The Tales of Marigold by Jean Ferris

Author:Jean Ferris
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780544869493
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2016-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

21

With Christian occupied in his workshop and Wendell shut up in his room working on his necromancy, Marigold was at loose ends. She couldn’t concentrate on any book, her interest in developing a new fragrance wandered, and Flopsy, Mopsy, and Topsy had run across the Zandelphia-Beaurivage Bridge to play with Bub and Cate at the castle. Though, come to think about it, they all hadn’t been getting along so well lately.

Well, maybe she’d go across the bridge, too. She’d avoided visiting since Olympia had returned, for obvious reasons, but she hadn’t seen her father for over a week and she was missing him. She wasn’t going to allow Olympia, whatever schemes she might be hatching, to intimidate her from seeing her father—and from making sure he was all right. It was true she’d had to wait around at home for Wendell to show up, but now it was a sure thing, she was afraid, that she wouldn’t be missed if she took the afternoon off and left the castle. Chris seemed barely to notice her even when he was in the same room with her.

She wondered if this was the way every marriage ended up, especially royal ones: suffocated by obligations and formalities. She and Chris had even talked about that on their honeymoon and promised not to let it happen. But maybe it was inevitable. It didn’t seem to have happened to her sisters, those beautiful blond, impossibly lucky triplets, all of whom had married royalty, but they had been extraordinary and fairy-blessed all their lives. They weren’t like anybody else, so she couldn’t use them as a gauge of anything.

She set off across the Zandelphia-Beaurivage Bridge. She couldn’t help admiring it every time she saw it. It reminded her again and again of how clever and brilliant Chris was to have designed such a beautiful, and also tricky, structure. A bridge like that made both kingdoms feel safer when invaders could be dumped into the river with the operation of a few gears.

She entered the bailey in the midst of a throng of peasants arriving for Market Day. Rollo had pulled aside, and was threatening, a farmer who wanted to bring in more than his allowed number of pigs, all squealing and scuffling about in the farmer’s wagon. Rollo seemed unfriendlier than usual. Maybe his mood had something to do with his having to work for Olympia again. She could be a tough boss even if you agreed with her about everything, which Marigold supposed Rollo did. You probably didn’t get to be captain of the guards by differing with your queen.

As Marigold made her way through the castle courtyard she thought she sensed anxiety in the crowd: a discontent, or unease, or even foreboding. Or maybe she was just projecting her own feelings—about Chris, about her abilities to rule wisely, and especially about what Olympia could do to everything Marigold cared about. She reminded herself to be vigilant and wary, for herself and Swithbert, as long as she was inside Beaurivage Castle.

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