Chapter Three: Maid Elvira

The gardener's rose garden has been dug up and everything bagged and sent to the Palace for expert examination. So Arrik was unable to gather any information, despite checking over the barren ground for any clues.

When Arrik was introduced to the daughter of the gardener by Tompty, he was described as a foreign scientist, interested in investigating the phenomenon of the chocolate rose. Arrik was instantly struck by her stunning looks.

The maiden, about his own age, was tall, only an inch or two shorter than he, and slender, with long braided black hair and the darkest brown eyes he had ever seen. Like liquid pools of chocolate, he mused.

She was quite the most beautiful creature he had ever had the pleasure to meet, not that he had ever had much opportunity to meet young maids. At home, the daughters of the tradesmen often persuaded their fathers to take them up to where the handsome young prince lived. While some were pretty, none of them affected him as strongly as this maiden did.

"I am Doctor ... er Rik" he stumbled, trying to remember that he was supposed to hide his true identity from this beautiful young woman, "And you are Maid ...?

"Err-r-rick?" she asked in imitation of his clumsy introduction, clearly with a disarmingly amused smile playing on her face.

"No, just Rik," 'oh dear', he thought, 'This isn't going well', "and you are?"

"I am El, Doctor Rik," she answered, "just El."

"A very short name, Maid El, for one so tall," he smiled at the raven-haired creature, mesmerised by her eyes, which sparkled with lively intelligence, maintaining eye contact with him. She was erect, proud, confident and smart, unlike the shy unsophisticated village maids he was used to addressing, "may I be permitted to know your full name?"

"Maid Elvira-Coral Shacklefurthbury. I know, it is an awful mouthful of a name, which is why all my friends call me El."

"Then you are just the person I need to speak to, about the chocolate rose-"

"Oh, no, I am saying no more about the chocolate rose, I've been questioned up hill and down dale on that subject. I am heartily sick of it and I have nothing more to add. Please ask my father, who is being asked questions on that very subject even now, by the Count's authority."

"I can't," Arrik admitted, "He is still in the Count's dungeon."

"And you clearly have no access to him, even though you are here supposedly as a foreign expert in such matters?"

"I am here in ... an unofficial capacity."

"Merely to satisfy your curiosity ... Doctor Rik?"

"Something like that," he admitted.

"Yes, I thought there was something rather strange about you. For a foreign professor, you speak my language extraordinarily well, a little too well, I think, sort of ... well, a bit plummy, if you ask me."

"Well, my mother was originally from around here, or perhaps a little more to the south, and you should realise that foreigners practising another tongue always try to speak it more exactly than a native would."

"So, as a native of your own distant land, how would you say, 'Good morning, El', in your native tongue?"

"Er, 'croresny patchek, El, payn'."

"Mmm, why the 'payn' at the end?"

The Prince-cum-Doctor smiled and cheerfully lied for his amusement, "It is a mark of respect, specifically reserved for maidens of school age or similarly immature."

"Really? Well, not only have I left school, I am a teacher at the local elementary school, so I am not sure that 'payn' is still an appropriate term to use."

"Then, El, if I may be allowed to call you as your friends do, I will refrain from what you find an offending epithet." Arrik added, "Is it usual for the daughter of a gardener to be a school teacher?"

"My father is not just a gardener," El replied testily, "but the Mayor of Newmarket town, I suppose the Count found it much easier to throw a gardener into his dungeon than a town mayor!"

"I wasn't aware of that," admitted a thoughtful prince.

Arrik turned to Tompty, "We must speak to this gardener, or rather the Mayor, Tom."

"But, my fa-"

"Your ... the Count ... gave permission for me to investigate the existence or otherwise of this supposed chocolate flower, if we need to question him then I insist-"

"All right, all right!" grinned Tompty, holding his hands up in mock surrender, "I give up, to the Palace dungeons we go."

"I would also like to come with you to see my father," Elvira said, quietly and then more forcibly, "he has been gone for over a week now without any word as to his wellbeing. May I accompany you, Doctor Rik?"

"Of course," Arrik readily agreed.

The thought of sharing a coach with this beautiful young maid for a couple of hours was an agreeable notion, except that Tompty was also with them. Arrik was well aware that his older cousin had casually flirted with or courted a succession of village maids, while he was shy with those few that had hesitatingly tried to become familiar with him.

Elvira, to his regret, only seemed to find Arrik amusing rather than attracted to him. She started on him in the coach before they had even left the town and climbed the long steep hill out of the valley along the Palace road.

"Your coachmen seem armed with the same swords issued to the palace guard, Doctor, as does your man here, who carries himself more like a knight than any ordinary manservant of a learned investigator. I noticed the weapons and the two types of military men when my father was arrested last week."

"I dare say such weapons are a common issue, available to all who wish to purchase arms of the common sort."

"Possibly, but the crests you have painted on the coach doors have been covered by sheets of parchment decorated in a plain and rather crudely painted coat of arms that I've not seen before. Did you, by any chance, paint them yourself?" She had an amused smile on her beautiful face.

"No," Arrik lied, but unavoidably turned red under her gaze as he did so, unaccustomed as he was in telling a lie, "now why would you think that?"

"Because in the sunlight the parchment becomes transparent and the Royal Coat of Arms underneath is quite unmistakeable."

Arrik thought about it for only a second, before holding out his hand to the clever and beautiful young woman.

"Maid Elvira-Coral Shacklefurthbury, it is my pleasure to properly make your acquaintance. I am Prince Arrik and this companion knight is my cousin and best friend, Sir Tompty, the Captain of my personal guard, two of whom are pretending to be coachmen."

Elvira smiled and shook the hand of each man in turn.