Run. Run faster. Men following. Hooves chasing. Run.
A girl, fourteen but not yet courted, sprinted through the mud, running towards Narnia, running away from her past. Her dress is riddled with mud and torn until unrecognizable from the branches greedy hands. She can hear the men behind her gaining ground, rushing closer yet. She cannot outrun them. They are not out for a search party, they are out for blood. Her blood.
As she sees Narnia nearing, she knows this is her only chance. She pushes her legs as hard as they can manage to go, but the voices of the men behind her only gain in volume. Then, she hears it, the rushing water. Turning to her left, she sees a river, her only hope. The young girl springs into the water, praying for survival. The strong current sweeps her away, away from the men, away from her past, away from the life she once knew.
"Is the bread ready for the table?" The kitchen is louder than ever, with people running around, preparing for the grand feast that is being put on tonight.
"The bread is almost done. Just putting the egg wash on top!" Servants, young and old, are rushing around, bumping into each other. Giggles can be heard across the room as the maidens think about the dashing princes that are coming to Cair Paravel for the evening.
Suddenly the Head Maid stepped through the doors. Making everyone pause and turn, ready to take orders. No one would ever dare cross the head maid. Madam Fay only steps foot into the kitchen when something is wrong, and by the look on her face, something was most definitely wrong.
"Sabina." She said more as a statement than a question. "Where is Sabina?"
The young girl once found floating in the river just outside Narnia's border, now eighteen stepped forward. "I am here, Madam Fay."
Madam Fay looked her up and down as if studying her like a book. "You will do." Madam Fay stated. Sabina looked around, asking with her eyes if anyone knew what Madam Fay was speaking of. "Do for what?" Sabina asked timidly, bowing her head.
"We are short a server tonight, as one of the girls has strangely taken ill." The servants looked around to each other, unless taken ill by too much rum the night before, very few people fell sick in the castle.
Suddenly, the realization dawned on Sabina. "Madam Fay, you are not asking that I take her place do you?" Sabina was shocked, being a servant was one thing, but presenting the food before the Kings and Queens of Narnia was another. Servers were trained for weeks about how to properly pour the wine, how to set the food on the table currently, Sabina was simply a servant in the kitchen. "Madam Fay, I have not been properly prepared!"
The older women looked at the young girl. "Maiden Sabina, you have been in the castle the longest out of the kitchen staff, you will catch on quickly. Now come along, we must find you new clothes. We have no time to waste."
Before Sabina could utter a word, she was taken by the arm and whisked away from the basement, up the stairs and into the tailor's wing. Sabina was quickly thrown into a dress and given instructions on how to handle the plate while it is still hot and how to curtsey with a wine bottle in hand.
While Sabina was being pushed out the door she looked into the mirror, for a second she allowed herself to imagine what her life would have been. Imagined hand sewed dresses and her hair being braided into art. Sabina thought back that dreadful day when she was fourteen, she remembered the men and their yelling.
Almost as scary as that day, was the moment standing before her. Sabina stood in line and waltz in with the rest of the servers, except her waltz was more of a stampede of one. As she walked she became worried, as all the high ranking men and women at this feast had their own personal server, Sabina realized she was walking further down the table than most. Finally, as the line stopped, Sabina saw who she would be serving for the night.
It was none other than the bachelor himself: Edmund Pevensie.