Nancy dozed in a pool of golden light. Her nightly wanderings were beginning to catch up with her now and she kept falling asleep during the day. This morning, after their daily dose of oatmeal under the beady eye of the senior maid Betty, she had sat on the sofa and keeled over almost straight away.
She slept at ridiculously funny angles anyway but this time was especially spectacular. Her head was hanging off the seat of the sofa while one leg was hooked over the back. Her arms were bent close to her sides and twitched slightly as she dreamed. The equilibrium was perfect as it was; if she shifted only slightly she would either slide off the sofa completely or wake up with the most horrible aches in her muscles. Right now she was at peace.
A crash tore through her sleep and she jerked awake. Unfortunately, her odd positioning meant that that tiny jerk was enough to make her slide headfirst off the sofa.
She groaned and staggered upright, rubbing her head and pouting as her bump throbbed. The crash had come from one of the rooms further down the hall. It was a room they had explored but not spent a lot of time in; just a small drawing room with some couches and artefacts .
As she entered through one door, the Pevensies scurried in through another. All five stared in dismay at the suit of armour in pieces on the floor before lifting their eyes to the window. The cricket ball, for the ball was lying in amongst the mess, had sailed straight through the stained glass inlay. It was one of the worst places in the window to shatter.
"Well done, Ed!" Peter snapped, glaring at his younger brother. Edmund assumed his favourite expression of outrage with a hint of hurt.
"You bowled it!" he snapped in reply.
"What on earth are you children up to?" the voice of Mrs Macready called through the open door behind Nancy. The woman was truly omnipresent! She sounded like she was at the other end of the house!
"The Macready!" Susan cried.
"She's coming this way!" Lucy added as the sharp rap of the housekeeper's shoes began to move in their direction.
"You four run, I'll take the flack for this one," Nancy offered quickly.
Peter hesitated for a moment but shook his head.
"You're in enough trouble already," he said firmly and grabbed both her hand and Lucy's. "Come on, sharp's the word!"
He hurried the pair of them out; Edmund and Susan following closely behind. The five of them sprinted through the halls of the house but, no matter where they went, no matter what door they opened or staircase they leapt up or down, Mrs Macready always seemed to be there ahead of them. With nowhere else to go, they ran for the attics.
Into the wardrobe room they went. Edmund ran straight for the wardrobe and threw its door open.
"Come on!" he said, indicating the darkness and fur coats inside. Just as they opened their mouths to protest, the tip-tap of the shoes echoed again behind them and that was enough to propel them all forwards and into the darkness.
Pressed against the soft fur of the coats, Nancy finally dropped Peter's hand and took a few deep breaths. She was still a bit disorientated and groggy from her nap and the bump to her head. She was almost certain that her mind was playing tricks on her. Either there was a draught or the air in this wardrobe was unusually cold and damp. Just as her eyes adjusted to the dark, Peter - who had been crouching with his eye against the crack of the open door - straightened up.
"Get back," he hissed and shoved them all back. Pandemonium erupted in the tiny, confined space. Nancy tripped over Lucy's leg and fell into Edmund heavily. He in turn shoved her away into Susan who fell against Peter and all three of them tumbled into a pile of snow.
Wait, snow inside a wardrobe?
Nancy scrambled off Peter and Susan's knees and crawled forward. A winter wonderland opened before her. The snow was so clean and pure; nothing like the grey sludge that occasionally littered the streets of her area. She scooped some up in her hands. It was cold, freezing even, but perfectly soft and powdery. It slipped through her fingers and left a thin dusting on each one.
"Impossible," she heard Susan breathe behind her and she looked up. Her breath left her. The snow dusting her fingers was indeed beautiful but it did not compare to the snow on the trees stretching above her. Every branch was coated and the branches twisted this way and that and on and on. She could see no end; they were in an actual forest!
They were in Lucy's forest.
The little girl walked past them with a coy, "Don't worry, I'm sure it is just your imagination."
"I don't suppose a fellow's apology will quite cut it?" Peter asked her hopefully. She tipped her head to one side and smiled at him.
"No," she said and Peter's shoulders sagged slightly. Suddenly her hand whipped around and hurled a snowball straight towards him.
"But that might!" she crowed and dived for another snow drift. Her older brother and sister scrambled for ammunition of their own and so did Nancy. The four children romped in the snow, flinging it at each other and shrieking as the snowballs smacked into them and wormed their way down their collars.
"Ow!" another voice moaned. The merriment ceased as Edmund pouted and rubbed his arm where a stray snowball had hit him. The tensioninstantly rocketed as Peter glared at his younger brother.
"You liar," he spat. "Apologise to Lucy!"
"It's quite alright, Peter," Lucy said lightly. "Some little children do not know when to stop playing games."
She smiled sweetly as her brother rolled his eyes.
"So, you've been here the most, Lu. What do you suggest we do?" Peter asked. Lucy's face lit up in an expression of pure delight.
"I want you all to meet Mr Tumnus!" she said happily.
"Then off to Mr Tumnus' we shall go!" Peter replied with a smile.
"But we can't go hiking in the snow!" Susan exclaimed, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. Her eyes slid over Nancy who's clothes were still covered in snow. The younger girl was starting to shiver in the cold and her clothes would do nothing to protect her.
Peter emerged from behind them, his arms laden with fur coats.
"I'm sure the Professor won't mind if we take these," he said, handing one to Lucy. "After all, it isn't as if we are taking them out the wardrobe," he added pointedly. Susan snatched the offered coat, her mouth thin.
Nancy glared suspiciously at the one he tried to hand her. "I can't wear that!" she said. "That's a posh knob's coat."
"Freeze then," he replied mildly and she grabbed it off him. It was brown and smelled of mothballs but at least it was better than the black and silver monstrosity Edmund was forced into. As they set off, tramping through the snow after Lucy, Nancy shot him a side-long glance. He looked so utterly ridiculous in the over-sized coat that she nearly laughed out loud.
Twenty minutes into the trek and her spirits were definitely lower. Her boots seemed to have a thousand and one holes in them and her socks had quickly become sodden. This coat was too heavy and she tripped over the hem again and again as they stumbled along.
Peter slipped on a snow drift as they made their way down a hill, causing giggles from his sisters as he slid down on his rump. Nancy was about to chuckle too when she tripped over the hem of her coat and rolled down after him with a shriek. Still giggling, Susan helped her up and tried to brush the worst of the snow off her.
"What do you think of the coat?" she asked.
"They're over-rated," Nancy snarled, heaving it back onto her shoulders. "I'm too hot an' it's too heavy an' it stinks."
Susan laughed again and the pair hurried after the other three. Lucy was in the middle of reeling off all the lovely things Mr Tumnus was going to provide for them upon their arrival. Her little voice faltered as they rounded the final corner and their eyes fell upon a once cheery little door in the hillside which was now broken and hanging from its hinges. Before they could stop her, she had bolted for the door.
Beyond the door was a mess. It had once been a handsome and comfortable house but now it was dark and unwelcoming. Nancy picked her way through the detritus to the back of the house. There had once been bookshelves here but something had torn them down. There were deep gouges in the wood where claws had been dragged through it. Her fingers ran over the jagged wounds. The pages of the books that had once sat on the shelves were scattered across the floor. It made her sad. She could not read that well but she was saddened greatly to see so many beautiful books wrecked. She picked up the cover of one. Is Man a Myth? was emblazoned on the red leather.
The others had been reading a notice they had found pinned to the wall.
"Perhaps we should go to the police?" Peter asked.
"These are the police!" Susan exclaimed, rapping the sheet of parchment. Nancy turned to look at Peter with a confused look on her face.
"I thought this Tumnus was your friend," she said slowly. "Why would you want to go to the cops?"
"To get help," Peter replied. She scoffed.
"The cops don't help no-one. Protect your own and sort out your own messes, that's what I was brought up knowing. We go to the police and you'll never see Tumnus again."
Jimmy had been in trouble with the police a few years back. It was none of their business, it was something to be dealt with by Pa and the other guys and not the flaming coppers, but they'd stuck their big noses in and now Jimmy had a criminal record. He weren't no criminal. He was her older brother.
"Look, this bickering isn't going to help him!" Lucy said, tugging at Peter's sleeve. "We have to find a way that means we can help him!"
"I don't know, Lu," her older brother said slowly. "He was arrested just for being with a human..."
"I'm the human!" Lucy almost wailed, now practically hanging off Peter's arms in earnest.
Peter still looked unconvinced but he nodded. "Fine. We'll see if there is anything we can do."
"Why?" Edmund asked from where he was skulking in a corner. "He's a criminal."
Nancy rounded on him. "Whether he's criminal or no, he's still hum- he's still a person," she said. "He deserves to be treated fairly. We have to help him. Ain't you never heard of innocent until proven guilty?"
"Thick as thieves," Edmund muttered under his breath, meeting her stony gaze.
"Psst."
The noise was alien in the stillness of Tumnus' house and all five of them turned to stare out the window and door. A second of the noises sent them hurrying from the house. Nobody was outside.
A crack echoed from the undergrowth. Susan and Lucy edged closer to their older brother; Edmund and Nancy hanging back slightly. Nancy shifted her weight slightly into a better fighting stance and shook the sleeves of her coat away from her fists. She'd been in some scraps before and Jimmy had taught her some things. No evil creature was going to hurt them while she was there.
The slightly portly beaver scampered from the undergrowth and sat up on its haunches. Its head cocked to one side as it observed them.
They sighed with relief. Peter exchanged a look with Susan and then edged towards it with an outstretched hand. He clicked his tongue and closed the final few feet between him and the animal.
The beaver eyed him warily and then straightened up. "I ain't gonna smell it, if that's what you want!" he snapped in an accent that could have stepped straight out of Nancy's end of town. Relief swept over her in an instant.
Now, here was a geezer they could trust!
"Oh, sorry," Peter said stiffly and stepped back. The beaver shook his head and slid his eyes over the other four.
"Lucy Pevensie? I'm a friend of Mr Tumnus," he said. "I have here a token for you to prove my honesty."
From somewhere he produced a rumpled scrap of white and held it out. Lucy stepped towards him, her eyes unnaturally large in her little pale face, and took the piece of material.
"My handkerchief," she said in a small voice.
"He managed to get it to me before they came for him," he said darkly. He stopped suddenly and looked over his shoulder at the trees stretching overhead. "But, such discussions are best left for safer quarters," he added. "Come along."
Lucy, Peter and Nancy made to follow him as he disappeared into the undergrowth but Susan and Edmund stopped them.
"We can't just go after him! We know nothing about him!" Edmund pointed out.
"He says he knows the faun," Peter replied mildly.
"He's a beaver! He shouldn't say anything!" Susan retorted.
"Well, I'm going to follow him," Nancy muttered and tramped off in the direction the beaver had vanished him.
"Why?" Edmund demanded. She turned round; her face thoughtful. She bit her lip and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear before pointing after the beaver.
"I've been away from London for three days now and 'e's the first person I've met who makes any sense," she shrugged.
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