Side Story: Another Look at the Tea Party

 

 

 

Side Story: Another Look at the Tea Party

 

THE sounds of gentle commotion rode a stray breeze into the royal palace.

The endless blue sky was dotted with fluffy white clouds. The beautiful garden, with its multicolored flowers, vivid green foliage, and clear, babbling water fountain, had been temporarily thrown into chaos at the appearance of Prince Edward, but everyone had now regained their composure…except, that is, for Amy.

I just c-can’t get used to calling him…E-Ed!

It was only the second time (the first being with Alexander) that Amy had called a male nonrelative by their given name.

With Alexander, at least Tigger had been there to help compensate the nerves she felt over her lack of experience, but the cat wasn’t here now, nor did this situation play out with the same urgency as the last one had.

Nevertheless, if this was a request from the prince himself, there was certainly no way she could ignore it.

And he told me to call him a nickname right off the bat, just like Alexander did!

Amy couldn’t help wondering if boys in this world simply preferred being referred to so casually. But the only boys Amy had interacted with around her age had been her brother and his friends, so she couldn’t judge whether that was normal.

“Is something wrong?” asked Edward.

“Uh, no, um… Nothing’s wrong,” said Amy. When she looked down, her own shadow fell over her teacup.

“You were saying something before, weren’t you? I apologize for interrupting you.”

“I-It’s fine!” she stammered. “Um… Oh, that’s right! Your High— I mean, Ed… I was just hoping to hear more about your dog.”

When she looked up, her eyes locked onto Ed’s, and his gray eyes seemed to bore straight into her. She picked up on the tenderness she saw there and felt her cheeks flush.

“Yes, that…”

As if wondering where to begin, Edward lightly rested his hand on his chin. To preemptively keep him from changing the subject to something other than animals, Amy took the lead in the conversation in a rare move.

“What’s his name?”

Edward looked surprised for a moment but soon settled into his gentle expression once more.

“Jet.”

“Does that mean he’s a jet-black dog?”

“That’s right. His ears drooped just a little, and his whole body was pitch black, but there was a little white patch at the base of his neck, so it looked like he was wearing a scarf.”

Edward drew a little triangle on his own chest with a finger. From how he described Jet, she assumed he was a shepherd breed of some kind.

“He sounds so cute!”

Amy’s eyes lit up as she imagined him, and Edward smiled sadly.

“He was a big dog with pretty intimidating features, so most people were afraid of him.”

“Were afraid of him…?” Amy asked, finally starting to process the sadness that tinged his tone.

“He passed away when I was nine years old.”

“Oh… I-I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay; don’t feel bad. It was of old age.”

“But…”

It suddenly clicked inside Amy’s brain that he had been using the past tense… She wanted to travel back in time and shake herself for being so dense and not even noticing…

From Edward’s smile, she sensed that the emotional scars from Jet’s passing had not totally healed yet… Her chest tightened.

He must have really loved that dog.

The greater the happiness that had been shared, the greater the loss would be. His memories of Jet wouldn’t vanish, no matter how long he lived. Amy had known this in theory her whole life, but she had really internalized it after getting Tigger and experiencing that love for herself.

She was at a loss for words. Edward tried smiling again.

“Jet was originally my brother’s guard dog. By the time I got him, he was already pretty up there in age.”

Edward explained how Jet had sustained an injury while protecting his brother that had caused one of his hind legs to limp. Unable to run at full speed, Jet had become unfit to guard the First Prince.

When talks of putting him down came around, it had been Marvin who put a hold on the decision.

By that time, the young Edward had been a frequent visitor of the riding grounds, and all the caretakers knew about his love for animals.

It was clear to Marvin that Edward would be devastated if he heard that his brother’s guard dog had been put down. He also thought Edward, who was in a difficult position as the Third Prince, probably needed a nonhuman companion he could talk to freely about anything.

And Jet hadn’t become a complete invalid—he could perform many of the skills he had picked up as a guard dog.

Unlike his older siblings, Edward was never a mischievous boy. He wasn’t prone to suddenly running off or anything like that. Even though Jet couldn’t run, he could protect Edward well enough. It was a stroke of good fortune that the dog had been adopted by the Third Prince and escaped a forced retirement.

Amy nodded and listened along, feeling as though she were reliving the memories with him.

“What kind of a dog was Jet?”

“Well, his parents were—”

“No, like… What was he like? Did he eat everything? Did he like chewing up slippers?”

“What?”

“Would he go crazy in the snow? Or, uh…did he…not?”

Amy had talked over him with her questions, and this time Edward did not hide his astonished expression.

What? Did I ask something weird?

A long time ago—or rather, in her past life—her mother told her that the dog she had growing up would do things like that.

Amy still didn’t know much about what dogs were like in this world. She had plenty of questions—she really wanted to know how they were similar and different—but she didn’t think now was the time or place for them.

Maybe they’re really strict with training the dogs that live in the palace, so maybe they don’t chew on or hide slippers…? Was that rude of me to suggest?

But before Amy could start to get seriously anxious, Edward opened his mouth—and he looked like he was trying very hard to keep from grinning.

“He was trained well, so he never really acted out, but he did seem to get worried when it would snow.”

“Really?!”

“He would get really happy when I’d take him outside. And then…yeah, I remember. He would surprise himself awake with his own snoring sometimes.”

Amy laughed. “What a cutie, just as I suspected!”

A large, powerful guard dog that would get so worried about the weather, his tail would start twitching… Jumping awake from his own snoring… Just imagining it made her heart melt!

“…You don’t care about his pedigree, do you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry! What was that?” Amy asked, slightly panicked. She had been so lost in her thoughts imagining Jet, she hadn’t heard what he said.

Edward shook his head.

“It’s nothing. I was just reminded of how hard it was to brush him during shedding season…”

Amy’s eyes shone and she listened attentively as Edward’s memories of Jet spilled out, eventually blending into stories of his current horse.

Amy was the first person he had ever met who wanted to hear about his genuine memories with Jet more than anything else, not information about his birth or pedigree.

And with that, another key had opened to Edward’s heart.

Amy and Edward continued to babble about animals until, before long, a maid checked her watch and approached them.

“Unfortunately, it seems our time together is up,” Edward said. “You’ll meet Ventus next time.”

“O-Okay!”

In that moment, when they parted ways, Amy hadn’t realized she had casually promised to meet him again.

Amy’s mother, however, had certainly understood his meaning, and was blinking repeatedly in shock. He gently bowed his head to her and stood, trying to conceal his regret at having to leave.