Eglantine Aubergine

The twins fed Claire words as fast as she could speak them.

“Your Majesty, we are humans.” The Queen shook her head, perplexed. “Animals. Mammals,” Claire tried.

“We are not like the people here. We grew up differently.” None of them knew the Welsh for ‘evolve’. Mr. Evans was a miner and poet, not a scientist. “We don’t have stems or leaves or seeds.”

The crowd around her gasped and made stifled noises of outrage. The Queen was very still for a long moment, then laughed, the first genuine laugh they had heard from her.

“Well, well,” she said, “you are indeed different. Your manners are both excellent and shocking. You are filthy and roaming wild, yet you are clearly of high caste, of a noble, if somewhat old-fashioned family.” She looked pointedly at the pale lady over her shoulder. “I shall enjoy discovering all there is to know about you.”

She waved her hand at the pale lady, without looking at her. “Take them away, clean them and feed them. I will play with them again when it amuses me.”

The pale lady bowed and came down to the children. She bent to look Bettina in the eye. “Would you please come with me?” She offered her hand and Bettina took it. The others fell in behind her as they gratefully exited the royal presence.

They followed the pale lady down a long corridor with hedge on their left and hanging grass mats to their right, which opened occasionally onto chambers. The corridor ended into a comfortable triangular room, which must have been the tip of one of the petal-shaped wings of the palace. A guard followed at a discreet distance, stationing himself outside the entrance.

“These are my chambers,” she said. “You are most welcome and I hope you will be comfortable. I am Eglantine Aubergine, lady in waiting to her royal highness Queen Drysi. Now, please make yourselves at home. Shall I arrange for something to eat and drink?”

The room was scattered with low couches  plumped with luxuriant piles of pillows. The children fell into them, murmuring versions of ‘anything, thank you’, except for Bettina, who still held Eglantine’s hand. The lady looked down at her.

“Perhaps you might help me?”

Bettina nodded.

“First of all, give my your honest opinion.” She removed the lid from a gourd teapot and waved it under Bettina’s nose. “Does that smell delicious to you?”

Bettina wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Smells like dirt.”

“Thank you for your honesty.” Eglantine walked her to a small table and handed her a reed pipe, showing her how to blow into it to make a sound. A moment later, a serving potato arrived, and Lady Aubergine made a lengthy order.

While they waited, Eglantine made polite conversation, and the children told her of Ifan and Gwen, of the strangling vine and their mushroom boat. Then several potatoes arrived with laden trays, and the children tucked in. There was hot peppermint tea, marinated mushrooms like little steaks, piles of tiny fruits, and plates of cookies like macaroons. Eglantine sipped the tea Bettina said smelled of dirt and held conference with additional servants who entered during the meal.

When they had finished the servants took away all the empty plates but left fresh tea and more cookies.

“If you are tired you must tell me and I’ll tuck you in,” Eglantine said. “But I am most curious to hear more of your journey, and where you began. Can it be true, as you assert, that you are not children of the soil?”