If Love is Revered...

If Love is Revered…

The fortress looked like a charm in the early dawn. The sunlight shined like it was a melody of the jester, a new poem for the king’s delight. Viola looked down from the fortress. Viola’s knight in armor waved at her.

Whenever it was dawn, a knight in a shining armor would wave down at Viola and she would be expected to go down to the courtyard and spend her whole day with the knight, as per her king’s request. Viola was the third daughter of the king and a bit too wild for his expectations. And so he assigned Viola a knight who would look after her and even make her learn a bit.

Viola loved to paint outrageously which made her subjects laugh and she would often paint in front of her people and with charcoals. And Viola once made a terrible mistake of painting the king, father, on a donkey and drew arrows and battlefield.

The king caught his guards laughing at his daughters painting and casting jokes at their princess naivety. The king upon seeing the painting of him sitting on a donkey and leading the battlefield immediately grew furious and ordered his guards to teach her daughter Latin and assign a knight to guard her from ever painting again! Viola sighed.

“Oh, the king loves to fight with his princess. One day princess will lay her hands on a charcoal and I will paint the entire kingdom under the southern lake. Ha, the king will be a merman king and all his princesses will be mermaid princesses!”

Viola collected her cotton yellow dress and went down to her knight. Violet felt the cool air whisk past her hair and wished she could paint instead. It was like Viola knew she was reprimanded so severely that she felt the king, her father had punished her utterly. It was like a sad medieval song to Viola.

Viola squared her shoulders and greeted her knight, “Good morrow, my somber knight! What have you planned for today? Yesterday was Monday and we learned about the magic of the England’s forests and Robin Hood’s tales of fortunes stealing from the king’s wagons!”

Viola’s knight said, putting his visor up, “My princess, we shall talk about the magic of horticulture, herbs and plants. Did you know proper ladies learn about horticulture as a necessity for kitchen and cooking knowledge?”

Viola nearly screamed. She wanted to scream that she didn’t need horticulture knowledge but needed a piece of charcoal and paint the knight with wild boars and hunting for grizzly bears. Viola sighed and said instead, “Yes my dear knight. The princess will learn about horticulture this brilliant Tuesday morning! Shall we sit under the birch trees and begin our daily lessons.” The knight offered her his arm and Viola as usually accepted his gentlemanly gesture.

Viola sat and listened to her knight talk for ages about herbs and plants that were needed in the kitchen for cooking. Viola interrupted the knight who was talking about the importance of rosemary in English tea. “Rosemary can be used in traditional tea recipes. It improves memory and can serve as a good relaxing tea for evening balls…” Viola intervened, “Can we stop for a while my dear knight. I need a while to remember what you have taught me.” The knight looked at his princess and said, “As you wish my princess.”

Viola sat down on the soft blue flowered grass that seemed like a velvet carpet and put the knight’s visor down. The knight immediately put his visor up. Viola said, “The king wants me to forget about painting right? Forever?”

The knight began talking about herbs again, “Thyme herbs are used in meat dishes to flavor succulent poultry and it is eaten with bread that is…” Viola put the knight’s visor down and the knight put it up again, “My princess that is not a good habit. The king wants you with good manners. Proper ladies are courteous and know about kitchen and gardens and tea knowledge and how to serve important noble guests at the evening balls…”

Viola sighed and said despairingly, “And his daughter and third princess only wants to paint with charcoal. Did the king really get offended when I painted him sitting on top of a donkey in battlefield?” The knight did not answer and began talking about horticulture herbs again, “Sage is an herb that can be used to cure sore throats in winter. It is a novel herb that has medicinal uses…”

Viola put the knight’s visor down and screamed, “Alright. Alright. Can we talk about lavender, it grows so wildly on the kingdom grounds and I want to make lavender tea for the ladies…is lavender horticulture as well?”

The knight put up his visor and said sternly, “It’s time for princess to have lunch. I ordered the cook to put an herb in your meat dish and want you to tell me which herb is it from today’s lesson?”

Viola got up and said, “Very well my dear knight. I will tell you the answer, after all it’s not hard to listen to such an interesting knowledge!”

The knight affirmed, “The king is doing the right thing to provide sound knowledge to you my princess. Don’t get the king wrong!”

Viola put the knights visor down again and said, “If love is revered then my father the king is indeed a king who loves battles, arrows and a horse. Not a donkey! I get the message!”

The knight refused to believe his princess’ words and vowed to tell the king that his lordship never allow his princess near a charcoal again. He doubted his princess’s wild imagination!

Viola ran inside the castle and the knight never told the princess that he had ordered the cook to put two herbs, rosemary and thyme. In case the princes never listed to his talks on herbs and the princess would make up the answer.

The knight sighed. “Oh, what a debacle my king?”