AN ENCHANTER'S FORETELLING. [NARNIA]

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | GARDENS

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
GARDENS

✧✧✧

Lady Rose was occupied helping the two queens organize the details for a ball, in celebration of the fencing tournament that had been held in the castle several weeks ago. Queen Susan had given her the simplest of tasks, which had been writing an invitation to the neighboring countries that had participated in the tournament. For that reason, regardless of the grim and chilly weather of the autumn, the two kings had busied themselves, training for the tournament as they were to participate alongside Alistair Ashford. But strange enough, the latter had been missing.

The young Rose sat on one of the many wooden desks in the queens' study room, watching how one of the red and brown leaves fell from the tree branches, dancing their way down to the ground. She rested her hand upon her cheek and tapped her finger against the parchment, as if falling deep in her thoughts; it had been almost five o' clock when the Lady remembered her walk with the soldier, and she prayed she'd have time to finish the second to last invitation by the time the hour arrived.

She wanted to finish the invitations so she could be free of duties for the hour, but when she spotted Edmund Pevensie leaning against the refreshments table in the gloomy yards, the memories of the previous night resurfaced. Was there some way she could make it up to him? After all, perhaps this would seize the ongoing feud between them, and finally become friends – or so she hoped that would happen.

And of course, instead of finishing the pending invitation, her mind drifted off into a daydream of what would happen if she and Edmund Pevensie ever became friends.

By the time five o' clock rolled around, the Lady had been deep within her daydreams, and the invitation had still not been finished. The queens had come into the study room to inspect the invitations – the ones she had finished –, and when they had found that Rose was yet to finish them, they volunteered to finish the last two. Rose, however, denied and insisted she was to finish them; the stroll in the gardens would have to wait, then. So, with that in mind, Rose finished scribbling the details on the rough parchment, in her most beautiful handwriting and finished them at last, forgetting to read them for grammar mistakes.

The lady dashed to her sleeping quarters to fetch her gloves and brown coat, forgetting yet again to grab her scarf on her way out. But it was of no use, since she had now been skipping down the halls to head outside to the gardens, where the two kings had been training all afternoon – since the breakfast that had been cut short.

Rose had strolled through the dusty path of the maze gardens, heedful not to even spare a glance at the kings. For reasons you may already know about.

Turns out the lady had still been quite shocked about the minotaur incident; the way he had raised it's blade at her had petrified her, and then, how the boy she swore she disliked came running in to save her. The whole situation had been bizarre, or at least to her. She wrapped her coat around herself tighter and picked at a flower's petals that were slowly turning brown. Mindlessly, she was strolling about in the maze confined with tall bushes to obscure the yards from the gardens.