The paramedic shouted back to Merlin as he leaped into the ambulance. 'You must be a Boy Scout, right?'
'Right,' said Merlin.
Gwen started toward the ambulance. 'I want to be with him!' she cried. But Merlin held her back. 'It's going to be busy enough back there without another body to interfere.'
She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Merlin, sobbing piteously on his shoulder. 'Oh, Merlin, I want to be with him!'
Uncertainly, he stroked her back gently. 'You are, Gwen. You are.'
'But you at least had him for one lifetime. I can't lose him after barely a year. I can't.'
He held her close to him and let her cry. A single tear ran down his face as the ambulance roared off, siren screeching.
Directly outside the emergency ward of Lenox Hill Hospital, Arthur Pendragon, Son of Uther, King of the Britons, and mayor-elect of New York City, died.
Chaptre the Twentieth
Gwen DeVere sat out on the stretch of private beach outside the rented cottage. Getting a beachside cottage at this time of year in Avalon had been a snap. Avalon, a small resort community near Atlantic City, didn't get all that many people looking for that sort of accommodation in the dead of winter.
Gwen pulled her heavy sweater around her and looked out at the crashing waves. She exhaled her breath and watched the little puff of white steam hover in the air in front of her.
There was a crunch of a footfall on the sand behind her. She turned, looked up, and smiled.
'Hello, love,' she said. 'Enjoy your nap?'
Arthur sat down next to her and draped an arm around her shoulder. 'Feeling quite refreshed, thank you.'
They sat next to each other, basking in the warmth of each other's presence. Finally Arthur said, 'I'm glad I came back.'
'What, from your nap?'
'No, from the dead. This was certainly worth returning for.'
'Arthur, I wish you'd stop putting it that way.' She sighed. 'I keep telling you, you were only dead for under a minute.'
'Is that all?' He laughed.
'Look, they bring people back from the dead all the time. Your heart stopped and they got it started again.'
'Simple as that.' He shook his head. 'I'll never understand how so many people consider magic too unbelievable, but they accept as commonplace things that I would have once considered inconceivable.'
They stared out at the ocean for a while longer. Then Gwen rested her head on his shoulder.
'I like being married to you,' she said.
'The local news people liked it too.' He laughed. 'Marrying me in my hospital bed. It must have looked delightful on the evening news.'
'It did.'
'You in your wedding dress, me in my gown with the string openings down the back. Very dignified.'
'Look,' she said in all seriousness, 'I let you get away once. 1*11 be damned if I let you get away again.'
She kissed him lightly. He smiled. 'Let's run away,' he said conspiratorially. 'Right after I'm sworn in, I'll make Percy deputy mayor, and then we'll run off.'
'You make it sound so tempting.'
'It's meant to be.'
'You can't. You know we can't. You have a destiny to fulfill.'
'Oh, bugger destiny. You're starting to sound like Merlin.' He lay back on the sand. 'I suppose we'll have to return to it all soon. Merlin. Percy. Ronnie.'
'Chico, Groucho, and Moe-sorry, Harpo-have vanished,' said Gwen. 'The last anyone's heard from them is a postcard of Philadelphia City Hall with a little note saying, 'Wish we were here.* She laughed. 'Maybe they're going to stop being the Marx Brothers and become one large W. C. Fields.'
She curled up next to Arthur as they lay back on the sand. 'I did so many things wrong the first time around, Gwen,' said Arthur after a time. 'I had so many expectations to which no one could live up. I've been given a second chance-hell, a third chance. I desperately don't want to make a muddle of it.'
'You won't,' she said confidently. 'You're Arthur. You're my husband, and you're a good man, and you'll always do what's right. Even if it's wrong.'
'Thank you.' He shivered slightly. 'Getting chilly. Want to go in?'
'We could. There's an old movie on TV 1 always wanted to see. A Bing Crosby film.'
'I don't know the fellow, but I'm game.'
'Good. It's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.'
He stared at her. 'Let's stay out here a while longer.'
'But you said you were getting chilly.'
'Then,' he pulled her close to him, 'we'll just have to find some way to keep warm.'
Somewhere in New York Merlin looked at the TV screen and smiled in spite of himself. 'I suppose I was wrong about her. It is nice to be wrong every once in a while. But not too often.'
He reached over, turned the channel selector. The image of Arthur and Gwen on the beach vanished, to be replaced by another. Merlin settled back with a box of popcorn to watch Bing Crosby.
Oddes and Ends
The description of armor was lifted from a book on armor by Sean Morrison, entitled, unsurprisingly,
The following historic landmarks mentioned in this book really exist-Belvedere Castle, the Cloisters, the Camelot Building on Twenty-eighth Street off Broadway (at this writing the home of-honest to God-the Lady Guinevere Theater), and Arthur's Court, a men's clothing store near Central Park. Tell them I sent you. They don't know me from a hole in the wall and you'll probably get a blank stare, if not embarrassed coughs.
Other people and places mentioned in this book are entirely fictional, except where they're named after real people and places.
Lastly, the election depicted in this book is not at all meant to be representative of an actual mayoral campaign in New York City. Unless, of course, Arthur ran for mayor, in which case it would all turn out exactly as has been laid out here.
About Ye Author
is also known for his work at Marvel Comics, including The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man and Merc. He lives in New York with his wife, two children, and countless stuffed animals.
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