Royal Blood Page 6

  Now, however, he would have a helper, and an experienced one at that. Rich was feeling quite excited for the first time in a long while. They could start more plants, make use of all that land that had been sitting dormant. Perhaps, they could even plant some flowers.

  Rich loved flowers, but with the whole garden in his care, he had to concentrate on plants that gave fruit. So he had to content himself with flowers he grew in pots in his own room, and the short-lived flowers on his vegetable plants.

  On her first day of work, Carla had mixed feelings. It was strange to arrive in a garden already filled with crops to be picked and put away. It was still a beautiful sight, but it lacked the sense of accomplishment one gained from having worked on a harvest from start to finish.

  Some of the plants still needed tending to, their fruit still developing. But for the most part it was a time for harvesting and preparing the garden for winter.

  “It’s a little...bleak,” Carla said hesitantly when she first studied the entire garden.

  “Yes,” Rich replied sadly. “More flowers would certainly be nice.”

  “Don’t you plant edible flowers?”

  “A little, but not much anymore. There isn’t much substance to them – they are more a side dish, a luxury. I have to concentrate on plants that can give us filling meals.”

  Carla nodded with a hum, observing the rather large field of potatoes.

  “What about medicinal herbs? Surely the royal doctor would appreciate that?”

  “She certainly would. She’s been asking me to plant more sage and camomile.” Rich smiled as he looked at Carla. “I suppose now that you’re here, we can do that. Next year.”

  “And, perhaps, some hibiscus and mint for tea.”

  “Certainly. And maybe jasmine, rosemary and oregano. Not everything will grow here, of course. I tried lemons a few years back, but they can’t survive our winter.” Rich moved slowly toward the tool shed, with Carla following him silently. “When I was younger, we’d grow whole fields of sunflowers. That was beautiful. But, of course, then was then. We had an oil mill then. We still have it, but no people to work in it.” He sighed as he gave Carla a spading fork. “I wonder if the realm will ever be back to the way it was. Perhaps someday. Maybe past my time.”

  Carla was silently grateful that the oil mill wasn't operational. If it was working, she feared sooner or later she'd be asked to work in it. She knew she would find it difficult to reject work, not in a place that was so welcoming to her. And yet, the prospect of working in a mill made her skin crawl with horror. She had worked in a flour mill in slavery, and that time was at the root of some of her worst memories. She would prefer to never work in any kind of mill ever again, if she could help it.

  Carla followed Rich back out to the fields. They started digging up potatoes, harvesting some and leaving others to grow for a bit longer.

  Rich was slow but efficient. He was never in a hurry, but he also didn’t stop to rest much, he just worked at a steady pace, getting a lot of work done without any rush.

  Some of the potatoes were laid out to be cured for storing, the few that were damaged while harvesting would be eaten that very day. This part brought on bittersweet memories in Carla – eating what you’ve just harvested. It had been one of the most wonderful things she remembered from her childhood. It made her miss her fathers painfully.

  The weather was lovely. It wasn’t too hot anymore, but not cold yet either. It was a wonderful time for Elloriann to get some sword fighting practice in.

  She and Gerome walked through the garden, waving at Carla and Rich. They headed to their usual spot – a secluded patch of land just behind the apple trees. It wasn’t visible from any of the castle’s windows, so the king would never see them practicing. He would never approve of his daughter sword fighting – too dangerous. His protectiveness of Elloriann was a strange thing, mostly consisting of forbiddings and limitations, but it rarely ever involved spending any time with her.

  She’d been practicing for years without him knowing, and she would continue to do so, no matter what he thought. Considering how little interest he took in her daily life, he would likely never find out at all.

  As Carla bent down to check on a pumpkin, she could see Elloriann and Gerome through a clearing between the tree trunks.

  “What are they doing?” she asked Rich, who was watering some of the plants nearby.

  “Keep watching,” he said.

  Carla found a spot in the pumpkin patch where she could sit, and watched. She couldn’t see too clearly from this distance, but she could see enough. She could see Elloriann moving gracefully with her sword, advancing and deflecting. Sometimes she would lunge or pivot so beautifully, it looked like a dance. She was so confident in her movements, even in this pretense-fight, she looked formidable. Carla could only imagine what kind of opponent she would make in a real battle, where she had something to fight for.

  “She’s amazing,” Carla whispered to herself, “I had no idea she could do that.”

  “She can do lots of things, our princess,” Rich replied, having heard Carla’s words, even though she had spoken mostly to herself. “When she was a child, she wanted to learn to do everything. Of course, the king made her learn only things he saw fit for a future queen. He tried to forbid her from learning anything...unseemly for royalty. I don’t think he ever fully understood that forbidding her something only made her want to learn it more.” He shrugged, returning to watering the plants. “But that’s what happens when you don’t spend any time with your child – you never really get to know them.”

  Carla thought of that for a while, once again feeling grateful for how wonderful her parents had been. She felt a little sorry for Elloriann. It felt strange to pity a princess – everyone was used to thinking that royals had it all. You were supposed to envy them, not pity them. But that was only until you knew one. It was easy to think of glamour, balls, and riches when you watched royal life from afar. But no one’s life looked the same from the outside as it felt to the ones who lived it.

  Carla sat in the pumpkin patch for a little while longer, watching Elloriann’s masterful command of her sword. Eventually she had to get up and go back to working in the garden. But Elloriann and Gerome often came to practice in that spot, and it would not be the last time Carla would be watching them.

  15

  As time went by, Carla fit better and better into the castle life. Once she adjusted, got used to the schedules and social life of the servant wing, learned some of the rules and secrets necessary for comfortable existence in the castle, it was almost as if she’d always been there. The events that had taken place in Mordielle were now a distant memory. Of course, Carla could never forget her years in slavery, but they were now becoming a scar rather than an open wound.

  Unfortunately, now that Carla had a job to do, and Elloriann went back to her own daily activities, they didn’t see each other all that much anymore. Or rather, they saw each other – in the dining hall, in the fields, sometimes at the library – but they didn’t always get a chance to talk, to spend time with each other.

  It ate at both of them. They both understood that they’d barely spent enough time together to justify such intense melancholy, but they both missed each other, and neither could quite succeed in making the feeling go away.

  The weather was getting colder. Almost everything that could be harvested was harvested. All that was left were a few very large pumpkins and a raised bed of sunchokes that Rich intended to harvest after the first frost.

  Elloriann and Gerome were fencing in their usual spot, getting the last few hours of practice in before it would get too cold and they’d have to go back to practicing inside.

  Carla watched them for a while. As it was starting to get dark, Elloriann and Gerome finished their practice and came up to Carla and Rich, offering their help in the garden.

  They were both given a large pumpkin to carry inside.

  Carla and Elloriann carried a p
articularly heavy pumpkin into the kitchen together.

  “Hey there,” Elloriann said to the cooks, “brought you something.”

  Stav and Hannah, a married couple that ran the kitchen, were always happy to see Elloriann. They both gave her wide, happy smiles.

  “Ell, so nice to see you!” Stav boomed, raising his arms, sauce flying off his spatula.

  “Need any help?” Elloriann asked.

  “Not today, love,” Hannah said, “but we’ll be doing some more canning tomorrow. Could always use help with that.” She turned to Carla, who’d been standing silently by the door. “I hear we’ll have more to can next year, yes? Now that you’re here and helping poor Rich.”

  “Yes, ma’am, hopefully.”

  “So lovely!” Stav said. “I miss when we had more fruit and veg. Will be nice to have more for winter again. Hate it when we just have things brought it. Always think of the people who had to give it up.”

  “Come now, love.” Hannah rubbed her husband’s shoulder gently. “The king has been very generous...”

  “Still, taxes! No one likes taxes!” He glanced at Elloriann guiltily. “Sorry, Ell.”

  “It’s all right,” she said, suppressing a smile.

  Stav and Hannah didn’t spend much time with the over servants. They spent most of their days in the kitchen, cooking for everyone in the castle. And most of their free time was spent with each other as well. They were really rather co-dependent, which probably wasn’t very healthy. But it had worked for them for years, so they saw no reason to change anything.

  Besides, Hannah was really the only one who could actually tolerate Stav for long stretches of time. The man was practically unable to speak quietly. Everything he said came almost at a shout – a habit he’d gained from growing up in a family with 11 children. But since Hannah and Stav were almost always in the kitchen, with lots of noise, his loud speech was actually quite useful.

  “I could help too,” Carla said from her spot by the door. “I lived on a farm, we did all our own canning. I know what to do.”

  “How wonderful!” Stav said, splashing more sauce onto the floor.

  Carla wondered if the cleaning people hated him for all the mess he was making with his glowing emotions, but she had to admit it was infection. His joy filled the room.

  “You can come over tomorrow, girls,” Hannah offered. “Help us with the canning. And maybe we’ll make some pumpkin pie later.”

  Carla and Elloriann bid their goodbyes to the cooks and left the kitchen, heading for the dining hall together.

  “Are you free for the day?” Elloriann asked, as they were approaching the dining hall.

  “I am. What do you have in mind?”

  “Nothing much, I thought maybe we could spend some time by the fire, make some tea. Talk.” She felt a bit awkward asking, even though she couldn’t quite understand why. What was so awkward about asking your friend to drink some tea with you and talk? They were friends, weren’t they?

  “I’d like that,” Carla replied eagerly.

  The dining hall was warm and smelled heavenly. Someone had started a fire earlier and threw a cinnamon stick into the fireplace, making the place smell incredible. It was, perhaps, a bit wasteful to use cinnamon like that, but the welcoming atmosphere the smell created was hard to resist.

  Elloriann heated up a kettle of water over the fire. She went to one of the cupboards in the dining hall and procured a pot, 2 mugs and some tea leaves. She made a pot of tea, poured it and handed a mug to Carla. It was only then that Carla started to wonder if this was something that many princesses did. She’d gotten so used to Elloriann’s presence in the servant wing and her familiarity with the mundane tasks of everyday life, that she’d forgotten that most royals probably had servants do this kind of thing for them.

  Elloriann noticed a mischievous smile on Carla’s face.

  “What?” she asked, her own mouth twisting up at the edges.

  “Just...wondering how many servants have tea made for them by a princess.”

  Elloriann grinned.

  “At one point or another I’ve made tea for half the castle’s workers, so don’t feel too special.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  They sat in the armchairs in front of the fireplace, enjoying the warmth and quiet.

  “I like this place before dinner,” Elloriann said, indicating the empty dining hall. “It’s so peaceful.”

  Carla hummed in agreement around a mouthful of tea. She watched Elloriann for a while, gathering up the courage to say the next words.

  “I...have a confession to make.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve been...watching you. Fencing. Behind the trees.”

  Elloriann smiled joyfully.

  “I know, I saw you in the pumpkin patch.” Her smile only widened when she saw Carla blushing with embarrassment.

  “You’re not angry?”

  “Why would I be?”

  “I don’t know. Might be a bit strange.”

  “Not at all.” Elloriann waved her hand reassuringly. “How did I look?”

  “Incredible,” Carla said before realizing how colorful that description was. “I mean...you’re very good. Have you ever fought a real battle?”

  “No. Not yet. Part of me wants to, just to see how I’d do. Another part of me, of course, hopes that I never have to.” She watched Carla for a moment. “You know, you could try it if you want.”

  “Me? With a sword? I... No, I don’t think so. Swords are just so...sharp.”

  Elloriann laughed wholeheartedly.

  “Can’t argue with that. There are other weapons though. Batons, bo staff. Hand-to-hand combat is always an options too.”

  Carla looked down into her tea.

  “You know, when the bandits took me...I didn’t really resist. I couldn’t. What could I do against them? But I’ve been thinking about it ever since. If I could fight them off if I’d known how. Maybe not. But maybe I could hurt them enough so I could run away. I don’t know.” She shook her head, still looking into her mug. “I was in no shape to fight at the time, I know I probably couldn’t have fought then even if I knew how. But time makes you see the past differently, makes you wish you’d done things differently, even if you couldn’t have.”

  Elloriann thought about it for a moment before replying.

  “There’s a guard, Sal, usually does gate duty. We don’t know each other very well. But Gerome said Sal could teach me some hand-to-hand combat if I wanted. I’ve been thinking about that lately. Perhaps it could be arranged for us to train together?”

  Carla looked up from her tea, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

  “Really?”

  “No guarantees yet, but I’ll ask. Your workload will be smaller in the winter, you’ll have time to train with me. If you’d like.”

  “I think I’d like that, yes.”

  “Great. I’ll see what we can schedule.”

  Carla wasn’t that certain that she wanted to learn to fight. It was never something she was drawn to. But she wanted to know how to defend herself, she wanted to feel less powerless. And as much as she looked forward to the training, part of her was just glad to have a reason to spent time with Ell. Perhaps after training they could rest together too. Talk like this, over tea, with no one else around. That would be lovely.

  Elloriann sipped her tea, thinking the exact same thing.

  16

  The day of canning in the kitchen was not filled with all that much fun, but it was productive, and left everyone involved with a sense of accomplishment.

  “I think this is it for the year,” Hannah said, putting away the last of the jars into storage. “We still have some squash left in the ice box, and some apples and whole pumpkins in the storage room, but they’ll keep for a while.”

  “How about that pumpkin pie now, eh?” Stav said joyfully.

  Everyone was given a task – Carla was making the dough, Elloriann took care of the pumpkin puree,
Stav mixed spices for the filling, while Hannah prepared the pots and the oven.

  For a castle half full of people, pumpkin pie really meant 5 pumpkin pies, so there was plenty of work for everyone.

  “I missed this,” Elloriann said, mashing the cooked pumpkin.

  “You should come down more often,” Hannah said with an approving nod. “Not that we don’t manage on our own, but it’s nice to have help, and company.”

  “You used to do this a lot then?” Carla asked.

  “As a child, yes. I loved helping in the kitchen.” Elloriann shrugged. “Not sure how much help I really was though.”

  “You were plenty help!” Stav assured. “Didn’t think you would be, but you tried so hard. So careful. Learned quickly too.”

  “We were afraid to give her a knife at first,” Hannah recalled. “We were afraid she’d hurt herself.”

  “You just didn’t think a spoiled little princess could cut a potato,” Elloriann said playfully.

  “Well, yes, I suppose,” Hannah admitted. “But then we saw you fencing, and decided you could probably manage a small blade just fine.”

  Stav laughed at that as though it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. He laughed that way about practically everything he found remotely amusing.

  “I never really learned to cook properly,” Carla admitted. “I like canning, and I like watching others cook, but somehow I never really wanted to learn it myself. My fathers tried to teach me, they said it’d be a useful skill in the future, but I’m afraid I rather resisted the lessons.”

  “How many fathers did you have?” Stav asked.

  “Two.”

  “Two fathers!” Stav grinned happily. “Always better than one!”

  “But no mother?” Hannah asked. She herself had had 2 mothers, and always found it hard to imagine having just one, let alone not having one at all. “That’s a little sad, isn’t it?”