The Future King: Logres Read Online Free PDF Page A

dinner
lady who stood old and thin with an impatient frown. A moment passed, and the
crowd swallowed them. Emily pulled out a crisp note to pay for her meagre
lunch.
    ‘Well, I always knew he was a little strange,’ she concluded, batting
away the change she was given for her morsel. ‘Are you sure you like him? He’s
a bit… off.’
    ‘I never said I liked him.’
Gwenhwyfar’s face still burned. ‘I just think he’s good-looking, that’s all.’
    ‘ Oh . I see .’
    Something told Gwenhwyfar that she really didn’t.
    ‘We probably should have asked to sit with them. Did you see Bedivere?
He was practically gawping at me. Gross .’
    Thinking that was a little bit unfair, Gwenhwyfar nodded in
agreement. ‘He can’t help it—he is a man, after all.’
    Emily giggled at this, and took her place at her usual spot in the
canteen. The rain had started to drizzle again, and Charlotte was nowhere to be
seen. ‘So is Arthur, you know. If you want him, Gwen, it won’t be hard to get
him.’
    A gusty breath bellowed through the trees past the windowpanes,
turning the spittle to hard rain. ‘Who says I do?’

 
    * * *

 
    ‘Hello cariad, how was school?’
    Overshadowed by the lean figure of her father, Gwenhwyfar glanced up
from her favourite lifestyle magazine. Her homework sat abandoned on her desk. ‘Fine.’
    ‘Only fine?’ He perched next to her. A city of unopened boxes towered
around the bed.
    ‘I suppose it wasn’t too bad.’ Gwenhwyfar turned the page. ‘I met a
few nice girls. Most were horrible.’
    She heard the frown in his voice. ‘Horrible?’
    ‘Yep! Or vile , as they
would say.’ A small smile relieved her of further explanation. ‘Can’t we go
home yet?’
    ‘We are home. Besides, Llewellyn’s already claimed a spot in the
kitchen. We can’t move the poor beast now.’
    ‘But where are we going to walk him? You know he prefers the
country.’
    ‘There’s a few parks we can try. Honestly Gwen, he’ll love it. Your
mother and I did do our research before we moved. Is your new school really
that terrible? I’ll bet you that my day was worse.’
    ‘No, not terrible,’ she sighed. ‘Just… different.’ She glanced up to him,
and saw the deep creases in his brow. ‘It was fine really. I mean it’s just
like my old school. I have homework and everything.’ When he smiled, she did
too. ‘So how was your day?’
    ‘Terrible!’ he expelled, slapping his suited knees with a clap. ‘I
was late. A police officer stopped me.’
    Gwenhwyfar sat up. ‘You got stopped by the police? Why?’
    ‘Apparently one of my brake lights was out.’
    ‘Was that it?’
    ‘Yes, but he decided to do a full search anyway. He said that they
were doing spot checks on vehicles, something about warning levels being
critical, but when are they not?’
    ‘That’s stupid,’ she scowled.
    ‘It was very unnerving. It was almost like he was looking for something
to prosecute me for. The longer he searched the more I began to think about
what he might find. Which of course is ridiculous, because all I had in the car
were work things. In the end I was a full forty minutes late. Not a good
impression to make on your first day.’
    ‘Did your boss understand?’
    ‘Just. Well, he can’t fire me for it; I’ve only just started. I’ve agreed
to work overtime.’
    Gwenhwyfar felt her heart lower with disappointment. There was a call
from downstairs, a voice straining to be heard in the large townhouse that
twisted several floors up.
    ‘Ah yes! Supper’s ready. I was supposed to ask you to lay the table.
Better hurry.’ He stood and stretched, groaning with discomfort as his thin
bones crunched in his neck. ‘Dere mlân.’ Come
on .
    Supper passed with the three of them sitting disjointedly at the
over-sized mahogany table. The rain had long since lessened, and now that night
was upon them the windows gazed out into darkness.
    ‘Oh, I forgot to mention!’ her mother exclaimed, beans