Twice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris Read Free Book Online Page B

fruition, she would be back in it.
    Marigold pretended to be asleep so she wouldn't disturb Chris, but she hadn't forgotten what Olympia had once planned, either.
    Lazy Susan, having slept all afternoon, was wide awake, wishing she'd never had a friend named Angie.
    And Mr. Lucasa stayed up all night making alterations to Olympia's gowns.
    The next morning, Olympia was the only one of them whose eyes weren't bloodshot.

10
    Magnus Tobias Hunter, who had been briefly engaged to Marigold before that crazy day when she ended up marrying King Christian of Zandelphia instead, was having a leisurely luncheon on the terrace of his country manor house. He could hardly believe how happy, and how lucky, he was. He had his own home at last, one that he'd designed himself to be exactly what he wanted. He had a job as royal architect and engineer, which had allowed him to make substantial improvements to the living conditions of Beaurivage's subjects. In just a year, this had made him so popular that, to his amazement, he'd won the annual Kingdom's Favorite Person Award. And that night Lord and Lady Buffleton, along with their daughter Sephronia, were coming to dinner.
    Although Magnus had been willing to marry Marigold, he had mostly just wanted something he'd never had before—a place to belong. He liked Marigold well enough even though they had next to nothing in common. With Sephronia it was different. They always had plenty to talk about, and she even shared his interest in architecture and mapmaking. At tonight's dinner he intended to ask Lord Buffleton for permission to court Sephronia.
    As he lifted his goblet of pomegranate juice to his lips, Magnus looked up to see something he couldn't believe. Queen Olympia appeared to be steaming across the terrace toward him, but that was impossible. While he'd been shocked at what happened to her on that wedding day a year ago, he couldn't say he was sorry. She had intimidated and manipulated and frightened him into a plot to do away with King Swithbert, and it had been the worst time of his life. She considered herself too refined to do any actual exterminating—that's what she wanted him to do. Magnus really loved Swithbert, who had never been anything but kind and generous to him, but he had been terrified of Olympia. He had been beyond relieved when she'd gone into the river, believing that she'd never bother him again.
    Yet here she was, looking fit and extravagantly dressed, complete with ferret, and very much alive. His pomegranate juice went down the wrong way and he coughed so hard he saw stars.
    "Just as competent as ever, I see," Olympia said, coming to a halt in front of his table while he kept trying to catch his breath. She yanked out a chair and sat down. "Nice little place you've got here, Magnus. A butler and all the trimmings. I'll bet Swithbert is behind your having it, am I right?" Without waiting for an answer, she said, "You were supposed to end up with nothing if you didn't marry Marigold. Which is exactly what would have happened if I'd still been around. But Swithbert ..." She shook her head in disgust. "I'll bet you'd like to keep living in this nice place, wouldn't you?"
    Magnus was too stunned to do more than look at her, his lips trembling.
    "Of course you would," Olympia went on, reaching for Magnus's glass of pomegranate juice and drinking it down. "So I know you'll be glad to help me do what I want to do in exchange for your getting to stay here. Correct?"
    "What—what—" Magnus licked his lips. "What do you want to do?"
    "Ah, that's my boy," Olympia said. "Well, I want to be queen, of course."
    "But aren't you queen now?" Magnus asked.
    "Well, yes, technically. But the succession is through Swithbert. I was a commoner—though quite an uncommon one, I must say—when he married me. Succession goes to his offspring. Since Tatiana and Marigold are already queens of their own kingdoms, that leaves Calista and Eve, who tried being queens and