Chapter 15

"Is this the garden?" Hazel asked her companions, as they stopped briefly in front of a fountain. She stared up in awe at the magnificent statue of a horse that had water gushing out from it's mouth.

Amara thought in alarm, that her new friend must be slightly mad, and she looked up to her brother for reassurance.

Jamie was surprised. "Heavens no! That is a fountain. Do you not know what a garden is?—very well." He continued at her blank stare. "A garden is like a place – it is a place where people plant things. Only sometimes, they do not plant these things to be eaten."

"Why would anyone want to plant weed?" Hazel asked, thinking the people of Wilpur were a very strange sort of people.

"They don't plant weed. They plant flowers and beautiful trees." Amara chirped in. She was thinking that her new friend was slightly mad and asked stupid questions.

"Come." Jamie said kindly. "You'll understand what we are trying to explain when we get there."

"Viola" Jamie declared as they stepped into the garden. To Hazel, it was breathtakingly beautiful, and smelled equally as lovely. She suddenly felt sorry for the people in the country who did not have the luxury of a garden, then tears came unbidden to her eyes for the second time that day as she thought of her mother. Had her mother discovered a garden equally as wonderful when she had worked in this same city as a scullery maid?

"Please don't cry Hazel, I'm sorry." Amara said from beside her, and she looked down into a cherubic face that was tilted up to hers, the eyes wide with worry and guilt.

"It's alright Amara." She said, drying her eyes hastily, and bending down to hug the little girl.

Amara was distraught. She had a childish notion that somehow, her wicked thoughts had escaped her mind and was now causing Hazel distress. "I am sorry." She said again. "I do not think you are mad in anyway, and you can ask all the questions you want, I'll answer all of them."

"Come now," Jamie said taking Hazel into his arms. He shut a puzzled look at his sister who was still blabbering about how she would not think wicked thoughts again.

"It's enough Amara." He said in mild irritation, and the little girl kept quiet immediately. "Hazel has no way of knowing what it is you do or do not think. Just be quiet a bit and give her time to recollect herself. He guided her gently to a rock. Removing his coat, and placing it on the rock for her, he motioned for her to sit.

"Do you want to tell me what's making you so sad?" He asked dropping down beside her

Amara who was reluctant to join her brother on the bare ground, stuck out her lower lip. "You said we were taking a walk Jamie, or I would have brought a blanket and some cake, then we could have had a picnic –" A stern look from her brother silenced her, and she dropped down on the ground beside him, her expression sullen.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jamie asked Hazel again. "Or shall I tell you why I have called you out here?"

"What's a chaperone?" She asked out of the blue, and Jamie was momentarily thrown.

"A chaperone is a person of respect that accompanies – walks with a girl who is beautiful, and a young man, to keep them from doing something naughty."

"Would you have tried to kiss me and tear my clothes?" Hazel asked innocently, at the same time Amara, who had deduced that Hazel was the beautiful girl, and Jamie the young man asked. 'am I a person of respect Jamie?'

Amara's eyes were huge saucers, and her mouth formed a big o, as she looked up to her brother, curious as to how he would answer the strange girl.

Jamie himself was blushing hotly. "I might have tried to kiss you, but I would never tear your dress," he choked out.

"The both of you are discussing naughty things." Amara declared, feeling it her new found duty as the 'person of respect' to point that out.

Hazel was silent for a while. "When I was in the country, some youths tried to kiss me – even though I did not want them to. It was your father that drove them away."

Amara placed a small hand on Hazel's shoulder. "Don't worry," she said reassuringly. "You're here now, and Papa and I would not let anyone kiss you." She shot a pointed look at her older brother.

"That is only if you do not want the kiss." Jamie amended his sister's declaration, smiling sheepishly.

Hazel who did not want to shock her friends any further by telling them a lad had once tried to tear her dress, asked instead. "What was it you wanted to ask me Jamie? I am ready now."

"Aha!" Jamie borrowed her exclamation, sitting up. "My friends say that their servants say that you are Lord Blukett's granddaughter, and that you have come to Wilpur to get yourself married."

"Yes, I am Lord Blukett's granddaughter – or so your father says, but I have not come to get myself married. I should not even know how to go about that." Hazel answered matter -of-factly, and Amara who had secretly been expecting a more shocking answer than that, finally got bored and went to play with some loose rocks lying nearby.

Jamie let out a breath in relief. Even though his father had claimed that he did not want to marry Hazel, Jamie had still been worried. Then a thought occurred to him. "My friends also say that my father would find a she wolf to teach you how to get yourself married."

Hazel who had never seen a werewolf before became scared immediately, and Amara who had seen only two werewolf women became still where she stood, the rock she held in her hand now forgotten.

"If that is true," Hazel said slowly. "I do not know anything about it, but I wish with all my heart that it is not true."

Lord Gareth stood by the window in his library, watching the interaction between his children and his ward. He smiled to himself. His plans were falling in place one gradual step after another.