"Well, my dear," said the king at last, "I see it! Do you?"
"I'm only amazed that we didn't see it earlier. Why should the common folks in the markets so hate me? Why should my maids talk of us maliciously behind our backs? Who begins the foul rumors about stillbirthing and about foul spells and dire predictions?"
The king nodded. "But how to prove it!"
"Gantrell is behind it all, I'll stake my life on it," said Tom, "but, no, we can't prove it. We can guard against him, even counteract him, however."
"Yes, that we can do. We've the power as well as the desire," said Eduard. "Will you help us, you and Clem? You're both men of great common sense and uncommon abilities, I've seen."
"Murdan sent us here to help," said Clem. "Both of us would lay down our lives for you, sire, and for you and your child, ma'am!"
"I don't deserve such devotion," said Beatrix, "but it surely is comforting!"
"The first thing to do," Tom said, "is to get the queen some outdoor exercisea-nothing strenuous, but hearty enough to bring the roses back that I suspect were in her cheeks when you first met her, sire."
"I remember so well!" murmured Eduard. "I propose," continued Tom, "that she do a little walking abroad in this nice weather, for all to see. Who can hate a beautiful, happy woman large with child? Some work in the garden, maybe, when she is up to it. And tomatoes to eat. Tomatoes are very important!"
THEY did it in many nice and quiet ways.
First to fall was the Lord Chamberlain. Walden was no creature of Gantrell. The king and the queena-and the two young newcomersa-lightly teased the too-dignified old DRAGON COMPANION.
245.
man until he was near to showing anger, then loved him until he glowed, and then trusted him until he would do anything in the world for them, without a hesitation, even if it was illegal, immoral, fattening a and even if it were against cherished custom!
The queen soon called for a summer frock and a broad-brimmed garden hat and spent a half hour, much longer than anyone would have expected, conferring with the gardeners. Those worthies, who had grumbled that their hard work went unappreciated, at once became her most devoted subjects. She noticed what they accomplished in their gardens and praised them extravagantly for it.
They found to their delight she knew and loved gardening, flowers, vegetables, pruning, mulching, planting, hoeing, weeding, even plucking off leaf-devouring insectsa how many fine ladies, they told their wives, got down on their tender knees, middles ungainly with child, to pick striped beetles off thorny roses?
The merchants who came to sell their produce to the royal kitchens were asked for red, ripe tomatoes.
"To eat?" they cried. "Tomatoes to eat! Me grandma told me tomatoes were certain death. We never eat tomatoes!"
When a scullery lad let slip that it was the lady queen herself who doted on ripe, red tomatoes, the shock turned to wondering murmurs. A delegation of weavers asked to address a petition to the king and used the occasion to tell him that someone was trying to poison the queen with deadly tomatoes!
"My good, dear, clever craftsmen!" the king said, shaking his head. "Haven't you heard the latest medical advice? Tomatoes are good for you! We should all eat at least one a day when they're in season, which is all summer, as you may not know. Try *em on salad, or lay them atop a slide of beef or chicken or veal. We eat tomatoes every day, when we can get *em, and they've made us feel like new persons!"
The evidence was before them to seea-a robust, merry king and a glowing, laughing, pregnant queen. The weavers went home and spread the word. The king and the beautiful young queen ate tomatoes raw in salads, stewed or broiled, even in sauces on their meat!
246.
DRAGON COMPANION 247.
Don Callander FALLMAR of Ffallmar hailed a neighbor on the way home from Lakehead who stopped to pass the time of day and share the latest news.
Lady pirates were no longer the news, said the farmer, chuckling. What was important was a tomaters!
"Tomaters!" laughed Ffallmar. "Those red things my wife grows down by the pigsty? She makes a cough medicine for winter from them, but I never have touched one myself."
"They tell me the royal court has sent orders to all ends of the kingdom to buy all the tomaters can be found, at almost any price. Everybody's eating them! They say the queen and even the king eat *em every day."
"And the queen with child!" cried Rosemary when she heard of it.
"The Lakeheaders told our neighbor the queen was sick near to death but someone got her to eat tomaters and she's fit as a fiddle with the new baby due any moment. They expect him to pop out and dance a royal jig for her!"
"Now, I may be a gullible ninny, but I don't believe that!" cried Rosemary. "Stilla tomaters? I have always been secretly fond of them. They just might be good for you, you know."
Ffallmar threw his head back and laughed, long and loud. But he and his children ate red tomatoes for supper that very night. And the next day he sent off two mule loads of Rosemary's best late tomatoes to Lakehead for fastest shipment to Sweetwater Tower.
TOM and King Eduard had a serious and often heated interview with Dr. Flabianus, the Queen's chief physician.
"Tomatoes, fine!" said the doctor, a short, fat man with a cherubic expression and not-too-clean fingernails. "But exercise? No, no! She should remain in bed, I insist."
"What do you fear? If she does not stay abed?" asked Tom politely.
"Well, the obvious! Any shock! A bump or a fall! I cannot be responsible for her health and that of the child if she insists on weeding in a garden!"
"The good doctor fears my wrath, is that what it is?" the king asked of Tom.
"One suspects that's one of his concerns. Even a blind man should be able to see the queen is already healthier for her daily walks, her gardening, and for meeting and talking to people."
"I have to agree with my Librarian there," the king said to Flabianus. "I see clear signs of better health in the queen that were absent before. Her eyes sparkle again. She laughs easily and often, Her cheeks are rosy with sun and wind and she delights in her new friends. She talks with a lilt I haven't heard since I brought her here. She's eager in her anticipation of the child and takes an active interest in the preparations for hima-or her. What do you answer to these, Doctor?"
The learned physician wasn't blind or stupid, either. He rubbed his hands together briskly and carefully smiled from ear to ear before answering.
"I agree, sire, that Her Majesty is much improved. Perhaps it is the change in regimen; who knows? It's certainly worth continuing. Ah, under my watchful eye, of course."
Tom drew the physician closer to say, "All the kingdom watches the queen and sees her improvement. The credit will ultimately go to you. Doctor. Lesser physicians would pay handsomely to leam your methods. You could become a wealthy man, I should think."
"Ia I hadn't thought of that. Master Librarian. Interesting! Do you have any further advice for me in this matter?"
"Yes," said Tom, pointing. "Wash your hands at least four times a day and scrape your fingernails, especially before you examine the queen!"
The physician became bright red with embarrassment, spluttering, "Actually, they're dirty because I was working in my new garden this morning when the king sent for me."
He wondered why the Librarian found his new interest in gardening so very funny.
DRAGON COMPANION 249.
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