Page 55 of Legacy of Glass
“Have any of you ever heard of girls my age going missing?” she asked. “Perhaps being abducted?”
“Did someone try to abduct you?” the boldest girl asked, a gleam of excitement in her eyes.
Olivia’s hands flew up in repudiation, her head shaking urgently. She couldn’t risk such a juicy piece of false gossip spreading through the city.
“No, no,” she rushed to say. “Nothing of the sort. Everyone I’ve met has been most kind.” Or at least, mostly everyone. She wasn’t counting Lady Emerson. “I was just curious because I heard a story about something similar, and I wondered if it might be true. And I’m betting girls like you know everything that goes on around you.”
The girls exchanged pleased grins at her assessment of them.
“Adults always think they know better,” the main speaker said, “but they have no idea how much we see and hear.”
Olivia nodded. “I know because I was you not so long ago. Girls like you listen and watch everything going on—with both the adults and the children.”
Several heads nodded agreement.
“See,” one of them whispered to another, “the prince really is marrying one of us.”
Olivia flushed slightly, feeling like a fraud on every front. These girls thought she’d been welcomed into the palace with open arms, not realizing the royal family were working for a way to free themselves from her—and that she was encouraging them to do so.
“I haven’t heard of any abductions, though,” the main speaker said thoughtfully. She glanced around the cluster of girls. “Have any of you?”
Most shook their heads, but one girl pushed herself forward from the back of the group.
“I’ve heard of one,” she said.
Olivia’s heart lifted. “You have? When? Where? Do you know what happened to the girl?”
“Really, Bess?” one of the other girls asked. “I never heard about that. Who was it?”
Bess shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t remember her name. It was at least two years ago. I only heard about it because my father worked for her father, and I overheard them talking about it. I don’t know if anyone outside the business even knew.”
“Why did the girl’s father keep it a secret?” Olivia asked, frowning. “Didn’t he want help from the guards?”
“The abductors demanded he keep it quiet,” Bess said. “They wanted a ransom, and they told the girl’s father that if he reported it to anyone, they would kill his daughter.”
Several of the girls gasped, but the topic was removed enough from them that their horror was edged with an excited thrill.
“What did they demand for the ransom?” Olivia asked. The situation Bess was describing differed significantly from Marigold’s, but it might still be connected in some way.
Bess shrugged. “I didn’t hear that. But I know the father paid, and his daughter was returned safely. So I suppose it was a happy ending.”
“Depending what he had to give up to save her,” Olivia muttered, mostly to herself. “You said you don’t remember the name of the girl, but could you direct me to her father? I’d like to ask him some questions.”
“Sorry,” Bess said. “They moved away from the capital as soon as they got her back. My father said they wanted to get as far from the city as possible. They completely abandoned their plans to expand their business and everything. I guess the owner lost the heart for business matters. He hired my father to manage his existing contracts and walked away from it all.” A brief look of guilt passed over her face. “So our family ended up benefitting from what happened.” She looked down. “I think of them sometimes because of that.”
“Don’t feel bad, Bess,” another girl said firmly. “Your family has only profited because your father is a trustworthy and dependable person. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not like you abducted the girl.”
The other girls chimed in, echoing their agreement, and Olivia nodded along. Another abducted girl was intriguing, but she had no way of knowing if it had any connection to what had happened to Marigold. And apparently there was no way for her to follow the incident up to find out further information, either. But it was something that the girl had been returned unharmed. That, at least, was encouraging.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said to Bess. “I appreciate your help.”
Bess glowed, curtsying prettily and flushing. “My ma is never going to believe I helped a princess today.”
Olivia didn’t attempt to correct her on the title a second time. She had a request to make, and she wanted them as receptive as possible.
“Actually,” she said, “I would prefer if you didn’t mention the details of our conversation to anyone else. I wouldn’t want anyone to think?—”
“Umm,” one of the girls interrupted, “about that…” She gestured at the grass around them, her face apologetic.
