Chapter 3.
‘You’ll get dirty,’ protested Topaz.
‘Who cares about a bit of dirt,’ scoffed Peridot. She pulled the ferns aside and examined the hole critically. ‘This must be here so that people are able to get to the water pump for the fountain to clean it out,’ she said excitedly.
Even though the hole was small it looked more than possible for an agile princess to crawl though it. No sooner had she thought this than Peridot wriggled through and found herself in the main palace gardens. A plaintive wail came from the other side of the wall and Topaz waggled an anxious hand through the gap.
‘Where are you?’ she called.
‘I’m just here. I’m in the main gardens. Come on, come through and have a look.’
There was a muffled ‘ouch’ as Topaz crawled cautiously through the gap in the wall. She jumped to her feet and looked around her in awe. These gardens were extensive. A series of walls and archways led around ornamental ponds and neatly clipped shrubs. Towering trees cast welcome shade over drifts of lush plants, while the tinkle of water came from marble fountains set in carved niches in the stone walls. Peridot and Topaz were enchanted. They explored the outer garden thoroughly, making sure that they kept out of sight of any of the queens or other residents of the palace who were likely to wander there. Both girls had been here before in the company of one or other of the queens who were keen on gardening, but as they were apt to lecture the princesses on the habits of the flowers that were currently in bloom this was inclined to be tedious. But to be here by themselves with no adults was bliss. Peridot reveled in the opportunity to toss carefully chosen twigs into the rippling stream and run across little bridges to see if she could catch them on the other side. Topaz picked exotic flowers, with a hasty look over her shoulder to see if anyone had noticed, then floated them on the surface of still ponds or tossed the petals into fountains to see them flung into the air among clouds of spray. The princesses considered climbing one of the spreading trees that sheltered a small mosaic courtyard but Peridot regretfully decided that their skirts would be too hampering.
A trickling pipe of bamboo gave a mournful note before it filled the dipper below it to tip up with a splash into the clear pool below it. They tried to find that inlet to see if they could alter the flow of water and change the note but all they succeeded in doing was getting rather wet.
‘I’m going to sit here in the sun and get dry,’ Topaz decided, spreading her skirts out on a patchy of green velvety grass in a sunny alcove. ‘How about you?’
‘No way. There’s heaps to see yet.’
Peridot left her sister contentedly sunbathing and ventured down a dark tunnel of tightly growing flowering vines. Emerging at the other end she was delighted to see a small sparkling stream trickling over smooth grey pebbles before widening out into a large pool fringed with irises and reeds. Deciding that such a hot day called out for paddling, Peridot removed her sandals, with a guilty look around in case she was observed, then waded up to her ankles in the stream, squealing with the shock of the cold water. A run across a patch of carefully tended herbs by a sundial soon had her feet dry again and she walked on through a spreading arch of lime trees to find that she was back almost where she had started from.
‘I guess we’d better go back now,’ she said regretfully to Topaz.
‘Can we come again?’ her younger sister asked eagerly.
‘I don’t see why not. We’ll have to be careful not to get caught, though and you’re not to tell anyone else about it.’
‘Not even Beryl?’
‘Especially not Beryl. She’s too young,’ said Peridot firmly.
Topaz was so delighted not to be considered young herself, that she agreed to this with a solemn nod. ‘I promise,’ she said earnestly.
The girls crawled back though the hole and dusted their clothes down. Peridot ‘s green clothing didn’t fare too badly, but the deep yellow that Topaz wore showed several green grassy stains. Topaz was a little dismayed at this but Peridot advised her to go and change quickly, knowing that the servants would not dare to question or comment on why any of the princesses clothes were dirty. They pushed the ferns back to conceal the opening, leaving it almost the way it was when they first spotted it. It was as well they did, for a few minutes later Amber and Amethyst came walking along the path towards them.
‘What have you been doing? You are both filthy!’ Amethyst cried.
‘We’ve been playing a game,’ said Peridot haughtily.
‘You’d better go and wash,’ Amber sniffed. ‘We don’t want you in our room looking like that.’
‘We were just going to the pools now,’ said Peridot untruthfully, and taking Topaz by the hand she led the way to the Bathing House.
Over the next few weeks, Topaz and Peridot thoroughly explored the outer garden. However this garden too, was walled, and one day when Topaz was playing tea parties with Beryl, Peridot ran around it by herself. She was feeling frustrated after a particularly boring lesson on the History of the Kingdom and was in no mood to be confined.
‘It’s all too perfect and tidy,’ she wailed. ‘It’s boring, boring, boring.’
Peridot flung herself onto a garden bench in an overgrown alcove, which was overdue for a good pruning, and frowned at her reflection in the fishpond by her feet. A few goldfish nosed the surface hopefully but swam away in disgust when they realised they were not going to be fed.
‘What I’d like to do is to be an ordinary person for a change. I’d like to go out and explore the town and not have anyone know who I am.’
The more Peridot thought about this, the more she was convinced it would be a good idea. Her only experiences of the town had been the restricted sight through the curtains of a litter when she and her sisters were carried to the temple for one of the regular ceremonies there. The last time had been for Princess Ruby’s sacrifice to mark her wedding. All her sisters had watched as Ruby pricked her delicate finger to allow three drops of blood to lie on the sacred stone. A lot of tedious chanting followed for what seemed hours. Along with the heat was the smell of heavy perfumes and incense, which made Peridot feel quite headachy and sick. But the litter ride had given her glimpses of a different world. Cheeky urchins dodged around heavily laden mules and camels as the shopkeepers spread their entrancing wares in the bazaars.
Peridot thought long and hard. She knew there was no way anyone would give her permission to leave the palace, particularly to venture out unattended. She also realised that she would be spotted instantly for what she was in her royal attire.
‘I need clothes,’ she muttered thoughtfully. ‘Peasant clothes, not stuff like these.’ She kicked off one of her golden sandals and flung back the ends of the silky stole around her shoulders.
As Peridot sat swinging her feet, she heard a hastily muffled cough and she spun around to see one of the gardeners on hands and knees, attempting to back out of the archway behind him. He froze as Peridot spotted him and his face went white. He was clutching a trowel that he had obviously left behind and come to retrieve.
‘It’s all right,’ said Peridot irritably. ‘I won’t tell anyone I saw you.’
The gardeners were instructed to do their work in the hours after sunrise before the members of the royal household were up and about. The penalty for being seen by any of the females of the palace was instant dismissal at the very least. This was the result of an unfortunate incident several years earlier. One of the gardeners had made the mistake of speaking to one of the queens, and not only that, but offering her his arm to assist her over a slippery stone bridge. The temerity of this behaviour was relayed to the king immediately by one of the serving girls who received a gold piece for her pains. The king ordered the gardener to be whipped and insisted his wives and daughters be present to view the punishment. Peridot still remembered the swish and crack as the whip flailed the back of the young man, and his agonised screams. She had been violently ill afterwards and woke screaming from nightmares f
or weeks later.
The effect on the other gardeners was just as traumatic. They knew what would be in store for them if they dared to go near a princess, which is why Peridot found the skinny young man before her trembling in terror.
‘It’s all right,’ she reassured him. ‘I truly won’t tell.’
The gardener rolled his eyes frantically and began retreating.
‘Wait,’ commanded Peridot, as a sudden thought struck her. ‘Do you know where I could get some clothes? Normal person clothes, not stuff like I wear?’
The gardener shot her a bewildered look and cringed away.
‘I want some peasant clothes,’ said Peridot slowly and clearly. ‘I want to go into the town so that no one can tell I’m a princess. Can you help me?’
The gardener shook his head quickly.
‘You must be able to help me. Surely you’ve got something old that you’ve grown out of? That would be even better. No one would bother about a boy.’
The gardener looked appalled then went even paler as the voice of Amber came clearly from the other side of the wall.
‘I know she’s here somewhere. Peridot, where are you hiding?’
‘She’s probably sulking,’ Amethyst remarked.
‘Cow,’ muttered Peridot under her breath. ‘Look, I’ll go and distract them so they don’t know you’ve been here. But if I do you must promise to get some clothes for me in return. Will you do that?’
The gardener nodded frantically.
‘Good. You can leave them here under the seat. It doesn’t look as if anyone comes in here very often.’
Peridot gave the gardener an encouraging smile and skipped through the archway. She wriggled through the hole in the wall and joined her sisters rather breathlessly. Fizzing inside with suppressed excitement, she agreed to play a sedate game of bowls with them, something she would have scorned at any other time.
The Amazing Adventures of Princess Peridot Page 3
