Authors Note: Hope you like it so far. This is just a short introduction chapter, but the chapters will get longer... and better. Reviews would be grand!
It was 50 degrees outside today in the middle of nowhere and it was currently poring rain harder than ever before.
Rainy days were a great time for tourists to come in and see the Professor's manor. So, Mrs. Macready was too busy giving tours of that old rundown mansion to pick up the Professor's granddaughter from the train station 5 miles away.
As a result, Elizabeth Kirke was now walking down the muddy road that led to her grandfather's house. Elizabeth was a curious girl, with ghostly white skin and murky brown hair, both of which contrasted the other greatly. She always had a look on her face that showed that she was up to no good, in spite of that her expressions were unbelievably innocent.
Elizabeth was a bit of a rebel. She would skip school and stay out late with friends. When the bombing occurred a couple days prior, she had been out late with friends again. Her mom was incredibly worried, so she sent Elizabeth off to her grandfather's residence, hoping that her daughter remains safe and possibly gets straightened out.
Elizabeth frowned, as her once white ballet flats became an awful shade of brown. She was grumbling to herself, cold and soaked and still two miles from her destination. Wearing only a black long-sleeved shirt and high-wasted pants, she was shivering from head to toe and her lips were turning mauve. Furthermore, she was carrying two large, heavy suitcases that were constantly slowing her down.
Her long, wet hair in her face and her teeth chattering, her heart skipped a beat when she heard a car speeding down the road behind her. Jumping at the chance to get a ride to the Professor's home, she lifted her thumb and held it out for the driver of the car to see. And the driver did see.
"Where're you headed, miss?" the man in the car asked. He looked to be in his early twenties.
"My grandfather's house. It's a couple miles down the road," Elizabeth replied as the man got out of the car. He took her luggage and put it in the trunk, then opened the car door and motioned for her to enter. Now, Elizabeth knew it was unsafe to enter a car with a total stranger, but the man seemed nice and she was particularly tired of walking. So, she got in the car and they sped away.
"You're a very pretty young lady," the man told her, looking her up and down. Elizabeth got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, but ignored it.
"Thank you, sir," she said, turning to look out of the window. One more mile to go and they would be at the professors house.
"You're not from around here, are you, miss? No, I would've remembered someone as pretty as you," he supposed, putting the hand that was not on the wheel on her arm. Elizabeth moved her arm away nonchalantly and then turned to the man.
"No, I'm not. I'm from London," Elizabeth explained, happy that she could now see her grandfather's house in the distance.
"How long are you staying for?" Elizabeth couldn't decide if he was creating polite small talk or if he was truly being meddlesome.
"I don't know," she replied as they parked in front of the mansion. "When the bombing stops?"
"That could be a long while, then," the man said either to himself or to Elizabeth. They both stepped out of the car and she retrieved her baggage.
"Thank you so much, sir," Elizabeth said, smiling to the man, getting soaked by the rain as she did.
"Don't mention it. I couldn't just let a pretty lady like you walk all the way here," the man responded, taking Elizabeth's hand and kissing it. Elizabeth felt sickened and pulled her hand away as soon as he removed his lips. The smarmy man walked back to his car, got in, waved, and then drove away.
After wiping her hand on her pants to rid it of the germs, Elizabeth made her way inside the mansion, whose doors were unlocked. She figured she should inform Mrs. Macready that she was there, so she began her search for the housekeeper. The search was not long, for Elizabeth found the said housekeeper walking down one of the numerous halls in the manor.
"Mrs. Macready! Thank you so very much for picking me up from the train station today," Elizabeth said sarcastically. Mrs. Macready sent her an irritated glare.
"I was highly busy today, child, you should know that. Your room is the usual one," the housekeeper said. Elizabeth used to spend her summers here, so she had a room already.
"Thank you," Elizabeth answered moodily, turning away from Mrs. Macready.
"Be warned that there are four other children staying here, though God knows why the Professor agreed to have them," Mrs. Macready cautioned, and Elizabeth nodded and continued walking.
She was almost to her room when a small weeping child latched onto her. Elizabeth dropped her suitcases in confusion and looked down at the girl, who had her arms wrapped around Elizabeth's torso. The child was muttering things like "I wouldn't lie about this" and "There really was a land and a faun".
Elizabeth was never good with children. In fact, she quite disliked children. So, she bent down and awkwardly removed the girl's arms from around her waste. "Hullo," Elizabeth began, kneeling down to the girl's height. "I'm Elizabeth."
"I-I'm Lucy," the girl sniffled and wiped some tears off of her cheeks.
"It's nice to meet you, Lucy," Elizabeth said, smiling slightly. "What's wrong?"
This single question made the tiny girl go off into a long explanation: "You see, we were playing hide and seek and Edmund took my spot so-" Elizabeth ignored the fact that she did not know who 'Edmund' was. "- I went to hide in a wardrobe and I found a wood, like a forest, you know? And in the wood I met a faun who's name was Tumnus, and he took me to his house and gave me some sardines, which were disgusting. And then he played this instrument and I fell asleep and when I woke up he told me that he was kidnapping me. And then he changed his mind and took me home and when I came out of the wardrobe my siblings were still playing hide and seek. And then they didn't believe me when I told them this story and- and-"
Lucy broke out into more tears and hugged Elizabeth again. Elizabeth was vaguely aware of footsteps coming towards them, but she paid little attention to whoever was coming.
"Look," Elizabeth started, eying the two people who were walking down the hall toward them. "How about we go downstairs, get some hot chocolate, and you can tell me all about this land and this faun?"
Lucy nodded, wiped more tears away, and looked at Elizabeth with an optimistic expression. "You believe me then?"
"That depends," Elizabeth replied, pretending to be in though. "Was the faun cute?"
Lucy giggled and grabbed Elizabeth's hand. "You should come with me next time and you can decide for yourself!"
The two others had finally reached Elizabeth and Lucy. One was male, with blond hair and blue eyes. The other was a female, with brown hair and blue eyes. Elizabeth guessed that these were Lucy's siblings.
"Hello," the boy said, holding his hand out to Elizabeth. "I'm Peter."
She took his hand and replied with an "Elizabeth". The older girl introduced herself as Susan.
"I'm sorry about our sister," Peter said, motioning to Lucy. "We can take her from here."
"Wait, she said she would take me to get hot chocolate!" Lucy complained, moving closer to Elizabeth. Elizabeth nodded and Peter and Susan glanced at each other.
"All right, but don't have too much, Lucy," Susan advised, sending Elizabeth a strict look.