Lancelot then turned on his heel and stomped off into the stone entrance of the castle, not sparing at glance over his shoulder for anyone still standing in the courtyard.
Or more importantly, not sparing a glance for me.
He probably blames me for his king going missing or some chivalrous bullshit like that,I thought to myself as the burly man turned his attention to me with a wide grin. “I always thought when my brother chose to bring home his wife she would look a great deal less… bedraggled.”
I had been racking my brain ever since Lancelot said the man’s name trying to remember where I had heard it before, and as the man swooped me up into a great, spine cracking hug, it finallycame to me. His scent was light, fruity and most definitely that of a beta’s.
Sir Kay was the son of Arthur’s foster father, Sir Ector, and had been raised beside Arthur from a young age—the stories that mentioned things about him were all about how fierce of a warrior he had been and the sharpness of his tongue, but it was incredibly clear that those were way off about who I was likening to a giant teddy bear in my mind.
“And I never thought Arthur’s brother would be so… burly,” I said with a gasp as I gave the man a pat in hopes he would release me.
“Kay, I do not think his majesty would take too kindly to you rubbing your scent all over his omega.” Bedivere’s dry voice came from behind me and I was dropped back to the ground just as suddenly as I had been picked up.
“Ach.” Kay waved a hand through the air as if he was waving off my scent. “Arthur will not care that his beta brother is touching his woman. He is more wise than that. Besides, it is not my brother that I have to worry about—”
“Kay!” a shrill voice cut through the crowd and the gigantic man winced before turning to look over his shoulder with a sheepish smile.
“Andrivete, my beloved!” he crowed, holding his arms open as a thin, willowy woman pushed her way through the crowd and came to a stop in front of him. “I was wondering when you would come down to greet the queen.”
Andrivete was a plain woman with dark features and high cheekbones. But there was one trait that was absolutely striking which were her eyes. As she squinted up at her husband and frowned, I saw that they were such a light color of brown that they almost appeared golden in the late afternoon light. “I was instructing the kitchen on the welcome feast whichyouneglected to do once we saw their party on the horizon and itseems that I came not a moment too soon, Husband, seeing as you were throwing our new queen about as if she was a sack of potatoes.”
“You very much so came not a moment too soon, my love, for I was just about to see how high I could toss her next.” Despite the woman’s clear disapproval, Kay remained jovial as he leaned down to press a sound kiss to the woman’s broad forehead.
Andrivete’s lips briefly turned up into an exasperated smile as she rolled her eyes at the man before turning to me in a flourishing curtsey. “Your majesty, it is an honor to make your acquaintance. I am Lady Andrivete, wife to this oaf here. I will be your head lady-in-waiting and both my husband and I serve as stewards for Castle Camelot.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, trying to mimic her curtsey and failing miserably.
Andrivete eyed the movement but said nothing as she turned to Gawain. “Gawain it is nice to see you have returned in one piece, go on and get the horses to the stable before taking a bath, I am sure you smell of horse and the wilds. Mistress Morris will have a warm meal for you after that.”
Gawain glanced between me and the woman, clearly unsure of who to listen to.
“Go on,” I told him softly, though my inner omega seemed to cry out in protest as the alpha disappeared into the crowd with all three horses in tow.
Andrivete’s steady gaze seemed to catch every miniscule moment of our interaction, her gaze flickering to the crowd and back to me again before she turned to Bedivere who had been standing as a silent sentinel behind me for the entirety of the interaction.
“And who is this, Sir Bedivere?” she asked, nodding to Henry who was peeking out from behind the man’s legs.
“This is a boy we found in the village that had been burned by the Saxons. His name is Henry.” Bedivere gave the boy a small shove forward and I watched as Andrivete’s entire demeanor changed and softened in an instant.
She crouched down in front of him, pulling her skirts up so that they would not be dragged through the damp dirt underfoot and offered him a smile. “Hello, lad, so your name is Henry?”
Henry’s head bobbed up and down as he looked up at me for help.
“He doesn’t talk much,” I told her, reaching out to smooth the little boy’s unruly curls on the top of his head.
“I see,” Andrivete murmured before turning to her husband.
An entire conversation seemed to be exchanged between the two with just one look and Kay just shook his head with exasperation once it was over.
“Wife, you are fortunate I adore you as much as I do,” he said with a wry grin as he held a hand out to Henry. “Come on then, lad. We will fill that belly of yours and scrub the rest of that dirt off of you before you meet your new siblings.”
My eyes widened as I looked between the couple. “Are you going to adopt him? Just like that?”
Andrivete smiled and it added a softness to her features that had not been there before as she pressed a hand to her stomach. “I have, unfortunately, never been blessed with children from my own womb—but we have seven children who came to us under similar circumstances—Henry will fit right in with the bunch.”
Henry’s expression brightened as he slid his smaller hand into Kay’s much larger paw and let the man lead him away, clearly already smitten with the jolly giant.
“Sir Bedivere, you should head in to rest. I will give her majesty a tour of the castle,” Andrivete said to me once the pairhad disappeared completely as she stood up and straightened her skirts.
