Cinderfella 2: A New Life - 36. Chapter 36

I showed Christian the note.

“Our past?” Christian frowned shaking his head. “But it mentions Ella. Which is it? My past? Her past? Our past?”

I grinned sadly. “That’s the question. But the note does take the foreign question out.” I shook my head. “Whatever threat there is, it’s here in A’Dore.”

Seth nodded. “But you’d better tell Ella. She needs to know that she was named specifically in the threat.”

Christian shook his head. “But everyone loves her. She’s no threat to anyone!”

“But apparently you both share an enemy. Was there ever an enemy you both had?” I asked Christian.

He thought. “Not since we married.”

“Okay, before you married?” Seth asked.

“No.” Christian said quickly and then he frowned. “She did have that awful step-mother.” Then he shuddered. “And those equally awful step-sisters.”

I nodded. “Which you turned down and didn’t marry.” I pointed out. “Whatever happened to them?”

Christian shrugged. “They just disappeared.” Then he shook his head. “I mean, they left, I suppose. Lady Tremaine was stripped of her title, the house was abandoned. We’ve not heard from or seen them since.”

“Ask Ella, please.” I said to my brother. “Maybe she can add to this story.”

“I’ll send her in.” Christian nodded and left.

“You think it could be them? Were they smart like this thing is?” Seth pointed to the bracelet. “From the story they were petty and not that sharp and this is pretty complicated.”

I shrugged. “I only saw them once. I wasn’t even a teenager yet. We need to talk with Ella.”

It was later when Ella came to the room Seth and I were working.

“You wanted to speak with me?” Ella asked, but the concern was on her face.

I nodded. “Your step-mother and step-sisters…do you know where they are now?”

Ella shook her head. “They simply left right after Christian and I became engaged. Eleanor Tremaine, that was my step-mother, Anastasia and Drizella were my step-sisters, they went with her I presume.” Then she looked at Seth and me closely. “Do you think they were behind this attack?” She was now very worried.

I went to her pulling her to chair to sit down. “This is all guess work so far. We have no proof, but we got a note from Demetrius. He named you as a target as well.”

“I thought Demetrius and Dara were gone.” Ella said.

I shrugged a nod. “Well, Demetrius doesn’t always follow the rules.” Then I smiled as she chuckled.

“Neither did Dara, or so she let me know.” Ella smiled as she nodded. “Eleanor and her daughters were extremely cruel. Not just to me, but everyone they thought was beneath them…which pretty much covered all of A’Dore. They were motivated by greed, but I’ve not heard a word from or about them in over a decade. Why would they come back?”

“We don’t know that they have.” I stated again to be clear.

“But if they have, we still don’t know whether or not they are responsible. We need to track where Jean Claude Raimere fits in this…plot.” Seth reasoned.

“We’ll have to let others know about the possibilities. Let the guards know about Drizella, Anastasia and Eleanor. Also the surrounding townships need to know to look for them if they’re here.” I proposed as I more or less thought out loud. “They should all know there is a threat to the royal house and to be on the lookout. We’ll have to give a description as well.”

Ella shook her head. “Who knows if Eleanor even looks the same. She was going grey toward the end, even though she plucked the hairs before they got too many. After ten years, she could be completely grey. Both Drizella and Anastasia could change, gained weight, which I have no doubt about Drizella has as she was always eating. Or they could cut their hair or even dye it.”

I nodded. “At least the towns will know to lookout. And if they are involved, they will know we’re on to them.” Then I threw my hands out. “They might not be involved at all! The threat is real. It almost cost Christian his life.” I looked at Ella. “And yours and your children.”

Ella paled at that. “Yes, of course.” She smiled, but it was a tight smile, not one of a happy nature. “Anastasia was smart. Drizella was just…her head was full of air just as her mouth was full of food. Eleanor was conniving. If they are behind this it will be Eleanor or Anastasia.”

I placed a hand on Ella’s hand. “I don’t want to scare you, but you have a lot to lose. You need to be prepared.”

Ella nodded again. “Of course.” Then she smiled. “I’m a queen.” She said almost haughty, but it was more in fun. “It would take a lot more to scare me. But we need to keep Christian out of danger and my children.”

I grinned. “That’s why we’re here.”

After Ella went back to check on hers, Seth’s and my children, Seth came up behind me slipping his arms around me from behind resting his cheek again the top of my head.

“We can’t forget we have a life in Royal Valley.” Seth reminded me.

I nodded. “I haven’t forgotten.” I pulled his arms tighter around me. “We need to check on our business. We have good people working with us, but we should go back.”

Seth nodded turning me around kissing me. “With that…” he pointed toward Christian’s and Ella’s room. “….doorway mirror thing, we can do it easily now, but we need to make sure no one will become suspicious if we come and go too quickly.”

I shrugged. “We’ll travel at night. We’ll be there in the morning and leave again the following night.”

“One day.” Seth nodded. “We leave the boys here.” That was not a question.

“They will stay here.” I agreed. “The end of this week?”

Seth agreed. “How will we say we got there? Won’t we need a horse or two at least?”

“And those horses have to leave, too.” I nodded. “Even if we did camp at night getting there and back.” I shrugged. “We’ll think of something.”

“We should let Sam know, too.” Seth said. “If he doesn’t already about our sudden leaving.”

“We’ll send him a message, too.” Then I grinned. “Should we let him know about the doorway?”

Seth thought. “It seems the more people know, the harder it will be to keep secret. And what about Toby? Grace can read signs. If he says he saw Ella yesterday and he’s in Royal Valley when he says that…”

I frowned nodding. “It gets more complicated.” I sighed. “The more things are easy, the more complicated it gets.”

Looking at the blade from the bracelet, even with daylight it was hard to see what the little creatures were. Once we did, we saw there were a lot of different little creatures! Then again, there were a lot little creatures on our hands I swore I washed. Did again and there were still some creatures and other things! There were little things on everything alive and solid like boulders, but they were normally so small, we never saw them! I let the royal physician see them.

“What are these things?” The doctor asked. It was interesting to watch, just as I did, Seth and even Christian. You look, you see and then look at what you’re looking at under the Seer to be sure you’re looking at the right thing and then back again to see it again. “But how do you know which ones are which?”

“And from looking at many, there are little creatures that we have all the time.” I said. I had other Seers made for seeing different things already in focus. I motioned for the doctor to follow me. “I’ve looked at my hand and Seth’s hand up close. We walk around with little creatures all the time and other things.” I put my hand under a Seer that we had focused so we could look at objects like the hand and other things. I put my hand in the stabilizer I’d made to keep it steady. “See for yourself.”

The doctor looked, and did the same thing again. Looked to be sure what he was looking at and back again. “You say they are always there?”

“On you, too, I imagine.” I took the older man’s hand and put his on the stabilizer. “See?”

The doctor was suddenly very worried. “I have more than you do!”

I chuckled. “And I washed my hands before you saw what you did on me.”

“Three times!” Seth said with emphasis.

Then I motioned him to come with me to another Seer. “I’ve made drawings…sorry about the quality…of the little creatures I’ve seen on myself, Seth and Christian. I assume they’ve always been there. Probably since man came into being.” I motioned to the Seer that held the blade from the bracelet. “But on here, there is another creature that was not on me or anyone else.” I showed him the drawing I made so he would know what to look for.

The doctor looked and then frowned. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were dying.”

I nodded. “Some are moving better, but many are looking like they’re dying. They need food as well as any other living thing. I suppose if they get none, they’ll die.”

Seth had followed us the whole time. “See the one where you added your blood to it.”

“It’s mostly hardened by now.” I said, but motioned to the doctor to come over.

The doctor nodded at what he saw. “The little parts of blood were attacked by these new little creatures.” He looked at me. “This is what attacked Christian.” Again, it wasn’t a question. He understood it was fact having seen evidence.

“Yes.” I nodded. “The little creatures thrived again.” I shook my head. “It’s also interesting how they reproduce.”

“Why is that?” The doctor asked.

“There is no mating. They just…split.” I held my hands together and parted them far apart and then I grinned at the doctor’s surprised look. “And they did it a whole lot more in the blood.”

He was reaching the same conclusions Seth and I had. “That’s how they spread.” The doctor nodded. “That’s very efficient. So that’s what happened with King Christian. They got in him and they got in his blood, split and began spreading more and more.”

I nodded pleased with the doctor’s grasp of what was happening and what had happened. “You hit the bull’s eye.”

The doctor nodded. “Well, I’ve got to tell the others here. I don’t work alone, you know?” He smiled.

“I know.” I smiled back. “I can’t name all these…” I waved at the creatures under the Seer. “….things. We’ll need names to keep up with them!”

The doctor chuckled and nodded. "I can see that. My colleagues are going to want to see these things for themselves.” The doctor added.

“Bring them.” I nodded. “They need to know about this small world we’re carrying around.” I waved at the Seers. “Of course, we can have more of these made so they can see themselves this small, small world. Perhaps even find something to fight it if needed.”

“What about what you gave King Christian?” The doctor asked.

I looked at Seth, but shook my head at the doctor. “It was a limited supply. It doesn’t last long outside the vial. I’m afraid it’s gone.”

The doctor frowned. “Perhaps where you got it, there’s more?” He asked hopefully. “Could we get some?”

Seth shook his head. “I think it was all they had.”

The doctor nodded. “That’s a pity. But we could use it when a man is injured and has lost blood.”

Seth shook his head. “I would be wary of that. The blood was surprising.”

“Why?” The doctor asked. “Blood is blood, isn’t it?”

“Not really.” I shook my head. “I was stunned, too. It seems there are differences in blood. I have different things in my blood than Seth does. I don’t know if that’s true with every family, but Seth’s blood is different. I was going to call my blood Kind A and Seth’s Kind B, then I tested Christian’s and had the same as I did. Now, Christian’s blood and mine are the same. But is that true for every man? We’ll need another way of telling what kind, perhaps Kind 1 and Kind 2. I also don’t know if that’s because we have the same parents, but it may not work man to man. It may be family to family. That doesn’t work since Ella and Christian have different parents. Is their children a composite of the two of their parents? We’ll have to see more and compare.”

Seth grunted and stuck the finger I had gotten the blood from him in his mouth. “He tested mine four times.”

I smiled at Seth. “Sorry.”

Seth grinned. “Kiss it later?”

“You got it.” I chuckled. I was pleased that the doctor didn’t find it odd we said it to each other.

The doctor sighed. “This is opening a whole new world on medicine.”

I chuckled. “Yep, the more we know, the more complicated it gets.” Then I leaned closer to the doctor. “Our views on what’s clean and what’s not is going to change a lot, too.”

The elderly doctor nodded. “I’d say so.” He rubbed his hands together like he was trying to rid things he’d seen away by rubbing them away.

“Now we have to get A’Dore ready to combat a visible enemy as well as the very small and invisible enemy.” Seth said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

With a plan…if you call it a plan…in place, Seth and I realized we need to see our sons. We hadn’t neglected them, but we missed them and I know they missed us.

We came in the nursery to find Edward and Toby playing with Dennis sitting nearby.

“Uncle Seth!!” Edward was delighted to see his favorite uncle and toddled over to Seth grabbing a leg.

“Hi, Edward!” Seth grinned picking up our nephew.

Toby reached up for me and began signing fast again. I watched, trying to keep up. He had worked out a short version of words and sentences, but if you’ve been away a while, like Seth and I had been, it was a challenge to keep up.

“The boy’s a chatterbox.” Seth chuckled as he watched Toby sign. “For a little boy who doesn’t talk, he has a lot to say.”

“He’s just telling us what we’ve missed.” I chuckled kissing Toby and hugging him. “All of it, I think.” I got most of what he said and pieced together the rest. “Yes, we’re staying a while.” I answered his question. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Toby shook his head and signed. I miss Grace.

I nodded. “I know she misses you, too. We’ll be home one day. But right now we’re doing something very important and can’t leave yet.” I put Toby down and picked up Dennis. “Hi, Dennis!”

“Hi!” Dennis said. Clear as a bell. Okay, it was a simple word, but anyone would understand it. “Ella?” He looked around as he looked for his aunt. “No juice!” He said irritated.

I grinned at our son. “Well, we’ll have to do something about that, but they don’t have the vineyard in the backyard like we do. The nearest vineyard here is several miles away. I’ll find you some juice.”

Seth smiled at that. “He loves grape juice. We’ll have to watch him when he discovers wine.”

I grinned. “We have a few years yet.” I kissed Dennis and put him down to resume playing. “I worry that he’ll say something about traveling like we are.”

Seth nodded. “We’ll just have to be careful. He’s getting very talkative.”

“Too bad we can’t ask Demetrius for help.” I muttered.

Seth looked puzzled and then looked slyly. “We can’t, but they can.” He pointed to our sons. “Perhaps if Toby called Demetrius…”

I shrugged. “We might have to, to protect the secret.”

At the end of the week, it will have been a few weeks we had left Royal Valley. Seth and I stepped through the doorway mirror back to our home.

Seth grinned. “I like this way of travel! I’m not tired at all.”

I chuckled looking back at my brother and Ella on the other side. “We’ll be back tonight.” I said to them.

“We’ll be here.” Christian smiled and waved.

Touching the crystal, Seth’s and my reflections appeared. It was a mirror again.

Seth touched the frame of the mirror. “Too bad we don’t have one for Sam and Terry.”

“As far as we were told, these are the only two that exist.” I grinned taking Seth’s hand leading him down the stairs. “Maybe someday, everyone will have one of these to travel anywhere.”

Seth chuckled. “Where are we going?”

I shrugged. “It was a long trip. Don’t you need a bath after all that traveling?”

Seth laughed at that. “I guess a bath before bed is a good idea.”

“The kids are a thousand miles away. We’re alone in our home.” I said pulling him close as we made our way into the bedroom. “This is almost a vacation or even a honeymoon, just you and me.” I said leading him into the bathroom. “I’ll light the tank.”

The convenience of having hot water was great, but it still had to heat up.

“Who’s there?” We heard the cross voice.

Seth and I were both startled to see Gabe.

“Erik! Seth! I didn’t hear you come in!” Gabe said as he recognized us. “When did you get here? Better yet, how did you get here? I didn’t see anyone ride up.”

This was our first problem with the travel means. “We just got here.” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“Grace said you left to handle an emergency in A’Dore. I, and some of the people in town were watching the house for you. Not that we have that many thieves here…but travelers…” Gabe said puzzled and then shook his head. “I was downstairs. I didn’t hear you until just now.”

“Here it comes.” Seth sighed. He shook his head. “He has to know.”

“I guess we have to let some know.” I said to Seth sadly. I rose and walked to Gabe. “If I tell you. You and one or two more can know. Can we trust you not to tell a soul?” Then I looked at Gabe closer and as firmly as I could. “I mean no one can know.”

Gabe nodded. “You know you can. I wouldn’t tell anyone. I swear, but this doesn’t sound good. What is it?”

I took a deep breath. “Until a few minutes ago. Seth and I were in A’Dore.”

Gabe heard us, but his mind wasn’t excepting what we said at first. “But….how…” then he smiled. “It was magic, wasn’t it? You said you had a fairy godfather. He did this?”

I nodded. “He made it possible. Now, we’re going to go back tonight. We’ll be back in A’Dore this evening.”

Gabe was now smiling grandly now. “That’s amazing!”

“Gabe.” Seth said coming closer. “You promised.”

Gabe nodded. “And I’ll keep it.”

Seth nodded and then brightened. “Maybe he could help us.” Seth said to me. “He could take two horses from the stable and bring them here.”

I nodded. “Then when we leave again tonight, take them back!” I smiled at Gabe. “We want to avoid questions about our coming and going so quickly.”

Gabe nodded. “Sure. I’ll do it now!” He was about to leave. “Do I get to tell Zeke?”

I shrugged a nod. “Well, we might need additional help, so sure, but he swears as you did, tell no one else.”

Gabe nodded. “I swear!” Then he ran out of our room.

Seth shook his head watching Gabe run out. “I hope this will be a good thing.”

“We can only hope.” I said smiling at Seth. “But I did marry a very smart man.”

Seth grinned and then faked a surprised look. “You married another man!?” Even the look of shock was pretty good.

“You could almost convince me. You should join a traveling theatrical group.” I chuckled as I shut and locked the door. There were people coming in the house, so I wanted to sure we weren’t interrupted. Then turned back to Seth.

“You are a very smart man, Seth.” I said walking toward him.

Seth smiled as my arms went around him. “I’m glad you think so.”

“I know so.” I said kissing him gently and as often as we did, it never lost its impact. “A very handsome man.” My hands went to his waistline where I began pulling his shirt tail out and my hands traveled up his stomach to his chest. Our kiss became more as the drive and hunger seemed to build as it always did. “I love you, Seth.” His arms brought me closer even more.

“We make a good team.” Seth grinned. “I love you, too.”

“Yeah, we do.”