“Father wants to meet him,” he said impatiently. “We are going to be late.”
As Thor stood there, he wanted to speak to her, to tell her how beautiful she was, how happy he was to meet her, how grateful he was that she had stopped. But his tongue was completely tied. He had never been this nervous in his life. So, instead, all that came out was:
“Thank you.”
Gwen giggled, laughing harder.
“Thank you for what?” she asked. Her eyes lit up. Clearly, she was enjoying this.
Thor felt himself redden again.
“Um…I don’t know,” he mumbled.
Gwen laughed harder, and Thor felt humiliated. Reece elbowed him, prodded him on, and the two continued to walk. After a few steps, Thor checked back over his shoulder. Gwen still stood there, staring back at him.
Thor felt his heart pounding. He wanted to talk to her, to find out everything about her. He was so embarrassed for his loss of words. But he had never been exposed to girls, really, in his small village—and certainly never exposed to a girl so beautiful. He had never been taught exactly what to say, how to act.
“She talks a lot,” Reece said, as they continued, approaching the king. “Never mind her.”
“What is her name?” Thor asked.
Reece gave him a funny look. “She just told you!” he said with a laugh.
“I’m sorry…I…uh…I forgot,” Thor said, embarrassed.
“Gwendolyn. But everyone calls her Gwen.”
Gwendolyn. Thor turned her name over and over in his head. Gwendolyn. Gwen. He did not want to let it go. He wanted it to linger in his consciousness. He wondered if he would have a chance to see her again. He guessed probably not, being a commoner. The thought hurt him.
The crowd grew quiet as Thor looked up and realized they were now close to the King. King MacGil sat on his throne, dressed in his royal purple mantle, wearing his crown, and looked imposing.
Reece kneeled before him, and the crowd quieted. Thor followed. A silence blanketed the room.
The king cleared his throat, a deep, hearty noise. As he spoke, his voice boomed throughout the room.
“Thorgrin of the Lowlands of the Southern Province of the Western Kingdom,” he began. “Do you realize that today you interfered with the King’s royal joust?”
Thor felt his throat go dry. He hardly knew how to respond; it was not a good way to begin. He wondered if he was going to be punished.
“I am sorry, my liege,” he finally said. “I didn’t mean to.”
MacGil leaned forward and raised one eyebrow.
“You didn’t mean to? Are you saying you didn’t mean to save Erec’s life?”
Thor was flustered. He realized he was just making it worse.
“No my liege. I did mean to—”
“So then you admit you did mean to interfere?”
Thor felt his heart pounding. What could he say?
“I am sorry, my liege. I guess I just…wanted to help.”
“Wanted to help?” MacGil boomed, then leaned back and roared with laughter.
“You wanted to help! Erec! Our greatest and most famed knight!”
The room erupted with laughter, and Thor felt his face redden, one too many times for one day. Could he do nothing right here?
“Stand and come closer boy,” MacGil ordered.
Thor looked up in surprise to see the king smiling down, studying him, as he stood and approached.
“I spot nobility in your face. You are not a common boy. No, not common at all….”
MacGil cleared his throat.
“Erec is our most loved knight. What you have done today is a great thing. A great thing for us all. As a reward, from this day, I take you in as part of my family, with all the same respects and honors due to any of my sons.”
The King leaned back and boomed: “Let it be known!”
There came a huge cheer and stomping of feet throughout the room.
Thor looked around, flustered, hardly able to process all that was happening to him. Part of the king’s family. It was beyond his wildest dreams. All he had wanted was to be accepted, to be given a spot in the Legion. Now, this. He was so overwhelmed with gratitude, with joy, he hardly knew what to do.
Before he could respond, suddenly the room broke into song and dance and feast, people celebrating all around him. It was mayhem. He looked up at the king, saw the love in his eyes, the adoration and acceptance, and hardly knew what he had done to deserve it. He had never felt the love of a father figure in his life. And now here he was, loved not just by a man, but by the King no less. Overnight, his world had changed. He only prayed that all of this was real.
*
Gwendolyn hurried through the crowd, pushing her way, wanting to catch site of the boy before he was ushered out of the royal court. Thor. Her heart beat faster at the thought of him, and she could not stop turning his name over in her head. She had been unable to stop thinking about him from the moment she had encountered him. He was younger than her, but not by more than a year or two— and besides, he had an air about him that made him seem older, more mature than the others, more profound. From the moment she had seen him, she had felt she had known him. She smiled to herself as she remembered meeting him, how flustered he was. She could see in his eyes that he felt the same way about her.
Of course, she did not even know the boy. But she had witnessed what he had done on the jousting lane, had seen what a liking her younger brother had taken to him. She had watched him ever since, sensing there was something special about him, something different than the others. When she met him, it had only confirmed it. He was different than all these royal types, different than all the people born and bred here. There was something refreshingly genuine about him. He was an outsider. A commoner. But oddly, with a royal bearing. It was as if he were too proud for what he was.
Gwen shoved her way to the upper balcony’s edge, and looked down: below was spread out the royal court, and she caught a last glimpse of the boy as he was ushered out, her brother, Reece, by his side. They were surely heading to the barracks, to train with the other boys. She felt a pang of regret, already wondering, scheming, how she could arrange to see him again.
Gwen had to know more about him. She had to find out. For that, she would have to speak to the one woman who knew everything about anyone and everything going on in the kingdom: her mother.
Gwen turned and cut her way back through the crowd, twisting through the back corridors of the castle she knew by heart. Her head spun. It had been a dizzying day. First, the morning’s meeting with her father, his shocking news that he wanted her to rule his kingdom. She was completely caught off guard, had never expected it in a million years. She still could hardly process it now. How could she ever possibly rule a kingdom? She pushed the thought from her mind, hoping that day would never come. After all, her father was healthy and strong, and more than anything, all she wanted was for him to live. To be here, with her. To be happy.