Free The Future King: Logres by M. L. Mackworth-Praed

want you to!’
    He scowled at her. ‘That’s not what I heard.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I said that’s not what I heard .’
    ‘Why would I want to kiss you ?
I don’t even know you.’
    ‘Do you think you’re too good for me? Is that it?’ He cut her off
from the door.
    Gwenhwyfar tugged her wrist away as he grasped for it. ‘No, of course not.’
    ‘I’ll bet you’ll go off and laugh to all your skanky friends about
this, won’t you?’
    ‘What? No .’
    ‘Yes you will, you and Charlotte. This was a real funny joke, wasn’t
it? Real funny.’
    He grabbed at her angrily. She slapped his hands away and hit him in
the face, kicking at him as he forced her down her onto the bed. The moment he had
her pinned he paused, as if he wasn’t sure what to do with her. His vacillation
cost him. A lamp smashed across the back of his head, shattering the hollow
ceramic. Terror paralysed Gwenhwyfar as Hector slumped across her, but then
large hands pulled him off and launched him across the room. For a moment she
thought it was Arthur and was crippled with hysterical relief, but then a
not-so-familiar face appeared, frowning with concern.
    ‘Is she all right?’ Viola joined Gavin, who stood beside the bed. She
still had the broken lamp in one hand.
    ‘I’m not sure,’ the deep voice rumbled. ‘Maybe we should help her up.’
    As the two faces floating above her distorted even more, Gwenhwyfar
realised her face was wet with tears.
    ‘We should call the police,’ Viola muttered, concerned.
    ‘We can’t do that—not with all that alcohol downstairs.
Everyone will get arrested,’ Gavin argued.
    ‘If they were interested in arresting teenagers they would have
crashed the party already,’ Viola disputed, dropping the broken light to the
floor. ‘Besides, there’s that protest on in London tonight. They have bigger
things to worry about.’
    ‘You think they’ll just overlook the booze if we call them?’
    ‘We’ll just have to get rid of it all, then,’ Viola snapped,
coordinating their movements to prop Gwenhwyfar up. She sat down and offered a
supporting arm, into which Gwenhwyfar collapsed gratefully. She began to sob.
    ‘Maybe we should just call her parents?’ Gavin frowned.
    ‘Good idea,’ Viola agreed. ‘Get her phone—it’s on the floor.
And get rid of Hector. I don’t want to look at him.’
    Gavin looked down to the crumpled heap and prodded him with his foot.
Hector groaned. ‘He doesn’t look too good. I think you hit him pretty hard, Vi.’
    ‘Well, then call his parents. Say he passed out or something. Here—’ She took the clutch from
him and placed it in her lap. ‘I’ll deal with her parents. They’ll probably
freak if a guy calls them up. You sort him out.’ She glanced at Hector with an
obvious degree of disgust. ‘And tell Tom to shut this party down. It’s a
disaster.’
    Gavin hoisted Hector off the floor and dragged him out of the room.
Composing herself, Gwenhwyfar pulled away from Viola, her eyes stinging. ‘Don’t
say anything about this to anyone, will you?’
    ‘Gavin said he heard Charlotte tell Hector that you wanted to meet
him here,’ she said, eying her sympathetically.
    ‘Emily told me that Arthur wanted to meet me here,’ Gwenhwyfar cried. ‘I didn’t want to meet Hector. I
never wanted to meet Hector.’
    ‘I know.’ Handing Gwenhwyfar her phone, Viola removed her arm from her
shoulders. ‘Arthur will understand, once he knows. It’s not your fault Hector’s
a drunken lout.’
    ‘You didn’t see the look on his face when he opened the door. He
didn’t even let me explain… practically locked me in with that… that…’ A
strangled burst of tears ended her words. Viola fished some tissues out of
Gwenhwyfar’s clutch, and she took them, shaking.
    ‘It’s all right. Hector’s gone. You could get him into a lot of
trouble for this.’ She offered a strained smile. ‘He’s been asking for it for
ages.’
    ‘Why do you hang around with him