So Merlin stayed with Ninianne and lived there night and day, and he loved her so passionately that he loved nothing else in the world so much. Because of the great love he had for her, he did not dare ask her to do anything for him, for he dared not anger her. He kept thinking that in some way it would happen that he could have his will with her completely.

He had already taught so much magic and necromancy to her that she alone knew more of it than anyone but Merlin, and no one could think of a good entertainment or game that she would not make by enchantment. But there was nobody in the world she hated so mortally as she did Merlin, because she knew well that he desired her maidenhead; and if she had dared to kill him, either by poison or in some other way, she would have undertaken it boldly, but she dared not, for she feared that he would know about it, since he was wiser than other men. Nevertheless, she had already so enchanted him by the very magic she had learned from him that she could say whatever she wanted before he knew a thing about it.

Post-Vulgate Merlin