Eve, a quiet woman with long brown hair, tended this garden. She had the most gentle, sweetest manner about her. She knew everything about plants and herbs used during the Renaissance. She gave tours here each day, and shared her knowledge with visitors.
“Lady Jessie. Come to choose your bouquet at last?”
I hadn’t thought about that either. “Bouquet? Of course. What would you suggest?”
“Lilac would be lovely.” She showed me the purple bloom with tiny flowers. It smelled wonderful. “It means love’s first emotions. A nice sentiment.”
“Very nice.”
“Or perhaps stephanotis. Very popular for wedding bouquets. It means marital happiness.”
I looked at the trumpet-shaped flowers. “Those are nice too.”
She kept telling me about all the flowers that would be good for the bouquet. It made me remember how I’d first decided to write my dissertation on my favorite subject—Renaissance arts and crafts. It also made me remember when I fell in love with Chase.
I’d been working at the castle at the time. He was the queen’s favorite knight. All the ladies loved him.
I was a castle drudge, one of many. I’d seen Chase from a distance, but had never met him. He was too busy with the royal court, and Princess Isabel, to notice much of anything else.
I dropped one of the huge serving trays during the King’s Feast, an event that takes place every Sunday night. Hundreds of visitors pay premium prices to sit in an arena and eat Cornish hens and baked potatoes while swilling ale and watching knights and jugglers perform.
I cursed without the fluency I learned later while I was on the pirate ship. There was nothing else to do but pick up all of the lost food and go back for more. Rita Martinez threw a few blistering words my way. That was way before we were friends.
“Here, let me help you with that,” a warm, male voice said.
Chase was dressed regally in blue brocade. The lights from the candles and lanterns in the Great Hall danced in his eyes. I thought I’d never seen anyone as handsome. I felt like Cinderella, and wished he was my Prince Charming.
He got down on one knee, despite his finery, and began helping me pick up the mess.
“You’re Jessie, aren’t you?” He smiled as he tossed dirty Cornish hens back on my platter.
“Yes, my lord.”
“I’m not a lord. Just a knight. I’ve seen you here before. You’re new to the Village, aren’t you?”
“Yes. This is my first summer.” Nothing like a conversation with the most fantastic man in the world over a pile of spilled vegetables and chicken.
“Are you having a good time?”
“Absolutely.” I smiled and tossed my hair, which was long at the time. I knew I didn’t stand a chance with him, but what the heck? “I’m going to write my dissertation about Renaissance crafts.”
Our eyes made direct contact, and my heart jumped right out of my chest.
“Sounds great,” he said.
Our hands met as he gave me the rest of the coarse bread to pile back on the tray. I wanted to rip off his clothes right then.
Rita called out a sharp warning to get going. Princess Isabel personally came to take Chase away. The moment was over, but I never forgot it.
It was years later that Chase and I finally got together. We were friends after that moment at the castle, but he had his lovers, and I had mine. Still, I always noticed when he walked by places where I was working. He never failed to call out a greeting to me when I watched him joust at the Field of Honor.
“My lady?” Eve called. “I fear you are daydreaming about your wedding.”
“Yes,” I agreed with a smile. “I suppose I was.”
As a matter of fact, I’d come up with something to inscribe into Chase’s ring. Maybe it wasn’t much, but it was from the heart.
I ordered some stephanotis for happiness, and red roses for passion for my bouquet. She smiled, and I was happy when I left the garden. I went right over to see Rene and Renee to tell them what I wanted inscribed in Chase’s ring.
Maybe the wedding was going to be okay after all. If I was there with Chase, how bad could it be?
The rain continued throughout the evening, at times torrential. I loved the scent of the sea that accompanied those storms, a reminder that just outside the Village was the Atlantic Ocean, and the party city of Myrtle Beach.
The Main Gate stayed open until six p.m. as it was supposed to, even though there were very few visitors on the cobblestones by that time. Still there was music and laughter from the Tornado Twins, and the Green Man shook hands with visitors who were leaving. A few colorful fairies flitted around, their wings a little bedraggled by the weather.