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“…I’M going to plant a medicinal herb garden. So please help me, Leon! My mother thought gardening would be good for me and said you can be my…uhm…assistant?”
Hana was certainly assertive. They were only seeing each other for the second time and she had gone through the trouble of inventing a way for them to spend time together without anyone getting into trouble.
She was wearing a plain sundress, a work apron, and a straw hat. And she had all the tools they would need with her.
“Yes, mistress,” Leon said, nodding, though he looked dissatisfied. Having to look after the young mistress of the house was one thing, but now he was going to miss out on learning pruning from his boss.
Discovering Leon was already working at age twelve set something off within Hana. She wanted to be known for something other than her parents’ wealth and accomplishments. And now those feelings had only grown stronger. When she sat down and thought about who and what she wanted to be when she grew up, she realized she wanted to be a doctor, like her mother. But now her mother was using her knowledge to support her father’s trading business. So Hana thought if she could succeed her mother, she could pick up the slack and become a doctor in her own right.
A child’s mind made everything so simple, but Hana was especially sheltered. She didn’t exactly have any steadfast convictions spurring her to succeed her mother. This was common in sheltered children, often pressed to choose their future from a narrow set of choices placed before them.
Hana was taking the same path as her mother. Her parents were overjoyed upon hearing this. While her mother taught her all about Eastern medicine, Hana studied Xingkaese under a tutor. Hinomotoese medicine was derived from Xingkaese medicine, so learning the language was a necessity.
Immediately after beginning her medical studies, one of Hana’s first practical tasks was to grow medicinal herbs. While it was important for her studies, the main motive was to give her someone her own age to talk to. Walt had hinted at Hana’s worries and loneliness to her parents. And so it came to pass that Leon became Hana’s assistant.
For that first day, Walt, who had plenty of his own work to do, found himself with his sleeves rolled up and in his high boots, attending to Hana. The sight of the man, who was almost always in crisp suits, holding a spade seemed so uncanny, it made her giggle. Walt was so kind, even though he had his own adult matters to attend to; it made Hana wish he really was her brother.
Leon, on the other hand, looked like he had been sucking on a lemon. He found the prospect of babysitting some princess two years his junior annoying. But he of all people should have been grateful to have a girl his age to talk to. For that precious time each day when he helped her tend the herb garden, he didn’t have to worry about his social standing.
Which, ironically, was why he could get away with having a sour look on his face.
“Don’t worry! I can’t handle the midday sun and my tutor comes every afternoon, so I’m not going to keep you here all day. Right, Walt?” Hana said, trying to illicit Walt’s agreement to ease the pout on Leon’s face.
“Indeed. We’re counting on you to watch over the garden when we’re attending to other matters, Leon.”
“Fine, fine. I just think the lady of the house here is going to get bored and give up tending the garden eventually.”
“It’s not about whether it’s boring or not. This is for my future dream. I want to help out around the manor so I can be a doctor like Mother!”
“Mm-hmm…”
Their first step was to till the flower bed and ready it for planting. For Hana, her time with a peer like Leon was precious. Between growing closer to Leon and getting adjusted to her new life, her loneliness began to fade.
She loved the time she spent with her new friend and the young man who was like a brother more than anything else.
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BUT after several months, the herb garden hadn’t grown anywhere near what they had hoped.
The books that held all the information on different seedlings and their characteristics were in Xingkaese. But even after Hana deciphered the books and readied the soil, Xingka and Hylant had different climates, as well as different diseases and insects that gardeners needed to worry about.
The garden was, after all, started by a child, so it should have surprised no one that many of the seeds failed to sprout, young buds withered away, and almost all the plants turned brown and perished.
“The only herb that’s actually growing is the chamomile,” Leon moaned early one morning. As a gardener himself, the fact that a garden he was helping out with was in such dire straits was discouraging.
Seeing him complain one second and work his heart out the next brought smiles to Hana and Walt’s faces.
Little white and yellow flowers had begun sprouting in the flowerbed. Chamomile was a versatile medicinal herb that could be grown in the west or east, so it was the one herb that Leon knew how to grow properly.
Hana leaned close to one of those flowers that she had so painstakingly grown and inhaled its aroma. The books all likened the scent of chamomile to apples. A fresh, sweet aroma tickled her nostrils.
“It’s all right. It’s not a total loss.”
They had cultivated the garden based on what the books said, but still, most had not bloomed. Essentially, they would need to select seeds that were better suited to Hylant’s climate and soil. Hana reassured herself that this was all part of trial and error.
“Leon, Walt, did you know that in Hinomoto, my name actually means ‘flower’?” Hana said as she gazed at the chamomile.
“What a lovely name.”
“Wow. That’s a pretty weird name. So that’s what it means, eh?”
As an adult, Walt was always gentle with how he spoke to Hana. Then there was Leon, who was always anything but. Her name did sound strange when compared to the names of most girls from Hylant.
But he didn’t have to go and say it out loud.
Hana puffed out her cheeks. “Meanie! Why do you always say things like that?!”
Leon merely laughed at Hana’s anger. Maybe he was mean, but she loved seeing his bright smile. In a way, it was how he related to her.
“What flowers do you like, Miss Hana? I’ll be traveling to Xingka with Lord Saizoh in the near future, so I would be happy to buy you some seeds,” Walt offered.
“Really? Hmm, let’s see, my favorite Eastern flowers…would be cherry blossoms, peonies, and chrysanthemums… They’re all beautiful, and I’d love for you both to see them…”
Sitting in the garden reminded Hana of her life back in Hinomoto. They had lived near a lake and, in the spring, cherry blossom petals would flutter down to dance along the water’s surface. She also loved the large blooms of chrysanthemums and peonies.
And the thing she remembered most of all was—
“Oh, yes! Cotton roses, too!”
“Why cotton roses?”
“Because they bloom in summer. I hate summer. But if I have something to look forward to out in the garden, then maybe it’ll make me want to go outside, right? They have huge blooms, so big I could even see them from my window.”
The next day, Walt and Saizoh set out by boat for Xingka.
And two months later, just as he promised, Walt sent Hana some cotton rose seeds.