Page 21 of Legacy of Glass
Not waiting for the king and queen’s reaction to her tumble of words, she thrust open the doors and fled into the crowd.
Chapter8
Julius
Julius didn’t want to leave the terrace and return to the ballroom. He wanted to be part of the conversation and maybe finally get some proper answers. But his father was right. The girl from the hill had said little of help so far. Lady Marigold was the one to provide answers. Clearly her hand had been involved in the evening’s disaster, and he wasn’t in the least surprised.
How could his mother have selectedMarigoldfor him? And how had Cade dared to look him in the face and say he wouldn’t be disappointed!?
Except he hadn’t looked him in the face.
“I knew it,” Julius muttered under his breath. “I knew he wasn’t being sincere.” He should have taken more warning from his friend’s weak praise. Maybe even tried to talk to his mother before everything was completely locked in.
Except it wasn’t locked in even now. He bit his tongue on a louder, stronger exclamation. He had stood ready to sacrifice even his own future, and yet everything was still a mess.
He strode through the ballroom, ignoring all the people who tried to speak to him. Thankfully, ignoring all attendees at the ball except one was part of the tradition for that particular Midsummer Ball. He only hoped his wandering the ballroom alone wasn’t causing too much comment. The chosen girl should have been at his side. The last thing they needed was for everyone to know something had gone wrong.
They needed a solution before the problem was exposed. And for that they unfortunately needed Lady Marigold.
He gritted his teeth and pushed on, circling around the dancers as he tried to scan every whirling couple. Where was the outrageous girl? This was exactly why she was the worst possible choice of queen.
Well, worst except for one. He had been comfortably telling himself he would never meet the girl from the hill again, never dreaming she might turn up like this. He had been struggling to contain his horror ever since the crowd parted, and he got a proper look at the face of the girl in the glass slippers.
It was almost enough to make Marigold seem like a good alternative. She might be rash and unsuited to a life of protocol and restraint, but at least she had never pierced the charming façade that duty required Julius to wear. No matter how much she irritated him at times, she had never made him fail in his duty or caused him to question his sense of self. Even Marigold would be a more comfortable life companion than the girl currently outside with his parents.
The girl from the hill—Olivia, she had said her name was Olivia—was anything but comfortable. Marigold might behave poorly, but Olivia somehow causedhimto behave in a way unfit for royalty, which was even worse. The sooner she was sent on her way the better, and that meant finding Marigold as quickly as possible.
Except, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see her anywhere. And with her bright hair, she should have been more obvious than most. If only the crowd wasn’t constantly shifting. It was impossible to be certain he had seen every person present. She had to be there somewhere—Olivia had said they arrived at the ball together.
As he circled the room for the third time, his eyes fell not on the flaming hair of Marigold, but on golden hair above pink silk. His insides clenched.
Olivia. What was she doing in the ballroom and not safely shut out on the terrace with his parents?
He shouldered his way toward her, keeping her locked in his sights. She had come to a stop against the far wall, looking panicked, and hadn’t yet seen him.
The crowd had noticed both his passage and his quarry, however, and people began to melt out of his way with soft sighs and giggles. Their false assumptions irritated Julius, although he knew he should be relieved. If they thought he had been searching for his dance companion, it would explain his solitary passage through the ballroom as well as his abstraction.
The other ballgoers had left space around Olivia, so she stood alone in a bubble near the wall, still clearly lost and confused. But as he watched, a footman approached and bowed to her.
At first, Julius thought his parents must have sent a servant to fetch her back and felt relieved. But the man offered her a small silver tray, a single letter resting on top.
Even from a distance, Julius could see the red seal, and while he couldn’t make out the shape of it, he knew his parents wouldn’t have sent her a sealed letter from the terrace. He frowned and picked up his pace as Olivia accepted the letter, still obviously confused.
Her hands were visibly trembling as she tore it open, and Julius strode more quickly through the ballroom, although he couldn’t explain his sudden need to reach her side.
“What is it?” he asked in a low, rough voice as soon as he reached her side. His eyes jumped from her white face to the page in her hands.
“It’s…Oh, it’s…” She looked up at him, lost for words. “It’s Marigold,” she finally managed to choke out.
“What about her?” He lost patience and rescued the letter from her shaking hand.
But he retained enough decency to pause, giving her an inquiring look and waiting for her nod of permission before looking down to read the words scribbled across the page.
He had never seen Lady Marigold’s handwriting before, but he had no trouble believing it was hers. The words were scrawled, running together as if written in a hurry by someone who thought they had better things to do than use care in their penmanship.
By the time he had made it to the end with the looped signature that clearly read Lady Marigold, the only clear thought in his mind was that they both needed to be out of sight of the rest of the ballroom. Looking about him, he found the last of the closed doors to the terrace.
Seizing Olivia’s hand, he pulled her toward it. Opening one of the doors, he almost pushed her through.
