I think this is where I started to go a little off track but I don't care, I love this chapter :L enjoy

Chapter 8

"That's it, I'm going to get the physician." Anna left me leaning over a bucket in the bathroom.

"Anna, it's fine." She pulled my hair off my neck and tied it up with string.

"You've been throwing up for days now. You didn't go anywhere you could have caught something like this on your honeymoon. I'm getting the doctor." She turned for the door.

"Anna, we don't need the physician." She stopped,

"Why, because you know so much about how the human body works?" I leaned against the wall and sighed.

"No, but I know how pregnancy works." She blinked and got down on her knees in front of me.

"You've only been back for two weeks, this is far too early to be pregnancy sickness." I knew I would have to tell her, she would find out on her own if I didn't. Kai would tell her if I didn't anyway.

"It's too early to be Nikolai's baby. It's not too early to be Jackson's" She let her breath go and blinked a couple of times.

"You never told me you and Jackson were together." I nodded.

"The day before he died. When he ran off." Anna leaned on the wall beside me and put her head on my shoulder, holding my hand comfortingly.

"Does Nikolai know?" I choked a laugh through my tears.

"How do you think I would bring up that conversation? I would find it hard enough to tell him if it was his." Her hand ran through my hair. I stood up, using Anna's shoulder as support.

"You think you can manage to keep something down?" I shook my head.

"No," I sighed, "I have to talk to Nikolai." She patted my shoulder and grabbed the bucket, taking it out to one of the servants already standing by. Nikolai spent most of his days out by the stables with the horses. He loved to ride and his father never gave him much time to do so.

"Your majesty. Prince Nikolai is out riding at the moment. Would you like to wait here for him?" The stableboy greeted me. I smiled and sat down at the stable entrance to wait. I absentmindedly held my hands under my stomach. I stared out at the sky and thought of what I would say. Nikolai knew about Jackson, but he didn't know that we were together like this. I could see Jackson's face in my mind. His smile, his eyes. I was jolted back to reality when I heard a horse approaching. I quickly wiped away the tears that were streaming down my cheeks before Nikolai saw them.

"Elsa, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company in the middle of the day?" He dismounted from his horse and handed the reigns to the stableboy, thanking him as he did so. He sat down next to me and kissed my cheek. "Are you okay?" He noticed my cheeks were damp.

"I'm pregnant." Nikolai leaned back. I had twenty minutes to think of a way to bring that up and all I could do now was blurt it out.

"That's wonderful, Elsa. Why are you crying about it?" I glanced over at the stableboy with his back to us. I know what the workers of this castle are like and I wasn't about to tell the whole kingdom about Jackson and I. I stood up and took Nikolai's hand with me. He followed me along the trail.

"We both know you knew the second Jackson walked in the sitting room on my birthday that those rumours you heard were true. You didn't need the trip to the Overland's house or seeing my reaction to what happened to tell you." He made a noise to confirm he was aware of Jackson and I, not that I needed it. "I never told you the extent of our relationship." Nikolai stopped and looked at my stomach.

"The baby is Jackson's?" I nodded. I felt the need to cover my midsection with my hands to avert his gaze.

"I know enough about pregnancy symptoms to understand the timing for it to be yours is four weeks too early, but it's right on time for Jackson's." He nodded. "Nikolai I'm sorry." He shook his head, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"You don't need to apologise for loving someone. We can keep this hidden and convince the people the baby is mine. This way he or she will still be a viable candidate for the crowns and you wont be disgraced for what happened." I smiled softly. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his chest.

"This is the second time you've saved my kingdom from destruction." He held me a little tighter before letting go. He looked around for a second.

"This is the road to the Overland's village." I nodded.

"I can't keep this from them." He sighed.

"Wait here a second." He took off in the other direction. He was barely gone five minutes when I heard him coming back with a carriage. I stared at him until he stopped. "What? You're pregnant you can't be walking everywhere you go." I rolled my eyes and helped myself into the carriage. Tara came out of the house when she heard us rolling to her doorstep.

"Elsa? What are you doing in a carriage?" I stepped down and pulled her into a hug. Mary cracked the door open and peered out. Seeing me smiling at her she came out and grabbed hold of my side. I stroked her hair and turned back to Tara.

"Nikolai insisted." I signalled for him to wait behind and went into the house with the Overlands.

"How have you been?" I pursed my lips, thanking Tara for the tea she placed in my hands.

"The wedding helped me keep my mind off him for a while, but it didn't last." I sipped the tea. "The hurt won't ever go away will it?" I looked at Tara over the lip of the tea cup and her face fell.

"Jackson and Mary's father died before Mary was born. It's been eight years and the hurt hasn't lessened any." I smiled sympathetically and took another sip. "So what did you come down for?" I set the teacup down on the table.

"I never told you that the day before Jackson's accident, when I went looking for him, I found him within twenty minutes." Tara blinked.

"I could have lived my whole life without knowing that and not being too stricken about it." I smiled, nodding I continued.

"Could you go your whole life 'not too stricken' you didn't know you had a grandchild?" Tara dropped her teacup and it landed with a rather soft smash on the floor. Mary came out of her room.

"Mom?" Tara waved her back to her room. I could see a tear well in the corner of her eye. Tara got up and came over to me. I stood up when she reached me and she hugged me. She started to cry on my shoulder and I ran my hand down her back, comforting her. The joy and sadness mixing together in her was enough to make her break.

"Tara, you need to understand you can't tell anyone." She nodded,

"I guessed, you're going to tell everyone its Nikolai's." She let me go but kept her hands om my shoulders, sitting me back down.

"This way the child will have a claim to the throne and it will be able to have access to my family's money. It's the best upbringing I can provide." She nodded, she didn't care so long as it was brought up right and loved.

I trusted Tara to keep the information from Mary until she was a little older and able to hide it from everyone else. Nikolai drove us back up to the castle where we found Anna sitting on the steps in the courtyard talking to a blonde haired man and his reindeer.

"Hey there." I flicked away Nikolai's hand and stepped out of the carriage unassisted.

"Elsa, finally." I looked at the blonde man before my sister. She noticed my eyes flicking. "Ok, sorry, this is Kristoff." I nodded in greeting.

"You were at the lake, and the Overland's house." He nodded,

"Yes, your majesty, I've known the Overlands since my parents found me in the woods as a child. I don't know what happened to my birth parents, but my mother and father took me in at a young age and raised me right around the corner from Jackson and Mary. I'm surprised I never saw you around there when you were young." I smiled, but some of it was from forced niceties.

"What a shame." Kristoff said his goodbyes and took his reindeer out of the square with a promise to stop by later.

"Elsa, Kai knows. Did you tell him?" I watched Nikolai lead the horse back to the stables and shook my head at my sister.

"He's a very intuitive man, he probably figured it out. My guess is he's also called in a midwife to make sure I'm doing okay." Without a second more, a woman came up to me on the steps and bowed.

"Your majesty, my name is Kenna, I was called in to be your midwife." I looked to Anna and she took over.

"Kenna, lovely to meet you. Elsa and I were just saying we thought Kai called someone. Come in, sit down a moment. Let her majesty ready herself for your visit." Anna took her into the sitting room when she was through the threshold. I went up the staircase into my chambers. I wiped the dirt off my face gathered by the trip down into the village and looked at myself for a moment in the mirror. I don't know how I'm going to survive this without having my heart ripped in two.

A/N

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