Garden Princess Read Online Free PDF Page A

the party,” Marguerite decided. “You said he likes gardens! I shall walk with him and ask him questions about the flowers! Men love to be asked questions. It puts them at ease. Oh, but I’m sure
I
won’t be at ease at all — not if he looks at me again with those eyes. Did you see how blue they were? Just like great big . . . great big . . .” Marguerite struggled for the right word.
    “Forget-me-nots?” Adela suggested. “Sapphires?”
    “Yes!” gushed Marguerite.

It was well after noon when they stopped for lunch. The coachman pulled the horses over beside the dusty country road, and Garth helped Adela and Marguerite out of the carriage.
    Adela stretched as best she could in her tight dress. Two hours of being cooped up in a carriage with chatty Marguerite had been almost more than she could stand, especially coming as it did after three full days of listening to Marguerite and Cecile put forth their various ideas about garden-party fashions. Never mind all that now, Adela told herself. Today would be the start of something new. She was going to collect new plants from Hortensia’s garden. And it wouldn’t be long before she would travel and visit other gardens. Not only that, she would explore woodlands and meadows, mountains and deserts. She was going to bring home plants nobody had ever seen before.
    She looked around. What a fine spot for a picnic! A grove of birches with quivering leaves just beginning to turn yellow, lichen-covered boulders set among the trees like chairs, and, above everything, the mountains, stark and silent against the blue sky. Their dark forested slopes seemed to promise adventure. The sort you might find in a King Ival story, thought Adela. Not the sort you would expect to find at a garden party, which, no matter how much you liked flowers, was sure to be a rather tame event. “How much farther to Flower Mountain?” she asked.
    The coachman — whose name, Axel, was a source of amusement for her father (
My coach has three axles,
the king would joke) — scratched his bald head and squinted up at the mountains. “My guess is we have at least another hour ahead of us, Your Highness. Hard to say, though, what with mountain roads being so unpredictable. Lucky for us there
is
a road — if you can believe the map, that is.”
    “We’d better eat quickly, then,” said Adela. Hortensia’s invitation had said three o’clock, which was rather late in the day for an outdoor party in autumn. Suppose they arrived even later and there wasn’t time to see anything. “I’ll hand out the food,” she offered as Garth set the picnic basket down on the ground. She opened the lid to find cold chicken, cucumber sandwiches, lemonade, and sugar cookies. There were also china plates, crystal cups, and embroidered linen napkins. Adela was surprised that Cecile hadn’t ordered the cook to send along a pair of gold candlesticks! “Who’s hungry?”
    Marguerite, settling herself on one of the boulders, politely declined. “Nothing for me, thank you, Your Highness. I had a bit of toast at breakfast.”
    “More for the rest of us,” said Adela, who was famished in spite of having eaten toast, eggs, bacon, and pancakes earlier. “Here you go, Axel,” she said, handing the coachman a plate piled with food, a cup filled with lemonade, and a napkin. She filled another plate and cup for Garth, then helped herself.
    To her surprise, Garth sat down next to Marguerite. Oh, no! thought Adela. He can’t possibly know what’s to come. Marguerite had talked all morning about her plans for winning Garth’s affection. Now Adela wasn’t sure whether to laugh or feel sorry for him.
    Sure enough, Marguerite set to work right away, smiling shyly and asking if Garth wasn’t
terribly
excited about the party.
    Blushing, he stammered that indeed he was.
    “I
love
flowers,” said Marguerite. “I
absolutely
love them. Don’t you?”
    Garth, still blushing, acknowledged that he did.
    I suppose it won’t