Free The Olive Conspiracy by Shira Glassman Page B

where we’re going next?”
    “ Well, it used to belong to the
couple who taught the children’s class at temple when my oldest
were that age,” Eliana began, talking in encyclopedias as usual,
“but they’ve died, so their daughter takes care of the grove. Her
name is Halleli. Beautiful little thing. About your height! Would
have thought she’d have found a husband by now. She hires in a lot
of her farm help and some of those men—would you look at the
muscles. Well, of course, what am I saying? You’re around that
one all the time, so you know what I mean.” She pointed
unobtrusively at Rivka, whose bulging biceps stood out from her
sleeveless tunic.
    Shulamit looked away and tried not to smirk at
Eliana’s admiration.
    “ She’s got a friend there with her
though, so maybe she likes it better that way.”
    Shulamit’s ears perked up. “A
friend?”
    “ Yes, a sturdy young woman called
Hadar who dresses like a man and—”
    Shulamit was unable to disguise her shimmering
glee. “Oh?” It was so hard to find women like her in this world of
silence and propriety. Of course, she could be wrong, but really .
    “ Her people live in the Lovely
Valley, I think,” Eliana mused. “Coconut farmers, I think. That’s
why she’s so strong—had to learn to shimmy up trees.”
    Shulamit was practically vibrating. Then a
sober truth spoke in her ear. She was about to visit these happy
women, these women just like her, and probably give them bad
news.
    The smile broke off at the edges.
     
    ***
     
    Rivka loved the chill of the air this side of
the mountains, having come from a place far colder than the steamy
tropics of Perach. Just as during their sojourn in Imbrio, the
coolness gave vigor to her muscles and made her want to jump around
and use them. She felt trapped, riding in the carriage, but with
Shulamit recovering from the trace flour in her dinner, and Isaac
riding on her shoulder still nursing a headache, Rivka knew that
they were all very lucky to have a ride even for this short
way.
    With the curtains pulled back, though, she
could see the lovely morning walk they could have had. A perfectly
clear sky domed an earth decorated by orderly rows of trees. Birds
hopped on the ground and here and there fluttered out of branches;
she hoped they were eating some of the farshtinkener insects.
    “ Riv?”
    “ Hm?” She turned to face the
queen.
    Shulamit looked pensive. “You don’t think Queen
Carolina’s mixed up in this bug thing, do you?”
    “ How’d you get there?”
    “ The timing, partially.” Shulamit
twisted one edge of her scarf into a tight coil, then let it relax
in her hands. “This wasn’t happening before King Fernando got
sick.”
    “ You think she’s capable of this
kind of malice?” Rivka asked. “Because of… the way they are over
there about human rights?”
    “ That’s probably part of it,” said
Shulamit. “Plus, I mean—she doesn’t seem mean, and she thinks she’s
my friend, but since she’s not down here she’d be sheltered from
all this.” She gestured out the window at the brown and sickly
trees. “She might just think she was taking us down a peg to make
things easier for Imbrian economic interests.”
    “ Or going along with someone else’s
plan to take us down a peg,” suggested Rivka, thinking of the other
queen’s husband. She remembered him saying something competitive
when he saw the Perachi olive oil in the shivah basket.
    “ Or she could just be lashing out
emotionally as a reaction to all those proposed boycotts,” Shulamit
continued. “That might have hurt her feelings deeper than she was
showing, especially since when we saw her she was more preoccupied
with grief than anything else.”
    “ If she even knows.”
    “ Right. But do you think she
does?” Shulamit studied Rivka’s face intently.
    “ I have an open mind,” said Rivka.
“Right now, I’m just tracking my chicken farmer.”
    There was a silence, and Shulamit stared at