Three Good Princesses - the Finale

While Queen Deirdre finished thanking all those who’d helped prepare for the fair, King Olaf sent a man-at-arms off to search for princess Evergreen. Then, once again he stood before all of the people, and he spoke, “Good people of the realm, now you know that your king and queen are retiring and as promised we must now name the princess who will be your next queen.” The he turned and stood before his eldest daughter,

“Wordsworth”, he said, “Have you chosen a groom and a wise elder?” Wordsworth curtsied before the king and said, “I have father, this is”, she paused to glare at her groom who understood immediately what was expected of him and he blurted out,

“I am Professor Julius Aimes, I am a professor of botany from the Queen’s University and I do beg your pardon your lordship, but I would have someone explain to me why I have been kidnapped and brought before you!”

The queen was flabbergasted, “Kidnapped? Wordsworth….?”

Before she could continue Wordsworth interrupted her, “Mommy dear….it’s merely a misunderstanding…in all the excitement I have merely forgotten to mention a few details….a moment please.” She grabbed her ‘groom’s’ elbow and pulled him to the side and whispered into his ear, “If you marry me you shall be king!” She smiled at him sweetly.

The young botany professor was not impressed, “Marry you? You!? You could have killed me!” He looked at the royal couple, “Her solders, they could have killed me…and this”, he pointed to elder Goddard, “This wise elder”, he spoke the title sarcastically, “allowed this injustice without a word.”

The king looked impatiently at princess Wordsworth, “My dear, was this gentleman taken against his will?”

Princess Wordsworth was nonplussed, “Not at all Father, the ‘botanist’ merely misunderstands the whole situation and he has clearly misrepresented himself. Had he been less duplicitous, he would be in his dirty little garden.”

Turning to the botanist she said, “You gave me to understand that you were a lawyer, what is all this nonsense about being a botanist?” She spat out the word as if she’d been talking about a dog catcher.

The botanist was newly insulted, “Marry you? You? I had no intention of marrying you!” He suddenly stopped and looked around to once again notice that is was in the company of the royal family, “Where is princess Evergreen?”

The queen spoke, “We’ve sent for her….”, but before she could ask what business it was of his the man started to make demands, “I demand to be released, I demand safe passage home, I demand…”

“Yes, of course”, The king knew his eldest daughter well enough to understand what had happened and now he must make restitution with this man before continuing on with his royal business, “Our royal apologies Professor Aimes, obviously there has been some profound misunderstanding her, you are free to go of course. Perhaps, since you are here you could enjoy the festival and tomorrow a carriage will be provided to take you home.”

“Yes….that will do…no, may I stay for the full week of festival?” Before the king could nod yes, the good professor was already elbowing his way through the crowd.

King Olaf turned to his daughter, “Any other prospects for a groom, my dear?”

“No father, but I do have an excellent wise elder,” She introduced Elder Goddard.

“Indeed, and what wisdom did you see, Elder Goddard in allowing Professor Aimes to be dragged here against his will? I should think that a man of knowledge and courage would council against this sort of thing.”

Elder Goddard came forward and spoke in a knowing, eloquent voice, “Your Majesty, begging your pardon, but the princess was obviously under a lot of stress, causing her to make poor judgements. The man was not in any immediate danger, but I felt it best to accompany the group so as to keep a protective eye on him. If I had released him, I am certain the princess would merely have found another ‘groom’. I had a good feeling about this gentleman and thought it best to ride out the whole situation. I still do have a good feeling about today.”

Princess Wordsworth opened her mouth to protest, but a quick glance from King Olaf caused her to shut it without uttering a word. The king looked at the elder, “Wise decision indeed, it’s a shame you have come here as a part of princess Wordsworth’s retinue, for unless she can come up with a groom in the next few minutes her petition for the crown will be rejected.”

King Olaf turned now, hopefully to princess Pantheonia, “My dear, who is your groom…..Pantheonia? Pantheonia? Finally the princess realized she was being addressed, “Father, mother…look, this is the man that I will marry. He is the most talented, the most sensitive, most passionate artist. He is Balthazar, he is my love.” Balthazar grabbed the brim of his hat and with great flourish he bowed most elaborately.

“Mmmmm….yes”, the king didn’t know what to say. The two were obviously in love and as far as he could tell they appeared to be a perfect match. He hoped with all his heart that he choice of a wise elder was wiser than the average elder. He addressed the artist, “Sir Balthazar, I wish to thank you for making my Pantheonia so happy. Would you please introduce her elder?”

Balthazar was all manners and stepped aside to allow young Elder Bertram to come forward. “Your Majesty, I introduce Elder Bertram.”

Queen Deirdre smiled sweetly, “Elder Bertram, you are rather young….how long have you been studying?”

“Your Highness, only ten years, but with the most renowned elders from this realm and beyond. I could arrange for my tutors to speak to you, to vouch for me. I have excellent ‘political skills’.”

The queen was impressed, “Well, I do appreciate your confidence. I’m sure you could handle the politics of the royal court, but…I wonder…how would you handle these two?” She pointed to Pantheonia and Balthazar who stood arms around each other, staring into each others’ eyes.

The young elder opened his mouth, but he had no answer.

The king turned to face the people, “Since Evergreen ppears to be a no-show, and Princess Pantheonia is the only princess to have fulfilled all of the requirements, we must trust that the gods in their wisdom have chosen…”

Just then Evergreen came running through the crowd, “Father! Mother! My gods! You just wouldn’t believe whom I just met.”

The king was not pleased by this interruption, until it occurred to him that Evergreen had said that she ‘met’ someone. He hoped with all his heart that this was the ‘good’ that Elder Goddard had referred to earlier.

“Evergreen, I will give you five minutes to explain your outburst, then we must move on. This is to be Pantheonia’s day.”

“Oh….Pantheonia won the crown? Congratulations Pantheonia….I’m so happy for you. I am just so excited, I must share my news, “First let me apologise for missing the big announcement, but I had met up with Mrs. Mada and she told me that this morning, here at the fair she had met Mr. Feldson. Well, the upshot is that they are trading their homes! Now that Mrs. Mada’s family has grown and left and her husband died last year, she no longer needs such a large house and property. However, it is perfect for Mr. Feldson and his young family. Plus since her land has so much good fire wood he will supply both himself and Mrs. Mada with wood as part of the deal.”
The king thought that this was not sounding like a groom was suddenly in the picture, so in interrupted, “My dear, this is wonderful, but..”

“No, no….I’m not finished…there’s so much more. Mrs. Mada’s only concern was that she’d be terribly lonely being so far away from town and with nothing to do. It came to me just like that, ‘Mrs. Mada’, I said, ‘The king and queen are looking to move into a small cottage on that side of the river, why don’t you let them move into your ‘new’ home? They’ll fix it up really nice I said and you could be the queen’s lady in waiting. I know she’d love the company, wouldn’t you Mother?”

The queen, who was clearly impressed barely had a chance to say yes before Evergreen went on, “Since Mrs. Mada’s pig is already there, they will be reunited, she was very pleased about that….but it will be Mr. Feldson who takes the pig hunting for truffles in the Old Oak Forest. He says he has already sold enough truffles at market today to buy a sled. She was very happy with the whole arrangement and wants to talk to the two of you. What do you think?”

“Evergreen, that sounds perfect, but this really isn’t the time..”

Again Evergreen cut her father short, “Daddy, daddy that’s not all, that’s not why I’m so excited, well of course I am…”

“Evergreen!” King Olaf was losing patience.

Evergreen turned around and reached into the crowd, “Look who I met at the market. Do you know who this is?”

The king was flustered, “Well, yes this is Professor Aimes, a botanist from Queen’s University.”

“Yes, yes….the ladies and I were trying to decide on the winning rose, and we all agreed on the perfect white rose but no one could remember the latin name for it and this gentleman speaks up and says, ‘It’s the rosa splendorus.’

And daddy, although I have never actually met Professor Aimes before, I knew immediately that the man who stood in front of me was the botanist that I’ve been corresponding with for ten years now.”

“Now Julius, tell daddy the rest.” Professor Aimes took Evergreen’s hands and looked into her eyes as he spoke, “The reason I was in the law building at queen’s University, where I was kidnapped, was because I had finally mustered up the courage to decide that I was going to ask Princess Evergreen to marry me. I had no idea of the royal protocol, so I was about to get advise from my legal friend. That’s when I was hit on the head….but I’ve forgotten all of that now and I want to thank Princess Wordsworth for opening the doors for me.”

Finally, the king was as excited as Evergreen was. He spoke to the botanist, “You don’t happen to know a wise elder do you?”

“As it happens“, mused the professor, “I came here with an elder.”

“So you did”, beamed the king, “Elder Goddard, if Princess Evergreen and her groom,” At this point the king turned to Evergreen, “I’m sorry my dear, did you accept the professor’s proposal?”

Evergreen blushed, “Yes, I did, I’ve admired him from afar for a long time. I have always hoped.
King Olaf and Queen Deirdre put their heads together and whispered. Then King Olaf turned again to the crowd,
“My good people, I introduce to you Queen Evergreen and her groom, Professor Aimes, soon to be king. Their councillor will be Elder Goddard.”

A loud cheer went up from the crowd. Princess Pantheonia and Balthazar had left a long time ago. They had thought the day too beautiful to waste on politics and had gone to the venues to buy fare for a picnic.

The only royal who was upset was Princess Wordsworth, but not for long. After all the cheering and congratulations had died down and everyone else had wandered back to the festival, young Elder Bertram found Princess Wordsworth weeping silently under a blooming rose bower.

“My lady, you are the famous royal lawyer are you not?”

“Go away” she said.

“My lady, I have heard many of your teaching speeches and I’ve observed you in court. I am always impressed. You are a woman of great passion and sharp wit, I have learned much from you.

Wordsworth, was not usually easily flattered. Despite this she felt different this time.
“Passion? I speak of facts, laws, logic, not wistful emotions.”

The young elder was not put off by her rebuff, “Ah, yes of course, but you do it with such passion. And your voice, it’s beautiful, melodic and confident and strong. I wonder, would you perhaps be interested in joining me at a poetry recital tonight? I have always thought you were the embodiment of poetry.”

Wordsworth was completely floored. No one had ever dared to speak her like this, “Me? Recite poetry?”

“Yes…I can see that you want to.” He smiled at her warmly.

“Do you mean it?” she asked sceptically.

“Of course, I am an elder, I am sworn to speak only the truth.”

So as Elder Goddard had predicted, the day had gone very well. At the celebration dinner later that evening, King Olaf and Queen Deirdre talked about how pleased the were that they had a queen who knew how to run things and that she was happy to have someone to share her love of nature and her realm. She had someone to help her care for her forests and gardens while she was busy at court.

Earlier they had gone to talk to Mrs. Mada and fund her to be a delightful lady. She showed them their cottage and although they thought they might have to add a room or two they were very pleased with the whole set up.

They watched their three daughters on the other side of the table. Evergreen and Professor Aimes seemed to have so much catching up to do since their last letter.

Pantheonia and Balthazar had turned away from each other long enough to agree to continue designing for the royal court.

And Wordsworth was beaming and blushing in turns as she spoke to her date. The king and queen were very surprised at the turn of events concerning Wordsworth. They were very happy for her, though. Apparently she had found two new passions.

So the realm had a new King and Queen and Old King Olaf and Old Queen Deirdre were able to experience a normal life in a prosperous kingdom under the guardianship of loving benevolent rulers.

The End.

Holy Moly….that was a long stretch. Sorry about not a having a fabulous picture to go with this but I just didn’t have the time. To wit, I will now be stopping with the stories - at least for the summer. I’ve been having a hard enough time trying to find time for this in winter….in summer it would be impossible.

I hope to come back in fall.

Thank you all for reading my stories. Have a blessed fun summer. Namaste.