King Henry

Chapter 17 - Meeting Lord Walton

***** Eleanor's Point of View *****

"Now that that's settled, there's someone that really wants to meet you," Henry said, before taking Eleanor's hand and leading her through the gate, past the guards that had just been giving her such a hard time.

"So Lord Walton wants to meet me?" she asked, as Henry started walking her towards the cluster of striped pointed tents that had flags at the top with different family crests on them. "How do you know? Did you ask him about me?"

"I did," he nodded. "And he had already noticed you sitting by my family and he thought you were beautiful."

She followed Henry to the area where a group of Knights from the tournament were standing around a burning fire, talking and laughing while a couple of them drank ale from metal tankards. She noticed Lord Walton was one of the men and Henry walked her over to him. 

"Eleanor, I'd like you to meet my best friend, Arthur. But most people call him Lord Walton," Henry told her with a smile, gesturing to the man beside him.

Arthur gave her a warm smile, looking down at her with his pale blue eyes that almost matched her own. He had shaggy, sandy blonde hair that was slightly darker than hers and a strong jawline that was clean shaven. He was almost as tall as Henry and he looked strong and in excellent shape and close to her age.

"You can call me Arthur," he said with a warm smile, showing his straight, white teeth as he reached out, taking her hand in his before leaning down and gently kissing the top of it. "It's nice to meet you Eleanor. Henry's told me good things about you."

She smiled back at him and said, "He's told me good things about you as well Arthur."

Henry looked back and forth between them and then cleared his throat before saying, "I explained your situation to him, about how I was trying to help you find a suitable alternative so you wouldn't have to marry Thomas Fletcher because he's not a good man and he was just using you to watch his children. Arthur would be a good match for you. He's even more wealthy and has a higher rank than Thomas, so I'm sure your parents would approve. Now he may not be as good as me," Henry teased, shoving Arthur with a smile and getting a smack on the arm back from him.

Then Henry looked back at her and his smile slowly faded as he let out an exhale. "But seriously, he would make a good husband for you Eleanor. I've known him all my life and I trust him more than anyone else. He's kind, funny and he's a good, honorable man. I know he could make you happy," he said softly, looking down at her.

Judging by the pained look on his face, it seemed like it was difficult for him to say that.

Eleanor looked back over at Arthur and studied him. He had a kind smile and warm, caring eyes. He was definitely better than Thomas Fletcher, but not quite as handsome as Henry.

'Henry's not an option,' she reminded herself in her head.

"I'm not telling you that you have to marry him Eleanor," Henry told her. "I just thought you two could spend some time together to get to know each other and see if you're interested. I'm leaving the final decision up to you."

She nodded saying, "Thank you." She appreciated the fact that he cared about her opinion.

"Who knows? Maybe you'll decide you like Thomas Fletcher better than him," Henry teased him and that made Arthur laugh and shove his shoulder and Henry laughed too. It was obvious the two of them were really close.

Eleanor smiled. "You would have to be pretty horrible for me to choose Thomas over you."

"It would be a pretty big hit to my ego," Arthur laughed. "but who knows. It could happen."