She awoke the next morning, in bed by herself. Jaden was gone, and it seemed like most of the day was also. She couldn't tell how long she had slept, but she felt a lot better. She got up and stretched, and was about to go to her room and find her clothes when the door opened. It was Jaden carrying a full tray of food.
"Well, good morning. I brought you some breakfast. Or rather some lunch, I know I should have woke you this morning but you were sleeping so good that I couldn't bring myself to do it." he said placing the tray on the table by the window.
"Jaden, about last night…" she said walking over and grabbing his hands.
"Atona don't. I was a perfect gentleman, I did what any good man in my situation would do. I laid next to you, held you, and let you sleep. We did nothing. And as for following you, I had to, your important to Me." he said looking her in the eyes.
"I just wanted to thank you for being there when I needed someone. Where's Ambien? I need to talk to him." She said just remembering their conversation last night.
"He's in the fields overseeing the digging of the trenches. He doesn't look so good, he looks like he hasn't had any sleep. When I asked him this morning if he was feeling alright, he just told me to mind my own business."
"Oh my! Jaden I'm sorry. He's not like that. I know what's wrong with him. I need to go see him right away." she said grabbing something to eat and heading out the door.
"Atona, wait! I'll go with you."
"I'm going to go change first. But please have them get my horse ready. I will be out in just a few minutes." she said as she ran down the hall to her room. She rushed into her room to find Andriana still in her bed.
"Get up child your sleeping the day away."
"Huh, I don't want to get up. It's so comfy in here."
"Well, you better get up before your mother starts looking for you. It's almost high sun child, you and I slept the day away. There's too much work to be done to sleep all day. Now up with you." she said pulling on her leather breeches underneath her dress. She got her dress untied and pulled it off over her head. Pulled her wool shirt on then pulled her leather tunic on over it. She tried putting her boots on. Her feet were still too swollen to get them on. So she left them in her room and hurried out the door and ran right into the Queen.
"Your Majesty, I'm so sorry. Andriana is in there in my bed. I would love to stay and chat, but I have got to get out to Ambien. Got to tell him I love him and there will be no wedding…" she said as she ran back down the hall, down the stairs and out the front door. She couldn't believe that she just yelled that in the palace. Who knows who was in there and heard it? She didn't care anymore, she needed to let him know just how much she loves him. She needed to tell him what she saw last night and how that changed all her plans. At the barn her horse was saddled and ready, she climbed up on her and started kicking her out of the yard.
"You coming Jaden or you going to just sit there all day. Thanks Alistair. I'll pay you when I get back." she yelled as she went. She rode as fast and hard as she could out to the fields, wanting to get to Ambien as soon as possible. Then she seen him standing there leaning on a shovel. He looked awful, no sleep, and just emotionally worn out. She rode up next to him, jumped off her horse, ran up to him and kissed him full on the lips.
"I love you Ambien, and I want the whole world to know it. Ridale is a two timing scheming…" she whispered in his ear while she wrapped her arms around his chest.
"How did you know about all that?" he said dropping the shovel and wrapping his arms around her.
"I went to talk to him last night about his little note to you. I was going to tell him it was all off if he couldn't accept you as my friend. When I got there he was on his balcony holding someone else like he used to hold me."
"I see. When you came back to the palace you couldn't come to me and tell me this so I could have had some good sleep." he said sounding much more cheerful.
"I followed her on your mothers orders. I was there when she found out, I carried her back to the palace and to my bed." Jaden said looking kinda sheepish.
"That's why you were sleeping in the parlor. I was wondering how that had come about." he said as he looked her in the eyes and returned her kiss. Then he noticed where they were. It felt like he was going to let her go. He didn't he grinned from ear to ear, and held her tighter. Then whispered.
"Atona, what about the baby?"
"I haven't come to a decision on that one yet. I knew I had to come and tell you how I felt, and get things right between us again. I also need some help. I have to find out about my family. Then I can prove that I am one of the lost princesses and we can be together."
"My offer still stands firm. You know you were raised by elves and you came out just fine."
"I know. Let me think it over for a while longer. I've got some time to decide. I'm not going adventuring any time soon."
"O.K. let's get back to work this isn't going to get done with us just standing around." then he whispered in her ear. "Even if I just want to hold you all day." He was grinning again and in a good mood the rest of the day.
The day went by much faster with all of them in a good mood and working together. Jaden sang a few ballads to help pass the time and they had gotten most of the fields done. They had four more to do when Ambien announced to all the workers that they would leave them for tomorrow and they could go to evening feast. As they were riding back Ambien kept watching her, and smiling. She was so glad that she could let him be happy. There was still the problem of him being in love with a woman who was not royalty. She wanted to be with him forever, but she knew there was no way that she could without proving who she was. They were going to have to work on that. She looked up and noticed the sun was setting.
"Excuse me gentlemen. I have to go to the Vale and eat dinner with my mother. Ridale was going to arrange it and before he gets them all worked up about a wedding that isn't going to be I want to be there." she said turning her horse around.
"Atona, wait. Do you have to go? I was hoping to have dinner with you and talk." Ambien said with such joy and hope in his voice.
"Yes my love. I don't want my mother to be too crushed. But how about a moon light walk down by the creek. Oh, Jaden would you give this to Alistair? I promised him I would pay him when I got back." she said handing Jaden a gold coin.
"Yes I will give it to him." he said kind of sad. Now she had another man sad and broken hearted.
"Atona the walk sounds fine. We will see you when you get back. If you are not back by the time all the stars are out, I'm coming looking for you. You hear me."
"Yes, yes. I will be there by then. "
"That goes for me too. If you're not here we both will come looking for you." Jaden said with a great deal of passion.
"Ok. I will see you both later. I have to run now." She said waving them off and kicking her horse into a run. It was much easier travel since the elves decided to trim the trees back so no one would get hurt by a fallen limb on the way to the palace. She rode up to her mother's cottage, it wasn't much just a small log cottage stuck back in the woods by the stream. She still had a nice garden in her back yard, and pretty flowers around the house. She must have heard the horse for she threw open the door, and was walking to her with open arms.
"My darling. You have returned home at last. I am so happy to see you." she said wrapping her arms around her.
"Mother, please let me get the horse tied first."
"What brings you home, I hope you have good news for me."
"Who have you talked to mother?"
"Oh, Ridale stopped by this afternoon, said he would like to invite me to dinner at his house, that you and he had something important to tell me."
"So he has been by here already." when her mother nodded she continued.
"Let's go inside mother what I have to tell you the whole vale don't need to know." They went inside and sat down in the chairs at the kitchen table. She poured her a cup of tea and a cup for herself.
"What's the matter darling? You look stressed." she said looking concerned. So Atona related the situation.
"You see mother, I can't marry him like this. I know it would be what is right for the baby, but I cannot marry someone who does not love me."
"I understand darling. I wouldn't want you to marry a snake in the grass like that."
"Like what" she spun around and there stood her sister whom she hadn't seen in two years holding a beautiful baby girl. "Atona, your not getting married to that Ridale fellow are you. He's a snake in the grass. You weren't gone two days and he was with another woman. Some blonde gal. Rumor has it he was with her the whole time he was courting you. That he was just trying to see if he could steal you away from Ambien. When he found out that you and Ambien weren't really lovers, he went and found him this other girlfriend, but towed you along on the side." she said coming and sitting down at the table with them.
Mother got up and poured her a cup of tea and the baby a cup of milk. She handed the baby some cookies and offered the girls some also.
"Rozelle, my how are you? I have missed you so much. And who is this lovely little girl."
"I am great, I got married to a prince. But all that is a story for another time. What were you telling mother that brought tears to her eyes." she said as she sipped her tea. So Atona retold the story and watched as she looked devastated.
"I am so glad that I traveled with the baby four days to get home to mother. I told my husband that I needed to come home and at least tell mother that I had a baby. I get here and find you here with a long tale of your own. A baby on the way, and a snake in the grass for an ex-fiancé. He is an ex now isn't he?"
"Yes, I don't want nothing more to do with him." Atona said as there was a knock on the door.
"Who's there?" their mother asked as she got up to open the door. She was starting to look her age.
"It's me Ridale. You didn't show up for dinner so I came to check on you. Is Atona in there too?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Rozelle came for a visit and so we forgot the time." she said as she opened the door. She waved him in, and closed the door behind him. He went over to Atona and tried to kiss her. She turned away.
"Darling what's the matter?" he said sounding so sweet and innocent.
"I think we need to go outside and talk. I wouldn't want to upset the baby."
"Silly the baby is inside you if you go the baby goes." he said trying to sound funny.
"I meant Rozelle's baby." she said pointing to the child playing with the puppies in the floor.
"Oh. I'm sorry Rozelle I didn't see her there."
"Let's go Ridale! Outside." she said heading outside. Once they were outside he tried to put his arms around her and hold her. She wiggled out of his reach.
"Ridale, there will not be any more hugging, kissing, marriage or anything else to do with you and me. After that note that you sent to Ambien, and that girl I seen you with last night on your balcony. I will have nothing more to do with you." She said standing ready for a good fight.
"Well, aren't we just the little clever one. I'm sure Ambien ran straight to you after he got that note. Why wouldn't he, wanting to get you into his bed the way he does. But I do have a confession to make I had the same plans. I was just going to bed you, then throw you back to the wolves. It worked out so well, you wanting to go on your little adventures and all. You left me for the great outdoors, new people, places. It didn't bother me that much I was tired of you already. Then you came back with that lovely little story of you being pregnant. I figured it probably wasn't even mine. You were sleeping with Ambien and I figured it was his. But after yesterday at the waterfall, I realized you hadn't been. That you had been faithful to me all this time. It was me that you wanted to spend your life with, or so I thought. But to make sure of it I wrote that nice little note to Ambien and dropped it off in his room before I got our picnic basket. There is a sweet little gal that works in the kitchen there. She is sweet on me, so she fixed us a nice picnic." he said as he walked back and forth in front of her. So smug he was that he got away with tearing her heart out that way.
"Well, then you wont mind me telling you we wont be getting married. That if you ever come near me, Ambien or any of my family and friends, I will cut your heart out and feed it to the wolves." She said holding her dagger at his throat. She hadn't even realized that she had pulled her dagger. Nor did she realize she had it against his throat until he started stammering.
"B…B…B…ut darling you really can't blame me for being jealous. The way you and Ambien carried on around each other."
"I am finished talking to you. Get away from me and my family." She said stepping a little closer to him. He backed away from her, climbed on his horse.
"You can't keep me away from my child Atona. You can try but no one will be able to protect you or my baby." he yelled as he rode away