The next morning when Susan woke up, just like the day before, Peter was gone. They only difference was that the white night-shirt she'd made was folded up neatly on top of the pillow he had used.

"I suppose that means he plans on coming back tonight," Susan sulked to herself. She wished he'd stay in his own chamber. It was probably nicer than this one anyway.

With a heavy sigh, Susan stumbled out of bed and walked over to the washbasin propped up in the corner of room to the right of the full-length mirror. She splashed some cold water on her face and then dried it with a fluffy cotton towel. The water smelled like the silver apples, she realized. She couldn't help but wonder what was with this high king and shiny gray fruit.

She still very much wanted to go back to the professor's house even if it meant getting falsely accused of breaking the window. The thought of being scared of The Macready was laughable now. But she didn't dare take off on her own again, not after the sad look she had seen in the white bear's eyes when he'd saved her from the wolves. He'd looked at her as though she had betrayed him. Perhaps when everyone had fully recovered from yesterday, she could muster up the courage to ask them to take her back. Until then, she decided she simply must play along and keep them well-humored.

The chamber doors swung open and the dryad stood there with a golden tray in her hands. She brought it over to Susan and placed it on the bed beside her. She turned to leave, but Susan called out, "Wait."

The dryad stopped and turned back around mid-step. "Anything you need, Milady?"

"Well, I realized I don't know your name." Susan smiled at her.

The dryad smiled back. "I'm called Maplebella."

"I'm Susan."

"I know," Maplebella said. "They talk about you a lot downstairs."

"Who talks about me?" Susan was taken aback. Maybe she could finally figure out what was going on.

"Oh, everyone!" Maplebella exclaimed. "Who doesn't? The servants, the king, the queen, the high king..."

"The high king talks about me?" Susan raised an eyebrow in surprise. "What does he say?"

Maplebella looked like she was suppressing a laugh. "He says you snore very loudly, Milady."

Susan did not look pleased. "Oh yeah? Well he kicks like a mule," she retorted childishly.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Maplebella said cheerfully. "I don't think he minds as much as he pretends to. He's quite fond of you."

"You're kidding," Susan said with her mouth full of toast forgetting to swallow before she spoke.

"He likes you," Maplebella added.

Susan rolled her eyes indifferently. "I really couldn't care less whom he likes."

"You don't care for him at all?" Maplebella's face fell, making her look a little disappointed.

"What do you mean, 'care for him'?" Susan didn't understand what she could possibly be getting at. "I barely know the man. I've never even seen his face."

"Well that's good," Maplebella said randomly.

"Huh?" Susan knew she sounded sort of stupid and hated herself for it, but really what else could she have said to that? What kind of lame responce was 'well that's good'?

Maplebella turned a little red in the face. "I simply mean, it's something to look forward to," she stammered, desperately trying to think of a good subject changer. "Say, did you know he turned fifteen this year?"

"Who?" Susan frowned her brow at her in confusion.

"The high king."

"Oh, him again?" Susan was starting to get fed up with talking about Peter. Wasn't there something -anything- else the servants would talk to her about? "No, didn't know that."

"Poor boy," Maplebella said, gathering up the tray now that Susan was finished eating. "He's had a hard life. Being a bear half the time, raising his siblings, the poor thing." She paused for a moment as if letting those words sink in. "You know, he smiled for the first time in years the other day."

"What about?" Even though she pretended not to care, she was actually curious.

"You," Maplebella said, leaving before Susan could ask her what she meant by that.

After Maplebella left, Susan decided she would use Lucy's scissors (they were still in the room) to make some new clothes for herself. Nothing fancy, just maybe something comfortable to wear around the castle until they let her leave. She liked the dress Lucy had made just fine but wanted something she could wash herself when it got dirty. In a strange way she sort of missed doing chores. They were part of life's soothing routine and, without them, she felt lost.

Snip-snap Susan opened and closed the scissors. A beautiful scrap of blue-velvet appeared between the blades.

Bother! thought Susan, I wish there was some way of controlling what kind of fabric came out of this thing.

She opened and closed them again. The scrap grew even more delicate and fine. After a few moments of snip-snapping, she had what looked like the sleeve of an elegant ball gown. When she'd completely finished, there was the finest gown she could ever have imagined. Perfectly fit for queen.

"I'm not going to keep it," Susan said aloud to herself. "Of course I'm not. It's too fancy for a poor girl from Finchley to wear. But I should try it on all the same, just to see if it hangs right. Who's to say those scissors always get measurements correct? Even magical objects can't get things right all the time."

Finally having talked herself into it, she changed into the blue velvet gown. It fit perfectly as if tailored to her exact size. The gossamer sleeve's ends gently ticked her fingers.

Feeling a little bit like a small girl playing dress up, Susan was prepared to take it off and change into Lucy's green gown. It wasn't quite as fancy as this floor-length work of art was. But before she did so, she thought she'd like to see how it looked with the golden wreath-crown. She picked it up off the chair she'd left it on the night before and placed it on her head. Standing back to examine the effect in the mirror, she heard a deep rumbling sigh.

She quickly spun around and saw that Maplebella hadn't remembered to close the door behind her when she'd left the room. And standing in the open door way was the white bear high king.

"You scared me!" Susan exclaimed, putting her hand to her heart.

"Sorry," the white bear apologized almost meekly. "The door was already open..."

Susan hoped he hadn't seen her naked when she'd changed her clothes. "How long have you been there?"

"Not long," the white bear assured her. "I was just passing by."

"You didn't see...?" Susan needed to be sure.

The white bear understood. "No."

"Good." She breathed a sigh of relief.

"You look nice," he told her.

"Thanks," Susan said weakly, taking the crown off her head and placing it on the bed behind her.

"Sorry I kicked you last night, I get grumpy when I'm tired," the white bear laughed.

Susan felt a little more at ease and smiled at him. "Do I really snore?"

The white bear nodded. "Yes, yes you do."

Susan walked over to his pillow and picked up the white night shirt. "Here." She held it out for him.

The white bear sniffed it. "What, do I have B.O. or something?"

"Ew, no," Susan said. "I just thought you would want it back for when you go sleep in your own chamber tonight."

"What makes you think I'm sleeping in there?" The white bear raised a silvery-white eyebrow at her.

"Because..." Susan sighed and gave in. "You are planning on sleeping in here again tonight, aren't you?"

He nodded. "Pretty much."

"Why?" Susan asked. "Why do you have to be in here?"

"I have my reasons," the white bear said rather mysteriously.

"I give up." Susan moaned and fell backwards onto the bed.

"Susan..." the white bear said softly. "You don't...I mean...you aren't...unhappy here?"

"I want to go back," Susan told him, unable to make her voice as firm as she would have liked to. He was looking at her in that sad, lost, broken way again.

"Is there anything we could do to make you happy here?" he asked. "Anything you need?"

"It's not a matter of being happy here," Susan told him. "It's a matter of not belonging here."

"Who says you don't belong here?" He looked a little worked up now. "I think you belong here."

"You do?" Susan asked, feeling very bewildered.

"Yes."

"But I don't."

"You could," he insisted.

"I couldn't." Susan wasn't willing to give in.

"Let's talk about something else then." Peter wasn't willing to just let her go back, and as she stubbornly refused to get used to life at Cair Paravel, he was at his wit's end. He kept telling himself that she had only been there for two nights and needed more time to adjust. But what if she never adjusted? What if she tried to run away again and for some reason he wasn't able to save her...? No, he wouldn't think about that. At least not now.

"You're fifteen?" Susan reassumed the dryad's theme.

"Yes, just this past October."

"My birthday is in October as well," Susan told him. "I just turned fourteen."

"What day?" He wanted to know.

"The third." Susan shrugged.

The white bear's mouth opened in surprise. "We were born on the same day one year apart, how about that?"

"Strange coincidence," Susan agreed.

"Of course I don't think it was exactly a year," he told her. "I've a sort of idea that time in your world is different than here in Narnia, but it's close enough." The white bear looked like he was thinking about something. "Susan, how about we take a walk tonight?"

"Why tonight?" Susan asked, feeling a little surprised.

"I'd rather walk with you as myself than as a bear," he explained.

Susan didn't feel as though she could say no. "Sure, I guess so... What time should I be ready?"

"Around ten," he told her.

"Fine, I'll be ready." Susan couldn't help but wonder what he had in mind, but there is something exciting about getting up in the middle of the night and going somewhere, not knowing exactly what is going to happen, even to a practical person like Susan, the notion had a certain unexplainable allure.

That night, Peter in his human form walked into the throne room where Edmund and Lucy were playing chess.

"Why are you all dressed up?" Edmund asked, eyeing his fancy tunic and noticing he was wearing his good boots.

"I'm going for a walk," Peter explained.

"What about Susan?" Lucy asked.

"She's coming with me," Peter told her.

Edmund dropped his pawn on the floor and was too shocked to bother to pick it up. "Are you sure that's such a good idea?"

"It's an eclipsed moon tonight, Ed," Peter said, picking up the pawn and handing it to Lucy who placed it back on the board.

"Which makes this okay, how?" Edmund demanded.

"No moonlight, you and Lucy will put out all the lamps and fires, she wont see my face any more than she would in the bed chamber," Peter explained this calmly and slowly knowing they were concerned.

"I think it's risky," Edmund said, glaring at Lucy because he thought she'd cheated by putting his pawn back on the board in the wrong place.

"I think it's romantic," Lucy said, capturing Edmund's rook.

"There's nothing romantic about it," Edmund insisted, moving his knight to protect his king from Lucy's rook. "If she sees you..."

"She wont," Peter assured him. "And besides, maybe she feels a little strange sleeping in the same bed with someone she knows nothing about. I thought a nice walk and conversation would make her feel more at ease."

"Nothing in the world is going to make that girl feel at ease." Edmund rolled his eyes as Lucy's pawn captured his bishop.

"If she marries you, does that make her high queen, or is she just a regular queen?" Lucy wondered aloud, as she moved her knight dangerously close to Edmund's queen.

"Lucy, don't get your hopes up," Peter said calmly. "This isn't about marriage. This is about her breaking the spell and saving Narnia. After that, she might just go back where she came from. Remember what I told you about mother's stories of children from that other world? Polly and Digory went back."

"Well, from what Aslan told me last time we met," Lucy said, letting Peter's words sink in but not really agreeing with them. "The girl that breaks the spell will be more than worthy to marry you."

"That doesn't mean she will," Peter reminded her.

Lucy shrugged, capturing Edmund's queen with her bishop. "I hope you do marry her through, I think I'd like her for a sister. She's nice."

"Ed," Peter leaned and whispered into his brother's ear, "you didn't tell anyone that I said I thought Susan was pretty did you?"

"Of course not," Edmund whispered back in a shocked voice. "It's in the vault."

Through the air vents, they could hear the servants going to bed downstairs.

"I think the high king really likes this girl, Edmund said Peter told him he thought she was divinely beautiful," one of the servant's voices traveled up the vent.

Peter raised an eyebrow at his brother.

"Alright, so I exaggerated a bit." Edmund turned red in the face and cringed.

"Check mate!" Lucy cried out, putting his king in permanent check.

"You know, you are really lucky, I need your help tonight and can't kill you," Peter growled at him.

"Lucky me." Edmund sighed looking down at the lost game of chess in front of him.

AN: Please review!