Free THE CURSE OF EXCALIBUR: a gripping Arthurian fantasy (THE MORGAN TRILOGY Book 2) by Lavinia Collins

it,” Uriens said, crossing his arms in front of him.
    And all of the other men I have had, I have enjoyed , I thought. I did not say it. I did not want him to hit me or call me a whore again. I drew myself back, against the door.
    “I hate you,” I said, very softly. Uriens shrugged.
    “How you feel is of no importance in the matter,” he answered.
     
    I ran back up to Morgawse’s room and locked the door. I lay on the bed and closed my eyes. The room seemed oddly quiet without the little burbling of the infant Mordred, but I was grateful for the peace. Uriens did not come looking for me, or if he did, he could not find me. No one tried the door until Morgawse came back from the chapel. When she rattled the handle and found it did not move, she knew it was me, and called out for me to let her in. I opened the door to see that she had all her sons with her, and the whole lot of them rushed into the room. They were all dressed alike in Lothian’s dark blue, and on the surcoats of Gawain and Aggravain were sewn Lot’s two-headed gryphon in gold thread. Morgawse herself was gorgeous as usual in a dress of dark orange embroidered in lovely patterns with gold that shone like her red-gold hair, and she had a necklace of amber beads around her neck, resting against her pale breasts where they swelled at the neck of her dress. She put Mordred tenderly in his crib and, placing a kiss on his head, came over to take me by the hand. There was a slightly sad look in her eyes as she squeezed my hand.
    “Arthur has a wife now,” she said.
    I nodded. I supposed that he was the only man who had treated her kindly, at least for a time.
    “Is she beautiful?” I asked, idly.
    Morgawse shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. She’s covered in jewels. Mother’s old jewels. He must have sent them to her.”
    “I think she is quite beautiful,” Gaheris, who was just coming of an age where he might notice such things, said. “Her hair is very lovely. Red.”
    “You didn’t see it.” Gawain beside him groaned, clearly overcome at the memory of his sight of the Queen. “When we met her at Dover, she had it loose. She looked like a savage, like a barbarian, but I couldn’t stop staring at that hair . There is so much of it. I wanted to just grab a handful and –”
    Morgawse gave a little scolding cough, and Gawain gave her a sharp look, but he did change his tack.
    “Well, she is a fitting Queen for Arthur, who is the finest King this land will ever know,” Gawain said.
    It seemed a strange statement for a seventeen year old boy to make, but no one disagreed with him. I was not sure I agreed, but then I could not think of any kings I knew of who I thought had been particularly fine. From the sound of it, they were all brutes.
    Aggravain made a low, derisive noise. “It’s a mistake for a king to have a wife that other men covet. But she is not so beautiful. She looks somewhat ordinary to me.”
    “Aggravain, you did not see her hair ,” Gawain insisted.
    It seemed as though no one but Gawain was sure of quite what to make of her.
    They milled around me, getting ready for the feast. Morgawse took Gareth and Mordred off to the bedroom that Gareth and Gaheris slept in, and I heard her instructing Gareth to watch his little brother carefully while she and the eldest three were gone. I had heard that Gaheris had just pledged into Arthur’s knights as well. Morgawse was running low on sons to keep her company now that she was a widow in Lothian Castle.
    When Morgawse returned, she checked the clothing of her three eldest sons and kissed them all on the cheek. We were ready to go. Even though Gawain and Aggravain towered over her, she still treated them like boys. Morgawse would never tell anyone who was the older of Gawain and Aggravain. She had told me that she feared the younger one would feel cheated of his birthright, and by refusing to tell she had made it so the twins shared Lothian Castle and its armies between them. I followed