The Chocolate Rose

"It's not like the mountains around here, Connie, it's so flat and boring," Arrik replied morosely.

Into a trencher Connie piled up bacon from a huge tray already prepared and popped on top a couple of the fried eggs that had been bubbling away over the fire and placed the steaming trencher in front of her favourite Prince.

"Here, eat up Rik and then get out of my kitchen," she said, feigning displeasure, disarming her words with her usual loving smile on her rosy face. "And no more washing up chores for you, my prince, since I've got all the help I need since moving here, thank you."

"Alright," he replied, cheering up a little with the smell of the bacon, "but if you are ever short handed..."

His mother walked into the kitchen as Arrik was halfway through eating his breakfast. Connie and the four or five staff present all curtsied the Queen. They were not accustomed to seeing her in the kitchen. She clearly knew where she would find her only son though. She sat herself onto the bench seat opposite and motioned him to sit back down after kissing her on the cheek.

"I thought you were wonderful dealing with Princess Loquaria last night, sweetheart. You set out so gently but firmly in telling her that you were breaking off your engagement. I was so proud of the way you handled that delicate matter."

"Well, then she shocked me by being so pleased about her release from our betrothal. How was I to know she has been madly in love with some pimply lakeside farmer for the last couple of years? Nobody tells me anything. I've never been kissed so any times in one go before in the name of joyful gratitude."

"Well, I thought it was a touching and beautiful moment, dear."

Connie brought over some buttered toast for the Queen and, while there, she squeezed her favourite prince on the shoulder.

"I'm proud of you too, Your Highness." Connie said, before she walked back to her cooking pots.

"So that's why you've come into the kitchen, Mother, to embarrass me in front of Connie?"

"No, of course not, I love how regally you are handling yourself, honourable and noble as a king should be, as well as relaxed and charming with the staff you know and love. Your people will love you deeply as they get to know you, too. I just want to be sure that you, the man within and behind the royal mask of duty, is happy, too," she said, "I think you are ready to take over your duties as King any time you want to. No need to wait for the coronation to take up your responsibilities."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. That will mean I can proceed with my own projects, as I settle into my new role as King's Mother. I am setting up my own coven again, having tracked down the daughters of my old coven. I want to be ready to do good magic while you become King."

"So it is true, you really are a witch?" he smiled at his mother.

"I was always a witch, Rikky, I left my coven when I married your father. I am looking forward to casting good spells again." She paused before continuing, "I like that maiden, Elvira, you know, and wonder why she doesn't come over much any more."

"Well, she stayed here for a whole week," he replied.

"In the very room you have now moved into, where you wallow in your solitude."

"Yes, you are right as usual. As for El, she only came back once or twice a week to see Tom while he was recovering. Now I suppose she only sees him at the Lake."

"So you didn't see her when she came to the palace?"

"I haven't seen her since that first dawn after the Count... I don't see Tom now either, since he went to the Castle on the Lake to rest a few days ago, so I suppose once they get married I'll hardly ever see them at all."

"Tompty and Elvira won't marry each other, Rikky. He's quite friendly with one of my ladies in waiting, he's been seriously courting Lady Tenly for the last couple of years. He would pop down to the Lake every chance he could and that is why he is staying down there now, helping her pack up the last of my books and gowns. Elvira didn't follow him down there, dear, she is at home with her father. I hear she is back teaching in her school."

"What!? Tom's seeing someone else as well as Elvira, playing with their affections?"

"No, I'm sure he isn't. Anyway, I know for a fact that Elvira doesn't love Tompty, at least not in that way. I know who she is in love with and who should give her a chance to secure the happiness she deserves."

"I know I shouldn't ask this, Mother, just who is it that Elvira-Coral is in love with?"

"You, of course, Rikky, dear. When I speak to her, and I have a lot recently, all she ever speaks about is you."

"Me? But we have hardly ever been together since that one day we met."

"Ah, the day when you released her father from a dungeon, rescued her from the tower, protected her from your uncle, saved her from being burned as a witch, while she saved your best friend Tompty. That day ..." Queen Etherida pointed out with her handsome smile, "and she saved your life that day, too."

"Saved my life?"

"Surely you've heard all the talk of how the archer Birtley, the finest bowman in the land, missed your heart at point blank range? He missed hitting you at all. I remember when he was once your father's best archer and he had practiced constantly since. Everyone in the Kingdom, but you, knows that Elvira saved you from certain death on that day."

"But ... how?"

"Elvira's mother was a witch, in fact her mother Coral-Enn was of my old coven. Elvira has inherited her healing powers and I am sure she was also able to deflect the arrow directed at your heart. She saved your life, my son, and you've hardly ever spoken to her since. I hope you don't break her heart, and you will if you don't love her in return."

"But it hurt me too much seeing her, believing she loved another, my cousin. And she is a commoner. The law says a king must marry a princess."

"What the law actually says, dear, is that only a princess can become queen, but a prince can marry whoever he chooses, whoever he loves. Better by far someone he loves and loves him back. When I married your father, Bygord was a prince and I was a witch. I gave up my coven to became a princess and later queen. Ultimately that sacrifice saved my life, if I had still been a witch I would have been murdered by Count Condron, along with all my coven sisters."

"So, if Elvira loves me, as you think she does, I would be free to marry her?"

"Yes, if you love her."

"I do love her, Mother, I can't stop thinking about her."

"Well, you better get a move on, if we are going to fit in a wedding before the coronation."

"I could go there now!"

"What, in all this snow? It is too deep for a coach and you are not a good enough horseman yet."

"You are right, Mother, I'll never make it by horse, or by coach."

***

Chocolate roses

Elvira heard first the ringing bell and then the town crier announce that there would be no school today, because of the snow. She was already dressed in her warmest cloak, ready to make the short walk to the school house. She thought she would go outside anyway as there were a number of frail people who would be unable to get out and about because of the snow and be welcome of a friendly visit. Her father was already at work in the Town Hall, preparing for the coronation in the high church hall as soon as winter ended.

The thought of the coronation, that everyone in the land eagerly looked forward to, only made her sad.

"I will serve the children of this town in any way I can, like my father has all his life," she said to her mirror as she finished tying up her braids to fit under her hood, "I will never marry. I could never marry a man unable to match the one who holds my heart. I will serve my king, even if he's forgotten I ever existed."

She wiped the tears from her eyes, squared her shoulders and ventured out onto the snow-covered footpath in front of her house.

The snow to the sides of the street was only about three inches deep, due to the overhang on the houses, but the centre of the street was over a foot thick in places. It was hard, powdery snow that looked as though it would be around for a while, with large soft flakes falling gently on top. She could clearly see on the surrounding hills how thick the snow lay, with many of the stone walls covered by drifts, the highways impassable.

The snows were early this year, she thought. Already, school children were out playing making snowmen and a stray snowball whizzed close by her, followed by a high-pitched apology. Parents were outside with their little ones, too, so it was looking like a holiday, with no school or little work for anyone today.

The town crier rang his bell again and started a brand-new news item, "Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! Latest news! Latest news! Check your gardens as chocolate roses are appearing in gardens everywhere. There is one chocolate rose for every man, woman and child. Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!"

Elvira looked around her, people were emerging from their front doors, each carrying chocolate roses. Parents with several children had a matching number of chocolate roses, enough for everyone in the land, apparently.

She turned and ran through her house to her back yard. There, in an otherwise empty patch of snow-covered earth, two chocolate roses stood quivering on thin chocolate stems, proud and clear of the snow.

She, of all people, knew the chocolate rose was only an idea, it was never real. It was an idea her father dreamed up. Magic, she thought, it can only be magic, of a power and sense of sweet humanity that was a miracle in itself. As she reached out for one of the roses, her rose, another chocolate stem grew out of the ground right in front of her eyes. It soon reached the height of the others, with a tiny bud on top that expanded as it grew up until the bud blossomed into a perfect chocolate rose. A few soft flakes of snow settled on the glistening blooms in frosty decoration.

Three roses? There was only her father and herself living in this house. Why would they have three? Imperfect magic, perhaps? In a daze she plucked two of the delicate stems and carried the roses through to the front street.

Everyone was pointing up the hill, along the Kings road towards the Palace. There had been no traffic on the high road all morning, other than pedestrians around the houses. The snow was too deep and slippery on that steep hill for any horse or cart to manage.

But there at the top of the hill, after an impossible journey, and now rushing down the virgin slope on skis towards her, was the Prince for whom that extra magical rose in her garden must be intended.

Her heart soared knowing that there could be only one reason why Arrik had come here. He had come for her. That's why the magic of the chocolate roses appeared just at this moment.

Arrik was her Prince, soon to be King, her Rik, who would love her forever and ever.

The end.