Touch of Gold: (Rumpelstiltskin) (Tangled Tales Series Book 4) Read Free

the golden-haired knight from across the room. “Is there something that takes your interest?”
    “Nay,” she said, smiling sweetly, trying to pretend she’d been listening to the conversation between the baron and her father, even though she hadn’t heard a word they’d said. “I’m enjoying your company, my lord,” she answered with a slight curtsy. Her hand went to the pearl necklace around her neck as she fingered it nervously. It was once her mother’s prized possession. The baron had given her a silver and pearl ring tonight that matched it. “And I thank you once again for your beautiful gift.”
    “Ah, well, it can’t compare to your breathtaking beauty,” he said, actually having the nerve to reach out and touch her chin. She wanted to bite his finger and pull away, but caught the warning glance of her father and stayed still. That would be no way to land a husband.
    “Still, it is such an elegant piece of jewelry. I am grateful for your kindness,” she said, forcing a smile.
    “I wouldn’t usually give jewelry to a commoner, but the miller assures me you are special.”
    “Yes,” she said nervously, wondering just what her father had told him to get him even to talk to her.
    “Just think of it as your betrothal present.” The man thankfully pulled his hand away, and Olivia’s eyes shot over to her father.
     
    “My betrothal? Whatever do you mean, my good lord?” Mayhap her father had pulled this off after all. And mayhap she should have been paying more attention to their conversation instead of the fool on the other side of the room.
    “If everything your father tells me about you is true, then I see no reason why we shouldn’t be married.” The baron glanced over to her father and then back to her again. “Unless he’s been filling my ears full of lies.” He chuckled lowly, and it unnerved her. “Of course, if I find I’ve been made a fool of, there will be harsh consequences to pay.”
    “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” she answered. Harsh consequences didn’t sound good at all. That could mean anything from a steep fine and a good tongue-lashing, to being thrown in the dungeon and beheaded.
    “Is everything your father says about you true?” asked the baron, scrutinizing her, making her feel very uncomfortable.
    Nothing her father ever said was true, but she couldn’t admit it to the man. She only wished she had heard what lie her father had fed him so she could diffuse it like she normally did to keep her father from going to the gallows. The last time he tried to betroth her to Sir Adam of Devon, he’d told the man she was six and ten years of age, was the offspring of a dead knight, and could bear him a dozen sons. She had to finish his lie with telling him she would always be that young in her surrogate father’s eyes and that she was a few years older than he made her out to be. The man had been suspicious from the start since she didn’t look near six and ten years old, and ignored them from then on.
    The time before that, her father had told Lord Stanley of Rye that she was the daughter of a dead wealthy noble that came from France. He’d said she was only being fostered by him. Rather than to have to produce the proper papers, she’d explained that the documents had been lost at sea in a shipwreck on the way over when the rest of her staff drowned. Of course, that sounded farfetched, and the nobleman wanted nothing to do with her after that.
    “My daughter is special,” said her father, wavering just like the golden knight from across the room, and spilling whiskey from the goblet clenched in his hand. Her father wasn’t used to such fine whiskey and tended to indulge too much when the opportunity arose. When he did, his tales tended to become more and more outrageous. “She is worth her weight in gold,” he said, looking at her over the rim of his goblet and winking.
    “Well, is it a lie, or can you spin wool the way your father says you