Garden Princess (5 page)

Now she sounded like Cecile, who was always saying things like,
Don’t they make a handsome couple?
And,
Surely she can do better than that. He’s not half as good-looking as she is!
As if people should be matched up by their looks, like the horses that pulled the royal carriage.

I would rather find somebody who’s interesting than somebody who’s handsome, thought Adela. It was funny, but whenever she had thought about Cecile’s grand ball (not that she had thought about it much), it had never occurred to Adela that any of the men Cecile would invite might actually
be
interesting. What if one of them had a sense of humor, for example? What if one of them was brave and adventurous like King Ival? Would she be quite so set against marriage if she met a man who not only encouraged her to follow her dream of traveling but would even ride alongside her when she did?

I suppose I might choose that man, Adela decided. If I
wanted
to marry someone.

But what if he didn’t want to marry her? What if he didn’t think she was pretty enough? Because she wasn’t pretty — not really — no matter how much Cecile insisted that she could be if she tried harder. Adela’s nose, for example, was a little too large for her face, and her mouth a little too wide. Her hair was long and sand-colored and unrelentingly straight. Moreover, she was very tall — taller than most men, including Garth. She was so tall that Cecile was taking her height into account in assembling the guest list for the grand ball. “Don’t worry, dear! We’ll be sure to invite a few tall marriage prospects for you,” she had said recently.

And Adela’s father had added, “I shouldn’t worry too much, Cecile. What does it matter how tall she is or what she looks like? She’s the king’s daughter. Who isn’t going to want to marry her?”

Which had hurt a bit, actually, and Adela had been forced to remind herself that she didn’t want to get married. She wanted to be a gardener — a
real
gardener, not someone who practiced it as a hobby.

“What do you think, Your Highness?” said Marguerite just then, startling Adela out of her thoughts. “Don’t you agree that Garth should ride inside the carriage the rest of the way?” Marguerite gave Garth a sidelong smile.

“Of course,” said Adela.

As they packed up the picnic things, she considered how lucky she was that no one would ever look at her the way Garth was looking at Marguerite. The way people looked at a flower. Think what a distraction it would be, she told herself. I would never get any gardening done at all!

Only it did make a person feel a bit lonely, watching two other people fall in love.

A magpie’s nest is a messy-looking thing, and Krazo’s was as messy as they come, with twigs poked together in a bowl shape and a twig roof over the top. He had built it in a spruce tree on the front lawn of Hortensia’s estate.

It was here that he kept his treasures. These consisted of an emerald brooch, a gold watch set with paste diamonds, a turquoise-and-silver bracelet, a little pearl ring, and Krazo’s favorite piece, a flashy belt buckle studded with amethysts and garnets. Over the years, these prizes had been left behind by party guests. Usually Hortensia was attentive when she collected “the loot,” as she called it, but every so often she overlooked something. That was a lucky day for Krazo.

On the day of the garden party, Krazo woke up feeling lucky. More guests than usual would be attending this party, and he had high hopes that Hortensia might overlook something that afternoon. He also felt free for the day; Hortensia always slept late, and she rarely called for him during one of her parties. The magpie spent the morning arranging the treasures he already owned, getting things ready for the new ones he hoped to acquire. He hung the pearl ring on a twig poking out of the wall, draped the watch over another twig, and pushed the turquoise bracelet into the middle of the nest, where it caught the light from one of two entrances. Then he changed his mind — the bracelet was sadly tarnished — and he pushed the belt buckle into the light instead.

As he worked, Krazo thought about the guests who would be coming to the party. Not all of them would bring treasures. The young men, for example, really couldn’t be counted on. Except for kings and dukes and princes (and there would be none of those today), men didn’t wear much jewelry. But there would be plenty of young ladies at the party, and Hortensia had been speculating about what they might bring for days. “The little dairymaid won’t have much in the way of jewelry,” she had remarked, “though her parents may dig out an old locket or something. But she’s as sweet as a primrose, so it hardly matters.” Then there were the twin sisters Hortensia had invited. “Red hair, freckles on their noses — adorable creatures,” Hortensia had commented. “Their father is a sea captain. Sea captains are always bringing their wives and daughters pretty things.” There was also a shopgirl coming to the party; Hortensia thought she might borrow something from the shop where she worked. And last but not least, there were the princess and the other young lady from the royal court. Krazo didn’t need Hortensia to tell him that royals always came loaded down with jewelry. His emerald brooch, for instance, had belonged to the daughter of a duke, as had his pearl ring. The duke’s daughter had come to one of Hortensia’s parties wearing bracelets all the way up her arms, gold chains around her neck, and rings on her fingers. Small wonder Hortensia had overlooked the brooch in that pile of treasure!

The important thing today, Krazo knew, would be to put himself in the way of opportunity. And so, as the sun began to crawl down the afternoon side of the sky, he made his way to the front lawn. A wisteria vine twined above the portico of Hortensia’s palatial home, a vantage point that made it a perfect hiding place. He had just settled himself in among the fragrant blossoms when he spied a young man walking through the front gate. It was the gardener from the royal palace, and as he came up the drive, Hortensia came out to greet him. The gardener slowed, staring dumbly at her as most men did when they saw her for the first time. Krazo watched his mistress place her hand in the crook of the man’s elbow. “Garth, isn’t it? I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you. My garden is in the back. Come along and I’ll show it to you.” They strolled off, Hortensia’s voice fading until the only sound was the quiet splash of the marble fountain in front of the portico.

Where was the princess? Krazo wondered.

He had his answer not five minutes later when a carriage rolled up the drive. The princess leaned out the window. “Stop beside the fountain, please, Axel!” she called to the coachman.

“Whoa!” The coachman pulled up on the reins and climbed down. The princess opened the carriage door, and the coachman helped her down.

Krazo leaned forward. He could see a necklace — a small blue stone. Was that all she was wearing?

Now the coachman was helping a second young woman out of the carriage. “Diamonds,” Krazo muttered at the sight of her necklace. “Much better!”

“Where is Garth?” said the girl with the diamonds. “He promised to meet us.”

“He was only going to walk ahead and see how much farther it was,” said the princess. “It wasn’t far. He must be nearby.”

But what was this? Krazo saw that another girl was climbing out of the carriage. It was the dairymaid. She yelped as she stepped to the ground, and the princess rushed to her side. “How’s your ankle, Bess?”

“It hurts something awful, miss,” moaned the dairymaid. “I can’t believe I twisted it!”

“It was lucky we saw you sitting beside the road. Here, let me help you to the fountain. You can soak your ankle in the water. It’s cold and might keep the swelling down.” The princess spoke in a soft voice that Krazo liked.

Then his gaze darted back to the girl with the diamonds. Krazo stared, fascinated, as she fingered her necklace. A moment later, she reached up to touch her earrings, one after the other.

And now more guests were arriving. Three people on horseback — the shopgirl and the other two men Hortensia had invited — were coming up the drive, and behind them another carriage. Krazo watched the young men dismount and jostle with each other to help the shopgirl down from her horse. He saw that she was wearing a string of pearls. He watched the ship captain’s daughters climb out of the carriage. They were wearing necklaces of coral beads against their matching green gowns. Krazo’s gaze flickered from one treasure to the next — pearls, coral beads, diamonds, and the princess’s blue stone.

The guests were introducing themselves. “Where’s the garden? Where’s Lady Hortensia?” someone asked.

“The garden’s probably behind the house. Perhaps she’s there,” said the princess.

“Maybe the stables are there, too,” said her coachman.

Which made Krazo think of all that was about to happen. The garden was behind the house, as was Hortensia, but there were no stables. Krazo knew that his mistress would deal with the two coachmen as she always did. Before the day was through, she would send them back down the mountain driving empty carriages. Of course, she would work her magic on them first: by the time the men reached home, they wouldn’t remember much of anything about their day at Flower Mountain.

He watched the coachmen climb up on their carriages. He watched the horses start forward, following the graveled road that led around the house to the garden that was there, and the stables that were not. He watched the shopgirl, the twin sisters, and the two young men follow behind. There go the pearls and the coral beads, thought Krazo.

At any other time, he would have followed them, to see where in the garden they ended up. But today there were diamonds.

“We should go, too,” said the princess. “Can you walk, Bess?”

The dairymaid pulled her bare foot out of the water. She stood up, took a hesitant step, and gave a sharp cry. She took another step, crumpled to the ground, and burst into tears. “Ow!” she cried. “How am I to see the garden if I can’t walk? And I’m hungry. I haven’t had anything to eat since I left home this morning.”

Crying was something Krazo had observed many times at Hortensia’s parties, and it always produced the same reaction in him: a sort of catch in his throat as if he’d choked on a fly. It wasn’t a bad feeling exactly, but it wasn’t pleasant, either. He felt the catch in his throat now and wondered, as he always did, what it was about crying that made him feel that way. He watched as the princess crouched down beside the dairymaid.

“You poor thing,” she said. “There’s sure to be food at the party. Why don’t you lean on me and we’ll go see. Or better yet, suppose I carry you!”

The dairymaid dried her eyes, and the catch in Krazo’s throat went away, just as it always did when someone stopped crying. But this time, its disappearance was accompanied by a comfortable feeling — the sort of feeling he had when he went to sleep at night. Was it the soft voice of the princess that made him feel like that?

He watched her kick off her shoes and pull off her stockings. Then she dropped to one knee and presented her back to the dairymaid. “Climb on!” she commanded, and the next thing Krazo knew, the princess was standing up with the dairymaid on her back. She staggered forward. She was laughing — a sound Krazo liked even more than the sound of her speaking voice.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Garth?” asked the girl with the diamonds.

“It’s getting late! I want to see the garden before it gets dark!” said the princess. “Besides, poor Bess is famished!”

Krazo wanted to follow her. He had never seen anyone carry another person like that before. Like a horse, he thought.

“I really think we should wait,” said the girl with the diamonds. “Garth told me he would meet me at the top of the mountain!”

But no one heard her except Krazo. The princess and the dairymaid were too far away.

“If Garth cares for me at all, he’ll come find me,” said the girl with the diamonds, her voice sounding uncertain. She sat down on the edge of the fountain, her back very straight, her body motionless. In less than a minute, Krazo was completely bored. Perhaps he should follow the princess after all.

And then the girl moved her hand. She touched her necklace again and touched her earrings, one after the other.

No, he decided. Treasure like this doesn’t come very often.

Keep your eye on the diamonds, he told himself.