Part 41: link


    “Good morning, Paulette, darling,” Arthur greets the receptionist, leaning his elbows on her counter.
    “Mr. Pendragon,” she greets him coolly. “You have an appointment with Mr. Gaius.”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “Wait here,” she sighs, “I’m supposed to call him and he’ll come down.”
    “Well, he may want to rethink that, Sugar Plum,” Arthur says, thoroughly enjoying needling the stuffy receptionist. “Tell him I have his painting.” He then walks casually to the elevator with the painting and Gwen’s camera bag and presses the up button as she lifts the phone, scowling.
    The doors open and Arthur strolls into Gaius’ lobby on the fourth floor.
    “Mr. Pendragon?” Gaius’ new receptionist says, trying to contain her surprise at his appearance.
    “Yes, that’s me,” he says, then, glancing at her name plate, “Jennifer.”
    “Um, I’ll just tell Mr. Gaius that you’re here,” she says nervously, pressing the button on the intercom.
    “Yes?” the old man’s voice emerges from the speaker.
    “Mr. Pendragon is here, sir.”
    “Very good. Send him in.”
    “Thanks,” Arthur says, lifting the painting and striding behind the डेस्क to the door, shifting the camera bag as he goes.
    Bloody hell, Gwen is lucky. He is really hot, Jennifer thinks, suppressing the urge to turn around to get the back view.
    Several मिनटों later, the two men emerge, laughing companionably.
    “Jennifer, I’ll be giving Drag here a tour. Unless the building is on fire, take a message.”
    “Yes, sir,” she says, watching as they walk to the elevator. Yep. Very lucky, she thinks, finally able to check out the rear.
    They emerge back in the main lobby moments later, and Gaius motions to a rather empty दीवार on one side.
    “I want something here,” is all he says. “What goes there is up to you, my boy.”
    “Oh. Um, thanks. I appreciate your trust in me, sir.”
    “Your work built that, आप know. I was very impressed at the show.”
    “Thank you. I was actually thinking I might try something related to the industry, आप know? That’s why I brought this camera,” he motions to his bag. “In case I saw something that struck me.”
    “And that’s why आप wanted a tour,” Gaius nods.
    “Yes.”
    “Well. Come on, then,” Gaius waves with his cane and heads through a door leading to a white hallway. Then he pushes through a heavy grey door leading to a noisy factory floor.
    “So this is our printing facility,” Gaius says, shouting over the sounds of the machinery.
    “Cool,” Arthur says, marveling at the large machines. He watches as reams of paper whiz by, first blank, then printed, then stacking in an amazingly tidy stack at the end.
    “You’ll like this,” Gaius says, leading him over to a large machine that looks like a big metal table. “Watch.”
    Arthur watches, taking care to stay behind the yellow line on the floor, as a large, neat stack of paper slides into place, stopping against a brace. Then a man presses a button and a huge blade descends, slicing cleanly through the stack, cutting it into two halves.
    “Wicked,” Arthur says.
    “It’s a guillotine, basically,” Gaius chuckles, leading him on to where some finished पुस्तकें are actually emerging from the end.
    “Softcover of Marcus Ryan’s last book,” he says, making a face. “The hardcover पुस्तकें are bound elsewhere; we don’t have the room,” he explains. “That’s where your friend Merlin’s book will be in about a month.”
    “This is really cool,” Arthur says, watching, eyes always searching for something that will speak to him, artistically.
    “But nothing worth painting,” Gaius says, eyeing Arthur’s camera bag pointedly.
    “Yeah, nothing’s struck me yet, sorry.”
    “Hmm. Well, let’s go this way, then. I have an idea,” Gaius heads out a back door, leading to an obviously little-used hallway.
    “You’re not leading me off to murder me, are you?” Arthur asks, grinning.
    “Yes, of course. I have a stiletto hidden inside my cane.”
    “Thought so.”
    “Gaius reaches another door and fishes a small key ring out of his pocket. He unlocks the door and flips a switch.
    The room is dusty, a storage room. A graveyard for obsolete machinery.
    “This way,” Gaius leads Arthur back to a large mass covered द्वारा a drop cloth. “Help me with this, please.”
    Arthur sets his bag down and reaches up to pull the cloth. Beneath it is an antique printing press, metal and wood, roughly the size of a small car.
    “Whoa,” Arthur says, reaching for Guinevere’s Polaroid now. “This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.”
    He snaps several shots from several angles, even trying to open a high window to improve the light.
    Gaius watches while Arthur wanders the storeroom, lifting other cloths and poking around.
    “Hello…” he says, sort of to himself, when he pulls open a drawer to find it full of brass letter plates, still shiny and golden colored, in a pile. He takes shots from several angles before closing the drawer.
    A few और snaps here and there, and he decides he’s done. “Okay. I’ve got several options now.”
    “Very good. Shall we go up and see Gwen, then? She has something आप might like to see,” Gaius says.
    She always has something I might like to see, Arthur thinks, snickering slightly but turning it into a cough, hoping that Gaius doesn’t catch his own unintentional innuendo.
    The old man turns back to Arthur and raises an amused eyebrow, and they both start laughing.
    “Gwen?” Gaius taps on her door several मिनटों later.
    “Mr. Gaius, hello,” she says, standing.
    “How many times do I have to tell आप that आप may call me Will, dear?” Gaius asks, chuckling. “Someone to see you,” he steps in and Arthur appears behind him in the doorway.
    “Hi,” he says, smiling and waving.
    “Hi, yourself,” she answers, smiling back at him.
    “Do आप have it?” Gaius asks, chuckling at their shyness in his presence.
    “Yes,” she turns around and produces a large piece of paper. “Arthur, take a look.”
    Arthur steps over to see the draft of Merlin’s cover, his griffin reproduced perfectly in the center, surrounded द्वारा a celestial background in blues and purples, flecked with silver.
    “Wow…” he says, leaning in closer. “That turned out really good.”
    “I know. Merlin flipped when he saw it,” Gwen says. “And look,” she points to a line on the inside flap which reads Cover art द्वारा Drag.
    “Oh,” he says, but he doesn’t sound pleased.
    “Something wrong? Would आप prefer your proper name? I only used Drag because that’s what आप used for the show, and…”
    “No, no, it’s not that. I… I just don’t want any credit.”
    “What?” Gaius asks.
    Gwen smiles.
    “Merlin is my best friend. Has been my whole life. I did this as a favor to him. For him, not for me.”
    Gwen takes out her red pen and draws a line, striking the credit from the book jacket.
    “There. Gone.”
    Arthur leans over and kisses her cheek. “Thank you, love.”
    “You can explain it to Merlin,” she says, smirking at him and poking his chest.

    “Hi, Morgana? This is Gwen,” Gwen places a call on her lunch, hoping she won’t get in trouble for calling Glasgow from the work line.
    “Gwen, what a lovely surprise!” Morgana exclaims. “What can I do for you?”
    “Actually, I have a सवाल about Uther,” she says, biting her lip.
    “Oh?”
    Gwen gives her a quick summary of what’s been happening, and what her plan is.
    “He doesn’t work Wednesday afternoons,” Morgana tells her. “He used to take the time to play golf, but now is back doesn’t allow for it. So he generally stays घर and reads.”
    “Oh? What does he read?” Gwen asks, always curious about this topic.
    Morgana laughs now. “He will kill me if I tell you.”
    “Now I have to know.”
    “Trashy romance novels, mostly.”
    “Oh.” Gwen is dumbfounded.

    “I should get my motorcycle fixed. आप know, now that I’ve got a bit of money,” Arthur says absentmindedly, snuggling in बिस्तर with Gwen that night, bathed in the eerie glow of the recently-moved television.
    “You should sell it and get yourself a bloody car,” Gwen laughs. “If आप think I’m driving your arse to your studio this winter before I go to work…”
    “Hey!” Arthur protests, poking her in the ribs where she is ticklish. “Anyway, I was planning on dropping you off so that I can go to my studio at my leisure.”
    “Oh, at your leisure? Do I need to call Annis and let her know your plans?” she looks impishly up at him.
    “Don’t आप dare!”
    “We’ll talk about it closer to winter. I don’t even want to think about winter right now,” Gwen says, tucking her head back into his shoulder.
    “I want आप to come over and see the triptych. It’s really going to be interesting.”
    “Interesting?”
    “Yeah. I’ve narrowed the panels so the तस्वीरें are और concentrated. Annis picked some unexpected sketches for me to use, so I’m actually increasing the focus, taking the unusual and amplifying it.”
    Gwen looks up at him, smiling, enjoying listening to him talk about his work. He’s so passionate about it.
    “Which sketches did she choose?”
    “Well the center one is your face, but I’ve narrowed it to just be this region here,” he traces a rectangle on her face containing one eye, her cheek, a tiny bit of her nose, and the corner of her mouth.
    “The सेकंड is your ankle, and the third, your shoulder.”
    “My ankle?”
    “It’s really turning out lovely, honest.” He kisses her forehead.
    “I’ll have to come see it.”
    “You don’t believe me?” he asks.
    “Oh, I believe you, I just have to see it.”
    “That’s what I was trying to accomplish!” he laughs.
    Gwen laughs. “Oh, yeah.” She lifts her face to his, चुंबन him softly.
    “Mmm,” he hums contentedly, deepening the kiss, his tongue sliding against hers languidly, wrapping his arms around her.
    They get momentarily लॉस्ट in each other, their hands traveling while they explore each other’s mouths.
    “Unfair,” he mutters against her lips. “Kissing me like that on this week.”
    “Sorry,” she giggles.
    “Well, आप could…” he ventures.
    She leans up on one elbow, a sly look on her face. “Convince me,” she challenges. He’s not getting something for nothing, here.
    Arthur growls and lunges, claiming her lips with his again, his hand cupping her cheek, leaning over her, pushing her back down onto the pillows.
    His tongue delves into her mouth, massaging hers, battling hers, as the hand at her face slides to her breast, squeezing, kneading through the thin cotton of her nightie.
    He breaks away for air and moves to her neck, tracing down to her collarbone with his tongue, back up to nibble at the sensitive skin on the side of her neck.
    “Arthur,” Gwen says softly, “the telly…”
    “What about it?” he says, his lips never losing contact with her neck.
    “Turn it off… it’s distracting.”
    “Huh? Oh…” he gets up, flips it off, and is back over her in about two seconds.
    Gwen giggles at him as he slides the strap of her nightie off her shoulder, chasing it with his lips.
    “I प्यार your skin,” he mumbles, ghosting his lips across the surface, in from her shoulder towards a breast he is attempting to free.
    “I प्यार your lips… and hands… on my skin,” she whispers, her hand reaching for him, squeezing his member through his shorts.
    He groans as she massages his shaft and takes her breast into his mouth now that he’s managed to expose it.
    Gwen sighs as he slides his tongue against her nipple, then runs his teeth lightly across it. She tightens her grip on him, stroking still through the slippery nylon of his shorts. He groans again and she feels it as a hum against her skin.
    Smiling contentedly, Gwen pushes on his shoulders, moving over him. Arthur releases her breast with a slight pop, and Gwen giggles at the sound as she moves down, pulling the blankets back. She slides Arthur’s shorts down and off, and she presses her palm against his shaft, rolling it slightly against him.
    Gwen looks up and sees Arthur lying on his back, his arms up behind his head, looking rather smug.
    “If you’re going to be like that, I’m going to stop,” she threatens, lifting her hand. He lowers his hands and tries to peel the smile from his face. या at least rearrange it so he doesn’t look like King of the Bed.
    She chuckles then and slides down, taking him in her mouth now, holding with one hand while she slips his length in and out.
    Her nightie shifted higher when she slid down and Arthur’s hand finds her thigh, pulling her lower half closer to him. He reaches up and gives her backside a squeeze before sliding back down her leg, ending with grasping her foot.
    “Guinevere,” he whispers hoarsely as she works her mouth and tongue against him, around him, driving any thought from his brain apart from her.
    She feels his hand on her foot, his fingers rubbing her toes before wrapping around it and pulling it to his mouth.
    “Mmm,” he hums, चुंबन her arch, working his way to her toes.
    Gwen’s hand drifts lower, kneading his balls lightly while she runs her tongue up the length of him, nibbling carefully. Then she plunges his shaft back into her mouth as deep as she can and he releases her toes to cry out, a short grunt.
    He slides his tongue around her toes; she sucks tightly, drawing him in, making him weak.
    “God… oh…” he is groaning, his voice strained, and Gwen takes him all the way in one last time just before he comes, surging into her, pressing his face against the sole of her foot. Gwen swallows reflexively, then releases him gently. She kisses his stomach, his chest, his neck as she works her way back up to him.
    “Wow,” he says once she kisses his lips. “That was… wow. I’m glad आप were able to be persuaded.”
    “Yeah, well, now आप owe me,” she teases, चुंबन his nose.
    “You say that like आप think it would be a hardship for me,” he laughs, squeezing her.

    Biting her lip nervously, Gwen presses the doorbell. She waits, clutching her umbrella.
    The door opens and an older gentleman in a charcoal suit with silver hair and a goatee greets her.
    “Yes, may I help you?” he asks, his face betraying none of his thoughts.
    “Um, hello. I don’t have an appointment या anything, but I was wondering if I might have a word with Mr. Pendragon.”
    “Name?”
    “Guinevere. Tell him I’m from Galerie Etienne.”
    The butler steps aside to allow her in out of the rain, deftly taking her umbrella from her hands as she enters and closing it before setting it in an umbrella stand द्वारा the door.
    “Wait here, please, miss.”
    “Sir,” Joseph finds Uther in his study, facing the large windows, watching the rain.
    “Who is at the door, Joseph?”
    “A young lady from the gallery where Mister Arthur’s दिखाना was held, sir. Says her name is—”
    “Guinevere?” he says, turning.
    “Yes, sir. She says she would like to speak with you. Has a large parcel with her.”
    “Show her to the sitting room. I will be out momentarily,” Uther says, turning back to the windows.
    “Yes, sir.”
    Gwen waits, looking around, taking everything in. No personal photos. No sign of any family at all, she notes. Not even a picture of Morgana. It’s like a museum. All for looking, nothing for touching.
    “Sorry to have kept आप waiting,” Uther’s voice startles her slightly and she turns.
    “Not at all,” she says smiling. “Um, I never got to formally introduce myself at the show. I’m Gwen,” she offers her hand.
    “Gwen,” he says, eyebrows rising. “Not Guinevere?”
    “Most people just call me Gwen, sir.”
    “You are Arthur’s girlfriend,” he says, cutting to the chase.
    “Um, yes,” she says, nervously tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “I… I have something I’d like to दिखाना you, sir, if आप please.”
    Uther looks down at the item she’s brought, wrapped in a large black trash bag against the rain. She bends and opens the bag, then withdraws the paintings, setting them on a side table.
    “Arthur painted these. He kept them out of the show.”
    “Hmm,” Uther says noncommittally.
    “I thought आप deserved to see them.”
    “And what did आप hope to accomplish द्वारा दिखा रहा है me these?” he says, his voice just slightly edged with frost.
    “I’m not sure, to be honest. I… thought आप should see them, and I didn’t know if Arthur would ever do it, so…”
    “So आप took matters into your own hands.”
    “I guess so.”
    “This really isn’t your business, Gwen,” he says. Gwen cannot help notice that he is doing nothing but stare at the paintings, however, and his cold words don’t sting as much as he wants them to.
    “Begging your pardon, sir, but I believe it is my business,” she says, and he finally looks at her. “I प्यार your son. I want nothing for him but happiness.”
    “He seemed pretty content to me.”
    “He puts up a good front. I imagine he gets that from you,” she says carefully. “But deep inside, the rift between आप still hurts him. Your treatment of him, your… disregard for his talent, hurts him. और than he will admit.”
    “My treatment of him?” he asks now, and Gwen can sense his temper rising.
    “Yes,” she holds her ground. I am not backing down now. I stuck the stick in the beehive, now it’s time to deal with the bees. “Disowning him because he didn’t want to be the अगला Uther Pendragon. Very fatherly.”
    “How dare you!” He wheels on her now. “How dare आप come into my house and criticize me, berate me for things about which आप know very little!”
    Gwen lifts her chin, not backing down. “No, how dare you, Mr. Pendragon. How dare आप cast aside your only son like a stranger just because his God-given talents were not in line with your precious wishes! How dare आप damage a human life, a human life that you helped create, over something so…” she searches for the right word, “trivial!”
    “Trivial? Pendragon Financial, the entire Pendragon empire, trivial?”
    “Only things, Mr. Pendragon,” she says sadly, lowering her voice now. “Things have little value.”
    “Hippie talk,” he snorts derisively.
    She squares her shoulders. “So what you’re saying is that your wealth and power is और important than your own child.”
    He says nothing, so she continues.
    “What of family, sir? What will happen if Arthur and I marry and have children? Would आप turn your back on your grandchildren? Would आप deny them their grandfather? Excuse me, but that is the kind of legacy with which आप should be concerned,” she says, lifting the paintings down from the तालिका, टेबल now and placing them back in the bag.
    “I came here to दिखाना आप these paintings,” Gwen says, “because I thought they might touch you. Might reach आप in some way, दिखाना आप the depth inside your son that आप likely haven’t seen. I guess I was wrong. Thank आप for your time, and I’m sorry for disturbing you.” She lifts the paintings and starts walking from the room.
    “Guinevere,” he says, and she stops. “I know आप probably hate me…”
    “I don’t hate you, sir,” she says, turning slightly. “I pity you. I pity you, alone in this gigantic house. You’ve written your own sentence, Mr. Pendragon.”
    “I know,” he says, almost inaudible.
    She turns fully back to him now. “But आप have not written it in stone,” she says, smiling sadly at him. “Have a good evening,” she finishes, and turns to leave. Joseph hands her her umbrella and she jogs to her car, carefully setting the painting in while she gets wet.
    “She yelled at you, sir,” Joseph observes, his face completely neutral.
    “She did.”
    “She will be a very good wife to Mister Arthur.”

    Gwen drives back to the studio, realizing halfway there that she has been crying most of the way.
    “Stupid man,” she mutters. “Stupid, pigheaded, arrogant man.” They are meant to be insults, but they come out और as laments. I meant it when I कहा I pitied him. I really do. He’s so lonely and he doesn’t even realize it.
    She parks, and sees Arthur’s motorcycle. “Shit.” Oh well, he’s going to want to know anyway.
    Gwen wipes her face, checking it in the rear view mirror first. “Hopeless,” she declares, and steps out into the drizzly remnants of the rain.
    “Guinevere, what are you… what’s wrong?” Arthur asks, setting his brush down and crossing the room to her.
    “Nothing. Not really, anyway.”
    “What have आप got there?”
    She opens the bag and lifts the paintings out, carrying them back to the closet.
    “Oh.” He knows now where she’s been and why she’s upset. “Was he awful to you?” he asks, ready to speed back over to his father’s mansion if this is the case. “If he was, so help me, I’ll…”
    “He wasn’t awful, Arthur. I brought the paintings because I thought he deserved to see them,” she starts.
    “I know exactly why आप brought the paintings, Sweet,” he smiles, pulling her down on the सोफ़ा, सोफे with him.
    “He raised his voice once, but it was actually me that did most of the yelling,” she admits, laughing a little now.
    “You?” Arthur asks, chuckling a little now, too. “I would have loved to have seen that.”
    “Basically, what it comes down to is that he’s a very stubborn, very sad man who may be doomed to a life of loneliness if he doesn’t get his shit together.”
    “Did आप tell him that?”
    “Not quite that succinctly, but those are were my main points, yes.”
    “He didn’t throw आप out या anything?”
    “No. I kind of… stomped out on my own.”
    Arthur laughs now.
    “Well, it started that way, until he started making sense.”
    “Really?”
    “I think he knows he screwed up, Arthur. He just didn’t take very kindly to an almost-complete stranger marching into his house and telling him as much.”
    “Sounds like him,” he says, pulling her back against him. “Aren’t आप supposed to be working?”
    “Took the afternoon to go harass your dad.”
    “Oh yeah, Wednesday afternoon.”
    “You know about that?”
    “Oh yeah, he’s done that for years,” he says. “I’m sorry he was kind of a prat to you, Guinevere,” he adds, wrapping his arms around her now.
    “It’s all right. I knew was I was walking into. And thank आप for not saying ‘I told आप so.’”
    “I was just about to, actually,” he says softly in her ear.
    “Oh!” she leans आगे and smacks his arm.
    “Come here,” he draws her back down to him, turning her face towards his for a kiss.
    “Can I see your painting?” she asks.
    “Oh! Yes, definitely.” He takes her hand and leads her to the easel. It’s completely sketched in, and he’s got the ankle about half-painted.
    “Arthur, this is fabulous,” she says, again having to suppress the urge to touch the painting.
    “Thank you, I’m glad आप like it,” he says. He spots something, picks up his layout pencil, and makes a few marks on the center panel, adjusting the corner of Gwen’s lips just slightly. “Better,” he declares.
    If आप say so, she thinks, not seeing much difference. “I didn’t know my ankle could look so good,” she says, laughing.

Part 43: link