Lucy was quiet that day after her outburst, and Susan could tell she was still angry. They both were. Lucy took over Susan's to-do list for the morning, leaving Susan to sit in her room and go over the piles of records, painstakingly checking the accounts as her own anger grew.
She pushed them aside at noon to visit Peter. Lucy was with him. He was sitting up in bed, and paused to give her a smile before resuming his enthusiastic assault on the bowl of soup before him.
When she inquired how he was feeling, he said, "I feel better than I have in months. Better than I've felt since before . . . " He trailed off, and the easy joy in the room of recovering health seemed suddenly to have a bleak tinge. He reached up to give her a one-armed hug when she dropped a kiss on his finally-cool forehead, saying that as he was in such good care, she would get back to work.
"I'll be in court this afternoon," she said to Lucy.
Peter's forehead creased. "Where's Gil? He hasn't come yet today. Did he get called away to settle something?"
Lucy spoke up before Susan could say anything. "Susan and Gilfrey have been awfully busy the last weeks, with me away and you sick. Nearly done with your soup?"
He smiled again and handed the bowl over. "You're almost as fine a nurse as Su is, Lucy."
Susan smoothed his tangled hair back from his no-longer-sweaty forehead. "Try to get some more sleep, Peter."
Court that afternoon was long, but at last every aggrieved party was placated, and every squabble resolved, at least for the moment-even the one between the Brown Bears, the Eagles, and the Naiads over who had the right to fish the salmon of the Rocky River. Then Susan announced that the High King was in full recovery, and the cheers rose around her. She smiled tightly, then raised a hand for silence. "We thank Aslan for his grace, and beseech you pray him aid us as we seek justice for the one who betrayed our country and our family in poisoning his King."
There was a murmur of growls and hisses, and a screech from the Eagle, but she continued. "The usual daily hearing of grievances shall be suspended this sennight as we undertake this search. Anyone who wishes to confess will be received privately tomorrow afternoon in the west solar. Court is adjourned."
Susan went to her room, sat down at her desk and stared at the damning words written very blackly across the countless sheets of parchment, but could not bring herself to read them over any longer. Her eyes ached with held-back tears, and suddenly she grabbed a pile and walked purposefully to Peter's rooms.
He was sitting in an arm-chair when she came in, his hair hanging limply and his face still pale. He looked surprised to see her.
"Susan? Is something wrong?"
Slowly, as calmly as she was able, she tried to explain, but she had no more than begun on the havoc the Lord High Counsellor had wreaked in the treasury before the shaking in her stomach overwhelmed her and a tear slipped out. She buried her face in her hands and tried to choke back the sobs, but then Peter's arms were around her and he was stroking her hair and making the sort of soothing sounds he used to make for Lucy.
"I'm-I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I w-wanted so to-to be strong for you. Yo-you've been so s-sick and I kn-know you and h-he were g-good friends."
"Shh. Shhh. It sounds as though you've been running everything around here."
She pulled away. "But I haven't!" She stabbed angrily at the papers with a finger. "If I'd been doing my job, that-that human would not have been able to commit this-outrage!" And just as suddenly, her anger slid away and she crumpled again. "You left Narnia in my hands and I've made a horrible mess of it."
Still he was nothing but comfort and solid elder-brotherly support, and she clung to him as he said, "No, it was I who trusted my seal to him, and a mighty poor choice it was. What else did he do?"
So they passed from shock to anger to sorrow to weariness, and soon Lucy arrived, curls escaping every-which-way from her braid and mouth buttoned rather more tightly than normal. She filled in bitsSusan didn't know, Peter asked questions like "Have the man's chambers yet been searched?", and all were together angry with the man who had nearly made himself King.
They ate a silent meal of soup that night, and then retired to bed, and Susan burrowed into her pillows until the whirl in her mind slowed enough for sleep to overtake her.
