A/N: So sorry I haven't updated in such a long time! I just couldn't think of anything to write but two days ago, I sat down, started writing, and it feels like the words really started flowing out of my pen. Anyway, I'm so glad to be back. I hope those of you who read my story before haven't forgotten me! Enjoy and review.

To Jake's relief and uneasiness, the wedding hadn't taken place yet. He didn't know whether he had a chance or if Cinderella would throw him out for suggestive advances.

Miserably, he shut himself up in the room Cinderella had arranged for him to share with Cavaldi.

Until one day, he heard some voices from hall, floating through the door.

"Really, Betsie, I understand why you have to ask so many questions. A pea is a pea. And whether I ask you to bring me 100 mattresses or 10,000 mattresses, I don't expect any questions to be asked."

"Yes, Your Highness."

It was the Queen and her chambermaid. Jake's dull ears picked up. A pea? 100 mattresses? This sounded like something interesting. Something to keep his mind off of Cinderella at least. He took of his shoes so that his footsteps wouldn't be as loud and eased himself off of his bed, careful not to make a sound. Then he opened his door softly and trailed after the Queen and her maid. He knew that ladies seldom looked over their shoulders; their ruffs blocked anything from view.

"If you ask me, there's something funny about her. I doubt she's a true Princess", the Queen was saying. "Don't you think so Betsie?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"So I asked my astrologer what I should do….and he said –" at this, she bent confidingly into Betsie's ear and Jake had to crane his neck to hear.

" 'Put a pea under 100 mattresses if you're so worried. Have her sleep on top of the mattresses and ask her how she slept. If she feels the pea, then she's a true princess. If she doesn't, then you should send her away, or behead her, whichever pleases you.' "

"Now," the Queen straightened up. "Have you ever heard anything as daft as that?"

"No, Your Highness."

"I mean, if I put a pea under all those mattresses, the pea would surely get squashed to pulp. I'm not stupid you know."

"Quite the opposite, Your Highness."

"There's no way she could feel it. It's just the old, superstitious men who spout such nonsense. But any way – it would get her out of this palace." The Queen threw back her head and laughed.

"Aren't I ingenious, Betsie? But mind you, keep your corpulent mouth shut, don't breath a word about it to anyone."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Especially my son. I know he'll make an awful fuss and then I shall have that dreadful headache again. You know how infatuated he is with her…for reasons I can't understand. I just want to keep my precious little cherub for a little longer. I heard that once a boy gets married, he doesn't listen to his mother any more. When he does get married, I want it to be to the very best girl in the world. Certainly not that brat – Cinderella."

Jake had heard enough. He listened as the Queen's voice floated down the hall, and away, before he hurried off to find Cinderella.

……

She wasn't the first person he met. That was Cavaldi. Jake nearly bumped into him in his hurry. Cavaldi caught him by the arms.

"Whoa, boy! What's the hurry?"

"I need to find Cinderella."

Cavaldi raised an eyebrow

"I thought she was already taken."

Jake drew himself up to his full height.

"This is above all that. This is a matter of utmost importance." He looked at Cavaldi.

"Where have you been anyway? I have barely seen you in our room these past few days."

Cavaldi laughed.

"Oh, I've just been touring around, making friends with the right people you now. I daresay they'll let me stay on."

"As what? A French torturer?"

"Oh no," Cavaldi clapped Jake on the shoulder.

"A gourmet chef. Can you imagine that? Me, a gourmet chef for this royal family!" He gave Jake a wink, then strolled off, whistling.

Jake couldn'thelp but feel a pang of loss as he watched Cavaldi's back. He knew he would have to leave this palace soon, but he always thought that when he did, Cavaldi would be with him.

I guess not. He jammed his thumbs into his pockets and kept walking. You couldn't blame him, Jake mused. He looks happier than he has in days.

……

He finally found Cinderella walking around the garden. He immediately quickened his pace, but a few steps away from her, Jake stopped. Suddenly, his heart had started thumping loudly, and he wasn't so sure any more.

If he told Cinderella about the pea, then she would pass the Queen's test and she would marry that Prince.

But if he didn't tell Cinderella about it, she wouldn't pass the Queen's test and wouldn't be allowed to marry the Prince and Jake might have a chance after all.

Jealousy was eating away at him but pride made him want to show off to Cinderella and show her how kind and considerate he was. But what use would that be if she was fit to be tied?

He blurted, "Hi Ella."

Cinderella turned around and smiled when she saw Jake.

"Jakob! I was hoping to see you."

Jake felt his face grow hot.

"You – you were?"

Cinderella laughed her bell-chime laugh and grabbed Jake's hands.

"Of course! Why did you come see me?"

"Well…" Jake straightened up importantly.

"I overheard the Queen on my way here…" and he told her the whole story, about how the Queen was planning on using the test to throw Cinderella out "or behead you," Jake added and he shuddered at the thought of Cinderella's beautiful face and her curls of golden hair being hacked off at the neck and falling in a bloody heap at the ground.

Cinderella's blue-green eyes widened.

"A pea?"

"Yes, and if she tells you to sleep on 100 mattresses tonight, you better tell her the next morning that you couldn't sleep well at all because of a large bump that most surely had to have been a pea."

Cinderella's face broke into a smile, and Jake gazed at her, drinking up every glowing feature.

"Oh Jakob, thank you so much for telling me! I don't know what I would have done!"

And before Jake knew what she was doing, she had circled her slender arms around Jake's neck and began kissing him.

And Jake kissed her back.

……

Jake had no idea what he was doing, but there he was, in the Prince's garden, his lips pressed urgently on Cinderella's, kissing her as if he was starving for love, thirsty for passion.

His fingers were running from her head, down her neck, and along her back. He could hear Cinderella's heavy breathing, blowing the wisps of his hair around and her voice whispering, "Oh Jakob, Jakob…"

Before he knew it, they were sitting down, on the stone bench nearby. He knew that if they kept going, he would soon be on top of her.

Cinderella broke away.

Jake longed to lean forward and taste those soft lips again, but he held himself back.

Cinderella was breathing heavily, and she looked at him with her eyes out of focus.

"I'm – I'm, so sorry," she said hastily. "I must have forgot myself."

She straightened her rumpled dress and wouldn't look at him. Jake tried to turn her face to his, but she stood up.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized again. "I have to go."

……

Jake replayed the kiss in his head over and over again. What he didn't understand was why Cinderella had run off afterwards. Hadn't she shown that she truly loved him, with that sense – shattering kiss? What else could she have meant by it?

There was no way that she could have simply, "lost herself". People don't just lose themselves and start kissing random people.

Or did they?

Jake couldn't sleep that night, and wondered what Cinderella was thinking in her bed.

The next morning, Jake staked out the royal family's breakfast room. Cavaldi found him loitering around the doorway where the family was to eat.

"Jake! There you are! What are you doing here? Have you forgotten? We don't eat with the royals; we eat breakfast on the 2nd floor. Come with me – I heard they're serving some absolutely delicious food today!" Cavaldi tried to tug Jake's arm but he wouldn't budge.

"I have something to do…upstairs," Jake said distractedly.

"Aw come on, Jake. It can wait 'til breakfast!"

"No it can't, and stop bothering me," Jake snapped. His eyes were raking the halls for a glimpse of Cinderella. Cavaldi looked shocked.

"Okay, okay…I'm off," Cavaldi said, and scampered off, staring at Jake over his shoulder.

The clock chimed seven times. Soon, Jake heard the rustling of gowns, and he hid himself behind a statue.

First came the King, with his trail of servants. Beside him was the Queen looking happy with anticipation.

Behind them came the Prince…and Cinderella. Jake felt jealousy dissolve his insides, and an acidic taste rose to his mouth as he saw Cinderella holding onto the Prince's pudgy arm, and the Prince gazing at her with complete adoration.

Jake looked away.

When the door closed, Jake crept out of his hiding place, and pressed his ear against the wood. The murmur soon began to make sense to him.

At first, the conversation was unbearably boring. Jake's ear was beginning to ache from the hardness of the door, and he sank to sit on the floor.

"By the way, my dear Ella…" a lady's voice was saying. "I completely forgot to ask you – how did you sleep last night?"

Jake's heart fluttered and jumped. He heard Cinderella's melodious voice reply,

"Oh, I'm sure I was just not used to the finery in this palace, Your Highness."

"What do you mean, sweetheart?" The Prince asked.

"I really don't mean to be rude, but – "

"Say anything you like, my little Danish plum pastry," the Prince said. "Say that the bed positively reeked if you like."

Cinderella laughed.

"Well, it didn't reek, I assure you. But…I felt a sort of lump under my mattresses, I'm not sure…well it might have been because there were so many mattresses, but…"

"But?"

"But I'm almost certain that there was a pea in my bed."

There was silence. Jake nearly burst with anxiety. He heard a fork drop.

"That's impossible," he heard the Queen say abruptly.

"Of course, I don't think it's possible," Cinderella allowed. "It must have just been my silly imagination."

"It wasn't," the Prince said. "Mother, if Ella says that there was a pea in her bed, there was a pea in her bed. Do you think this beautiful face would ever be wrong?"

There were kissing noises and Jake wanted to pound through the door.

"Betsie?" the Queen roared.

"Yes, Your Highness?"

"Did you – did you say anything…anything about – you know…"

"No, Your Highness, not a word."

"Well, you don't look like you're lying. When you lie, your face turns red – did you know that, Betsie?"

"No, Your Highness."

"Well, Ella, I suppose you are a true princess."

"Yes, Your Highness. I know."

"I grant you permission to marry my son."

"Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

Jake wanted to cry.

……

Jake stumbled back to his bedroom after that. He had heard what he wanted to hear. He crushed his face into his bed and tears streamed out of his eyes. He knelt there, crying, and rocking his face in his hands.

It was in that pose that Cavaldi found him.

"Goodness, Jakob – you never came to breakfast, I brought some – Jakob!"

Cavaldi dropped the food he had brought and ran to Jake. Jake rubbed his eyes furiously to get rid of the tears and raised his head to look at the French man.

"Were you crying, Jake?"

"No, I wasn't, just some onion trouble, Cavaldi". He gave Cavaldi a wan smile. Cavaldi shook his head.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were…"

"I were what?"

"Well, I don't know…lovesick, maybe?"

Jake groaned, and threw his face into the mattress again, willing the tears to stay in. Cavaldi sat down next to him.

"Well, if this makes you feel any better…you got a letter."

"From who?" Jake asked into the mattress, not caring.

"Anjelika."

Jake nearly flew up from his bed.

"Anjelika! But how – what – Why didn't you tell me before!"

"You were mad at me before, remember?"

"I was not."

"Well you snapped at me."

"Just let me have the letter."

Cavaldi gave it to him. Jake opened it quickly.

Dear Jakob,

You must come back. Immediately.

--Anjelika

Jake didn't know what to think. "Come back?" he asked aloud. "Why?"

……

Jake didn't want to leave. He wanted to be where Cinderella was all his life, stealing glances at her whenever he could.

Cinderella and the Prince were married the next day, among lots of celebration. Jake locked himself up in his room the whole day.

"Aren't you coming to the wedding?" Cavaldi had asked. Jake didn't answer. Another thing he couldn't bring himself to face was that if he left, Cavaldi would probably not be going with him. He didn't know what to make of that. Cavaldi had almost taken over as a brother, although he was as different from Will as possible.

"What are you going to do?" Cavaldi asked later, after the wedding – his cheeks streaked with dirt, and his face red.

"I dunno. Go back, I suppose. What's there left here for me?"

Cavaldi sighed and didn't say anything for a while. Then:

"You know, Jake, I know you still love that Cinderella girl…"

"Who told you that?" Jake snapped.

"Nobody," Cavaldi hid his surprise. "But I know you do. So why don't you ask her to come along? I mean, this is about her mother, isn't it? She'll definitely want to come."

"Maybe…" Jake couldn't see why she would want to, considering her reaction after they had kissed. But he didn't say that to Cavaldi.

"I don't see how she could come with me, seeing that she's married and all."

Cavaldi laughed loudly.

"It's not like you're going to make advances on her, Jakob. Just tell them that she can bring chambermaids, guards, as many as she likes. They won't object after that. And anyway, go with us, Jakob, us."

"What do you mean?"

"You're not going back without me."

……

That night, Jakob asked a maid where Cinderella's room was and allowed her to escort him there.

The maid knocked softly.

"Your Highness? There's a young man here to see you. He says his name is Jakob."

The maid turned back to Jakob.

"She says to come in."

Jakob walked in awkwardly, aware that the maid was watching him shrewdly, and that she kept the door open.

"Hello."

Cinderella was sitting at her desk, reading a very old book.

"Hi…erm…I don't know how to ask this but…"

She looked at him expectantly. It was the first time in days that she looked him full in the face.

"Before Cavaldi and I came here, we were at this town and something happened, and we thought we solved it and came here, but it turns out that it's not solved and my friend just wrote me and told me I should go back, and – " Jake took a deep breath.

"You want me to go with you?"

"It's about your mother."

Cinderella jumped.

"My – my mother?"

"Yes."

Cinderella didn't say anything for a long time. When she did, she wasn't looking at Jake anymore. She was fingering her book.

"You know, I've been doing some research on my mother. I want to find her, you know…and I've found some, strange things."

Jake waited.

"Did you know that they say she enchanted her soldiers so that when they died, they would turn into ravens?"

"Do you believe that?"

She looked up at him.

"No. Definitely not. My mother would never do something like that. And anyway, why would she? What use would a bunch of ravens be?"

"I don't know…"

"Rumors are rumors Jake. Not many of them are true. They also say that she managed to keep herself young a beautiful…"

Cinderella touched her cheek.

"Do you think I could do that?"

A/N: Like it? This is probably one of my first attempts at a kissing scene so tell me if its good or if it grosses you out - :) If the stupid system still won't let you review, do what jinxyknockonwood did, please review anonymously. So...I've thought of where this story is going to go and I can't wait to get there! Also, I'm going to proofread some of the chapters and reupload them - no plot changes, just language and word choice etc. Kissies!