My heart sank as I surveyed the room. If I described it as dingy and dangerous, I would have been complimenting it. Three other men were in the room with bunk beds for ten, barely enough space between them to shuffle sideways, let alone walk.

There were no windows, only a single light bulb hanging in the middle of the room, and almost right on top of one of the bunk beds. It was a dank room that somehow managed to smell even worse than the foyer had.

As our guide opened the door, all three men turned to look at us, one of them chewing on a stick of something. They took in my uniform and froze.

"Don't worry," the host said. "She's just giving this guy a room for the night."

Arthur smiled and waved, but all three of the occupants glared and looked between each other before studying me again. I got the distinct impression that they didn't welcome anything that drew the police.

"Okay, thank you for showing me," I said, pulling back and encouraging Arthur to come with me.

He raised his eyebrows, no doubt bemused by me bringing him here.

"This isn't quite what we were hoping for. Are you sure that you can't get him a single room somewhere?" I asked the staff member who had agreed to show us up here. He shrugged.

"You might be able to get the receptionist to help, but I don't know what we've got this late in the day." He shuffled away, not even interested in taking us back to the entrance of the building.

I exhaled, trying to think. How much of a fuss did I want to make? This guy looked to be easy prey to anyone who might want to take advantage even if he wasn't who he said he was. And if he really was some, back from the dead king, then he wouldn't have a clue about so many things.

While I wanted to say goodbye and let this be someone else's problem, I couldn't bring myself to do it. He needed me. And I'd once joined the police force believing that I could make a difference to my country one person at a time. If I washed my hands of this, then I wasn't being true to myself.

"I have stayed in worse," he said. "If there is truly nowhere else for me to go, then this will not kill me."

Not sure I agreed with his assessment, I frowned. Still the people inside the room looked out warily at us, able to hear everything we were saying.

"Let's go back down to reception," I added as I looked around, trying to figure out if we should go left or right down the hallway.

Arthur pointed to my left as if it was obvious and started to go that way. Following him, I tried to shove the feeling of inadequacy that was threatening to overwhelm me to one side. I was a police officer. I'd done this sort of thing a thousand times. I shouldn't have been intimidated or out of my depth.

But I was and Arthur seemed to be totally confident of himself and what was happening, as if all of this was nothing but an amusing diversion. Considering he was homeless and appeared to have no money or possessions beyond the illegal sword he'd been detained with, I was impressed at his calm.

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On top of that, there was something about him that made me feel... safe. There was no other word for it. It felt right to be walking along beside him.

He led the way, only ever so slightly ahead of me as we made our way back to the front of the building and the foyer that had seen far better days, possibly before I was born.

Trying to get my own confidence back and take control of the situation again, I marched up to the receptionist.

"No, I'm sorry, that's not what I booked at all on the phone earlier. I need to have a private room for this man. He's needed for a line of questioning and he's not to be disturbed. I'll be picking him up again first thing in the morning."

The receptionist glanced at the clock but not as much to check the time as to try and hide her eye roll. I lifted my chin even higher, about ready to give her a piece of my mind, but when she looked back at me, she looked so sad and exhausted that I deflated again. She was just doing her job and it wasn't her fault that I had been promised a room that wasn't available.

"I don't have any single rooms left, and this late at night, I don't want to be the one going up there to wake some more sod up and tell him that he has to give his room up for your lot."

I exhaled and admitted defeat. She had a point. Not only did I not want to ask her to do something like that, I knew that it would be a bad idea if I did as well.

The uniform I was wearing only made things worse in some situations and this place struck me as the kind of place where I didn't want to linger in a uniform. And if that was the case for me, I couldn't leave Arthur here when he was telling people he was the rightful king and heir to the throne, or whatever it was.

And that meant I had to begin the work of phoning people again, or make a very different sort of decision. Either way, I backed away from the reception desk and motioned for Arthur to follow me outside. There was no point in us lingering somewhere that we wouldn't be staying. We could at least sit in the car with the heating on while I figured this out.

This time Arthur followed me, not uttering a single word of complaint at being traipsed half way across London for no good reason. For a king, he was remarkably patient and understanding.

As soon as I was sitting behind the wheel again, Arthur beside me and the safety of the car giving me some room to think and relax, I pulled out my phone to look for an alternative. The time on the screen stopped me in my tracks. It was late, and I knew there weren't going to be many more places I could afford that were actually taking on people.

I looked at him, meeting his gaze as he waited patiently.

"You're very calm," I said, not sure what else to tell him, but knowing I only really had one option if I wasn't going to just abandon him.

"There's something about you. If I was in any danger or would come to any harm, I wouldn't feel like I could trust you and know that you care enough not to let someone get hurt. You could so easily have let me leave your police station this afternoon, and even now could have left me here. I'm calm, because no matter what happens while I am with you, it will be the best outcome possible."

I blinked several times, processing what he'd said and finding it hard to. Was it really so easy to trust a stranger and know that everything was going to be okay? But he'd not said that. He'd not said that he would be fine, just that we would find the best possible outcome from the situation. And he was right, holding onto that did bring a sort of calm.

Because as much as he had said that about me, I believed it about him as well. Whatever happened, he would also try and find the best outcome for both of us.

"You can stay at my place," I said, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. And as soon as I'd said it, I knew there was no taking them back and no chance that it wouldn't happen. It felt as if it had always been the only real answer to the problem. Like he belonged with me somehow.