The Tea Ceremony

The candles sparkled on the glorious gold chandelier at the center of the parlour. The sound of idle chatter coming from the ladies of the court gathered together was a cheery sight indeed. The ladies of the court were adorned in glittering jewellery, they wore beautiful evening gowns and their hair was styled in the latest fashion. Tea was served in various flavours and the ladies of the court formed their little groups and chose their companions for the evening.

Queen Elesha was happy to see everyone enjoying themselves and conversing freely. She spotted Lady Drella with another elderly lady talking of the adventures that kept their husbands away from home. Her mother Queen Matilda stood with a cup of tea in her hand scrutinizing everything and everyone with eagle eyes and her sister Estella was gossiping with Lady Lystra of the latest happenings in the Kingdom of Weiss. The parlour was pleasantly not too warm or too stuffy despite the crowd of ladies gathered.

Before the tea drinking ceremony started, Queen Elesha gave her speech. "I would like to thank each and everyone of you for coming to this tea ceremony. I appreciate that each of you represented here have had the courage and the goodness to socialise and get to know each other well. This is the desired effect I was hoping to achieve, us ladies willing to look beyond ourselves and our own interests and eventually look out for one another. I also thank my mother, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Matilda and my sister Her Royal Highness Princess Estella for being in attendance and for your support. It is my pleasure to host and serve you this evening, with that said, enjoy!" The crowd raised its teacups in unison and drank tea, in honour of her speech.

As soon as they set their cups in their sauces, a young lady screamed and called out.

"Please help me! The princess has fainted!"

Queen Elesha rushed to where her sister lay and found her lying on the floor, looking very pale, a tea cup now shattered near her hand.

A physician was summoned and as he arrived, he quickly opened Princess Estella's mouth and checked her tongue.

"The princess has been poisoned," he confirmed. As he studied the colour of the tea that had spilled on the floor, he tested it against different materials.

"Its Hemlock, may I know who was with the princess last."

"I was, the princess wanted to taste the concoction of tea that was meant for Queen Elesha" cried the same young lady.

"How did you know it was meant for Queen Elesha?"

"We asked the serving girl, and she told us so she was headed for Queen Elesha and we stopped her out of sheer mischief."

"I see, Your Majesty I will inspect the concoction myself and find the serving girl. In the meantime, ladies please stay away from the tea that is served. It would be wise if you ended tonight's event and every one of you returned home, I am sorry Your Majesty but this is so that further investigations can be carried out much more smoothly."

"You're right Doctor, I shall close the ceremony," replied Queen Elesha.

The ladies of the court did not drink a single drop more if the tea that was served that night. The guards scurried the entire parlour for clues and started questioning the servants. The mysterious serving girl was not found and everyone searched for her. The ladies of the court left the castle I. their carriages after each one had been questioned that evening. Most were pale faced and some were anxious to leave as soon as possible.

"This is bad omen Your Majesty, I am sorry for your sister."

"Thank you, Lady Drella, I must bid you a safe journey back home. I need to check on my sister at once," answered Queen Elesha as she hurriedly left the parlour.

The servants had carried her sister up to her chambers and as she arrived inside she noticed the doctor slowly trying to coax her to swallow an antidote. Her sister had regained consciousness but had vomitted out blood. She was conscious for a moment as she whispered slyly to Elesha loud enough for her to hear. "I'm glad I drank that tea and not you little sister," she said before succumbing to unconsciousness again. Tears gathered in Queen Elesha's eyes as she looked at her sister, she whispered, "I wish you had been more careful and not so brash big sister."

"Doctor Franklin will she recover from Hemlock positioning?"

"Yes Your Majesty, your mother has offered to administer the antidote personally to the princess in small doses, so she does not suffer from the side effects."

"Thank you Doctor," Queen Elesha replied.

"It is fortunate that the concentration of Hemlock was not strong enough to do more harm, I believe it was not brewed in the tea long enough."

"Whoever it is must have wanted me dead," she whispered.

"Or unable to conceive children," said the Doctor gravely as he stared at the sleeping princess.

"I will examine her everyday, Your Majesty."

"We are ever grateful to you, Doctor Franklin."

"It is my due service, Majesty."