Disclaimer: The characters of Le Chevalier D'Eon do not belong to me.
Some D'Eon-Anna angst
Garden Idyll
The children were restless with the coming of warmer days. Ruefully, their French tutor allowed his students to leave the schoolroom a full half-hour earlier than usual. The young princes whooped and chased each other out the French doors. Their older sisters strolled out in the dignified manner ingrained in them by their mother. The way they held themselves- shoulders back, heads held high as they all but floated out onto the grass - just like his sister and Anna did.
For a while, he sat listening to the birdsong and enjoying the warmth of the sun beaming in with his eyes closed. The royal children laughed at their play outside. Finally, he opened his eyes and made his way out.
His skirts rustled as he walked over to the open doors. Queen Mary was in the garden, admiring a daisy chain the youngest princess has made for her. The older princesses were collecting flowers for pressing, a pastime deemed suitable, alongside the pianoforte and watercolours, for English ladies of high birth. They would not want for specimens. Flowers are blooming in the gardens in profusion. Queen Mary's maidservants were cutting roses, primroses and daffodils for the Hall's many table-vases.
The Hall's garden was done in a rustic English-style and awash with a kaleidoscope of colour. Songbirds and butterflies flitted among the rose bushes, often pursued by the young princes and their butterfly nets despite the pleas of their harried nannies. Yet something was missing…
It struck him then.
There were no irises, those violet blooms which so freely graced the garden of his family home and the French countryside outside Versailles.
They had always been Anna's favourite flower.
Standing there, watching the children, D'Eon could not help but feel a sense of loss.
Author's Notes:
The iris flower appears in the opening credits and seems symbolic of the doomed love between D'Eon and Anna.