Edmund sighed as he sat in his throne. He did so because his younger sister Lucy was bothering him.

They have all grown up a bit but Lucy hadn't. She was now 14 and should have been very mature by now but she wasn't.

She may as well have been 9 years old again, the very age she was when she had come through the wardrobe for the first time. She hadn't changed a bit. Oh yes, she'd grown taller and was very sweet in her appearance, but she still looked like she was that little girl who had annoyed him for years.

She didn't act very differently either.

Peter and Susan hadn't seemed to have noticed her lack of aging.

"Oh Lu, what will we do with you?" Edmund asked himself as he saw her running around outside with her friend Tumnus the faun.

Peter entered the throne room and chuckled to see his younger brother looking so pensive.

"So, King Edmund the Just, what is troubling you this time? Are we once again at war in the north? Or do they want to give us a change and send us to war in the south?"

"Hello Peter. No we aren't at war, for once."

"So what's up then?" Peter sat himself in his throne and turned tired eyes at Edmund.

"It's Lucy. Haven't you noticed how little she's changed since we've been here? We've all grown up and matured accordingly, but she hasn't."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, take Susan for example, since we came here she has matured and grown up to be so beautiful that we have to beat the suitors away with a sharp stick. And you, before we defeated Jadis and her army you were just on the threshold of manhood and now you really are King Peter the Magnificent."

"And you have outshone any scholar in the land in wisdom and if you tried hard you could beat me in combat. I wouldn't be surprised if you have to see off your own suitors before long."

"Cheers mate! But I can't help noticing that Lucy has not changed. Not in all the years we've been in Narnia. Even with all my years of study I still cannot understand why that is."

"I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Again. If Lucy is a little underdeveloped then all we can do is wait until she turns out a young woman. Where is she now?"

Edmund pointed outside and Peter saw her jumping around in the sun and then she fell over and Tumnus helped her up.

Edmund went outside to see if she was alright.

"You okay, Lu?"

"I'm fine, a little tired."

"I'm not surprised. You're rooms are next to mine and I heard you bouncing around the room in the early hours of the morning."

"What were you doing up that late, Ed?" Susan asked from the bench where she was reading in the sunlight.

"I was reading a new dissertation that had just come through. It's rather think and I thought I should get started as soon as I could."

"Ed, could you help me to my room please? I think I need to lie down a bit."

"Of course. Here take my arm."

He led her into the castle and made sure she was comfortable in her room before going back to the courtyard and sitting next to Susan. He lay down and put his head in her lap.

"Hello? What's this?" Susan asked looking underneath her book and into his smiling face.

He shrugged in answer to her question and she gave him a reproachful look.

"Don't do that Ed, it hurts my leg." She said softly, although she made no move to get him to shift his body.

"Read to me a bit. I'm tired and I like hearing you read aloud."

She read to him for about half an hour and although he had already read this book he enjoyed it because Susan had a nice voice that highlighted all the good phrases and he looked at her face when she came to a funny bit and it fairly lit up with joy and surprise.

Peter came out and looked at them before he decided to go for a ride in the woods.

Lucy then appeared after a nap, which seemed to have refreshed her wonderfully.

"Lu! How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thanks Ed. I think I'll go for a walk in the woods. It's so nice out."

"Do you want me to escort you?" Edmund asked with a worried look on his face.

"There's no need for that. I can make my way through the woods without any help from the brave warrior. Besides I have my dagger." The small dagger Lucy had received from Father Christmas before the battle against Jadis was a standing joke between the siblings. Though sharp the dagger was so small that you'd have to be nose to nose with your enemy before you could do any damage.

The siblings shared a laugh and Lucy departed.

She didn't appear at dinner that night and Edmund got rather worried. Not only was Lucy missing but Peter was too.

As they were finishing they heard the clatter of hooves in the courtyard and the pair rushed out to see who it was.

Peter was there on his large white horse and sitting in front of him was a beautiful young woman.

"Peter! We were getting worried about you." Susan said looking highly relieved to see him in one piece.

"Who have you found?"

"She was in trouble and I felt compelled to get her out of it."

"You really do have a hero complex, don't you Peter?" Edmund teased gently.

"Shut up! Look at the state of her! I couldn't leave her in the woods. She hasn't said a word."

"Shock?"

"I'm not sure. Susan will you see to her and make her welcome here, at least until she recovers and we work out where she comes from. Ed, will you try and get her to talk, it would help us a lot if we knew a bit about her."

Edmund helped her down from the horse and was surprised to see that there wasn't an awful lot to her.

Susan held out her hand and the woman hesitantly took it and Susan live up to her namesake and gently led her inside.

Edmund looked at Peter and Peter started to dismount.

"Wait! Don't dismount yet. Let me get Phillip and I want you to take me to where you found her. We might find out something about her if I can see the place where you found her."

Within ten minutes they were riding through the woods. They came to a clearing in the darkening woods.

Edmund dismounted and lit a torch.

"What can you find Ed?"

"Patience Peter!"

"My head may be telling me to have patience but my stomach is refusing all commands! If I don't get some food right now then there will be hell to pay!"

Edmund made an exasperated sound in the back of his throat and tying Phillip's reins to a tree went behind it and a moment later an apple flew out and hit Peter squarely in the chest.

"Ow!"

"You asked for it! Now shush! I'm investigating."

"Hurry up!"

Edmund ignored him and continued to snoop around.

Eventually Peter got so bored that he trusted Edmund to get himself home and he left to answer the calls of his stomach.

Edmund heard him leaving and turned back to the pile of clothes he had found under a bush.

It was a dress that he recognized from somewhere. Maybe he had seen one of the nymph maidens in wearing it.

As he picked it up something fell from within them.

It was Lucy's dagger.