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Gwaine had convinced himself now that he had no interest in charming this woman. She wasn’t worth the time or the effort, and she wasn’t really doing much for the reputation of noblewomen at all. In Gwaine’s opinion, she was actually quite rude. Usually he was at least given the time of day by half of these women, they liked to flatter themselves, and think all his words were tailor made for them. Gwaine had no problem with feeding their ego’s, but Isabel didn’t even deserve that. If he cared, then he might have been bothered, but he knew she would never care about the way she was, so he wouldn’t. This woman had never known hardship, he could tell that much, and he was probably the closest that she would ever get to speaking with one below her rank, without giving an order out. It made Gwaine feel incredibly annoyed; he knew he was a noble by birth, but that wasn’t the point.

Her answer didn’t surprise him in the slightest, it was a line he had heard so many times from women, trying to pretend they were so unique and different. Well, a less seasoned man would be impressed; Gwaine however, was not. “Try me.” Was all he said; if this woman thought she was so impressive then it would be bad manners not to at least elaborate on the little story she was probably concocting in her head. Usually Gwaine wasn’t this cynical, or quick to see the faults in others, but he was in an unusually bad mood with this woman already. Perhaps that was what she had wanted, to dampen his mood. It was no matter, after her, he would find some tavern wench after this and forget all about Isabel, and her smug grin.

He raised an eyebrow at her and managed a little chuckle. She certainly was bold, and proud, so it would appear. Gwaine couldn’t blame her, she was a noblewoman, so pride would have been taught to her in the crib. It was a trait that Gwaine was familiar with, and he knew he could be a proud man when the situation demanded it, but his time as a nomad had taught him to tone down those obviously noble traits, and adopt a more carefree outlook on life. “I will my Lady.” He said, offering her his arm with a grin; interested to see whether she would actually take it or not, “And while we walk, perhaps you could recommend a good tavern for me to get an ale and a room; the journey has been quite a long one after all.”

Gwaine really needed to get this woman’s name out of her. Though he didn’t mind just giving women nicknames while charming them, he wasn’t doing this to get the woman into bed. He was just charming her so he could get one up on Griff. Though, if the woman did decided to bend to his temptations, he was sure Griff would understand if there was a quick end to their evening. He grinned a little at the thought and looked over the woman. He was sure he knew her from somewhere, but he couldn’t remember where. Gwaine was never one to put too much thought into these things, so he took another sip from his ale, and looked over the woman once more. She was a pretty little thing, but this wasn’t getting him anywhere, and there was no way that he was going back to Griff with his tail between his legs. Gwaine knew he was the better charmer by far; his friend had gone soft from charming the same woman all the time. He just thought he was better than he was.

“So are you going to tell me your name, or do I have to keep giving you nicknames all evening?” He asked, reaching out to take her hand again. She pulled it away, and Gwaine cocked his head to the side, “Have I offended you?” She smirked but shook her head,

“No, I’ve just heard it all before.” She took a sip of her wine, and tucked some hair behind her ear,

“From your beloved fiancée no doubt?” He asked, and now the woman really was smirking,

“Him, and a few before.” She shrugged and drained her wine,

“Let me get you another drink.” He offered, but the woman looked a little put out,

“I should be getting home, my Uncle will worry.” She was teasing him, Gwaine could see that, but something about what she had said struck him for a moment, and he hoped he was horribly wrong,

“That’s the first time I’ve heard a woman be worried about the opinion of her Uncle, rather than the father.” He said, partly to draw information out of the woman,

“I stopped caring about the opinion of my father when I came to Camelot.” She said, smirking but Gwaine had stopped smirking and he was actually starting to put two and two together, but before he could say anything Griff had appeared again. He looked up from Gwaine and back to the woman,

“Your-?” He broke off and just wanted to not be here in the slightest. However, the first emotion he felt wasn’t embarrassment, it was irritation, “You set me up!” He complained, and then looked at the red haired woman who was just looking bewildered at the pair. Griff had obviously just been jealous of his charming abilities and had set him up with his fiancée to stop him in his tracks. “You owe me a drink.” Gwaine finally settled on, “For cheating.” He then looked back to Caitrin as Griff snapped at her, “If you’re going to be angry direct it at him; I had nothing to do with this.”

Gwaine, it would appear, had been completely barking up the wrong tree when he had decided to try and woo this woman. When she began to speak of her fiancée, he could see that spark in her eyes. Gwaine had visited many places and he had met many people along the way, and so he recognised when someone was truly in love, or in lust as some put it. Gwaine supposed it was sweet in some ways, but he was glad to have not been afflicted with this particular ailment. He was content to continue as he always had done; with a woman on each arm and each carrying ales a-plenty between them. It was how he liked his life, and he was still young. There was time enough to fall in love, and give up his womanising ways. For the present though, Gwaine was happy with his life as it was. “I can see that my Lady.” He commented lightly, as only a fool would miss that she was completely smitten with her man.

He was quite taken aback that Isolde was as bold as she was, and yet settled down. It was not something you often came across in women who were engaged. Usually woman with as sharp a tongue as his were unmarried, tavern wenches, “A shame my Lady, but how can you know which you prefer until you have tried a sample of each?” He challenged her, it was not so much trying to flirt with her now to get a specific result, but instead he wanted to test her wit.

Gwaine was equally impressed with the amount of wares that she and her fiancée sold. Perhaps he would have to take a while out of his day to visit said stall. Gwaine would eventually have to pay for a new cloak, so if they had some cloth he could haggle for then he would gladly do business with them. “I shall visit your wares some time.” Gwaine said as he took in another swig of ale. He shrugged at her lack of surprise at how he got his ales. Gwaine wouldn’t remember the last time he had paid for a round, and he earned most of his money through gambling anyway.

The fiancée was now coming their way. Gwaine had mostly bad experiences with the husbands or lovers of women he had been trying to charm. They never liked him that much, and he couldn’t say he blamed them either. Gwaine held his hand out for this Tristan to shake, “It’s good to meet you Tristan, may I say, you have robbed Albion of a beautiful young woman.” He grinned, hoping the jest was not going to result in a punch. That had been known to happen. “There is a chair right next to your fiancée, would you not prefer to sit there?”

Gwaine almost felt nervous for a moment, and a rush of adrenaline ran though him. He was just listening incredibly carefully to see who stepped out on the balcony. After all, Gwaine had enough experience of fathers to know that they didn’t like men who had particular intentions towards their daughters. Gwaine knew that Iwan wasn’t capable of such forward thoughts just yet, but sneaking around in the middle of the night and calling on women hardly said ‘respectable prospective son-in-law’ really. That was probably why Gwaine had never got on with any of his ladies families before, oh well, that was all in the past anyway. Gwaine held his breath as the window opened and he looked across as Iwan, as he would know who had stepped out before Gwaine would. He found himself relax slightly as Iwan called out the ladies name; they were back on track at least. The feeling that he hadn’t wasted an evening of his life was quickly replaced by cringing, as Iwan bowed to the lady in question. “You don’t need to bow!” He hissed at his fellow knight. The whole point of this was to be spontaneous and a little bit daring. Bowing and conventional name calling hardly proved that point. Well, so long as you ignored the fact they were here in the middle of the night.

Well, at least this couldn’t now get any worse. Gwaine was already thinking of ways to salvage the situation, whilst also gaining as much amusement from it as he could. He was going to help, yes, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy himself along the way. Iwan had often commented on Gwaine’s womanising ways and it was always with disapproval, but now it was him who was helping Iwan win the woman or as so to speak. He’d better appreciate this. Running his hands through his hair, he flinched as the woman spoke back. Well, she didn’t sound too annoyed so they still had something to work with. There was no point in trying to charm a woman who was annoyed; that much Gwaine knew from experience. “Tell her how beautiful she looks, give her a compliment Say you couldn’t stop thinking of her.” Gwaine was rambling, but he couldn’t really say much to Iwan without wanting to crease up laughing. This was just too perfect, how had he ever convinced Iwan that this would be a good idea? He would probably live to regret this though, and Gwaine would probably end up facing some tough opposition at the next training session. However, he kind of had an investment in this, if Iwan lightened up then it made working with him a lot easier, rather than him just being disapproved of and suchlike. It was never appreciated and sometimes wore thin. Right, so Iwan did need to get this Lady Roslyn on side. How hard could this be, really? Maybe they should have done this differently, Iwan hardly looked like a gallant knight trying to find a spot of light in the middle of the dark. Perhaps they should have done it during the day, and he could have rode up on horseback professing his love or something as equally stupid and romantic. Unable to resist the urge any longer, Gwane snorted, but put a hand over his mouth straight away to mask the sound, praying that Roslyn hadn’t heard him.

Gwaine had never really given much thought to marriage either really, but for completely different reasons to the ones that Iwan was giving him. Gwaine could never imagine settling for one woman, he had friends who had done just that, but he couldn’t see himself in such a situation. He had seen the highs and lows of such a relationship, funnily enough from the same friend. He still felt guilty about the fact he had told Griff to forget about his fiancée and move on with his life, but he had made the right choice in the end. Funnily enough he hadn’t been asked for his advice since then, but he could see his friend was happy enough, though he was loathe to admit that Griff had been a cad before he had met his lady. Well, the point still stood. Gwaine couldn’t ever see himself simply falling in love, it just seemed to simple, and yet so complicated. He felt a little sorry for Iwan, which was a new feeling. He was sure that there must be some woman who would have him. Camelot was quite a varied place. He frowned at Iwan, still feeling quite sorry for him. “That’s not fair. You can’t have asked all of them yet.” He cocked a grin at his fellow knight, there were a few ladies Gwaine could already think of that would swoon at the idea of Iwan’s favour. Perhaps Gwaine could push a few of them in Iwan’s direction, but of course that would rely on the man in question as well. There was no point in Gwaine sending women to him if Iwan was just going to reject them.

Pushing his hand though his hair, Gwaine looked back at his friend, not really knowing what to say. He could deal with threats to his ego because he was used to them. This was something different though. This was a man telling them that he didn’t feel like women wanted him in a way. Gwaine hadn’t really had this before, so he just felt slightly uncomfortable for a few moments. Another side of his mind was already working out women that he could throw in Iwan’s direction at the next feast. A pity Griff’s wife was already taken, he was sure she could work her charms on the man. As Gwaine had found out the hard way, the woman was incredibly charming. Griff hadn’t been too pleased about that day, but Gwaine still stuck to the argument he had used on the day; that Griff shouldn’t have set up the situation in the first place. “You’ll find a woman, I’ll get you one at the next feast.” He clapped Iwan on the back with a grin, “One who likes rules just as much as you do.” That probably wasn’t possible, but there had to be some shy woman in Camelot who would respond properly to Iwan’s...charm.

Lists? Gwaine just looked at his friend, this was even weirder than the man not having a natural interest in women. Iwan was just getting worse and worse. Gwaine could not really ever recall having made a list, he probably wouldn’t have stuck to it even if he had created one. It wasn’t something that he had ever really put any thought into; he just did things. As for organisation, anyone who saw Gwaine’s chambers would know that he was anything but organised. “Don’t you have more interesting things to do with your time?” Gwaine asked him seriously, “Like drinking, training,” He paused for dramatic effect, “Womanising?” Well they had already established that the latter one didn’t interest Iwan, but there were other things that the man should be doing rather than making lists and organising his chambers. He really did need to live a little.

To say they didn’t share the same priorities was defiantly an understatement. Gwaine just cocked his head at his friend and looked him up and down. He wasn’t quite sure why he was arguing so much. It was clear that Iwan didn’t approve of Gwaine’s lifestyle, but at least he knew how to live, unlike his fellow knight. There was a lot Iwan was missing out on, probably unknowingly as well. “Perhaps you should, you might even learn how to live a little.” Gwaine pointed out and just smirked at his friend. This wasn’t really getting the job done, but he was enjoying himself all the same.

So women had actually charmed Iwan before? Gwaine was almost impressed, “Who was it?” He asked with a grin, “Anyone I’d know?” With any luck it would be, so Gwaine could get an idea of the calibre of women that he was used to. After all, Gwaine now had it in his head that he wanted to set him up with a woman of some sort, “Meet back here in say, fifteen minutes?” Gwaine asked before not really giving Iwan time to answer as he went off in search of the nearest prettiest face. Iwan’s constant glaring at him was starting to get a bit boring. In truth it didn’t take him long to work his charms on the local women and he quickly had the description of the so called monster which had been plaguing their town. From what he could tell it sounded like a wildering, or something similar. Fabulous. He caught up with Iwan with ease, but not before winking to a few of the fair maidens he had passed, “Any luck?” He asked his friend, before quickly adding, “The women here are quite beautiful after all.”

Gwaine was surprised to hear that Isolde was a nomad as well. Female nomads weren’t something you often came across; male ones were much more frequent. Then again, she was travelling with her betrothed so he supposed that it was also quite reasonable at the same time. If she had told him that she was travelling alone then he would have been torn between being concerned and impressed. “I’m sorry to hear that.” He commented lightly, not really wanting to dwell on the issues of parents for very often. Gwaine hardly let his thoughts return to Caerleon, because he didn’t want to look back. He’d made his choice, and he was living his life how it had been meant to be lived. “At least you have someone to share your travels with. You’d need that travelling about Mercia.” The Mercians were blessed with uncommon tempers and a strong army, which never worked well together.

Heh, she had a bit of a bite to her, and Gwaine quite like that. Of course he now wasn’t going to go any further than gentle flirtations, but he shrugged all the same. “Betrothed is not married.” It was a fact, not an opinion. She was right, there were many women in the room, but they were mostly the same, and Gwaine was tired of flirting with girls who were mere reflections of the one he had been flirting with the night previous, “I have a soft spot for blondes.” He teased with a grin, “And you are quite unique in that, in this tavern at least.” Gesturing around, the rest of the girls were either black, brown or red of hair; a fact Gwaine had took particular note of.

If they had a home then how could they be nomads? Gwaine could point that out, but he supposed they might move on quite a lot, which would no doubt be her defence, “What do you sell?” He asked curiously, if it was anything beyond arms and wine he suspected they would have little trade from him. Not that he had much money anyway. “I don’t pay as such, you’d be surprised how many barmaids like to give out free samples.”

Gwaine wasn’t sure how much of this he actually wanted to watch. He was confident in his opinion that he wasn’t going to be learning anything tonight. Griff might think he had it all, but he only had to worry about flirting with one woman now, and she was going to marry him eventually so how hard could it be to win her over? Taking a sip of his drink, Gwaine watched his friend as he began to converse with the woman. Hmm, hopefully she wouldn’t speak any English, now that would amuse Gwaine no end. It looked like his suspicions were correct, he couldn’t hear another voice joining the murmurs in the tavern; was the woman speaking at all? Gwaine raised his eye brows, surprised Griff kept it up as long as he did. Gwaine just stayed watching, he had to concede that the woman looked happy enough, and Griff hadn’t gotten himself beaten up by a jealous husband or fiancée just yet so it all looked to be going quite well; how annoying. Gwaine had hoped that the woman would just walk off, or call for help or just anything to show that he was right, and that Griff wasn’t as good a flirt as he was.

As Griff regained him, he took in another swig of his drink before bracing himself for what was going to come next. There was no way that Griff was better than him, he hadn’t even got a small peck from the woman, or anything. True, he had a fiancée to think about, but Gwaine had no such boundaries, so he would be putting all his efforts into his challenge to prove he had the better skills. Gwaine smirked at Griff, “On what? I didn’t need any tips, I’m skilled enough without your help.” He told his friend before taking another sip of his ale. Gwaine knew how good he was, he didn’t need Griff to feed his ego in that respect as well. He followed his friends view, to the red haired woman who had been smiling a few moments ago. He thought for a moment Griff was having him on, but no, he was serious. Gwaine stood up and took his ale with him, “This won’t take long.” He said rather confidently and walked towards the woman in question.

She certainly was a pretty little thing, and Gwaine had seen her about Camelot a few times. “May I sit here my Lady? A woman of your beauty should not have to drink in silence.” That didn’t really work, but Gwaine was just going to roll with it. The woman looked quite surprised and seemed to be looking him up and down which meant his ego was just increasing in size by the moment. The woman sat back in her seat, and held up a hand,

“Before you take a seat, I warn you that my fiancée can be quite a jealous man.” She held up her hand to show off her ring, but Gwaine couldn’t tell whether she was joking or not so he shrugged,

“Is he here tonight my Lady?” She shook her head so Gwaine took the seat opposite her, “Then I fail to see the problem.” He took her hand, and before she could protest he placed a small kiss above where her finger lay, “For now, I wish only to please you.” The woman wasn’t blushing which put him out a little, but he released her hand and grinned at her, resisting the urge to look quite smugly back at Griff.

Elyan drinking to his words probably wasn’t advisable in any sense. His friend had already had too much to drink, and now Gwaine just had to focus on getting his friend back up to his chambers before further damage could be caused. He had sort of caused this, so he could at least make sure Elyan got back to his chambers in a half decent state; he couldn’t just leave him after all could he? “Probably best off leaving the drinking for another night.” He pointed out with a wicked grin, he wasn’t letting Elyan near anymore ale in his condition, right now all his friend needed was his bed. He found it hard to keep a straight face as Elyan began to query about the drink fairy. Oh, Gwaine would have to use this one more often as it was too perfect. Gwaine luckily wasn’t that drunk that he couldn’t enjoy his friends confusion and anguish. In fact, he was just making it worse. He looked seriously at his friend, realising there was more fun to be had with this, “Well it is quite a rare thing, so I’m not quite sure...” Again, he amazed himself at the fact he was actually able to keep a straight face. Apparently Gwaine was as good when half cut as he was when he was sober.

No one would ever be able to convince Gwaine that his style of a night out wasn’t the best kind. After all, his adrenaline only ever ran this high when they were in a battle, so it was nice to have the same rush when his life wasn’t in danger. Well, it wouldn’t have been in danger if Elyan hadn’t been involved, as now Gwaine was convinced that half of Camelot. He just grinned at Elyan as he gave a humble sort of nod at his friends words. Well, Gwaine had had fun, despite the fact he was going to have a black eye tomorrow and a hangover to nurse. He kept Elyan upright, which was a task and a half, and they were getting looks from the knights on guard, who all seemed to look puzzled until they saw Gwaine. Clearly, his reputation proceeded him. “Come on, we won’t take too long to get to your chambers.”

Well of course that was going to be Griff’s line of defence wasn’t it? True, Gwaine hadn’t asked any woman to marry him, but that was mainly because he had no interest in a wife just yet. He’d never been in the position to have one before now, he’d hardly had a stable lifestyle before becoming a knight of Camelot. He had rather liked the solitary lifestyle before now anyway, “How do you know I don’t have a wife waiting for me in each of the five kingdoms?” He asked confidently, chuckling into his ale, because it was completely possible that Gwaine had been married before. After all, what woman could ever resist him? In some ways, Gwaine was warming to the idea of a wife, his friend didn’t seem to loved up, and he had a woman to warm his bed every night, or he would do once he was married. The latter was incredibly appealing to Gwaine, but she would have to be a very special woman to tempt him night after night.

Hmm, now Gwaine could do one of two things here. He could argue that Griff was wrong, and that any woman in this tavern was just as good as his Lady, or he could just nod, and let it slide. Naturally Griff would think that no one could beat the woman who would soon be his wife, after all, if he thought that there was another woman who could compare then he wouldn’t be marrying her would he? Gwaine could see that such an argument wouldn’t go well for either of them, after all, he wouldn’t agree until he saw the woman in question, but even then he probably wouldn’t agree to the extent that Griff did. “You sound quite sure of that.” Gwaine teased softly, taking yet another sip of his ale.

Gwaine had a small sort of grin on his face as Griff agreed to try and charm the woman at the end of the bar. He hoped she didn’t speak English, because it would be too funny to see Griff try to improvise, because his friend was one to admit defeat so easily, “I doubt I’ll be doing much learning, but I will be watching.” Gwaine reassured his friend and chuckled as he watched him make his way over to the woman. Gwaine quickly found his attentions diverted by a young woman who returned his grin. He inclined his tankard towards her before returning to his drink. He probably would have tried his luck with her if he didn’t have to wait for Griff to assign him a woman.