Cursing under my breath I yanked it up around my shoulders.
Despite my embarrassment, I couldn’t help but quip: “Have you never seen a woman’s body before, your highness?”
The platitude rolled off of my lips sarcastically and despite the barbs in it, I watched as his lips twitched upwards almost uncontrollably before falling back into a frown. “I can assure you that I am no stranger to the view of a naked woman, but you are a princess and a maiden. Most would consider me uncouth if I gazed upon your body before marriage.”
“I’m no maiden,” I told him before I could stop myself. Was that something I was supposed to tell him? The gods hadn’t stopped me, so I assumed it was fine, but there was no telling what an alpha like him would say to the fact that I wasn’t a virgin anymore.
“Do women in your time not retain their chastity until marriage?” Arthur asked, sounding more curious than anything as he slowly moved to stand by me.
He was still dressed in the same clothes as earlier, though the grand cape he’d worn over his shoulders was gone now and so was the burnished gold crown from his head. It made him seem more human to see his golden-red hair curling messily over his brow.
“Do all men in your time lose theirs before marriage?” I countered his question with one of my own.
This time Arthur’s lips actually pulled up into a smile.
“Not all, but some,” he admitted sheepishly and he turned to look at the painting in front of me.
“My mom,” I told him, gesturing to it.
“Your mother that was made by Merlin’s magic, you mean. I met Queen Adelaide just once before I was crowned king. She was a beautiful woman, though I suppose she must also be a false memory to me now,” he told me airily, as if the woman in the painting shouldn’t mean anything to me because I had been placed in this time by the gods.
“No,” I shook my head aggressively and pointed at her again. “That is my mom. From my time.”
Arthur blinked with surprise, his blue eyes narrowing at the new information. “Are you certain?”
I nodded. “I would recognize her anywhere.”
“What happened to the mother in your future, then? Is she there waiting for you to return?” he asked softly after a few moments of silence, his voice gentler than I had ever heard it.
My chest squeezed as I shook my head no again. “No, she died there too.”
“I am sorry for your loss,” Arthur murmured. “I also lost both of my own mothers as well.”
I knew that. I knew Arthur’s entire story—nearly every iteration of it anyway—not that I could tell him that without being choked out by the powers that be.
But Arthur was moving on now as he turned to me fully. “I am sorry about my behavior earlier, my lady. It is not like me to argue with anyone and I let my emotions get the better of me.”
I gaped at him, shocked that he had been the first to apologize or even apologize at all. “Are kings allowed to apologize?” I asked incredulously.
Arthur huffed a dry laugh. “They do when they are in the wrong, my lady.”
“Gwen,” I corrected. “I don’t like the‘my lady’stuff.”
One golden-red brow rose. “Then you will really not like the‘your highness’ stuff.”
He mimicked the word as if he was committing it to memory.
I gaped at him. “You mean you’re actually going to go through with it? The wedding, I mean?”
“Weare going to go through the wedding, my queen. It does not bode well to disobey the gods. I have never done so before and I will not start now.”
“But we barely know each other!” I managed to stutter out, clasping the duvet around my shoulders more tightly. “We need to get to know each other first!”
“Do omegas in your time not have arranged marriage anymore, Gwen?” he asked, using the nickname I’d given him though it sounded odd coming from his mouth.
“Well, they do…” I trailed off. “But it doesn’t happen often.”
“We can get to know each other after our marriage. Leodegrance seems to wish to hold it before we head back to Camelot in a few days and I am keen to return home as soon as possible as my people shall be readying for their first harvest by now.”
