Free The Adventures of Sir Gawain the True by Gerald Morris Page A

keep it?"
    "Oh," the damsel said. "Well ... if you wish. But I want to thank you somehow. Perhaps it would be enough if I gave you a kiss on the cheek, just to—"
    "I say!" interrupted Sir Gawain. "You don't think that just because I saved your life we're, you know,
in love
or something, do you?"
    "What?"
    "Because a lot of girls might think that, but really I would have saved any damsel. It didn't have to be you. Besides, I'm not looking for a lady of my own right now."
    "A lady
of your own?
" gasped the damsel. "I never said—"

    "Nothing personal, of course," Sir Gawain said hurriedly. "I'm sure you'll make a very nice lady for someone someday. It's just that I'm not in the market for romance at the moment."
    "Of all the ... All I wanted to do was show you my gratitude!"
    Suddenly remembering King Arthur's lectures on courtesy, Sir Gawain bowed and said, "You're very welcome," then turned his horse and rode away. He was already thinking about how he would tell the tale of his great victory once he got back to the Round Table.
    The story was a success. Sir Gawain held the court spellbound as he recounted his defeat of the horrible dragon, even during the duller bits when he described his lancemanship. But when he told about his conversation with the damsel after the battle, King Arthur sat up.
    "Do you mean to say, Gawain," the king asked, "that the lady tried to give you a token of thanks and you refused it?"
    "Well, yes."
    "So then she asked if she could give you one kiss on the cheek, and you turned that down as well?"
    "I didn't want her to get the wrong idea, you see."
    "And I gather that you told her your name but never asked for hers?"
    Sir Gawain blinked. The king was right. He had no idea who the lady was.
    "And then," King Arthur concluded, "you rode away, leaving her alone, on foot, in the forest?"
    For a moment, Sir Gawain was silent. "I didn't think about that," he admitted, frowning. "That wasn't ... wasn't my best choice, was it?"
    King Arthur shook his head.
    "I
did
say 'You're welcome,'" Sir Gawain said. "'Very welcome,' I think."
    King Arthur covered his eyes with his hands. Sometimes in those early days he wondered what it would take to prove to his knights that courtesy was as important as courage.

Chapter 2
The Green Knight

    Several months after Sir Gawain the Undefeated overcame the dragon, the knight faced a new and very different sort of challenge. It happened at King Arthur's Christmas feast.
    Now, there may be some who think they've been to Christmas feasts, but the truth is that unless they've been to one of King Arthur's feasts, they really don't know what they're talking about. Never before or since have there been grander yuletide banquets. King Arthur's feasts lasted for seven days—from Christmas right up to New Year's—and every evening was more magnificent than the evening before. There were so many luscious foods at his feasts that it would be cruel to describe them. King Arthur's cooks were like kitchen magicians. It is said that Brussels sprouts prepared by King Arthur's chefs tasted better than custard pies prepared by anyone else.
    Their recipe for Brussels sprouts has, alas, been lost.
    But the feast was more than just the food. Every evening there was a different entertainment for the court, each astounding in its own way. One night, the lightest and most agile acrobats ever seen flipped themselves and tossed each other about the banquet hall with uncanny ease. Another evening, a French musician sang ballads of romance, and so touching was his performance that everyone at court fell in love with someone for as long as the music lasted. (Don't worry; they all got better afterward.) There were side-splittingly funny jesters and grippingly suspenseful storytellers, and on the last night of the feast there performed a famous juggler named Launfal the Light-fingered who was so deft that he could juggle five sleeping cats without waking even one.
    It was during Launfal's