Page 88 of Legacy of Glass
“I did think that! But fine, I was also a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to convince you to go along with it. I thought that if I just didn’t go to the ball, my parents would find me and force me there and it would happen anyway. I’m sure the royals would have thrown another ball if necessary.”
Olivia felt frustration and anger rise up inside her, but it was mixed with a thread of relief. Her friend had wronged her, but if she hadn’t, Olivia would never have known Julius as anyone but the strange man on the hill. Marigold had done wrong, but she had already suffered for it—for months.
Olivia’s anger melted away.
“I forgive you,” she said. “As long as you never play such a trick on me again. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve already paid for your trick, and I don’t intend to try to extract further punishment.” She looked back at the shackles lying abandoned by the table. “Did they harm you?”
Marigold’s face crumpled, and Cade appeared to wrap one arm around her.
“They provided me with basic necessities,” she whispered, “and they didn’t hit me, if that’s what you mean. But I’ll admit I wasn’t an easy prisoner at first, and they weren’t afraid to fight back if I initiated it.”
“And of course you had to fight them,” Cade breathed against her hair. “You wouldn’t be Marigold if you didn’t.”
“I had company for a while at the beginning,” Marigold said. “But then the other girl was released. I was on my own after that until Elisabeth arrived a few days ago.”
She smiled at the girl who still stood alone in the middle of the warehouse. She didn’t seem to have yet recovered from the shock and confusion of her abrupt rescue, and she could have done with another hug from Daphne.
“Wait, where’s Daphne?” Olivia spun around, looking for her missing cousin.
When she found her, her heightened emotions bubbled out into laughter.
“Who is Daphne?” Marigold asked, peering in the same direction. “Is she…asleep?”
Daphne was perched on a pile of stacked bricks, her head resting on an even taller pile beside her. Her eyes were closed.
“That’s Daphne, Olivia’s cousin,” Cade said. “She’s from Oakden.”
“Even so!” Marigold shook her head. “Sleeping here?”
“I’m sure she’ll wake up soon,” Olivia said. “She always does wake up at just the right moment.”
Marigold narrowed her eyes, clearly suspicious of the newcomer. But after everything Marigold had put them through, Olivia wasn’t going to let her question Daphne.
“Why did you never tell me about Cade?” she asked instead. “Didn’t you trust me to keep it quiet?”
Her hurt shone through in her voice, and Marigold’s face fell. “It wasn’t that.” She looked guiltily sideways at Cade. “To tell the truth, I enjoyed playing the role of star-crossed lovers with a secret romance. It was the most thrilling thing in my life.”
Cade’s arm tightened around her, but his expression froze.
“I was afraid of that,” he whispered. “I worried that you’d never really cared for me at all. That’s why I didn’t start looking for you sooner.”
Marigold’s face twisted further. “That’s not true! I was having fun with the role, but loving you was never playacting. I wouldn’t have started if it was. I really do love you, and I did since the beginning. I got my just desserts for keeping it a secret, too. If I’d told my parents sooner, I might have been able to convince them to approve our betrothal. But I didn’t tell them about you until they told me about the arranged betrothal to Julius. And it was too late by then. Letting me marry one of their most bitter rivals would have been hard enough, let alone losing the prospect of becoming queen.”
She looked at Cade. “At least your parents were willing to put aside their pride to argue on our behalf. My parents weren’t. I’m glad I’ll be joining your family when we’re married.”
“My family have their faults as well.” Cade sounded constrained.
The external door crashed open with a dramatic bang. They turned to see four guards and a medic race inside. The new arrivals were all breathing heavily as if after a run.
“Apparently our fight was noisy enough to alert the neighbors,” Julius said lightly.
He stepped forward to greet the guards, and they must have recognized him because all five men bowed. The two guards who had been in the process of securing the injured men called for assistance, and Julius nodded for the new guards to join them. Three of the men did so, and the medic ran immediately for the nearest injured man, but the leader of the small troop approached Julius.
“What happened here, Your Highness?” he asked. “Were you attacked?”
“We rescued two young women who had been abducted.” Julius indicated Elisabeth, who had shrunk back from the new arrivals, and Marigold.
“Lady Marigold!” The sergeant bowed again, his eyes growing even wider as he saw Cade’s arm around her. “And Lord Cade!”
