Puissance: Chapter One
Title: Puissance: Chapter One
Author: ArthurMerlin
Artist: blood_songs90
Pairings/characters: Arthur/Merlin (minor: OC/OC, Gwen/Lancelot)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 30,798
Warnings: None
Summary:The turbulent times of Prime Minister Arthur Pendragon, in which war looms, betrayal waits in the wings, and unexpected love blossoms.
Disclaimer: Neither ArthurMerlin nor blood_songs90 owns any aspect of Merlin. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Chapter One
Arthur ran his fingers over the leather on the back of the chair, savouring how worn it was. He tried to imagine all of the faces who had seen what he was now seeing, and who had touched the very leather his fingers were now touching; Lloyd-George, Chamberlain, Churchill, Attlee, Wilson, Heath, and, of course, Uther Pendragon himself. Now it was Arthur’s turn to sit here, so he pulled the chair out from under the table and carefully, almost reverently, lowered himself into it. He put his arms on the armrests and noticed that his was the only chair in the Cabinet Room to have them. He felt suddenly small, dwarfed by the enormity of where he was.
The last time he had been in the Cabinet Room had been 1990 when he was only 10 years old. He remembered it like it was yesterday. His father had just failed to secure enough votes to win outright the Conservative Party leadership election and had been advised by his friends and allies that it was unlikely he would win a second ballot. Uther was sat in the same chair Arthur was now sat in, with his hands folded neatly on the table in front of him, staring out into space. Arthur had walked up to him and stood beside what seemed to a 10 year old Arthur to be almost a throne.
“Daddy,” he’d said, “do we have to leave home now?”
Uther had died in 2003 of pancreatic cancer, but Arthur still felt his legacy and his expectations hovering over him like a guiding star. Arthur stood up and walked briskly into the hallway and over to the main staircase. Staff stopped when they saw him coming and either hurried away in the other direction, or offered him a slight nod with a mumbled “Prime Minister” before walking on. Arthur stopped at the top of the staircase and stared at the photo that hung there between James Callaghan and Alined Smith. ‘I’ll make you proud’, Arthur thought.
“Prime Minister?” a voice said from behind him. Arthur turned around and saw a young man about the same age as Arthur; he was quite tall and dressed in a cheap suit done up as smartly as one can without a professional tailor. His black hair was slightly unruly on his head, framed by unusually large ears. But there was something about him which seemed mysterious and almost enchanting; his blue eyes seemed to see right into Arthur, and made Arthur feel quite exposed.
“Yes, and you are?”
“I’m Merlin Emrys,” the young man said offering his hand for Arthur to shake, “I’m your Principal Private Secretary.”
“Ah, of course!” Arthur said shaking Merlin’s hand, “you’re quite young to be PPS to the Prime Minister, aren’t you?”
Merlin’s eyes narrowed, “and you’re quite young to be the Prime Minister.”
“Touché,” Arthur said chuckling.
“If we could take a seat somewhere Prime Minister,” Merlin continued, “I believe we have the small matter of appointing a government to take care of.”
“Follow me,” Arthur said, leading Merlin through the corridors towards the room Arthur had chosen as his private office. He’d chosen the same room adjoining the Cabinet Room that his father had used, it had felt right to do that; it was the Downing Street he remembered.
“You seem to know your way around quite well, you’ve taken to it like a duck to water,” Merlin commented as they meandered through the corridors of power.
“I grew up here, when my father was PM.”
“Of course,” Merlin said sounding like he’d just done something terrible, “look, Arthur, I’m really sorry about your father…”
Arthur cut him off, “did you call the last PM ‘Alined’, or ‘Prime Minister’?”
“Prime Minister, of course,” Merlin replied, smiling as one of his colleagues walked by them going the opposite way.
Arthur stopped and turned around, Merlin almost walked into him, “yet you call me ‘Arthur’?”
“Well, you’re meant to be a modern, ‘man of the people’ politician, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I’m still Prime Minister of this country. I could have you call me ‘First Lord’ if I like.”
Merlin scowled, “my apologies, Prime Minister.” He spat out the title like it was venom, pointedly not calling Arthur ‘First Lord’.
Arthur felt his hackles rise, like they did in the House when a challenge was put to him. He forced the feeling down as they entered Arthur’s office. The room was full of boxes that had yet to be sorted through. Arthur lifted one of the larger ones off of a large partners desk with a green leather top, to make room before sitting down and inviting Merlin to do the same.
The room wasn’t overly large; it was of a comfortable size with a number of bookcases built into the walls. Behind the desk were large bay windows looking out over the Downing Street garden, which was in full glorious bloom. Over the wall was visible the top of Horse Guards Parade and Admiralty House; the old centres of British imperial military might.
Merlin sat on the opposite side of the desk to Arthur and opened a folder onto the desktop. He spread out his papers making Arthur wince slightly; he couldn’t abide an untidy desk. Merlin pulled a biro out of his top pocket and pulled off the lid.
“Where did you get that? Sainsburys?” Arthur grinned when he saw the pen, “did it come in a pack of 100?”
Merlin looked confused but didn’t say anything and the smile died off of Arthur’s face, “I just thought a man so high up in the civil service would be able to afford a better pen.”
“A pen is a pen, Prime Minister, it does its job regardless of what it costs, so why spend more than you have to?” Merlin raised his eyebrow in challenge, and whilst Arthur was sorely tempted to jump into an argument with the man, he restrained himself by mentally counting to ten and then suggesting they get down to business.
“I want the senior positions carried over from the Shadow Cabinet as they are,” Arthur began.
“Naturally,” Merlin responded, pulling out a dossier of names from his pile of papers, “so we have Agravaine De Bois in Number 11?”
“Yes, Agravaine served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in my father’s Cabinet, he knows the Treasury and did superbly shadowing Alator; I can’t think of anybody more qualified to be Chancellor.”
“I can,” Merlin muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” Arthur’s hackles shot up again.
“Nothing, Prime Minister.”
“No, you said you can think of somebody better qualified, I’d like to know who,” Arthur sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.
“It’s not my place to say, Prime Minister,” Merlin jostled his papers nervously.
“Merlin,” Arthur started, delighting that he could use the man’s first name whereas Merlin couldn’t, “if this partnership is going to work out I need you to be entirely honest with me, even when you think I won’t like it.”
“As you wish,” Merlin started, putting the lid on his pen and looking up at Arthur, “Agravaine’s a powerful man in the party, putting him in the Treasury would give him power almost equal to your own, that’s rarely a recipe for success. Are you sure you want to put a powerful rival in such a prestigious position? He could cause your government a lot of problems in manipulating policy the way he wants it to go.”
“Agravaine has always been loyal to me, and he shares my vision. And in any case, isn’t it a good policy to keep your friends close but your enemies closer?”
“That’s a good strategy if you want them to have an opportunity to stab you in the back, personally I’d prefer to have my friends closer,” Merlin jibed.
Arthur smiled and shook his head, “did you ever consider a career in politics, Merlin?”
“Yes, Prime Minister, but ultimately I decided I’d like to do something positive for my country.”
Arthur laughed aloud then, and Merlin joined him in a smile; “I like you Merlin, I think we’re going to get along fine. But I’m sticking with Agravaine in the Treasury; I do trust him, and anyway it would cause a political firestorm if I moved him now.”
“Fine,” Merlin jotted the name down, “the creepy old man gets the country’s purse-strings. Who’s next?”
“Creepy old man?” Arthur chuckled, “um, Lance will be my Deputy of course.”
“That would be Lancelot du Lac? Are there going to be any English names in your Cabinet? Or should I take an evening course in French?”
“Excuse me, ‘Pendragon’? A very British surname, thank you,” Arthur said adjusting his tie.
“Mr. Du Lac as Deputy Prime Minister… the Foreign Office?”
“Leon Knight,” Arthur responded without hesitation.
Thankfully Merlin didn’t seem to have any objections as he jotted the name down, “Defence?”
“Percival Young, he used to be in the Royal Marines, he knows the department well.”
“Home Office?”
“Mithian Nemeth.”
Merlin looked up from his notes, “really? You’re moving her from Children, Schools, and Families?”
Arthur leaned back in his chair, “yeah, about that… I’m scrapping Children, Schools, and Families and replacing it with a Department of Education.”
Merlin nodded, “probably a good idea. Who’s going to head that up?”
“Gwaine Green.”
Merlin’s eyes shot up from his notes in sheer disbelief; “Please tell me you are joking? You’re putting the school drop-out in charge of education policy?”
“Let’s just say Gwaine’s got a unique appreciation for education after what’s happened in his life. He’ll do well, I know he will.”
Merlin rubbed the bridge of his nose, “you know the media will come down on you hard for this appointment? It’ll be the one thing they can sink their teeth into.”
“Exactly,” Arthur said, “it’s much better for me to know beforehand what they’re going to latch onto, because then I can monitor it, maybe even control it.”
“An unusual approach, Prime Minister. Deliberately making mistakes to lead the media where you want them to go?”
Arthur shook his head, “I didn’t say it was a mistake, Gwaine will surprise you I’m sure. I said it’s better for me to know what the media will see as a mistake beforehand.”
“Perhaps an illusory distinction, Prime Minister?” Merlin said, folding his hands neatly on the desk.
“You really should have gone into politics,” Arthur said staring at Merlin as if sizing him up.
“And I can see why you did Arthur, you’re expert at dodging the question.”
Arthur could have picked up on Merlin’s use of his name, but decided not to. The glint of victory shone in Merlin’s eyes and Arthur deflated in defeat; “alright, you can call me Arthur in private, but not in public, and certainly not in Cabinet!” He said, pointing his index finger threateningly in Merlin’s direction.
“Prime Minister, I’ll never be seen with you in public, I’m your principal private secretary, remember?”
The door opened without a knock and Merlin spun round to look; it was Gwen. She sailed in like a Princess; “oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting a meeting?”
“Not at all dear,” Arthur said, standing up from his chair, “just appointing a government.”
Gwen smiled sweetly at her husband, “oh, is that all, I thought it might have been something important.”
Merlin rose from his chair and offered Gwen his hand; “I’m Merlin Emrys ma’am, the Prime Minister’s Principal Private Secretary.”
“Oh please,” Gwen said waving her hand dismissively, “don’t call me ‘ma’am’, Gwen will be fine.”
“Thank you Gwen, you have more courtesy than your husband.”
“Thank you, Merlin!” Arthur scoffed as he quietly tidied Merlin’s papers into a neat pile so they weren’t sprawled all over the desk.
“Leave the list on top please, Arthur,” Merlin said as he saw what Arthur was doing. To his surprise, Arthur didn’t protest but did as he was asked as Merlin and Gwen chatted about life in Number 10.
Arthur took the opportunity to slip out of the room and headed down the hallway towards the Prime Minister’s private apartment. As he was walking down the corridor a door opened and a fairly elderly man walked out. He had quite long white hair, walked slightly hunched over and was carrying a couple of folders.
“Gaius? Gaius Wilson?” Arthur asked incredulously.
The old man noticed him then and walked over, embracing Arthur warmly; “Arthur, it’s so good to see you.”
“What are you doing here?” Arthur asked.
“I’m Cabinet Secretary, Arthur, didn’t they tell you?” Gaius had been the PM’s PPS when Uther was in Downing Street and Arthur had been growing up. Wherever Uther went, Gaius was there as well. Arthur had come to know him quite well in his childhood; Gaius was even his godfather when he was christened.
“Been promoted then?”
“Head of the Civil Service now, Merlin’s got my old job. Have you met him yet?” Gaius asked, ushering Arthur into his office.
“Yes, I’ve had the pleasure.”
“He’s a good boy, Arthur. He’s dedicated, hard-working, and perhaps still a tad idealistic. He’s quite like you, actually.”
Arthur squinted at the comparison, which Gaius noticed, “I see you’ve noticed his eccentricities? Don’t hold them against him, Arthur, they make him who he is. You see, he was born to a working class mining family in Wales; he’s gotten here on his own merits, unlike me. He has a certain righteous disdain for people born into wealth.”
“A mining family? Did they…”
Gaius cut him off, “lose their jobs? Yes. But I know Merlin, he won’t let his feelings about your father’s government interfere with his work for you. If I thought that might have been the case I would never have appointed him to the post.”
“Is he a recent appointment then?”
“He’s been working in Number 10 for 3 years now, I took him under my wing, my protégé if you will. Alined promoted me a month ago, and I promoted Merlin to take my place.”
“Gaius, are you telling me he’s only been a PPS for a month?”
“He’s talented, Arthur, he’s the right man for the job,” Gaius said in a tone that brokered no argument.
“You know, I think he’s already formed an alliance with Gwen.”
Gaius laughed, “yes, I can imagine that he has.”
“Am I ready for this, Gaius?”
Gaius smiled gently, “if anybody can lead this country through these times, Arthur, it’s you. You have your father’s skilled leadership and your mother’s compassion. You’re going to need both. The food crisis is worsening, the price of food is sky-rocketing and people are getting quite jittery about it. That is your first priority.”
Gaius was right; in recent years the unpredictable weather had led to radically reduced crop yields across the United Kingdom. That was coupled with similar, but worse, situations abroad, leading to less food imports. Overall, a lack of food was beginning to become noticeable and was a major factor in the election campaign. Several major cities - London, Manchester, Glasgow, and others - had experienced civil unrest in the last months of Alined’s premiership. But whilst Arthur had promised to tackle the situation, he honestly didn’t see how he would be able to do so without changing the weather itself.
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Chapter Two