Page 28 of Legacy of Glass
But before she could come up with anything, an older, grizzled voice sounded from behind the boy.
“Oi!” it called. “What are you doing, boy? Latch that door and get back to work!”
The boy winced. “That’s my master!”
His words were apparently explanation enough because the door closed with a soft thud, the scrape of the bolt once again reaching Olivia’s ears.
She blinked at the solid wood. Clearly there was nothing to be gained by knocking again. And even less to be gained by trying the front door. Having heard the state of the household, she was relieved she hadn’t tried it at the start. Who knew how Lord and Lady Emerson would have reacted to the sight of her? They might even have blamed her for the whole thing.
But as she walked slowly back to her own home, she couldn’t think of a single other positive. Marigold was gone, and Olivia was on her own. There was no one who could get her out of her quagmire.
She felt suddenly unanchored, listless without a goal. What was she supposed to do now? Go back to her usual chores?
She laughed, despite herself. Would the royal family be offended if they discovered the girl betrothed to the crown prince scrubbing floors?
An insistent squeak made her swing around. She still had one friend who hadn’t abandoned her.
But the sight of Mildred wiped the brief smile off her face. The mouse was no longer the size of a medium dog. She could now easily be ridden by a small child.
Olivia ran forward to pat Mildred’s silky fur, tears in her eyes. “What have I done to you?” she whispered. How was Mildred going to keep herself hidden now?
More than anything, the physical changes in her furry friend made everything real to Olivia. She was caught in the Legacy’s web with no easy way out.
“Olivia!”
The shout made Mildred squeak again and run for the edge of the hill. Olivia wanted to call her back, but whoever was looking for her in the manor garden would soon turn their attention to the hill.
Sighing, she slipped into her aunt and uncle’s garden. She had barely closed the door in the wall behind her when her cousins leaped on her. Nell seized one of her arms and Hattie the other, the two girls dragging her toward the house.
“Where have you been?” Nell exclaimed. “Look at you!”
Olivia gazed down at herself in bewilderment. She was wearing a crumpled dress and had made no attempt to fix her bedraggled hair, but she was decently covered. The gardener’s apprentice hadn’t seemed to find fault with her appearance.
“What does it matter what I look like?” she asked. “That hardly seems like the biggest issue right now!”
Nell stared at her with enormous eyes. “It seems big enough!”
Hattie broke into sudden giggles, as if her emotions needed some escape, and she didn’t know how else to release them.
“The crown prince is waiting for you in our drawing room! The crown prince, Olivia! Surely your appearance matters a little.”
“Prince Julius is here?” Olivia gasped. “Right now? But why?” She stared around the garden as if it could provide answers. “Why is he here so early? They only sent me home a few hours ago!”
“Of course he’s here,” Nell said. “You’rethe one he danced with last night!”
“Why do you think I tried to stop you this morning?” Hattie asked reproachfully. “Why did you run away when you must have known he was about to arrive?”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us you were the chosen girl!” Nell added without giving Olivia time to respond. “Mother would have been delighted for you to come with us if she’d known. She would have ordered you a new dress too, although the one you wore was stunning. But how did you meet the prince? How did he convince his parents to choose you? Everyone knows the crown prince’s marriage is arranged by his parents.” She gave a long sigh. “It’s so romantic!”
“It certainly isn’t!” Olivia cried. “Don’t talk nonsense about romance to me.”
“But Olivia, what do you mean?” Hattie asked. “They usually choose a girl from a rich and influential noble family, so Prince Julius must be madly in love with you if he managed to convince his parents to choose you.”
“Is that what everyone is thinking?” Olivia cried in alarm. “Of course he isn’t in love with me. He doesn’t even know me. How would I know the crown prince? The whole thing is a terrible misunderstanding. I didn’t know this ball was different, and I thought I was supposed to wear glass slippers.”
Both her cousins gasped in horror. They exchanged a look across Olivia before Nell spoke in a tone of dismay.
“You already had the Legacy’s interest—it pushed Mother into treating you more like a servant than like family—so it must have been at full power last night.”
