ARABELLA
Chapter Three: The Feast
Spring made its way into summer, and Arabella's garden was fragrant with roses. Every day Arabella gathered up a beautiful rose bouquet for her mother.
Queen Glorianna marveled at how the child was growing in grace and beauty. She still held out hope that Aurora would return to them on her sixteenth birthday, but she no longer grieved. Arabella had given her the joys of motherhood, those joys she had been sure were never to be hers. Glorianna doted on her, and Arabella thought her mother to be the most beautiful woman in the world.
Theirs was a healthy relationship and it made King Stefan glad to see his beloved Queen so happy.
Glorianna had noticed that Arabella had a musical gift. Therefore Arabella was given the land's most renowned singer, Eleria, to teach and develop Arabella's voice. Eleria took one listen to Arabella and pronounced her to be the finest singer she had ever heard.
"The Princess," she told Glorianna, "has no need of instruction. To confine that wonderful voice to any standards but its own, that would be an injustice. I simply cannot teach her with a clear conscience."
The Queen was pleased upon hearing this, and paid Eleria very handsomely before sending her away. Then, she went in to her child and asked her to sing before the guests at the Midsummer Feast. Arabella was a little nervous, but she loved to please her mother, so she consented obediently.
The guests at the Midsummer Feast were monarchs, dukes and duchesses, barons and baronesses, and other such nobles. Arabella did indeed enchant the crowd so, that many a noble rode away from that Feast noting that Arabella was the most beautiful and accomplished Princess they had seen in years. And at ten years old!
Arabella was glad when it was all over and she could return to her flowers again. They greeted her as an old friend, and those that had wilted in her absence bloomed anew as she sang. It was as though her very presence in the garden was magical. She sang to them of the events of the Feast, and of the nobles present. The roses were good listeners and were rewarded with a good watering at the end of the day.