A Walk on the Water

"And now you have a wonderful husband, a husband that the women on this island would give their right arm for. He is a great man, Alannah and he is heir to a great empire here on this Island." Anya said, smiling to herself as Alannah watched the clouds roll by, Anya's features a mixture of longing and curiosity.

"I don't want to think about that just yet,' Alannah muttered distractedly. "If I would have had any real idea of just what I was in for, I don't think that I would have married Dominic. Don't get me wrong, I love him more than anything, but this place alone . . . with the farmlands, the lake and all the forests surrounding it are all that I can manage to comprehend right now. Let alone the Beringer empire, just that thought is quite overwhelming. And my own birth right." Alannah said with a far off look in her eyes.

Anya tilted her head in her own distinctive way. "Yes, but eventually you will come to love this place as I have. Just take it small steps, and everything will come easier for you in time. Like cooking your favorite meal, everything is done with precision here."

"Of course, you are right." Alannah said, suddently overcome with the feeling she needed to throw up. She quickly got up from her spot on the blanket and ran to the nearest bush, wretching everything in her stomach up until that point.

"Alannah are you alright?"

"I don't know what came over me, I think the stress of the past few weeks is catching up to me." she said wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she went back to the blanket and laid down. "One does not serve a hot fuge Sunday with calamari or baked apples with shrimp and cloves," Alannah finally replied. "You know, come to think of it that actually sounds tasty."

"Alannah? Are you pregnant?"

"I can't be, can I?"

Anya quirked an eyebrow. "Well, if things went the way they should have you very well could be."

Alannah looked surprised. "NO - I can't be"

"Alannah it's a natural occurance when two people make love for a baby to happen, remember we talked about this. You are going to make a great little mamma."

"But my father, he is still coming for me, this baby if I really am pregnant, won't change his mind."

"Alannah, babies can change even the coldest of hearts." Anya said with a thoughtful look on her face. "I do have to say that you fit in with Dominic and his family perfectly," Anya told her, "your insights and philosophies are incredible. I didn't think that Dominic would meet his match until I met you. I thought that only the Señora and Dominic were like that!" She laughed suddenly. "It's a good thing that you came here, and that Dominic fell in love with you, or someone like Rosemary may have been where you are now trying to figuring out how to fit into the Beringer household."