“Then she has two children,” she said.
Finn nodded.
“Oh,” Freddie said, going to the window for a glimpse of Marigold. “How painful. I wonder why she left. It must be complicated. She must feel ashamed. Now what about the pond and the tree house?”
“None of your business,” Finn said quickly.
Freddie raised her eyebrows.
“I have eyes and ears, as I’ve just proved to you,” she said. “You love Marigold?”
Finn neither confirmed nor denied it.
“I don’t know what I feel.”
Freddie opened her mouth to respond, but then something caught her eye.
“Marigold is leaving,” she said. “I see her on her horse now.”
“What do you mean? For good? What about all of her stuff?”
“What stuff? She doesn’t have anything,” Freddie said. “We have to go after her.”
Freddie raced down the stairs, and Finn called after her.
“You stay. No one is faster on a horse than Marigold and you’re no rider.”
Freddie wrinkled her nose at the insult but soon accepted that it was true.
“Well go then,” she said. “Now!”
Rosemary poked her head out of the kitchen.
“Finn! Go now!” she yelled. “Don’t let her leave. She’s one of us.”
Freddie nodded.
“She’s one of us.”
Finn opened his mouth, then closed it.
“Rosemary, did you hear…what we were saying at breakfast?”
“First of all, I hear everything and second of all, I’ve known for weeks, both that Finn and Marigold had some tension, and that she was King Topaz’s wife. I do read the pamphlets more than once a week, after all–so I knew that the queen had gone missing.”
“Rosemary, your intuitive powers are just not fair,” Freddie said, frowning.
Rosemary rolled her eyes.
“Do go after her,” Rosemary said to Finn.
Finn nodded, ran outside, and mounted his horse. In the distance he saw Marigold on Charger, fast disappearing through the fields and toward the road.
His heart was racing as he set off. He was used to following his sister’s orders, of course, and he did not often question them, but what would he say when he encountered Marigold to convince her to stay? I’ll leave Hestia? But how could he do that, when he was already so far in it? His sense of duty compelled him to see his commitment with Hestia out.
And if he was thinking rationally, Marigold wasn’t really a proper candidate for a wife. His father, no doubt, wouldn’t approve. He was already as good as married.
But now, irrationally, he was riding towards Marigold, desperate for a reason strong enough to convince her to stay.
