New chapter! Uploaded sooner than ever! I think after the long wait I kind of owed this to you all, lovely people, reading this :)

Thanks to Zanheim Panda for telling me to make Cara less of a bitch and more like a human. Now you will all see why she behaved the way she did in her previous appearance in this story and I'll show you a more human Cara here. Thanks again!

Also thanks to ElvesWizardsCentaursOhmy for giving me a while ago the idea of adding Calormene to this story. Surprise, surprise! I won't tell anyone of you why they will be important in this story :)

And just in case you're wondering this chapter is 2, 200 words long. Just long enough to entertain you for a while :P

Now, I'll shut up and let you read...

Chapter 10

"Visitors"

She was walking around the apple orchards waiting for him. It was a gorgeous place to be in because during summer, those trees looked more beautiful than ever. That was why she loved to visit Cair Paravel during that season. It wasn't the same when she and her family came in New Year's Eve. During winter the trees seemed dead, colorless.

"Cara!"

She turned around only to find an ecstatic Fevian running towards her. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of him.

"I am so sorry to be late" the prince said apologetically.

"You are here, that is what matters"

"Shall we?"

Fevian smiled and offered the lady his arm. She took it gladly and they went to the stables to fetch horses and take the basket Dina had for them there.

They rode and left Cair Paravel behind, heading to a small clearing they always visited when Cara was in Narnia. It was like a tradition for them, they used to go there since they were kids. They went to play there most of the times when they were younger, but as time went by they started going there just to share a meal or simply lay on the grass talking about what they've done during those months they hadn't see each other.

"How is life Telmar?" asked Fevian, just when they finished setting everything for the picnic. "Good, I hope"

"Oh, it's all right" she simply said, lowering her eyes, looking to the piece of cheese she held in her hand.

The prince stared at her. After so many years he knew her well enough to know there was something she wasn't telling him.

"Hey" he said softly, raising her chin up with his hand so she would look him in the eyes. "You know you can be yourself around me. With me you don't have to pretend to be the perfect lady or the perfect daughter…"

Cara smiled bitterly. When they were younger she once told Fevian about the awkward relationship she and her parents had. Fevian was well aware of how Lady Eilana and Lord Bazar treated her daughter and the high expectations they always had for her. Cara had to perfect all the time. She was raised to be the perfect lady, to become a perfect wife and later a perfect mother. Cara always tried so hard to satisfy those expectations they had for her.

Lady Eilana was a quiet woman, very polite, she had the temper of the Telmarines, of course, but still she was submissive to her husband and sometimes she was merely a shadow standing next to him.

Lord Bazar, her father, was quite a serious man, hot-tempered, he never spent much time with his family and didn't know his daughter very well. There was also the issue that he always wanted to have a son, and that was one expectation of her father Cara just couldn't comply.

Cara noticed his look and her façade of everything being all right disappeared right away.

"Well, now that you mention it…" started Cara, suddenly looking sad "My father's relationship with King Leovan is not as good as it used to be. You know how they were very close friends, right? I mean, I even grew up with Princess Riava and Princess Nalena as if they were my own sisters! But now there is something going on with the King. I know they have different opinions about some political matter but I do not know what it is, Father has not spoken about it with Mother or with me"

"King Leovan and Lord Bazar not being friends? That is very odd; they were like brothers, right?"

"Yes. And since Father is beginning to lose his place at the court and the influence my family used to have in Telmar, my parents expect me to be the one that can earn it back…"

"Earn it back…?" Fevian asked but he knew exactly what Cara was about to say next.

"Mother has made some arrangements for me to be wed with the elder son of Prince Esdevan… She believes that having me marry the son of the younger brother of the King will gain us our place back, and she is right but… I don't want to marry him!"

Cara began to cry as she told her friend that and Fevian had the impulse to take her in his arms to comfort her. He held her tight, repeating over and over to her friend that everything would be all right.

"You know how it is in Telmar! Marrying someone like Prince Esdevan's son would keep me chained forever! A woman has no voice in a place like that; she's nothing more than a mere piece furniture!"

He knew that very well. His own mother was a Telmarine from Telmar, not like his father, born and raised in Narnia. She had told him many times she was a lucky woman because she now lived in a country with more freedom for women. Especially women of royal blood. In Telmar the only use they had was to look beautiful next to their husbands, provide an heir to the throne and be quiet, peaceful and submissive wives.

He knew those were too many chains for Cara. She had been already chained her entire life and now her parents wanted to throw even more chains on her. It would destroy her. He knew there had to be a way to free her from that arranged marriage.

Fevian began to think that if what Cara's parents wanted was a beneficial place in a palace court thanks to her daughter being married to somebody of royal blood, he could provide that. He would gladly provide that.

"So tomorrow's ball is in honor of Fevian?"

"Yes! You didn't know that, Bridget?" Dina asked with a curious look on her face "You spend a lot of time with him and he never told it was to celebrate his birthday?"

"He mentioned a while ago he would turn 20 soon… I just didn't realize it would be this soon!"

"Why do you think we are so busy in here?" Dina smiled, preparing some beautiful pastries with colorful berries on top.

There was a huge amount of food being prepared at the kitchens at that moment, because according to the prince there would be people coming to visit from Archenland, Telmar, Calormen, Galma and even the Seven Isles, which Bee understood was a place quite far away.

Bridget had made it a routine to visit her friend in the palace kitchens just to have a chat with her, to help her with some of her work or inviting her to take a walk when she was free.

It had been already around three weeks since Bridget arrived to Narnia and she didn't know how she had managed to survive there so long! She wished this ball would just pass by as soon as possible so she and Fevian could go on that excursion to the lamppost and be gone once and for all.

She had to admit, though, not everything was so bad there in Cair Paravel. Both her friendship with Dina and Fevian had grown. Dina once invited her to meet her parents and they were lovely people. Fevian, on the other hand, showed her the huge library they had in the castle and since then Bee hadn't been able to keep her hands off the books there. On another occasion, he began to teach her how to use a bow, which had been kind of a fiasco at first, but then her talent with that weapon began to emerge. That was why Fevian promised her they would practice soon to keep improving her skills.

The prince also gave her a few lessons on Narnian dances. He told Bee they would come in handy the day of the ball. What surprised the girl was what a good dancer Fevian turned out to be. Not that she thought he couldn't dance, no, it was only surprising to see he was that good. Thanks to his extraordinary abilities to dance, he was a good dance teacher. Bee only hoped she wouldn't make a fool of herself the day of the ball if she was asked to dance by someone.

When Bridget left the kitchens, she was heading to her room to change her clothes. She had helped Dina and the other cooks to finish the pastries and other meals like a cake-like thing made out of potatoes, spices and eggs, or some meat covered in a spicy chocolate sauce! It was so strange, but it tasted like heaven.

So she had several stains on her dress, some parts of it covered in flour. Thankfully she had chosen a pretty simple dress that day, with no decorations on it, just a plain blue dress. She wanted to fix her hair, which now was a messy braid, but her hands were not completely clean, so she didn't touch her head.

Bridget was crossing the main courtyard of the castle, when she heard an approaching noise. She stood to listen carefully.

After a couple of seconds the noise seemed to come closer and closer. That was when she realized it was the sound of galloping horses riding towards the courtyard.

Fevian had told her about the visitors and just by the sight of those newcomers she knew they were from a foreign land. It was a small group of riders, only four of them, all armed and wearing armors that gleamed beneath the sun. Bee supposed they were guards, escorts, because they were surrounding a chariot, from which an old man, a younger one and three ladies descended.

All the men wore turbans around their heads, and the women had their faces covered from the nose down with thin veils. Their clothes were beautifully colored, with many decorations, like small jewels on them. The pointy shoes of the ladies were something Bee liked a lot, as well as the gorgeous armbands and bracelets decorating their hands.

The riders got down from their horses and the one closer to Bridget approached her.

"Are you a servant?" he asked, and Bridget couldn't help but notice his strange way of speaking. Again she had found another different accent there.

Bridget looked at the man and was stunned by the fierce look he had. He was young, but clearly much older than her. Or maybe it was just his strong features and the stern look he had what made him appear older than he actually was.

He was a very tall man with tanned skin and very dark hair, which reached his broad shoulders, falling from inside the turban. But his eyes. They were green and they contrasted with all his other features so much that Bee felt hypnotized by those jade eyes.

It took half a second for her to remember that man had just asked her a question and when she remembered what he wanted to know, the girl didn't know what to answer. She wasn't a servant, and her pride hurt only because he thought she was one by the way she looked. But well, she was covered in different cooking ingredients, so he had a reason to mistake her for a servant.

That was shy she didn't even correct him in his assumption. And also the fact that that man intimidated her a bit.

"Is there anything I can do for you, my lord?" Bee answered and slightly bowed her head the way she had seen Dina do a few times.

"Could you fetch me and my men something to drink?"

"Sure, my lord"

Bridget returned to the kitchen and filled a glass jar with water for the rider and his men, as he called them.

Again she returned to the courtyard, where the visitors were already being greeted by the King and the Queen, as well as Fevian.

She saw the prince stare at her, not quite getting what she was doing, but she approached the green eyed man and gave her the jar. He thanked her for bringing the water and gave her a smile after being refreshed by drinking from the jar.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, my lord?"

"You could start by stop calling me my lord" he said with a smile, and giving the jar to another one of the riders.

Bridget couldn't help but smile as well when he said that. She didn't want to be called a lady and that rider didn't want to be called a lord. Apparently only Fevian and Cara were fond to those titles.

"All right, then" Bridget said "Well, if there's nothing else I can do for you, I should go"

"Thank you for the water, again"

Bridget again did the little bow with her head, turned and left to go to her rooms and finally change those dirty clothes.

At last she had memorized the labyrinth-like halls and stairs she had to take to get to her room. And while walking towards there she couldn't help but smile, thinking that being mistaken for a servant hadn't been so bad at all.

So, how was it?

Please review, people! That's what tells me if you're still interested in this or if it's just crap! :)

See you in the next one! Peace!