The Queen's Catcher
How does your garden grow?
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Author's Note
I often get ideas for stories in the form of suggestions from readers. This one happens to come from a fellow author by the name of Maonaigh. Remember that name if you want to read some fabulous stories when you're done with this one.
The suggestion came as a comment on my story about Bo Peep. "What about Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary?" After the idea steeped in my brain for a while, this is what I came up with.
Enjoy,
WaxPhilosophic
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All copyrights reside with the author. All characters engaged in sexual activity are over the age of eighteen. You should be too if you're reading this.
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Part I -- Cockle Shells
"Where are you off to dear sister Shells?" Shelly's sister snickered as she asked.
She snickered for precisely two reasons. The first being the unfortunate name of 'Shelly' that had been bestowed by their parents. Now, one would not normally think of Shelly as an unfortunate name, not unless one's family had a habit of using the nickname Shells. And if Shells weren't bad enough in itself, combined with the family name of Cockle, in a culture that put family name before given name when addressing someone, you might, dear reader, become acutely aware of some of the pain in Shelly's daily existence.
The second reason, had nothing at all to do with Cockle Shells the name, but rather Cockle Shells the person. For, you see, dear Shelly was three years older than her snickering sister and she had begun to put away her dolls and toys and take notice of rather more womanly pursuits. This was something that her little sister took great pleasure in pointing out at any chance she had.
"You're going off to meet a boy, aren't you?" her sister jeered.
"Shut up."
"You are, aren't you."
In fact, Shelly was indeed going to meet a boy, or at least she hoped. That she had no idea why she wanted to meet a boy, or what she would do with said boy when she finally did meet him, had no bearing at all on her decision to sneak out of the house this evening.
It was simply what girls her age did. Every girl in her village who was over the age of eighteen had met a boy in the woods under the pale light of the moon. Shelly would not have been at all surprised to know that her own mother and father had met on a clandestine night such as this. There was no question. It was simply the way things were done. So when the boy in the market place asked to arrange such a meeting, Shelly enthusiastically agreed.
"Watch out for the Queen's Catcher," Shelly's sister said. "If she catches you you'll be sent to the garden."
"Queen Mary's garden?" Shelly laughed. "You know that's a story to scare little girls. Big girls don't believe such nonsense."
"Suit yourself. Can I have your stuff when you don't come back?"
"Sure, whatever." Shelly turned the door handle ever so quietly and snuck out the front door. "Queen Mary's garden, indeed," she mumbled, shaking her head.
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The air had a slight chill that evening and caused the small, fine hairs on Shelly's arms to raise in protest as she walked. Hugging her arms around herself, she scurried off toward the woods where the boy from the village said he would be waiting. As the breeze kicked up, Shelly decided to take a short cut through a farmer's field of rye. Though the crop tugged at her skirts and got caught in her stockings, Shelly did not mind. The shortcut limited her time in the chilly autumn breeze and, in all honesty, she suspected she would be liberated of her skirts and stockings soon enough, anyway.
Shelly raced on through the swaying grass, toward the trees and the silhouette of what looked to be the boy from the villageโand he was on horseback. Shelly had no idea the boy's family possessed such wealth and she nearly swooned at the thought of being whisked away on horseback to some romantic hillside. Shelly ran now, her feet light and her mind giddy with the ideal of young love. Closer and closer she got, until she could almost make out the face of her mounted young Romeo.
But, what she found, was the face of a woman. Even with the black mask covering her eyes, Shelly could make out the decidedly feminine grace of her features.
Shelly froze. Beyond where she stood, she could see the backlit image of the boy from the village. He was quite far off on a hillside and definitely not on horseback. And rather than coming out to meet Shelly, he was running in the opposite direction. Shelly's shoulder's slumped. She turned, ready to sprint back home to cry in her pillow when she felt a rope drop over her shoulders and with a pull, cinch her arms up tight against her chest. She gasped.
"Caught you," said the masked woman on horseback.
"Let me go!"
"I will not. I am the Queen's Catcher."
"The Catcher? Out here in the rye?" Shelly humphed, and not believing a word of the myth was quite glib. "Shouldn't you be guarding the castle or something?"
"This is her majesty's field you are trespassing upon, insolent girl. I could have you hauled up on charges of treason."
Shelly's face fell. She no longer felt the defiant ire that had given her to question this woman on her mount. Shelly shivered a bit.
The woman, whom Shelly was now beginning to believe actually was the Queen's Catcher, dismounted her steed and took young Shelly by the chin. It was a gentler touch than Shelly would have expected from someone with the title of 'Catcher', and the leather of her glove was soft and warm.
"If you tell me your name, I may take pity on you and send you back to your family. I'm sure your father will be more than happy to give you a good thrashing when I tell him how you have defiled the Queen's property."
"Please don't."
"Your name."
"Shelly."
"Full name."
"Cockle Shelly." She waited for the inevitable tittering that always accompanied the use of her full name.
"Cockle Shells," said the masked woman, "I like it."
Shelly looked up. The woman was smiling as she mounted her horse. She extended a hand.
"Come on up," the Queen's Catcher said.