She was halfway out of the door when Finn decided to run after her, as he often did. But this time it was more urgent.
“Marigold–” he said, nearly running to keep up with her as she made her way to the herb garden. “That’s quite a coincidence,” he said, loudly, so that she could hear. “Another Marigold on the run.”
“Indeed,” she said, still marching forward, without looking back at him.
He had the pamphlet he had swiped from Freddie in his hand.
“It seems that she ran away around the same time you did,” he said.
Marigold turned on him, her face flush and her hair flowing. She fitted her sunhat on her head and averted her eyes.
“And what are you suggesting? ThatI’mthe lost Queen Marigold?” she said. “Preposterous.”
“Youareroyal,” Finn said.
“Oh stop,” Marigold said. “You have no right to say that!”
“It’s a compliment!”
“You have no right to compliment me!” she said.
“Why not? You ignore me most of the time. I’m just like an annoying puppy to you,” Finn grumbled.
“No,” Marigold said through gritted teeth. “You are an engaged man, last I checked. Are you still engaged?”
Once again, that uneasy silence descended between them.
“Yes,” Finn said softly.
“There you have it,” Marigold said. “If you have any compliments to give, give them to Hestia.”
“You keep so much from me, from us!” he shouted after her. “It’s not right! You were so open when you first arrived. I don’t know what happened.”
“You happened,” Marigold said. “That night by the pond and in the tree house happened. And it pains me because I can’t be a tidy, understandable person and still an honest person for any of you. I hardly understand myself.”
“No one is asking you to be simple.”
“Excuse me,” Marigold said. “I have work to do.”
Finn looked up toward the house to see Freddie’s watchful face in the window.
She had heard every word.
*
Finn charged back into the house.
“What night by the pond? What tree house? Finn!”
He was practically running from her, but she followed him all the way up the stairs and into the room, even taking the liberty to shut the door on the two of them.
“You think Marigold isQueenMarigold?” she said in a hushed voice.
Finn sat down on his bed and put his head in his hands.
“It would make sense, wouldn’t it? It says in this pamphlet that Queen Marigold was a woman of high birth from the fire kingdom, notably with long, chestnut hair rather than hair of a red shade, whose parents died in the same fire that the warrior Oak’s family died in.”
Freddie was quiet for a second.
