King Arthur Returns (Book #1 of the King Arthur Returns Trilogy)

Chapter Twenty-One

    I said my goodbyes to Morgayne and Nancy the morning of my flight.

    'She looks ready to go into labor any second.' I had confessed to Nancy. Ready to go into labor with a babe I wouldn't see born. I would be home - in Malvern, Melbourne not Rosemary Cottage, Cornwall - long before her estimated due date. I pushed the thought aside, I was torn up enough about saying goodbye to it's mother without missing the non-existent child as well. 'What if we're stuck in traffic when the baby decides to come?' I added, aiming for my usual tone. Nancy assured me that Morgayne looked perfectly healthy and still had a ways to grow. The ladies did agree to say their farewells first on the promise that Branok film some planes for Morgayne to watch. I didn't want them Googling it because so many would be the disasters and crashes. So far it didn't really feel like goodbye, I could still feel Morgayne's mind as I heaved my overstuffed suitcase into the Jeep. Tristram was chauffeuring me to the airport, Branok navigating, then Arthur would drive the boys back. 

    Without me. 

    For the ride up I shared the backseat with Arthur, leaning against his shoulder we watched Cornwall speed past our window. Gripping his hand I could feel a shivering in my chest. Nerves, maybe? But I was normally an alright flyer.

    So what was this feeling, watching my knuckles whiten where they rested between Arthur's I realised what it was. I didn't want to let them go. If I wasn't around them, the living proof that all of this had happened, then it would just be a draft of a story I'd written. It would be like it hadn't really happened at all, just something I'd made up in my own head. That scared me. That the most amazing months of my life might not have been. That this wasn't real. I didn't know how to phrase it yet, to the guys, so I automatically reached out to Morgayne and found...

     ...nothing.

    My compliments to Tristram's driving that he didn't swerve the car when I cried out from behind him. Arthur might not have known exactly what I'd been thinking, but he'd known there was some emotional turmoil - after all, it was his hand I was attempting to pulverise - even he was taken aback at my outburst.

    'I can't feel her. Morgayne, she's just gone!' Branok was then turning in his seat to thunder questions at me.

    'When did ye last sense her? Gone can nawt mean dead! The doctor said all were as it ought be with the babe.'

    I still had my UK SIM in my phone, so I dialled Nancy.

    'Everyone sush!' By everyone I meant Branok.

    'Ela, have ye forgotten something?'

    'Is Morgayne there? Is she alright?'

    'She's here. And mostly fine, just having a bit of a cry. I think it's finally hit her, that yer leaving.'

    'Can you put her on, please?'

    'Aye.' Nancy must have turned the phone to her shoulder because I heard her, but muffled, call out to Morgayne. 'She's here now.'

    'Morgayne? Tap your nail on the phone once for yes, twice for no.' There was a tap. 'Are you alright?' Another strong tap.

    'Well maid, is she safe? The child is nawt causing her undue distress?' Branok was glaring at me from the front passenger seat. For the man of few words he was suddenly the most vocal. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. I could also see Tristram's eyes in the rearview mirror.

    'She's alright.' I told the men.

    'And she must remain so, she's nawt to have any strife now, nawt fer the rest of her life if I've any say.'