Dinner that evening was a sombre affair.
Edmund was angry with Peter, Peter was angry with Edmund, Susan wasn't talking to anybody, Heather was quiet, Lucy was upset that only one person believed her.
Anna suddenly felt very awkward sitting with them, when she walked into the room Edmund and Susan walked out, she bit her lip
"should I leave?" she asked suddenly feeling unsure of herself, Peter shook his head
"no I think they should have some space anyway" Anna smiled, Peter seemed to be taking her advice.
Later that evening Anna found Lucy curled up on the sofa in the parlour. As it was just her and Lucy she went up to her
"if you want to call me stupid for believing in Narnia then please leave me be" Lucy said curtly with a polite edge
"I am not here to ridicule you, only to talk to you sweetheart" Lucy looked at Anna
"I knew you would believe me" Lucy burst out
"woah hold your horses sweetheart, I never said that I believed you" Lucys face fell
"so you don't believe me" Anna shook her head
"I never said I didn't either, all I am saying is that I have an open mind, it will come to us when we are ready" Anna said, Lucy smiled
"I knew I liked you" Anna smiled at Lucys childish innocence
"just don't press the issue, Narnia will come to us when it wants to" Anna spoke calmly.
Some when after midnight Anna was woken by Heather yelling at her and shouting her name
"Anna, Anna wake up! It's there, it's really there" she was shaking Anna and jumping up and down we moved into the boys room and Lucy decided to wake up Peter, Anna stood in the frame of the door shivering due to the thinness of her night dress and the lack of central heating in the house
"Peter, Peter wake up! It's there, it's really there!" Lucy switched on the lights to the room and jumped on her oldest brothers bed.
"Lucy what are you talking about?" Peter asked sounding sleepy
"Narnia! It's all in the wardrobe, like I told you!" she yelled excitedly
Susan came into the room and tied the front of her robe shut and made a scoff
"you've just been dreaming Lucy" she said in an attempt to coddle her sister
"but I haven't, I saw Mr Tumnus again, and this time Edmund and Heather went too" They all looked at Edmund and Heather, Heather nodded
"its true, he was so nice to us" I smiled at her and sat on the end of Peters bed
"you saw the faun?" Peter asked, Lucy smiled and looked at him expectantly
"Well, he didn't actually go there with us. What were you doing Edmund?" Lucy stood up and asked Edmund
"I-I was just playing along. I'm sorry Peter I shouldn't have encouraged them You know what little children are like these days, they just don't know when to stop pretending" He smiled smugly at heather and Lucy, Heathers and Lucys faces were crumpled up and tears leaked from the younger cousins eyes, they both ran from the room in tears.
"well Edmund I must say job well done, I hope your happy" Anna said scathingly, she glared at him and moved to follow her baby cousin.
Susan and Peter followed Anna and they rushed after the youngest girls.
They eventually found them with the professor, who was a man they had only seen a handful of times whilst they had been here.
Lucy and Heather wee both cuddling him around the middle and crying into his smoking jacket
"You children are one shenanigan shy of sleeping in the stable" the house-keeper rushed up to them hurriedly tying her robe, she saw the professor and stopped wide eyes
"oh, Professor! I told them you were not to be disturbed" she said with a pointed look at Lucy and Heather
"Oh, it's alright Mrs. Macready - I'm sure there's an explanation. But first of all I think these two are in need of a little hot chocolate" he passed the younger girls over to the house-keeper who took them with her to the kitchen. The oldest three began to walk away.
The professor cleared his throat so he could get their attention, they turned around and walked with the professor to his study, he pulled out a pinch of tobacco and began to stuff it in the end of his pipe, he began to speak to the trio of older children
"You seem to have upset the delicate internal balance of my housekeeper" he surveyed them over the top of his glasses
"We are very sorry sir, it won't happen again" peter said grabbing on to Susan and Anna and trying to pull them away
"It's our sister sir, Lucy" Susan said
"My cousin too" I said immediately after Susan
"the weeping girls?" the professor asked
"yes, they're upset" Susan said, Anna wanted to hit her, of course they were upset, Edmund just basically insulted them and called them childish
"hence the weeping" the professor said
"Its nothing we can handle it!" Peter said sounding like he was very eager to leave the professors scrutiny
"Oh, I can see that" the professor said sarcastically
"they think they've found a magical land in the upstairs wardrobe" this statement peaked the professors attention
"what did you say?" the professor asked standing up swiftly and guided us to a sofa where all of them sat down
"The wardrobe upstairs, Lucy thinks she's found a forest inside" Peter said as they sat down
"she won't stop going on about it" Susan said
"What was it like?" the professor asked
"Like talking to a lunatic" Susan said, she sounded relieved that somebody understood
"No, not her - the forest!" the professor asked
"You're-you're not saying you believe her?" Peter asked sounding astounded
"you don't?" the professor asked them, Anna simply looked at them
"well of course not, I mean logically its impossible" Anna looked at her, Susan seemed so stuffy, with all of her logic, did imagination not exist to her?
"What do they teach in schools nowadays?" the professor said to himself, Anna laughed a little bit
"Edmund said they were only pretending" Peter wondered aloud
"and he's usually the more truthful one is he?" the professor questioned
"No, this would be the first time" peter said looking at his hands
"Well then, if your sister isn't mad and she's not lying and then logically we must assume that she is telling the truth" the professor lit his pipe
"so you're saying we should just believe her" Peter said sounding appalled
"She's your sister, isn't she? You're a family! you might just try acting like one!" he said looking at them.
The Pevensie siblings walked out of the office soon after
"I believe them" Anna said as she stood up to leave
"good, you have a sound head on your shoulders there miss, why did you not speak up earlier?" the professor asked her
"I like to keep my thoughts to myself, besides Narnia will come to us right? When we need it most?" Anna said the professor smiled at her
"you my dear are wise, and believe me it will be recognized before the end, now off to bed with you" Anna smiled and hugged the professor before quickly skipping off back to bed.
"Peter winds up, poised to take yet another wicket!"
The ball hit Edmund, who wasn't really paying attention, in the leg. Edmund was glancing around, absorbed in his own little world. He looked very annoyed and glared at Peter.
"Whoops," laughed Peter, raking back his hair,
"Wake up, Dolly Daydream" Susan threw the ball back to Peter
"Why can't we just play hide and seek again?" ventured Edmund.
Anna wondered if Edmund was starting to believe Lucy's story – or perhaps he just felt remorseful, regretting how mean he had been to her the other night.
"I thought you said that was a kids' game," Peter told him.
"Besides," Susan chimed in cheerfully,
"We could all use the fresh air."
She bestowed a smile upon her brother, but Anna could tell it was quite forced.
Susan tried so hard to be kind to Edmund, but it often backfired. It was just the same as when Rose attempted to talk to him...not that she'd bothered lately. Edmund seemed to be better off left to himself.
"It's not like there isn't air inside," Edmund said nastily.
The smile dropped from Susan's face
"yes Edmund but that air is stuffy, this air is fresh and clean" Anna quipped, she directed the insulting tone at Edmund, having still not forgiven him from the previous night
"Are you ready?" Peter asked Edmund
"Are you?" Edmund smacked the bat threateningly against the grass, preparing himself.
Peter bowled the ball, and Edmund whacked it with all his might. The ball smashed through a window and into one of the rooms in the house. Edmunds efforts at being macho man hadn't gone well. Susan gasped, Lucy and Heather raced forward, they had been sat under a tree reading a book together, intent on inspecting the damage.
We raced inside to see the damage done by Edmunds pigheadedness. We stood still in our paths when we saw the broken glass,
"Well done, Ed" Peter said sarcastically.
"You bowled it!" yelled Edmund defensively.
Anna nudged the broken glass tentatively with her foot. She had to admit, while she didn't mind breaking a few rules, but she did mind breaking a few windows. The Professor wouldn't be at all happy. A nervous feeling had come over her, just as a voice shouted out in the distance: "What on earth is going on up there?"
"The Macready!" cried Susan
"come on" Peter called and pulled Anna and Heather along
The six of them set off at a run through the house, and away from the house-keeper. They were ducking from room to room, trying to find a suitable place to hide. Most of the doors were locked, or they hit dead ends and then they found themselves racing upstairs.
Anna held her breath as each hiding place was eliminated. She didn't want to hide in that wardrobe, did not want to provoke Lucy and Heather to flood them with stories of what they'd seen in there. Edmund opened the door to the room with the wardrobe, and Susan glared at the others as they ran towards it
"come on" Edmunds voice was almost pleading them
"You've got to be joking" Susan said in a patronizing tone of voice, the footsteps came closer to the door they all flooded into the wardrobe.
Peter closed the door behind them we began to push everyone back, Anna moved towards Lucy and smiled, she nodded her head and Anna felt a slight chill go up her skirt.
When they got through Peter and Susan fell backwards onto their behinds. Susan gasped in shock
Anna suddenly found herself feeling very cold indeed. Shivering, she glanced up to see snowflakes drifting towards the ground. She looked around with wonder - so Lucy had been telling the truth after all. She was amazed at the snow-covered trees that surrounded her, the layer of frost that covered the ground. It was even better than Scotland in winter.
"impossible" Susan breathed out
"don't worry I'm sure its just your imagination" Lucy said with a smirk on her face
"I don't suppose, saying we're sorry would quite cover it"
"no" Lucy said and looked at Anna and Heather, A sly grin crossed Annas face as she understood what Lucy was asking, and she curved her hand under the snow's surface, feeling its cold texture.
Grabbing a handful of the stuff, she threw the snow at Peter, at the same time so did Heather and Lucy.
One hit him in the back of the head, another the shoulder and the other one from Lucy got him in the face, and he whirled around and threw a handful back, laughing.
She joined the others in a snowball fight, until one of Susans snowballs hit a brooding Edmund.
He looked at them with a fierce expression in his dark eyes.
"Ow! Stop it!"
Peter seemed to realize then, and glowered fiercely at Edmund. He had been reminded, by snowballs and Edmunds attitude, of the events of a few days ago:
Lucy had claimed Edmund had come into Narnia with her, and Edmund had denied the whole thing, pretended Narnia didn't exist.
"You little liar," he hissed.
"You didn't believe them either!" Edmund was defensive, standing up to Peter because no one else was going to do it for him.
Anna and Susan were watching the two brothers warily.
Peter jerked his head towards Lucy.
"Apologise to Lucy and Heather"
Edmund stood defiantly where he was. Peter advanced on him, a scary look coming over his face.
"Say you're sorry."
Edmund backed down. Peter had the advantage of not only years, but height. In a possible scuffle, Edmund would lose.
"Alright. I'm sorry." it was the most insincere apology Anna had ever heard, it made her want to smack him
"That's alright," said Lucy, a smug smile crossing her face,
"Some little children just don't know when to stop pretending" Heather continued
"Very funny," seethed Edmund.
They managed to find some coats from the wardrobe, Anna was amused when Peter gave Edmund a girl's coat, and Lucy expressed a desire to introduce them to her friend, a faun named Mr Tumnus. She also claimed that this place was called Narnia.
Peter passed her a coat and helped her put it on.
Anna smiled at him
"thank you" she said
Anna shot a look at Edmund. He was pulling his coat around him and pretending not to notice.
She couldn't believe how nasty he had been this past few days. Why couldn't he just have admitted that Lucy was right?
Anna was beginning to like Edmund less and less. She could only hope that his attitude started changing for the better and soon.