Chapter 1: Sophie
It was a chilly morning the day I left London for the Professor's house. The Professor was a dear old family friend, and when Mum and Dad decided to send me out of London with hundreds of other children for protection from the air-raids, they asked specifically for me to be placed with the Professor. Mum was the only one who came to the train station with me, for Dad was with the British army at that point over in France.
Always practical, Mum hugged me close while saying, "Take care of yourself, Sophie. Do you have enough clothes on?"
"Of course I do," I replied, hugging Mum back. "Don't worry about me, I'll be safe with the Professor."
"I know that," Mum sighed. "Give him my love, will you darling? That's a good girl."
"I will," I promised. The train whistled once signalling that departure was close, followed by the shouts of the conductor. "There's the conductor; I'd better be off. I love you, Mum," and kissing my mother's cheek, I picked up my bags and hurried to the train, determined not to cry in front of so many people. I boarded the train and began to look for a car with a seat, or even better, an empty car altogether. There were four people in the only car with a seat open, however, and so I shoved my bags up above and looked out the window for Mum as the train began to pull away. As my luck would have it, however, I couldn't catch a glimpse of Mum through the crowd of worried and tearful parents. I sat down heavily and was determined to ignore the four others in the car.
That, of course, did not happen.
The youngest, a girl who looked to be no more than ten, caught my eye first, as she sat directly opposite me. She was sniffling a little bit and her eyes were red; and I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. "Peppermint?" I asked, opening my little purse and offering her one.
"Thank you," she said shyly, wiping the tears from her face with one hand and taking the candy.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"I'm Lucy Pevensie," the girl said, adding a moment later, "What's yours?"
"I'm Sophie Kensington," I replied.
"It's nice to meet you, Sophie," Lucy said, and then she sank into silence.
I looked around the car. Next to Lucy was a girl who looked to be no more than fifteen. She was very pretty, with china-doll skin and curls so dark they looked almost black. Opposite her was a boy about sixteen with golden hair and clear blue eyes; and in between us was a boy who looked to be a little younger than me, about thirteen, with dark hair and dark eyes.
"I don't suppose you mind me asking," the golden-haired boy asked suddenly, "but where are you headed?"
"Coombe Halt. A professor friend of my mum's is letting me stay with him," I replied.
"Coombe Halt? A professor? Why, we're going there ourselves!" the older girl exclaimed.
"Then let us become better acquainted!" I said, suddenly feeling much more cheerful. "I'm Sophie, but you probably already knew that."
"You've met Lucy already, and I'm Susan," the girl said. "That's Peter over there with the light hair, and next to you is Edmund."
"Pleasure to meet you all!" I said, suddenly feeling excited about the prospect of spending some months with these four. "It's going to be lovely having you all there too! I thought I would be positively bored to tears, with nothing to do but to tease Mrs. MacCready and discuss philosophy with the professor, but now! Oh, it'll be absolutely lovely!"
"Teasing Mrs. Whats-her-face sounds fun," Edmund remarked sullenly.
"Oh, but it is!" I said. "It's loads of fun. You'll see for yourself in but a couple hours."
"Will she be the one to meet us at the station?" Lucy asked shyly.
"Most likely. Or we'll end up walking," I replied.
"How far of a walk is it?" Peter inquired.
"Oh, perhaps four miles or so. It's a lovely walk," I said.
"Four miles? Mrs. MacCready would have us walk four miles?" Susan said in disbelief.
"Goodness but I don't know," I said. "She might, just to teach me a lesson for the last prank I pulled on her. That was fun," I sighed, reminiscing on summer days spent at the Professor's.
"What did you do?" Edmund asked curiously.
I spent the next two hours telling the four Pevensies of the pranks I'd pulled on Mrs. MacCready the last time I'd visited, a year earlier. Fifteen minutes into it, the solemn and sad faces of the four had pulled into smiles. By the time we reach Coombe Halt, we were all laughing uncontrollably. "How long did you stay there to pull that many pranks?" Peter asked.
"A fortnight," I replied proudly.
"You did all that within two weeks?" Lucy said through a fit of giggles.
"Yes, I did," I laughed.
"We'd better get our things," Susan said, shaking her head in amusement. "The train's pulling into Coombe Halt."
Edmund and Peter got all the luggage together and even got mine. "I'll take it," I said, but Peter insisted on being a gentleman. "Well, thank you," I said.
"Anytime," Peter said.
We got off the train and walked to the edge of the platform, waiting for Mrs. MacCready to come. After about five minutes, I grumbled, "If she doesn't come soon, I will walk." Fortunately, I was spared the trouble, for a horse and cart driven by a dour-looking middle-aged woman, came over a little hill into sight. "That's her," I said.
"How lovely," Edmund said sarcastically.
"Oh, yes," I said, grinning at Edmund.
"Think I could prank her with you? That is, if you're going to," Edmund said.
"Of course," I replied, nodding my head.
Mrs. MacCready pulled up to them. "I see you've arrived," she said sourly, looking directly at me.
"Why, it's so nice to see you again, Mrs. MacCready," I exclaimed, inwardly feeling as if this was the last person in the world I wanted to see.
"A pleasure indeed," Mrs. MacCready said stiffly. Peter and Edmund hid smiles, Lucy's mouth quirked upwards, and Susan coughed to hide a laugh. Mrs. MacCready looked at the four Pevensies. "You're the Pevensies?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am," Peter said solemnly.
"Haven't you got anything else?" Mrs. MacCready asked dourly.
"No ma'am. Just this," Peter replied.
"Sophie here seems to have as much as all four of you combined," Mrs. MacCready said.
"Well, there was a lot to pack," I said. "Blouses, skirts, dresses, cardigans - and of course, unmentionables." At this point, Edmund had a severe coughing fit.
"Small favors," Mrs. MacCready said sarcastically. "Hop in."
The ride to the professor's wasn't terribly long, and it was made even less long with my comments to Mrs. MacCready and her usual stiff answers. Lucy looked as if she would die from holding in her laughter, Susan's face kept twitching, Peter had his face turned away from all of us while his shoulders shook, and Edmund had several coughing fits (which he promptly blamed on a cold).
Then the Professor's manor, a beautiful home in the style of the Tudors, came into sight. "Oh-h," Lucy breathed when she saw it. The others agreed instantly it was the most beautiful home they'd ever seen. I certainly agreed with them.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I said.
"Very," Peter agreed emphatically.
When we got inside, Mrs. MacCready began spouting off a list of rules we had to follow. "There'll be no shoutin', and no runnin'," she said. Susan reached her hand out to touch an old statue in the front hall as she passed by it, and Mrs. MacCready exclaimed, "and NO touchin' of the historical artifacts!"
Peter and Edmund hid laughter, while I rolled my eyes at Mrs. MacCready and Susan looked defensive. "Her tongue's worse than her bite," I whispered to Susan.
"Good," Susan said.
"And above all," Mrs. MacCready said, turning around at the top of the stairs, "There'll be no disturbin' of the professor."
"Does that include philosophical conversations?" I asked impishly.
Mrs. MacCready only glared at me.
That night, the five of us were all gathered in Susan and Lucy's room. "The sheets feel scratchy," Lucy complained.
"We'll be home soon, Lu," Susan assured her.
"Yeah, if home's still there," Edmund said.
"Ed!" Peter said warningly.
An awkward silence settled over the room, a silence that I felt was my job to break. "Tomorrow, if it's not raining, would you all like a tour of the grounds?"
"Oh, yes, please!" Lucy said.
"I think that would be delightful," Susan agreed.
"Thank you," Peter said, ever the gentleman.
Edmund, as I expected, said nothing but stood silently in his corner. I decided against making an effort to pull him out of his sullen silence, but instead merely yawned and said, "I think I'm going to go to bed, if that's all right with you four."
"Absolutely, Sophie," Susan said. "I think we're all tired from the day."
"Well, goodnight then. Sleep well," and with that I left the room to go down the hall to my room. I changed from my skirt and sweater to pajamas and crawled into bed, suddenly exhausted from the long day of traveling. Within seconds I was lost to sleep, but not before wondering what the next day would bring.