Her Majesties Ring

“I want to give you a gift.” The words fell unexpectedly from Queen Florentines mouth. Having thought the Queen to be sitting alone on the garden bench Hadley paused in trimming the topiary to peer curiously back at her. it was with a start that he found she was looking at him, her book laying forgotten in her lap.

Queen Florentine’s wide mouth split into an all-consuming grin as she spoke in a laugh. “Yes you.”

Lowering his shears and turning to regard her majesty hesitantly, Hadley asked, “What was that, My Queen?”

“I want to give you a gift.” She repeated and his thick eyebrows lowered over his green eyes in a perplexed expression.

“For what?” asked the gardener, who’d just now already broken his previous record for words spoken to the Queen in one sitting.

“For nothing, it’s a gift not a reward.” Her green eyes twinkled at him brightly. “Now come and accept like a good subject.”

Hadley hesitated a moment before bending to set his gardening sheers down upon the cobblestones and obediently crossing to where she sat. she bent her head to look down at her slightly weathered hands, each finger fixed with a plethora of jewels, and Hadley found himself studying the silver streaks in the Queens intricately woven red hair. It took him a moment to look down and see her majesty tugging off a thick gold band set with a pearl roughly the side of a cherry pit.

Hadley stiffened at the sight of it, his breath stopping in his throat for he could tell at one glance that it was worth more than everything he owned put together. The Queen looked up at him with distinct fondness and held out her hand expectantly.

Hadley shook his head nervously, his hands stuck rigidly to his sides. “That’s too much.”

“Is there such a thing when it comes to gifts?” the Queen asked sweetly.

“I should think so, your highness.” Hadley kept his gaze fixed to Queen Florentines aged face for he could not stand to look upon the ring.

“Don’t be foolish,” she chuckled, the lengthy stretch of her mouth gathered into an endeared smirk. “It would be rude to turn away a gift from your esteemed Queen.”

“I would feel I was taking advantage of you.” He insisted weakly as he took a step back from her.

“Now you imply that I don’t have my wits about me?” her eyes narrowed to green slits though her smirk remained, “You would treat me with such little dignity.”

“I– I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant.” Hadley protested fervently in spite of her laughter.

“The least you could do is accept my gift.” Queen Florentine wagged the fingers of her raised hand beckoningly, drawing his gaze down once more.

Swallowing hard Hadley raised a shaky hand and laid it in her firm grip. He watched tensely as the Queen slid the ring onto his finger, its weight instantly apparent. Miraculously it seemed to fit his thin fingers in spite of its size. Even so, it looked extremely out of place on him.

Queen Florentine continued to hold his hand in both of hers as she gazed wistfully down at the ring she’d placed upon him. “I don’t know what it is, perhaps something in the way you move, but you remind me of my son.”

Hadley wasn’t sure what to say to that. His lips parted as if to speak and then he closed them again, his mouth going dry. “You had a son?” he managed to ask at last because he was sure he would have heard about a Prince being born. The Queen currently had no heirs to the throne, her only child being the Princess Heather who’d passed from a sickbed to a coffin at fifteen.

“It’s been such a long time now.” she murmured quietly as her smiled faded. “My husband viewed him as a humiliation, a threat to the line of ascension, so he had him killed.”

Hadley flinched more from the words than the tightening of her hands around his fingers. “You should not be telling me this, My Queen.”

“I wish we knew each other better.” She stroked the back of his hand absently.

Hadley thought the Queens eyes, which had been so bright only a moment before, seemed lost now. He reached out to clasp her hands back and said nothing, allowing her to sit quietly and stare out at their joined fingers in thought.

He had heard rumours that Queen Florentines mind had started to go in her age, that she spoke nonsense and was overly friendly, but Hadley didn’t interact closely enough with her to form an opinion. Now however, it seemed like the court’s speculations had been true, at least to a certain point. Florentine being old and delirious would explain why she was confessing her dark secrets to random servants in the garden, but Hadley was not inclined to believe what she’d said was untrue or nonsensical.

At length the Queen looked up at him and smiled a bit more sadly than before. “Promise me you’ll keep the ring. You won’t sell it or give it away.”

“Someone’s going to think I stole it, your majesty.” He answered tentatively, regretting having let her put it on him.

“You will not lose this ring.” She spoke with conviction, her eyes bright once more. “Do you promise?”

Hadley didn’t really feel he had a choice. Swallowing hard he gave a single nod, “I promise.”

She smiled a bit wider and he was struck by how lucid she suddenly seemed. So much so that he questioned whether he’d simply misinterpreted her quiet reflection earlier. Finally, she released his hands and tucked her book under her arm as she reached for her cane.

“And I can trust you to keep my confidence, can I not?” she pressed on, “You won’t speak of my son or my husband.”

Again, the shock of her words made him feel like she’d dealt him a blow, but he nodded obediently. “Of course, I wouldn’t say a word against you, My Queen.” And he did mean it too. Regardless of having no prior relationship with her Hadley felt fiercely loyal to the Queen, who’d employed him for so many years when he’d turned up at her court with little to no memory.

Queen Florentine stood with grace in spite of the use of her cane and met his gaze intently, “Then you won’t tell anyone that I was the one who poisoned King Melvyn.”

The statement left him dumbfounded. Hadley opened his mouth but nothing came out. For a moment he stood rock still as his heart beat wildly, and then he noticed the Queen watching him expectantly. Closing his mouth, for he knew he would not be able to make words come, he nodded again.

“I did it for my son,” she continued quietly.

“I– know nothing of what you’ve done.” He answered feebly.

Thankfully this seemed to satisfy her and she reached out to give his head an almost motherly pat. “Be sure to use my gift wisely now.” she cautioned before turning and striding away regally.

Hadley watched her go, his body robbed of feeling save for where the weight of the ring dragged at his finger.

Hadley removed the ring the moment Queen Florentine was out of sight and hid it safely within his pocket before bearing it back to the Gardeners shed. He slipped into his room in the back where he knelt on the rug beside his cot, and only then did he pull out the ring again.

His insides squirmed at the sight of it as if it were some ill gotten gain. Truthfully, he wanted no part of it but he’d promised the Queen he would not get rid of it. though it seemed unlikely that she’d ever find out he was reluctant to go against her majesties wishes.

It wouldn’t do to have it laying around for anyone to see. He lifted the rug and carefully pulled up one of the floorboards in order to make a hiding place for the it.

As he hid the ring Hadley made himself forget the lucidity he’d seen in Queen Florentine’s gaze. He convinced himself that she was delusional, that what she’d said wasn’t true, because if it wasn’t true then he couldn’t be held responsible for not telling anyone about it.

By the time he rolled the rug back over the newly placed floorboard he felt sure of his own deception.

The morning after his encounter with the Queen, Hadley forced himself to put it out of his mind as he went to tend the flowers as usual. As he sorted through each repetitive task, however, it seemed his thoughts kept circling back to it. it was difficult not to, interesting things didn’t happen to him that often, but that didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t sure what to think of it.

The only thing that seemed capable of steering his musings away from this trajectory was the frequent occasions where he’d look back and find a cluster of what had once been closed buds now partially bloomed. It had seemed only a little odd at first and he’d been able to conclude that he must have remembered wrong, but the more it kept happening the stranger it was. Hadley took to keeping a close eye on the flower buds and discovered that they were in fact blooming at a rapid pace. Moreover, he began to notice that it consistently only seemed to be happening to flowers he touched.

But that couldn’t be right, he told himself the moment this realization reached him. It had to be some sort of coincidence. Still, out of curiosity he experimented with touching a few tightly closed buds and leaving others un-fondled.

He watched them carefully until he could confirm that only the ones he’d touched had started to break open.

Hadley was kneeling before a yellow rose bush when the realization sunk in. It was definitely happening, whatever this was, he knew he wasn’t imagining it. So, what exactly did that mean?

It was like the situation with Queen Florentine all over again, a strange occurrence that was far beyond his understanding of how it might affect him.

Around the time he was thinking this Hadley’s speculations hit a wall and stopped dead. He had nothing to go on from there and so he was forced to continue his day as if he hadn’t discovered anything shocking at all. Still, he went over the events obsessively in his head throughout the day and went to bed that night still trying to make sense of them.

Three weeks passed without any sort of change. The ability to make flowers bloom neither dwindled nor intensified. Nothing came of it and so Hadley simply didn’t acknowledge it. It was what it was.

Unfortunately, in that same time a plague that had been sweeping across the kingdom finally managed to make its way past the castle walls. Fewer and fewer nobles were seen wandering through the garden where Hadley spent most of his days. All of them, presumably being moved to the sick bay.

It was surreal knowing that so many were falling fatally ill while the garden remained as peaceful as ever. The brightly coloured flowers unfurling slowly beneath the sunlight seemed to exist in an entirely different world from the rest of the kingdom. So much so that it was genuinely startling when those two worlds collided.

A scream tore across the vibrant reverie, sending birds scattering as Hadley turned towards the commotion.

A woman raced after her daughter as the child dashed away from the castle shrieking, “I don’t want to go back to the sick bay!”

The girls foot caught on the hem of her long night dress and sent her sprawling forwards. Hadley reflexively dropped his gardening sheers and reached out to catch her before she hit the cobblestones.

The girl looked up at him through watering eyes and Hadley saw the full extent of the plague. Anywhere the thick black veins spreading across her check hadn’t reached had grown red and irritated. Perhaps the redness was from the crying but Hadley didn’t think so.

The girls mother swept forth and swiftly snatched her daughter from his hands. “Quit acting foolish, Rebecca! How are you going to get better if you won’t let the physician treat you?” she steered her weeping daughter back towards the castle without looking at Hadley.

Hadley met Queen Florentine in the garden again only once more after she gave him the ring. Nearly a month had passed when he was kneeling amidst the carnations and plucking off the deadheads to place in the basket he kept at his side.

The Queen stepped up behind him, throwing her shadow over the pink flowers. He looked back and startled at the sight of her leaning on her cane.

“How are you liking your gift, my dear?” she asked him softly.

“Oh, it’s lovely.” He fumbled for words and looked down at his hands which were notably void of any adornment. “I’m not wearing it now because– because I don’t want it to get dirty.”

He glanced nervously up at her but she only smiled kindly back, “I got the same gift from my mother.”

Hadley’s heart thudded violently against his chest, “It was a heirloom then?”

“Of sorts,” her green eyes glowed fondly at him. “It has left me now though.”

Swallowing hard Hadley began, “I– I could give it back, your highness.”

“Heh, even if you returned the ring you could not give it back.” She told him coyly, “Do you understand what I mean.”

Hadley hesitated and then fidgeted slightly as he nodded. “I think I do.”

“I had to use the gift for something very important, and it has only gotten farther from my reach since. I worry it may have shortened my life.”

“I– I’m sorry.” Hadley stammered, fearing she must be speaking something of the Kings death again. “Do– do you regret it?”

She looked at him very seriously for a moment and then her wide mouth stretched into a sizable smile. “No.”

A chill went up Hadley’s spine in spite of the summer heat and his throat grew tight. “Why give me the ring?” he asked Quietly, “I mean, why me out of everyone? I’m sorry I don’t understand.”

“I’ve told you, you remind me of my son.”

“And that’s enough?”

“Yes.”

Hadley wasn’t sure what to say to that but that was nothing new, so the Queen was used to it when he found himself sitting in dumbfounded silence. Still smiling Queen Florentine came forward, her cane clicking against the cobblestones, and dropped her hand to rest on the top of his head. Hadley stiffened in surprise.

“I want you to be happy.” She told him kindly, and then added before he could respond, “can I have those?”

She pointed down at the straw basket he’d been filling with deadheads.

“They’re dead.” He told her.

“So, I can have them?”

He blinked up at her and then nodded. “Of course, my Queen.”

He gathered the handles of the basket together, the straw bending around the decapitated flowers easily, and placed them in her weathered and jewelled hand.

Queen Florentine took the basket, gave the gardener her widest, sweetest smile, and turned to wonder away. Hadley watched her go, her white striped red hair glowing beneath the sun, and felt something grow tight inside his chest.

Within the next two days Queen Florentine went to her sick bed and was predicted never to rise from it.

Hadley felt a twinge of pain at the news, he’d always liked the Queen even in all her strangeness. He felt close to her in spite of never knowing her, but that wasn’t reason enough to demand he visit her sickbed. He left her be.

It seemed that Queen Florentine’s nephew, Lord Wilburn was poised to succeed her. Hadley saw him in the garden sometimes, staring up at the balcony attached to the Queens suite in thought, his face unreadable.

The gardener wondered if Wilburn knew about the Queens ring, but did not let himself worry about it. He had half convinced himself that some small animal might have gotten beneath the floorboards and carried it away by now.

Hadley carried on with his duties as usual. One evening, a week after his final encounter with the Queen, he glimpsed a gaggle of children fluttering amongst themselves beside one of the fountains. The gardener stopped dead in his tracks, amazed and bewildered by what he saw.

The plague-ridden girl he’d stopped in the garden only a few weeks prior was now sitting amongst her friends, her face clear of any marks or blemishes as she grinned from ear to ear. She seemed perfectly healthy and for a moment Hadley doubted whether it was the same person at all, but when he looked around, he spotted the girls mother lurking nearby.

Hadley crossed a bridge over a small stream and approached the noble woman. She didn’t seem to notice him as he stepped up beside her.

“My Lady,” Hadley began softly.

She turned sharply towards him and the gardener hastened to bow.

“I’m glad your daughter seems to be doing better.” He continued respectfully, keeping his eyes lowered.

The noble woman scrutinized him with distaste before answering, “Yes, we are all glad of that.”

“Have they found a cure for this plague then?”

“No,” she turned stiffly away from him, “She just got better one day. The illness seems to have just passed.”

“That’s good to hear, my Lady.”

Her manner did not welcome farther conversation, but Hadley had already heard what he needed to. He knew that plagues didn’t simply just pass.

His head was busy as he retreated from her and at last, he made a decision.

Late that night he slipped inside the castle, where he remained for only a few minutes before he could be seen making his way back across the garden to his shed. Not once did he look up to notice Queen Florentine watching him from where she sat on the balcony in her nightdress, absentmindedly laying flowers across the railing.

Five days afterwards everyone was released from the sickbay and proclaimed to be free of plague, though the doctors still worried.

Hadley walked into his sleeping quarters at the back of his shed the night after hearing the news and noticed a lump beneath the rug. He tucked a toe under the edge of the rug and kicked it to the side. Greenery was pushing up between the cracks in the floorboards, boasting emerald leaves attached to thin branches.

He stared at it for a moment, and then, swallowing hard, he knelt beside it. Carefully pulling up the floorboard Hadley looked down at where a small, shrub-like tree was growing below the shed. The Queens ring, with its distinct cherry-pit-sized pearl, was wrapped around the growth’s spindly trunk.

For a long time, Hadley could only stare at it, but at last he came to another decision.

Hadley dug up the tree with great care, careful to keep its roots in tact, and carried it out into the garden. Queen Florentine’s balcony was empty when he came to stand beneath it. He buried the tree there under the light of the moon.

When he’d finished Hadley bend his head low over the sapling and brushed his fingers first across its leafy crown, and then along the smooth white surface of the pearl still hanging from the trunk. He had no idea how its power worked or under what circumstances it might answer to him, but he had to try something.

“Please,” he asked the ring softly, “I need to get into Queen Florentine’s room. Please, help me.”

He watched the ring as if it might answer him, his reflection staring back from the pearls glimmering surface. At last he withdrew silently and returned to his shed.

The following night he made sure to look towards the balcony before turning in and found the tree had grown to roughly his size. The next night he saw the tree had grown half the distance to his balcony. On the third night there was no mistaking that the tree had grown high enough.

He waited until it was dark and everyone was sure to be asleep before steeling out to where the tree stood. Its existence was miraculous and his heart swelled at the sight of it.

The trunk had the likeness of thick ropes that had been twisted together, and provided easy hand holds for him to grab onto. He scaled the tree determinedly though scrambling up the branches proved to be more difficult than the trunk. They were a bit too flexible for comfort and bent steeply beneath his weight. He made it to the balcony none the less.

Hadley was prepared to attempt picking the lock, though he was horribly inexperienced, but when he grabbed the doorknob, he found with a start that it was already unlocked. Growing suspicious he wondered for a moment if he shouldn’t enter, but then that seemed silly as he’d already climbed all the way up here.

He stepped into the Queens darkened bedchamber, illuminated only by the moonlight coming through the door. Hadley stepped around a straw basket laying on the floor, overflowing with brightly coloured flowers, and drew nearer to the bed.

Queen Florentine looked small and grey as she laid sleeping, her red hair with its grey streaks fanned around her head in frizzy knots. The loose skin of her neck and arms that she must have so carefully concealed was suddenly very apparent.

Hadley could only seem to acknowledge that even while sleeping and weak her mouth seemed to stretch for miles.

He knelt silently beside her bed and reached a shaking hand for her arm. His fingers closed around her elbow and he waited one breath, two, and then looked up to find the Queens eyes had opened into shining green slits.

Hadley froze, his heart thudding wildly in his chest as he stopped breathing completely.

The Queen raised her hand, and in a movement that seemed to take forever she slowly reached out to place it on top of his. “It’s no use, dear.” She croaked so quietly he almost couldn’t hear her.

She smiled weakly at him and then her eyes closed once more.

Hadley was not surprised to hear of Queen Florentine’s passing the next morning. He spent much of that day neglecting his duties to lay on his cot. The garden practically tended itself these days anyway.

He wasn’t sure why it hurt so much but such aches are not always worth questioning.

The day after that he watched them burn her funeral pier, and the day after that he went back to tending the garden.

For a month he continued his duty in a blind haze, feeling inexplicably lost. Finally, one evening he passed by the tree he’d planted beneath her balcony and a glimmer caught his eye.

Hadley turned to see the pearl ring wedged in the truck like a bejewelled knot. It didn’t look like it would move but he reached for it anyways. The ring came away easily into his hand.

He stared down at it for a long time, the pearl winking back at him gloriously in the daylight. He wasn’t really sure what he felt.

After an eternity of loitering beneath the tree with the ring held in his hand it finally sunk in all at once, the realization that he had no reason to be here.

Slowly he picked up the ring and turned over a trembling hand so he could place it on his finger. He blinked down at it, the thing looking just as out of place as when he’d first gotten it, and then he looked up at the garden and took his time staring around at it.

He continued to stare around at everything as he took his leave, touching everything he could as he walked past. He stopped only to grab his clothes from his room before he exited first the garden, and then the castle.

Once King Wilburn was crowned, he was forced to hire a new gardener, seeing as no one was really sure what happened to the last one. By the time winter came the plague affected only very few, many having miraculously recovered without knowing why.

As the snow fell in the garden everyone marvelled as the flowers continued to bloom jewel bright beneath the frost.