Page 78 of Legacy of Glass
“Me, my lord?” Disappointment seeped through Olivia. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I understand you were my daughter’s friend,” he said.
“I’m still her friend,” Olivia said staunchly.
His eyes narrowed, and she immediately wondered if she’d given the wrong impression.
“Wherever she is,” she added. “I just mean that I haven’t given up on her.” She hesitated, but Lord Emerson had been the one to initiate the conversation. She decided to be bold. “I heard she was missing. She hasn’t contacted you?”
Slowly he shook his head. “I was angry with her after the Midsummer Ball. She has always been a…challenge.” He almost growled the last word. “But that trick she played was too far even for her.”
Olivia nodded. She couldn’t dispute the point, no matter how worried she was for her friend now. The Midsummer Ball had been Marigold at her most outrageous and feckless.
“I was certain she knew she’d gone too far and had run off afterward.” He gave Olivia a keen look from under his brows. “She really didn’t go to you? You haven’t seen her since?”
Olivia shook her head. “I swear I haven’t seen her since I left her carriage to enter the ball.”
Lord Emerson gave a heavy sigh. “It’s been so many weeks. I thought she would have returned by now—reappeared in a whirlwind, trying to charm us all into forgiving her. She probably would have succeeded given her track record—as long as she left us enough time to calm down and begin to worry. But it’s been too long. She wouldn’t have waited this long. I started checking with every relative, every friend. You’re the last one.”
He hesitated, glancing around. “My wife said you visited once. She said you mentioned…abduction?” He almost whispered the word.
“Yes,” Olivia said breathlessly, her mind racing as she tried to decide how much to say. She hadn’t expected a second chance to talk to Marigold’s parents. “I’m convinced she was abducted. I know she was prone to outrageous and dramatic actions, but she wasn’t the type to abandon her friends to face her consequences for her. I don’t believe she would have abandoned me.”
Lord Emerson looked down and away. Did he feel guilty for not having had the same faith in Marigold as Olivia had? Sympathy welled in Olivia, quick and strong. His worry for his daughter had to be even greater knowing he had left it so long to look for her.
“It’s been challenging finding evidence to corroborate my theory,” she said. “But I haven’t given up searching.”
Lord Emerson’s eyes flew to hers. “You’ve been looking for Marigold?”
Olivia nodded, wanting to reassure him. “I was hoping that if I couldn’t find her, I could at least find evidence to support my theory of an abduction.” She hesitated before pressing on. “In fact, I believe I’ve finally found some evidence. I’m hoping that in just a few days, I’ll be able to?—”
“Evidence?” Lord Emerson’s voice grew sharper than she had ever heard it. “You have evidence that my daughter was abducted?”
“Well…” Olivia faltered before the blaze in his eyes. “I need a few more days before I can completely confirm it. I don’t have anything concrete yet. But we think we’re on the verge of finding out where she’s being kept, as well as who took her.”
“I can tell you right now who took her,” the lord said through his teeth, his body rigid and his face furious.
Before she could respond, he stormed across the room.
Olivia watched him go in astonishment. What was he talking about and where was he going? He hadn’t even seemed to believe in an abduction two minutes ago. Was he going to the guards to demand a proper search?
But Lord Emerson stormed directly across the room to a small cluster of noblemen. Two of them turned to greet him, but he ignored them both. Striding up to Lord Strathmore, he seized the front of his clothing in an angry fist and jerked the other man toward him.
“Where is my daughter?” he roared. “What have you done with her?”
Chapter25
Julius
Julius’s conversation with Zane and Daphne was shattered by an angry shout—an incongruous sound for the setting. It only took him a second to find the source of the disturbance, and his eyes widened, shock holding him momentarily immobilized. Lord Emerson had Lord Strathmore by the front of his shirt and was shouting in his face.
“Release my Marigold at once!” he bellowed.
Julius’s eyes shot toward Zane, but the man at his side looked equally frozen with shock at the abrupt and absurd attack on his father—and by a man who was usually the epitome of careful control. Julius had never seen Lord Emerson lose control of anything but his daughter. He’d certainly never lost control of himself.
“She’s been abducted,” he ranted, “and I know it was you. Who else has motive to take her without even a ransom? Give her back!”
“What is this?” Julius asked Zane, his mind struggling to make sense of what he was seeing and hearing. “Why would Lord Emerson make such an accusation? This is taking rivalry too far!”
