The Wolf God’s Mate

Chapter Seven

Walking towards the garden with a spring in her step, Amelia thinks about all the places she would place the pretty flowers in, which her uncle called his Bettys; she would place some in the big vase that was on the table in the foyer and the rest she would distribute to the ballroom where the birthday feast would take place and to the Royal sitting room where she would open her presents after the feast had ended.

Rounding a corner, she catches sight of the gardens in the distance and speeds up. She weaves through some gardenias and rose bushes and gets to where her uncle’s flowers were. Walking up to them, she finds there is evidence that they had just been recently watered. Looking around, she finds a man hidden behind a tall hedge with humming and snipping sounds coming from there. Moving away from the Bettys, Amelia walks towards the hedge and goes around it. She finds a middle aged man standing on a ladder and humming a song under his breath while nodding his head to the tune. The man is garbed in loose clothes, suitable for gardening and the boots on his feet were quite dirty. He was holding garden shears and snipping away at the hedge without a care in the world. Looking at his handiwork, it could be seen that he was quite a talented gardener. The flowers in the garden were all colorful and healthy. They were also beautifully arranged so the colors complimented each other. The hedge he was currently trimming was also incredibly straight, as though a ruler had been used when trimming it. This man is Collins, the Gardener of the Royal Gardens, responsible for overseeing the care of all the greenery in the castle; consisting of the main and side gardens, orchard and the gigantic maze just ahead of the main garden.

“Good morning, Uncle Collins”, chirps Amelia.

The man jolts and looking down from the top of the ladder, he sees the Princess smiling up at him. He places the shears on top of the hedge and smiles back at her, his bushy beard-covered face looking sheepish, “Good Morning, Princess. I didn’t see you there”

Amelia chuckles knowingly. Collins usually got absentminded whenever he was with plants. They “gave him joy” he always said. Whatever that means, she thinks. And so, he would tend to forget his surroundings. Only Prince Marcus seemed to understand him, not surprising, seeing as how that one even talks to flowers. It is no surprise therefore that the two were bosom friends. They could go on, and on, and on, about this plant, and that plant, boring Amelia to death.

“That’s alright Uncle Collins”, she answers. Then puffing out her chest, she boasts, “It’s my thirteenth birthday today Uncle Collins”, wishing everyone would know. “I’m going to get an element today” she grins.

“Congratulations”, he says with a big smile, white teeth flashing from within the big beard.

“Thank you!” she chirps back, looking proud. Remembering what had made her come over, she suddenly asks, “Did you water Marcy’s flowers Uncle Collins?”

Collins chuckles a little at the strange name that the princess liked to call her Uncle but nods his head, “I’ve been watering them every day ever since he left”, he answers, “Plants can’t live without water you know”, he adds, not forgetting to impart a bit of knowledge about gardening.

Amelia feels bad at her oversight. She was supposed to have watered them since Marcy had left them in her care. However, she was never one to be attentive to such things so that detail completely skipped her mind. It was a good thing that Uncle Collins had remembered; else, her uncle’s precious flowers would have wilted long before the birthday even arrived.

“Thank you Uncle Collins”, she says gratefully but sadly with her head hanging low.

“Whatever for?” he asks, looking surprised. “It’s my job isn’t it?”

“But Marcy asked me to take care of them”, she answers quietly, voice sounding sad.

“Don’t worry your head, Missy”, he replies. “Your uncle knows you would have forgotten anyways”, and chuckles lightly.

Thinking for a bit, Amelia concludes that he was probably right. After all, thinking back, her uncle hadn’t specifically asked her to water the flowers, he had only asked her to snip them off and decorate the castle with them on her birthday, and at this thought, her mood brightens.

“Can I have some pruning shears Uncle Collins”, she asks.

“Of course, of course”, he answers and then with slow yet well-practiced steps, he comes down the ladder and lands on the floor. All the while, the ladder had barely shaken at all. He bends down and opens a wooden box on the ground beside the ladder, rummages within and pulls out a pair of small yet sharp-looking shears with red handles. He stands back up and hands it to her. “Here you go Princess. Be careful with them though, they’re quite sharp”, he cautions.

Amelia suppresses the impulse to pout and announce that she was not a child and as such would not hurt herself with something that small. After all, she was a princess, and flower arrangement was a part of etiquette training. However, she does not do this; after all, she only ever acted spoilt to her family members. So instead, she thanks him politely and walks back to the Bettys.

She crouches on her heels beside the flowers which are pale pink in color and possess quite a unique shape. It looked like a cross between a rose and a daffodil or some other flower, Amelia can’t quite tell. Its petals had a faint luminescent glow with a light sprinkling of glitter. She had never seen any other flower which looked like it before, and she had seen a lot, after all, the Royal gardens were humongous in size. She gently holds one by its stem, lifts the pruning shears with the other hand and cuts it off with a crisp snap. She then holds it up to her nose, closes her eyes and inhales deeply. The Bettys had a sweet yet mellow scent which had the inexplicable effect of calming the mind. At night, the flower seemed to glow and its scent became even richer.

Sighing in delight, Amelia opens her eyes and makes to drop the flower to the side when she realized that she seemed to have forgotten to bring with her, a container to hold them. She stands up- flower in hand, and runs back into the castle. Stepping into the foyer, she ignores the still bustling scene within and walks up to the table placed against the wall. She picks up the big white vase on it, which had a delicate painting of a winding vine on it and places it on the ground. She then pulls off the table cloth laid on it and replaces the vase back onto the now bare table. Hugging the tablecloth to her chest, she runs back out to the garden.

With scrunched up tablecloth in hand, Amelia crouches by the flowers once again and splays the tablecloth on the grass. She then places the Betty she had in her hand on it, picks up the shears and proceeds to cut off the rest. There were quite a few of them so cutting the entire bush takes her about an hour. When she was finally done, she sits down on the ground with a slump, tired from the exertion; seeing the bare bush in front of her and the table cloth heaped with flowers to the side, Amelia smiles, proud of her hard work.

After she had rested a bit, she picks the four corners of the tablecloth and bunched them together, then lifts the whole thing high up, and making sure that it would not scrape against the floor, proceeds to walk back into the castle.

As she walks through the doorway, Butler Jude sees her coming in with her package in hand and rushes over, “Let me help you with that”, he says.

, hurrying to take the bundled table away from her. Amelia however, steps aside to avoid him.

"No Grandpa Jude. I want to do it myself", she says. "I promised Marcy I would", she adds.

"Are you sure?" he asks, unwilling to see her endure any difficulty.

Amelia nods decisively- her face looking firm. He sighs and replies, "If you say so Princess", and moves out of the way.

She smiles brightly up at him and walks over to the table she had taken the tablecloth from. When she gets there, she gentle places the table cloth on the floor and unfolds it. She then carefully picks up a few flower stems and places them into the large white vase on the table. After she places them in a bit haphazardly, she takes a step back and looks it over in contemplation, viewing it from different angles. She then calmly steps forward again and then begins to rearrange the flowers. A few moments later, a beautiful arrangement is artfully displayed. She steps back again and gives it a final look, hand on chin. Satisfied, she nods, then bends down and picks up her flower bundle and leaves.

Butler Jude who had been watching her the entire time also nods in appreciation. Not just at the bouquet she had just created, but at her effortless skill. Flower arrangement though sounding quite simple was actually not as easy as it seemed. Some people took years before they were able to master it. And even then, it was something artistic and thus it was also important for the person to have a creative mind. However, what others would takes a few minutes to create, took the princess a little under a minute to do. And she had only just turned thirteen. Indeed, the Princess was growing up to be a fine young lady.

Amelia then proceeds towards the ballroom where she repeats the same process. Except this time, instead of just one vase, she arranged bouquets in the four vases arranged at corners of the room. Furthermore, each bouquet had a different arrangement; each unique and beautiful in its own way. She then climbs up the stairs and places three bouquets in three vases in the Royal family's private sitting room.

Done with her work, she looks down and notices that she was extremely dusty. It was good that she was wearing brown clothes though, so it wasn't as obvious. She turns towards the hallway to the bedrooms and walks over to hers. She opens the door and steps in, finding that Martha had been waiting for her the entire time.

"Good, you're done", she says, the moment she sees her. "There is hot water in the tub, hurry and get in before it gets cold", she urges Amelia.

She also helps her wash and dry her long hair. After that, with Amelia sitting on the bed in her robe, she lays out a simple white cotton dress at the foot of the bed for Amelia to wear after noticing that she had been yawning for a while. She doesn't bother with the petticoat and corset either, knowing that Amelia wouldn't wear it and would just want to go to bed. And with a curtsy, Martha steps out of the room and gently closes the door behind her.

And as expected, Amelia decides to take a nap, completely exhausted after her activities. "I never knew that gardening was such a tiring chore", she says to herself. Not realising that maybe, it wasn't the gardening that had tired her out but rather, the excitement of her birthday which she had been high on which completely wore her out.

Slowly wearing the clothes laid out for her, she lazily gets into bed and in moments, was fast asleep.