Chapter 11
As they walked in the woods, Tamura thought that as a man he felt he needed to show Leona how strong and dependable he was and so should keep his emotions in check from now onwards. They walked in the woods for miles until they found a plain by the water stream.
The place was an enchanting beauty of flowers of all colours, evergreen shrubs and ferns. Butterflies and bees of all shapes and sizes enjoying the blooms and nectar therein. Leona laid down a rug while Tamura scanned the territory for any danger, such as snakes and wild animals, but the place seemed very peaceful, almost like paradise.
Tamura found a high rock, which would give him a good position to look around. He sat there for a while taking in the view and Leona joined him and sat beside him quietly. He reached out to her and embraced her while keeping his eyes on the landscape. Leona decided to bring him back to the here and now when she realised he was lost in thought and said with a smile, “It’s good to have time to ourselves sometimes, isn’t it?”
Tamura looked at her almost apologetically as though he was reading her mind and said, “Yeah, it is good and so let’s enjoy ourselves, instead of sitting here wasting time.” He grappled to his feet and pulled her up with him and said, “I feel like jumping into the water naked and have a shower by the waterfall, I bet it’s very liberating!”
Leona shouted with excitement, “You must be joking, what if the water is freezing cold? You could catch your death in there!”
Tamura shouted. “Don’t be a spoilt sport, we will find out about that when we get in, won’t we? We can bask in the sun if we get cold, the weather is hot enough, so come on, get stripping!” he added.
Leona opened her mouth wide and screamed, “Ooh, you cheeky bossy so and so, I am not stripping for that?”
Tamura giggled with mischief and said, “No, not for the water, but you can strip for me, can’t you?” Leona chased him to give him a slap, but Tamura was too quick for her to catch.
He took off his clothes and stood there with his swimming trunks and screamed, “I am going in, come on hurry up, or you will miss all the fun!” He let out a scream when the water touched his body and he shouted at Leona, “It’s not that cold, honest, the water is wonderfully exhilarating, come quick, jump in!”
Leona gave up and mumbled, “All right, all right, I am coming!”
She took off her clothes down to her swimming costume and jumped in. She screeched loudly, “You lied to me the water is freezing cold!”
Tamura was in hysterics of laughter as Leona whimpered with cold. “You will soon get used to it, give it a few seconds, that’s all,” he said as he reached out to her and embraced her as if to keep her warm and kept on laughing at her. Somehow, he seemed to be taking Mama Zeno’s advice literally, to live a little.
Within seconds, they were tickling and splashing water at each other, wading around and chasing each other in the water. They stopped breathless and started soaping and washing each other in the water. Tamura looked at Leona and said to her while brushing her long golden water-sodden locks back, “You truly are an angelic beauty, and I am a lucky man to have you.”
Leona just smiled and they started splashing water at each other again. They decided to get out of the water a few minutes later and went to lie down on a flat surface in the sun to dry and get warmed up. Leona was shaking like a leaf as she came out of the cold water. When they got dressed, they felt hungry and tucked into their packed food. There was gammon ham, bread and rolls as well as some fruits and fruit juice and cracker biscuits, which Queen Eleaza had packed for them.
Leona knew her mother very well when it came to food and delicacies. She had personally packed their lunch herself, which somehow baffled the maid, Mona, as the maid had never seen the queen so keen of a picnic basket. She had not dared to enquire what the fuss was all about and she found the permanent grin on the queen’s face throughout the chore of packing the picnic basket quite amusing too.
Leona checked the side pockets for any sweets and she found some homemade fudge and caramel hard sweets for dessert. After eating, they packed the basket away and folded the rug. They decided to go to the lower end of the stream where waterfowl were swimming.
They fed them with the leftover bread and meat, which they ate with gusto as they had never tasted anything this good since they were hatched. The once calm and quiet waters had now become a feeding frenzy with flapping of wings and grateful screeches and squawks of delight. Tamura and Leona sat down and watched the birds feed and began to talk about all sorts, from when they met to the time of the summer festival.
Chapter 12
Meanwhile back at the king’s compound, the king was having an afternoon nap as he was feeling tired from the festival’s activities. Queen Eleaza was busying herself at the sewing machine, making items of clothes as gifts for the subjects’ children and this gave her great pleasure. The kids were amok in the expanse of the yard,
