Lillian

This next pregnancy will be different.

The village was a few miles over but Isabella was content with the walk after Tomas' words last night. This next pregnancy will be different. It was ringing around her head, the implication loud.

So that's what they had been talking about. Securing an heir. She had been so naive and foolish to hope they would not have cared. It's all the upper classes care about so why shouldn't they? Especially when they run a family business.

Ollie had fallen asleep in her arms which was adorable and uncomfortable considering the pies stacked in a wood based bag on her arm. There had been a long tantrum about being left with his grandmother that resulted in him coming with his mother. Isabella knew logically that she shouldn't cave when he threw a fit but Tomas' eyes were on her and she couldn't bring herself to argue and fight with her son.

Not when the pain of losing her last child was so fresh.

Her throat tightened at the reminder. It hadn't been her fault. Not even that beast had done it intentionally but its claw had still dug into her side. The pain and trauma had been enough to force a miscarriage. Only Nesta had known what had truly happened.

The others- Isabella swallows back tears at the thought. They had said her body failed. That was the lie they spun themselves as a result of the glamour. She had simply got herself worked up into an argument with her sisters over money and the stress had kil- had caused it.

Her son suddenly feels heavier in her arms. Both comforting and a burden. She'll do better by him. She has to. Even if carrying him up the first hill felt like a chore today. Isabella forces a slight laugh, trying to brush off her previous thoughts. She really shouldn't have caved to his tantrum.

It would seem her back and arms are threatening to throw a huff as well. The scuffling of boots had Isabella looking up, freezing at the winged fae leant against a tree at the top of the hill.

A sharp inhale is the only indication of her surprise. That and a careful glance at the grove of trees they had entered to ensure they were well and truly alone.

"There's no one else here." Azriel's voice is soft and low, similar to the way one would talk to a frightened animal. "May I join you?" It's a polite question, that soothing tone maintained and Isabella curses the way something relaxes inside her. She wasn't some pet that could be soothed.

Yet she found herself nodding, shifting Ollie in her arms when he fussed. For a moment the male's gaze drops to the boy in her arms. Something in him softens slightly, she hadn't noticed how tense his shoulders were until he peered down slightly to look at her son.

"Hello little one."

Oh that shouldn't have made her heart flutter.

Oliver's hand raise, his fist tightly clenched around that ridiculous stuffed bat that seemed a mockery of the winged male before them. Isabella prayed that he would still be exhausted from the earlier hysterics and walk. The last thing she needed today was him screaming in Azriel's face.

Her son softly grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like 'bat-bat' which unfortunately for Isabella, Azriel's fae hearing had picked up on. Her chest eased though when he did nothing but gift the small boy one of his rare smiles and softly tuck the toy bat back into his arms, taking great care to not touch Ollie.

She doesn't bother to stare at his hands. A glance at dinner over 4 nights ago was enough to see the extent of the damage. There was no need to draw notice to old wounds when it was so clear from the way he immediately hid his hands that they made Azriel uncomfortable.

"You are heading to the village over." Not a question but she answered anyway once they resumed walking. "Yes, I'm trading pies for meat on behalf of the elder Mrs Mandray."

Azriel peered around her body, catching sight of the bag weighing down her arm. "Please, allow me." He didn't wait for an answer, only taking hold of the bag and tugging at her arm until she was forced to concede. "That's not... necessary."

He didn't smile but she got the distinct impression that he was smirking in triumph at her. They walked in silence along the plateau. Only having it broken when Isabella would murmur her thanks for his help over a fallen log or two. It must have been midday by the time they had trekked along the ridge of the hill enough to see the larger village sprawled out before them.

"A farming village I take it." So sarcasm is his thing. Isabella hummed in agreement. It was obvious based on the sprawling fields set out on rotation. Some home to sheep and cows this season while others grew wheat, potatoes and barley. "I thought potatoes were rare in your village."

"They are." She agrees again, raising her brows as she waits for him to connect the dots but he only frowns. Or he would frown if his calm expression broke but she could see the hidden confusion in the male's eyes. With a faux disappointed sigh Isabella began to explain. "Well when you're stuck in such a dull dreary living there are a few ways to find escape and one of them is-"

"Vodka." He snorts. "Of course it's alcohol."

She shrugs "They would rather spend winter drunk and starving than have food on the table and their wives' company sober."

He tilts his head in question, the move so animalistic that Isabella shifts Ollie in her arms. The movement has Azriel stepping back slightly, his wings tucking in as though to make himself less threatening in the shadows of the nearby trees. "You have a rather disapproving view of your village."

"Unlike my sisters I am under no illusions to the conditions we live in."

"But you're not in the same conditions."

"Aren't we?" She counters, an amused hum slipping past her lips. "Are we not surviving off the same land, playing by the same rules, threatened by the same war." The last words are followed by a sharp look to her companion who only stares back at her. "Did you receive confirmation of the letter being sent?"

"I did." She bobs her head, slowly making her way to the steeper single track rubble path down the hillside. "That came early last morning, the ship will no doubt have left the evening before."

"A week at sea and then back on land." Azriel states but- "There are no direct ships to the main cities, these are small trading villages. Two weeks to reach the main city."

He peers at her curiously, clearly surprised by her knowledge. Isabella huffs out a sharp breath in annoyance. Of course they would forget what she was born, bred and trained for by her mother. Nesta could always play the game better but that doesn't mean Isabella has forgotten.

"That look is insulting." She states and continues her descent.

"It's not meant to be."

"Tell your face that."

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:

Azriel had glamoured himself to follow them into the village, it would seem that the fae was content to keep her company even after he checked on the status of their letter. Isabella didn't bother to dwell on why she was being monitored by the High Lord of the Night Court. She had initially assumed that the spy master would have been more subtle, like he was with the shadows on their first village.

Though it seemed that idle curiosity plagued the fae more than humans. It was inevitable given their long lifespans. Isabella had no doubt immortality would either break one down and bore them into finding everything expected or garner a dangerous curiosity.

That curiosity seemed to plague Azriel when Oliver's energy began to pick up. He had started squirming in her arms until she had put him down. The pair of them had spent the last stretch of the walk worrying after the hyper boy.

She had to admit that it was amusing to watch the fear build in Azriel's eyes when Oliver began to walk along a fallen log, or reach down into a boggy ditch to look at the frosted water. Isabella made no effort to tell the male that he had to learn. Ollie was fond of clambering over every object in sight without a care for scraped knees but it was rather sweet to see the male twitch forward as though he would lunge to catch Oliver when he wobbled.

It warmed something in her heart while freezing her mind. Tomas never showed such care. Only choosing to laugh jovially when Oliver would cry out at a bruise.

"He's exploring, it's normal." She had eventually murmured after Azriel had actually lunged at her son when he stumbled off yet another rotting log. "Ollie is young and robust, he's learning."

"Doesn't it bother you." He murmured and Isabella was fascinated by the look in his eyes. "When he trips and wobbles."

"My heart stops everytime." She confessed, the words lightening a weight she didn't know she carried. "But I remind myself that I'm his mother, it's my job to prepare him for life and that if I thought for a single second that something was too dangerous, or that he didn't understand I would intervene."

Azriel nodded and followed along quietly. There were no further attempts to stop Oliver but Isabella made a point to remind her son that the logs were rotting and covered in slippery ice this time of year. Her son nodded, intentionally stepping off the log to walk on the path and receive a proud smile in return.

For all of five minutes until he found a broken stone wall leading to the village entrance. Isabella had intervened then. The wall was too tall and covered in moss she swooped him into her arms, swinging him off into the air so he laughed.

Azriel had that look in his eyes again when he saw them.

"Mummy?" Isabella glanced down at where Oliver tugged the sleeve of her grey dress. A quick glance around had her moving once more. She cursed herself for getting lost in her own head in such a busy market square.

It took a good half hour of asking around until Isabella found the location of the farmer's wife. After a quick stop to buy Oliver a small loaf Isabella found herself by the woman's stall.

"How can I help you dear?" She was a plump woman, rosy cheeked and clearly strong from days spent in the field. Isabella placed the bag of pies on the table suddenly tensing as though the woman could tell Azriel had carried them for her. "I have pies from Mrs Mandray."

That seemed to do the trick for her bag was quickly laden with heavy meat chunks and Isabella couldn't help but wonder what else Mrs Mandray had traded to get such good quality meat.

The woman - Annalise - paused for a moment, glancing at where Ollie was entertaining himself with Bat next to them. Isabella tensed, suddenly feeling unsure as to what exactly Mrs Mandray had traded for what had apparently turned out to be two years worth of meat deliveries.

"Mrs Mandray said you would need something else as well." She didn't let her guard down, suddenly wishing that Azriel wasn't hidden in some far away shadow but by her side to keep Oliver safe. Better the devil she knew. "Not a lot this time, but should be enough to last through the winter."

Isabella stared down at the small pouch slipped into her palm. The woman smiled earnestly at her, if a bit pitying as she looked back at Oliver again. "He left it for you." Her voice dropped an octave. "I can see why you fell for his charms, I myself would have strayed for a man like that." Isabella freezes memories flashing before her eyes. "But still It wasn't necessary for the Mandrays to take the boy in after that."

She distantly remembers muttering her thanks, hastily stumbling away from the stall as memories of a summer in the sun long past. Annalise was right, the male had been a charmer. He just wasn't the human affair the village suspected, that Tomas knew about.

It was foolish to trust Mrs Mandray with such information. She had suspected for a long time that the boy wasn't Tomas' that he wasn't even fully human. But she understood... She herself was married to one of the Mandray men.

It wasn't easy to love her jailer in those early years, so Isabella had sought comfort elsewhere.

A/N: Fully aware of the information overload that is happening but I'm trying to fix and preempt plot holes so please bear with me.