s lands, the castle grander and filled with strangers. Gwen was expected to be a fine lady, fit to rule at her new husband’s side. She felt like an utter fraud.

      It was easy to stand tall and proud during the wedding and the feast afterward. Her gown was so stiff with gold embroidery it might have stood on its own. Her handsome new husband was all merriment, drinking and dancing with everyone. He danced with her of course, but only a few times. Gwen knew that was proper, that the host had to make sure everyone had a little bit of his attention, but she selfishly wanted more. She hardly knew anyone there, after all.

      That was when she first met the Mercian prince, who told her she was a beautiful bride and saw to it that her wine cup was filled and filled again. For a lonely young country girl, that kind of attention was balm to her nerves. She hadn’t yet learned to smell betrayal.

      If only Arthur had known how naive she was—but he’d been a king since he’d pulled that sword from a stone as a child. He’d won wars, conquered tyrants and had an enchanter at his beck and call. She was good with chickens.

      At the end of the long feast, he’d taken her to his bed. Nurse had told her—or tried to tell her—what would happen. Gwen had all but died of embarrassment and covered her ears. But in that moment, after her ladies had put her in her nightgown and brushed out her hair so that it lay like a shining cape almost to her knees, she wished she’d let Nurse speak. Gwen shook like an aspen leaf.

      When he came to the queen’s bedchamber, Arthur wore only his shirt. One would have thought removing his fine clothes and crown would have made him seem smaller, but the opposite was true. She could see the deep chest and the hard muscles of a swordsman’s arms.

      “Don’t be frightened,” he said, leading her to sit on the edge of the bed. “I’ll make this as pleasant as I can.”

      Gwen bit her lips, stifling a nervous giggle.

      “What?” he asked with a frown.

      “Nurse says that before giving me medicine. She at least gives me a spoonful of honey to wash it down.”

      Arthur’s expression went strangely blank. “You don’t believe in sparing a man’s pride, do you?”

      “I’m sure you have enough to spare.” She regretted her tartness almost at once, but she couldn’t help herself. Her claws came out when she was afraid.

      Arthur paced a few steps to the door and back again. Was he nervous? That was utterly impossible, of course, because he was the mighty King Arthur. He finally came and knelt before her. “I will give you sweetness,” he said.

      She had a good idea of what he meant. Despite her father’s watchful eye, she’d kissed one or two of the younger knights at the last Yuletide feast, and at least one squire had sworn undying love. But the look in her husband’s eyes had nothing to do with a youngster’s flirtations. He was a man of five and twenty.

      I will give you sweetness. With effort, she marshaled her thoughts and formed a word. “How?”

      He held her hands, just that, and leaned forward, brushing her lips with his. “A little at a time,” he said, and then did it again.

      * * *

      Gwen raised her eyes from her cup, meeting Clary’s. “My wedding didn’t start well, but in the end it was a very fine event.”

       Chapter 6

      As the last knight left Camelot’s council about the dragon—Sir Gawain with the last slice of pizza in one hand—Arthur