A/N: Surprise! I've managed to write another chapter! And look how fast. (I hope that doesn't jinx my good season when I wrote that…) And thank you so much for the reviews. I'm so happy that you haven't given up on me despite my slowness and I'm so happy you like the story :D

I hope you'll enjoy the chapter.

8.

It had been a week since her soft-headed daughter had had the stroll in the gardens with that dherr'eshaanian woman and ever since then, she had tried to wrack her brains as to why the woman looked so familiar. But nothing or no one came into her mind. And she knew for a fact that she didn't know anyone from the great southern empire. For the Empire of Dherr'eshaan was great and strong, even she had to admit that, though she still thought them to be barbaric. To fight with swords and spears instead of guns and cannons and wearing clothes without any consideration to the rest of the world, of how they looked in their eyes.

Absolutely disgraceful.

Lady Tremaine looked through the window to the courtyard where she could see the troubling woman and her husband exit the carriages. They were no doubt here because of that silly notion that Anastasia had gotten into her head, that her and prince Charles should for some unfathomable reason have dinner with the dherr'eshaanian couple.

She couldn't understand why her daughter would associate with someone like them. For God's sake, she didn't even remember the couple's name. That should be enough for Anastasia to realize that they were not worthy or high enough in the social ladder for her to spend time with. The prince was understandable of course, since he had work with the lord what-ever-his-name-was-again.

Anastasia had changed since she had married to the prince. And not for the good. She wasted her time in completely useless things, like orphanages or helping the poor. After she had gotten to use the wand, and made herself beautiful as a result, she had lost all interest even in the wand endless possibilities. If prince Charles had not been a prince she would have gotten rid of him a long time ago. The man was obviously not good influence on her daughter. Perhaps she should've married Druzilla off to prince Charles instead of Anastasia, but it was too late for now. At least Druzilla was acting reasonably. She was a little annoyed that Druzilla had had to settle for the younger prince of Aherin, but at least she wouldn't need to worry about that for long.

Lady Tremaine stroked carefully the long, white stick hidden in her sleeves. Perhaps she should use the wand to find out what in that foreign woman reminded her of. She had fought with the matter for a whole week. It was quite enough.

Lady Tremaine turned sharply from the window and headed for the rooms she used when she was living in the castle. The best room after the royal family of course, after all she was family now as well. Personally she thought she should've had at least as good rooms as the king and she could have had it done, but she had deemed it best not to, since the visiting dignitaries might have paid a little too much attention and wonder.

As she walked through the corridors, the servants and lackeys scurried quickly out of her way without the lady noticing anything. She did not pay attention to people who were as un-significant as the lowly servants and such and those rare times she did notice them, it was because they had done something she considered wrong. The servants and lackeys did all they could to avoid that, lady Tremaine's punishments were horrible and legendary among them.

The lady stopped in front of her doors and opened them stepping inside into a beautifully and expensively decorated room. She shut the door and locked it. It would not do for someone to walk in on her using magic.

Once she was certain no one would disturb her, she turned and walked in front of a large mirror that hung on the wall. She looked at it for a moment and decided it would be good enough. Then she pulled out her wand and pointed at the mirror. The corner of her mouth twitched as she recalled, what she had heard about a queen in some kingdom in the west, who had used a magical mirror. The queen had had a rhyme of some sort she had used.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall…" she murmured to herself before focusing on the mirror. "Show me the woman", she commanded simply and a bead of light shot from the wand hitting the mirror. The mirror changed into a smoky gray for a moment, before images started showing in the mirror. At first they were blurry but cleared in a few seconds and lady Tremaine could see the dherr'eshaanian woman.

As she watched the images, it appeared that they came in backwards order from the present moment to the past. She watched as the woman strolled in the garden with her daughter a week ago, how she was in a ship with her husband travelling to Elethia no doubt. She saw as the woman snuck in the corridors what must have been their home a tray of food in her hand, the woman's wedding in wich she looked way too happy in lady Tremaine's opinion.

Now she was travelling in a desert and next lady Tremaine watched her learn how to ride apparently. Then she saw a ball where the woman danced with her husband, the woman sitting in front of a table reading something, talking to an elderly gentleman in ragged clothes… Lady Tremaine narrowed her eyes at the sight of the woman – no, a girl at this point – and the clothes which suddenly made the alarm bells go off in her mind. She saw the girl wandering in the streets and then she saw a familiar sight of their city's harbor and of the girl boarding a ship in a cloudy day. Her eyes widened as her suspicions were confirmed.

"Cinderella!"

The images in the mirror shattered as her concentration broke. This was impossible. That… that girl couldn't be here! She had sent her to the farthest place possible and that certainly wasn't Dherr'eshaan. Dherr'eshaan was way too near for her to send that disgusting girl there. But the images had shown her that Cinderella had left the ship in Dherr'eshaan. There must have been a mix up of some sorts. The soldiers definitely hadn't been the brightest of people in lady Tremaine's opinion and the idiots could have easily put the girl in to a wrong ship.

Why did Cinderella had to come back? Lady Tremaine rubbed her temples feeling the beginnings of a headache. Of course she knew why the bloody, miserable, good-for-nothing idiot had come back when she thought about it reasonably. The girl was here with her husband, who was here because of the trading agreements. But that could not be the only reason Cinderella had returned. There had to be a hidden reason. Lady Tremaine was sure of it.

But what could it be?

Was she here because of the prince? No. That couldn't be the reason. The girl looked entirely too happy with her current husband to have any plans or hopes for the prince. Cinderella had never been very ambitious when she should have been instead wasted her time in frivolous things like love for one thing. Utterly useless child.

Lady Tremaine paced between the mirror and the window of her room as she thought. Perhaps she was here for the wand? But that didn't sound quite right either. It would require ambition again.

The lady stopped as she thought of something.

The fairy godmother. It would be exactly like Cinderella to try and save the foolish old hag. A perfectly soft and sentimental thing that people like Cinderella would do, lady Tremaine thought. But… then she would also be after the wand! She would need it to save the old woman.

Lady Tremaine cursed and continued her pacing. She needed to think what to do about the situation and Cinderella. She would not let her former servant to ruin everything she had worked for.

…..

Rella laughed at the joke Falad had made and let her husband help her down from carriages. They were slightly early, they were heading to the dinner Anastasia had wanted them to have together, but Rella didn't mind the least. They had planned on taking a little walk on the gardens before the dinner because Rella had wanted to show them to Falad, who had not had any time yet to visit them.

Falad loved plants, which was why in their home they had an amazing garden where Falad sometimes tended the plants himself causing heart attacks to the gardeners. After all, it wasn't lords job to tend plants though Falad ignored that fact very determinedly. It was probably the reason why their staff hadn't made that much objections when they had found her for the first time in the kitchen making food.

Rella also wanted to show him the gardens because then they would have a little time on their own and she wanted to tell him something. Of course she could have told him earlier already, but she hadn't been sure how to break it to him. They had hoped – or at least Rella hoped that Falad had hoped as well – so long for this. She had found out this last night when she had had a bath.

Rella shivered as she stood next to the big bathtub, more like a pool actually, and dried herself. One of the house's maids had brought her nightgown and a robe for her to the bench next to the pool. She absolutely loved dherr'eshaanian baths. They were so far ahead with plumbing than the rest of the world, which was kind of funny in her opinion since dherr'eshaanians lived in a desert.

Rella laid the towel down and pulled her nightgown on. That was when she noticed the cloths that had been provided for her. Rella frowned a little. The maids were usually aware of the menstrual cycle of the ladies they were currently serving, but she did not have a period at the moment. Then she frowned some more.

Actually, she was few weeks late.

Her eyes widened. She was late. And she was feeling sick. She was pregnant!

When she had gone to their bedroom to tell Falad, her husband had already been asleep and Rella hadn't wanted to wake him up, instead decided to tell him on the next day.

Rella couldn't contain a smile and bit her lip as they walked along the pathways. Falad glanced at her way every now and then, curious about what had made Rella so exited. Rella took a deep breath and made Falad stop.

"Falad, I have something to tell you", Rella began.

Falad looked at his wife worriedly. "Is something wrong?"

"What? No!" Rella assured him. "Nothing bad, I promise. I think I'm pregnant."

Rella rushed the last bit out of her mouth and couldn't contain a bright smile from spreading on her face. Falad's eyes widened.

"You mean…", Falad gestured towards her stomach and Rella rolled her eyes.

"Yes, dear. There is a beginning of a life form growing in my stomach and around eight months or so we are going to have a baby", Rella said to her husband in a lecturing tone all the while holding a smile back.

Falad blinked and stood still staring at her for a moment before he smiled brightly and grabbed Rella from the waist and twirled them around. Rella yelped as Falad lifted her, laughing as they twirled. Falad put her down and held her close kissing her long and deep. After the kiss they stood there forehead against forehead wrapped in each other's arms.

"Eight months?" Falad asked and Rella nodded.

"Give or take a week."

Falad smiled a faraway look in his eyes. "Which one do you think it is?"

"I don't know. We'll see it when they are born", Rella answered.

"We need names", Falad said.

"Yanna if the baby is a girl", Rella said instantly. "I've always liked that name."

Falad chuckled. "Alright. I'll get to decide the boy's name then."

Rella grinned and nodded. They stood there awhile, before eventually separating and heading inside and into the glasshouse where Anastasia had decided to keep the dinner. As they walked they talked and planned about the room for the baby, how their families would react (Falad's mother would probably breathe down on her neck the entire pregnancy) and how should they arrange their work with the baby. Rella thought she could easily stay home and work on the illustrations for whatever Falad was working on.

When they arrived to the glasshouse, Anastasia was already there to welcome them. Rella could feel Falad's desire to go and explore the beautiful room and the hundreds of plants it housed. Here there were more exotic plants than in the garden outside. Not many looked familiar to Rella, but these plants seemed to be from tropical rainforests. Anastasia greeted them smiling and blushed slightly when Falad greeted her in a dherr'eshaanian way by raising both of her hands to his lips and giving one of the common compliment phrases. Rella had had much the same reaction when she had been greeted like that for the first time.

"Come, let's sit down", Anastasia said and gestured towards the set table. "Charles hasn't arrived yet but we can start with some drinks."

They sat down and waiters brought their drinks. Anastasia had told Rella that the children would not be joining them since they unfortunately had developed flu's out of nowhere. They didn't need to wait too long before the prince strode into the glasshouse and greeted everyone with a smile on his face. As the prince was raising her hand to his lips, Rella suddenly thought how the touch from the prince no longer did anything. She remembered before, when she had still been here, how she would get this tingly feeling when they touched, but now it did nothing. Rather now she got all tingly when Falad touched her. She supposed it was safe to say that she had gotten over the prince.

The food was delicious as was the wine, though Rella found the elethian wines odd after getting accustomed to the more rich and full-bodied wines of Dherr'eshaan. The conversation flowed smoothly from one matter to another and Rella found that, after watching Anastasia and Charles for awhile, the couple seemed very happy. She knew that it had always been Anastasia's dream to marry the prince and that she had always been head over heels in love with him, but the prince… He had fallen for Rella first and after the happenings before her deportation, he had found out that Anastasia hadn't been the girl from the ball and after missing the ship Rella had been, Rella had always wondered if the prince had been charmed again. But as she watched him now, it appeared that he had eventually fallen for Anastasia. It could be clearly seen that the prince loved his wife and to Rella, it didn't seem like a magically empowered love.

Rella smiled as she sipped her wine and watched them. It appeared that all had ended well despite stepmother's scheming.