A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews! You guys are WAY too nice! But I won't complain! I'm sorry it took so long, but I've been busy with school. Besides, I always think that first chapters are the hardest to write and this story happens to have four first chapters. I'm pretty pleased with how this chapter turned out and I hope you'll like it too. As usual I have to mention that Hanna is Cinderella (the royal version, indeed.) The new question won't be a surprise; who is Emily?

Chapter 3 – Frost

The autumn had just about started but there was already frost on the ground. Winter was early in the Northern Kingdom, as usual. It wasn't the fact that it was cold that bothered Emily, it wasn't that that made her sad when she saw this year's first frost. No, it was that just a year ago – the same day that the first frost had paid a visit to the Northern Kingdom – her best friend had disappeared.

Half a year after that her father had tragically passed away. Emily was left only with her step-mother, Queen Pam, who treated her unfairly and always tried to tell her what was right or wrong. What Emily missed the most was making up her own mind about things, now she had her step-mother looking over her shoulder saying that she wasn't good enough.

Emily didn't get many years with her mother, but she remembered her voice always reminding her that she was as beautiful as you could get when she felt insecure, it always made her five-year-old self feel better.

Alison – her former best friend that disappeared, and was probably dead – used to say that she loved Emily because nobody adored her as much as she did. Emily would blush and look at the ground. Alison said that Emily could trust her with anything, and she made it feel easy to share her deepest, darkest secrets with her. Their friendship couldn't have been better.

There was however one thing that Emily desperately wished she could take back; once when they had met up by the lake Alison had told Emily a story. It was very touching and she'd made it feel like every single word was directed at Emily. Before she could stop herself she had kissed her friend. A few days later Alison had made it clear that Emily was no more than a friend and that she wasn't interested in girls, besides, it was forbidden. Emily had told herself that it didn't matter, Alison was just a dear friend and Emily had mistaken her own emotions for love when, in reality, it had only been strong friendship.

This year's frost pain was a certain visitor. Queen Pam had promised Emily's hand to some Ben and today he and his sister was moving in. The wedding was happening in three days.

To be forced into a marriage was pure pain for Emily, she liked to be free. Her father used to take her swimming in a nearby lake. Emily loved how the water hugged her body and she felt completely free. Freedom was the only thing Emily ever wanted out of life.

But freedom may also be the only thing she couldn't have. Pam never let her do anything outside the castle. Then there was the previously mentioned forced marriage. Freedom and Emily Fields did not go hand in hand.

~BlueBelle03~

There was still some time before Emily's fiancé and soon-to-be-sister-in-law was supposed to arrive, so Emily decided to pay a visit to the winter garden. The winter garden was a beautiful garden outside the castle where nothing grew during winter – except the apple trees. The apple trees in the winter garden grew all year and gave the biggest, reddest apples in the kingdom. It was Emily's father, Wayne, who had planted the trees.

Emily loved how the frost covered the trees and the ground, leaving the apples to be the only color in the whole garden. Well, that was during winter. In the summer the garden was green, yellow, purple, red, orange and lots of other colors, you name it. It was very beautiful, indeed, but Emily still preferred the winter wonderland.

"Emily," a voice yelled, "there you are."

She didn't have to turn around to know who it was. Her step-mother was a control freak who wanted to control her every move.

As Pam had made her way to where Emily was standing she excitedly spoke, "They're here."

Emily had no such thing as a choice – it was a foreign word for her – and had to follow her step-mother to greet her fiancé, pretending that she was even half as exited as Pam.

"You must be Emily," Ben said and took her hand to his mouth, planting a light kiss on her knuckles.

"Um, yeah," said Emily.

Emily cast a look behind Ben and noticed a short, dark-haired girl. The girl looked up and their eyes locked.

"Emily, this is my sister, Maya," said Ben who had noticed that his fiancée wasn't paying much attention to himself anymore.

"Nice to meet you." Maya smiled widely. "I've heard so much about this place. I can't explain how great it is to be here."

Emily couldn't do anything else but smile at this over-excited girl. "You know, it's not as good of a place as they say," she said with a wink. "Very cold."

"I noticed that when we arrived, believe me. I thought I was about to freeze to death." Maya laughed.

It was silent for a couple of seconds, but then Maya spoke again, "How about you show me around?"

Emily and Maya walked around the castle. Emily spoke about the old building and Maya listened to every word. She even showed Maya all the secret passages and hidden rooms. Soon enough they approached the winter garden.

"It's beautiful," Maya whispered. Her eyes hungrily bounced around the garden, taking in everything at once.

"It's the winter garden," Emily explained, "the apple trees are the –"

"– only thing that grows during winter," Maya finished.

"How did you know that?"

"Like I said; I've heard a lot about this place."

Emily and Maya sat down next to each other on a bench under one of the many apple trees. The sun lighted up Maya's soft olive skin and she let her dark hair out, letting it fall down in messy curls. It hit Emily how beautiful this girl was.

"So what do you like doing, Emily?" As usual, Maya smiled as she spoke.

Emily didn't know what to say, she had become unable to speak a word. "I, um, I –"

"There's got to be something you enjoy."

"Of course," Emily managed. "I used to swim a lot with my father. There's a lake not too far away from here."

"I bet you're good," said Maya, "at swimming, I mean."

Emily's cheeks reddened. "I'd like to think so, yeah."

It was plenty uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time to be around Maya. When she talked she sounded so encouraging, supporting even. As if she and Emily had known each other for a long time, when in real life they'd just met today. But it was, indeed, a comforting thought to know that she could trust this girl. Could she? That was the uncomfortable part; she didn't know.

"You have to take me sometime."

Emily was pulled back to reality. "W-what?"

"To the lake," Maya explained. "I'd love you to take me."

"Yeah, of course."

Why Maya was so eager to see whatever Emily mentioned would forever be a mystery to her, but Emily liked it. On some level it made her feel appreciated. But even so, this girl might just be the death of her.

~BlueBelle03~

Emily couldn't sleep that night. She tossed and turned in her bed. She shut her eyes hard as if that would make it easier to fall asleep – in reality, it only made it worse. She tried lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling but found herself searching for patterns in the stone ceiling. She also tried lying on the side but then the view from the window chanted watch me, and Emily did. She looked out at the beautiful, glistering stars. So no, Emily could not sleep that night. There was too much distraction, the biggest one being her thoughts. And most of those thought circled around one object – one person – Maya.

Maya was beautiful, or so Emily thought. But was it envy or admiration that led her to see that? Not that Emily had ever been the jealous type of girl. But there was a lot about this girl that Emily wished to be. She was fun, outgoing and constantly smiled – she seemed happy most of the time. Emily could only dream of being happy. Well, except there's no dreaming if there's no sleeping. If only she could sleep that night. But sleeping was filed somewhere between forget it and not happening. So Emily remained awake for the whole night.

The next morning she was anything but well rested. The darkness below her eyes was hard to miss and her constant yawning also hinted at her sleepless night. Maya was the first one to speak a word about it.

"You look tired," she stated.

"Yeah," Emily said with a yawn. "I am tired."

"Couldn't sleep?"

Emily nodded.

"Nightmares?"

"I wish, then at least I'd gotten some sleep. I just couldn't sleep – at all." And it's all your fault, she almost wanted to add. But that would be stupid for two reasons; one being that she can't possibly blame Maya for taking up her thoughts and the other reason being that she'd then have to explain why she was thinking about Maya in the first place – and that was something she didn't even know how to explain to herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Maya smiled apologetic. Emily stared at the dark-haired girl in horror. It was as if she'd just read her thoughts. Why in hell was this girl apologizing?

"For what?"

"That you had a bad sleep, what else?" Maya looked confused.

"Yeah, of course, my bad. Thank you." Having said that Emily hurried away from Maya. It was entirely too dangerous to be around her.

Emily escaped to the winter garden. The wind was still and the frost still colored the ground white. But it wasn't all too cold. Emily longed for the snow to fall, then her so-called frost pain would be through with and her beloved tick layer of white would decorate the kingdom. The winter was the time of the winter ball, her kingdoms pride and joy.

"Mind if I steal an apple?" Suddenly Maya stood beside her, she'd come from nowhere. "Or are they poisonous?"

Emily was to shocked to speak at first, but then she came to her senses. "Go ahead."

Maya took one of the red apples and bit of a huge bite. "These are delicious," she said as she ate. She sat down next to Emily on a stone bench.

"Yeah, they –" Emily trailed off when Maya looked at her. Damn it Emily, she thought, just act like a normal person for God's sake. Maya continued eating her apple looking happy as usual. Envy was definitely the word. Emily was envious of Maya's happiness.

"You where saying?" Maya asked. Emily opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. They two girls stared at each other in silence in an eternity before –

Maybe it was Maya, or maybe it was Emily, who had accidentally leaned in too close. Maybe one of them had accidentally closed the distance between their lips. Maybe their lips where all over each other, or maybe this was just a dream? Emily wasn't sure anymore. This could just not be happening. This was bad. If someone found out that the two of them girls had shared a kiss it would be scandalous. Add the fact that she's a princess who's about to marry this girl's very own brother. This was a disaster.

Emily ended the kiss as fast as it had begun and looked at Maya with pure terror in her eyes. "You can't tell anyone."

"Emily, I'm not stupid, I wouldn't –"

"You can't! If anyone found out that we, that I –"

"I know, Emily, I know. Don't worry, I never kiss and tell." Maya winked and left, leaving Emily in the suddenly cold winter garden.