A/N: Thanks to everyone that reviewed last chapter! I was happy to see that you are enjoying the story and liking Isabel´s character. I´m sorry that my updates are so spaced out, but I have school and my schedule this trimester is quite crazy. I know many of you are wondering why Isabel was brought to Narnia as you have expressed in your reviews, please be patient I will eventually will get into that :)

I hope you like this chapter, please give me your feedback and thoughts about this chapter.

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Chapter 7: A slip of Tongue

They had arrived finally to the Great River that went around across most of the Narnian territory , it was born from one of the river branches that went through the beaver´s dam and ended its journey at the banks of Cair Paravel.

They were letting the horses get a drink as the weather had become rather arid as they exited the Dancing Lawn, surely that what was causing the draught at the villages.

Edmund was dismounting from Philipp as his squire came near to him. "This has just arrived your Majesty," the boy informed him handing him a parchment with Peter´s seal. Edmund thanked the boy and opened the letter, and couldn´t help but frown upon it´s content, yet he couldn´t be that surprised that his older siblings wished for him and Isabel to get rid of the wolfdogs.

He sighted and placed the letter in his pocket he would dispose of it in one of the camp fires, he didn´t wanted Isabel to know, he was sure that she would do something...drastic about the issue.

"Adhara!" he said a bit surprised, for he could never hear her coming up to him as she was silent as a ghost.

"I brought something for breakfast, thought we could share," she said placing her kill at his feet and ushering it with her snout in his direction, it was a small rabbit, one of her first kills and she was wagging her tail quite pleased with herself.

´...We fear their presence might place yours and Isabel´s reputation in a doubtful position, the land is at peace at last, it is our duty to preserve it and we must prevent anything that might cause anxiousness between our people. I trust, dear brother, that you will see the truth in my words and do what your High King and Kingdom waits of you..."

"Don´t you like it?" Adhara said her tail stopping her happy swing as her voice become almost a whisper as her boy had grown silent looking at her "I know it´s small but...I was thinking you could put it in that metal thing you put over the fire where the food becomes warm..."

Edmund was brought out of his reverie of Peter´s words in that letter by her voice "Sorry, I was thinking, and of course I like it," he said taking the rabbit by it´s ears, and he chuckled "you mean a pot, Adhara?"

"Pot," the little wolfdog said trying the new word "pot," she said again liking how it sounded, "yes I meant that Ed," she said her tail begging to swing again happily.

He smiled with affection and patted her head as he walked along the riverbed, his wolf just at his side as he tried to find a good place to roast the rabbit, Adhara was fond of eating her food cooked though she liked it just as much when she ate it raw.

"YOU LITTLE SCOUNDREL!" Edmund heard a girl shouting in the distance as the sound of splashing water accompanied it, it was Isabel, who else? there was no other woman or girl in the camp apart from her. "I SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU TO ROT IN THOSE WOODS" she was saying and soon it was not her who appeared in his line of vision but Mirzam, who was running with a brown leather boot between his teeth, his golden eyes ablaze with mischief and seemed to take pleasure of his girl´s yells.

" ...Keep Isabel in line, she is a monarch, you must not let her do as she pleases and act as a wild child..."

Well wild child was certainly a good word to describe Isabel at this moment as she now passed running in front of him without giving a second glance to him, trying to catch on her wolf and more importantly her missing boot. She had the other boot clasped in her hand, her hair that had been in a simple but neat braid was now messy with serval strands of her hair free, her dress was wrinkled and covered in a layer of dust after a long day riding a horse, the hem of her dress and specially her bare feet were muddy.

"...don´t let her bring shame to the Cair and our Country..."

Surely running in that fashion must be considered shameful, it was completely unlady-like, yet she seemed utterly alive...free... and that stirred something inside of him though he wasn´t sure of what it was or what it meant.

Edmund was already finishing his meal with Adhara by the time Isabel returned now with two boots in hand, a wolf with it´s tongue out and just as muddy as his Queen.

"I feel like the monster of the river," she said out of breath as she came to sit at his side.

"well you certainly play the part my Queen," Edmund said with a grin, earning one of her infamous death glares.

"Aren´t you supposed to be a gallant gentleman that compliments and reassures a lady? even when the lady is not at her best?" she said getting closer with intentions to get him as muddy as her, making him back away a few paces.

" Isabel, please...you are no Lady, " he said with a chuckle while Adhara just watched between the two and Mirzam seemed to be not that interested in their talk as he licked his paws.

"Excuse me?" Isabel inquired her tone rising in the last letters as she arched her eyebrows.

Edmund felt silent not knowing how to proceed a bit lost as if she was just joking or if she was utterly offended by his words. She was just staring at him waiting for him to either apologize or reaffirm his statement.

"Well, look at you," he said deciding that she was joking " muddy, messy, sweaty...I´ve never seen a proper lady look like this," he said making her smile, as she managed to get some mud into his cheek, telling him he was on the right direction so he went on " I mean...running on your own at night, adopting wolfdogs, asking me to show you how to use a sowrd..." her smiled broaden "even Peter has to send letters warning me to keep you under control so you won't shame us !" he said quickly between laughs not really processing what he last said, forgetting he meant to keep the contents of Peter´s letter a secret.

He stopped laughing as soon as he realized he was the only one in such state of mirth, the silence coming from Isabel was hard as steel, Adhara´s golden eyes were on him and even Mirzam had stopped licking himself and his ears where now perked up as he was listening closely.

The Queen stood up and her wolfdog was at her side like a shadow. "So I shame you?" she said, her tone soft, so unlike her, her face had lost all the gaiety of before and Edmund realized he would rather have her shouting at him than this eerie pleasantness she was showing him ...

"Isabel..." he said quickly realizing he had said to much this time, rising as well as he tried to think how to remedy his slip of tongue.

"answer me Edmund, do I shame you?" again her tone was soft, her eyes meeting his making his tongue tied, she waited a good three minutes, looking at him for an answer, her eyes telling him just to deny his words, perhaps even to brush them out with another joke, but Edmund´s mind was in blank, he could only stare at her eyes trying to form the words that he wished to say, that she didn´t shame him at all... yet his mind replayed all of the times she had indeed done that very same thing, leaving him to clear up her mess murmuring waves of apologies in her behalf or using pompous words to appease whomever she had insulted by her actions.

"you don't shame me, you amuse me," Edmund blurred out trying to explain himself as she was making motions of leaving.

"I see..." she said picking up her dirty boots that she had tossed to a side.

"I mean, it´s not that you divert me...no, I mean, yeas you do," he said thinking of the good times and laughs he shared with her, though everything he seemed to try to say came out twisted and prone to be misunderstood. "what I mean is that you are shameful and sometimes I feel that way when I have to deal with your mess but I find you amusing and it's not that-" she took her by the hand as she had started to walk away, forcing her to turn around and face him " just please listen... let me-"

Isabel quickly took her hand back, her eyes void of emotion " I won't make you suffer the terrible embarrassment that is to have my company, I won´t disturb you again,

"Isabel," he said as she stormed away of his fire. "Don´t be like this, you surely have to know that the way you act is isn´t exactly proper!" she ignored him and continued to walk away.

"Is-...Isabel!" he called running after her not paying attention at how Mirzam was blaring his teeth at him but stopped his chase as Adhara ran and stopped him pulling feebly at his trousers to stop him.

Edmund looked down to his wolf as he still trying to process what happened, Lucy and Susan were right, he was slow in the aspects were women were involved, never before a girl had ran off him the way she just did, or perhaps it was the first time he actually cared that a girl had walked off from him in that manner...

" That was poorly handled, right?" Edmund asked silently to Adhara. The pup just looked at him with her golden eyes meeting his own brown ones, telling him all he needed to know, he hadn´t just made a poor choice on his course of action, he had hurt her feelings and as that realization dawn on him, for some strange reason, his heart was aching too.

-000-

Mirzam followed his girl silently, as she mumbled curses and insults, her bare feet made their way through the grass, and even if the mud covered her feet completely he could tell there were hurt by the rocks they found in their path as the skin there lacked the callousness it needed to avoid such a trip unharmed, yet she seemed not to notice or perhaps she didn´t care. She lead him farther and farther away of the camp till the last fire was completely out of sight and the sun in the sky was blazing high in the sky marking it was already midday.

Isabel finally stopped leaving her boots at the base of a tree as she made her way to the river, crouching over it to see herself reflected on the river´s surface, there was nothing new in her reflection, she was no stranger to messy hair or messy clothes or a bit of stains in her dress...yet it was the first time that she felt like cringing at her own reflection when before she had taken pride of it.

What did she cared if girls at court talked behind her back? what did she cared if Susan hated her? or that the elders and rest of the country wanted nothing of her but disappear? as she looked at her reflection: muddy, dusty and disheveled, she realized she still didn´t mind, words were words and people had gossiped about her even before she was born, then, it made no sense for Edmund´s words to leave such a sting in her heart where there should be nothing but indifference.

She had let her guard down around the Just King and had made just a fool of herself, believing he was her friend when surely he was just another whisperer that laughed at her expense when she wasn´t around. She imagined the Pevensies in their tea room at the Cair, laughing over scones and steaming tea cups as Edmund narrated his last story of her. Her eyes became clouded with unshed tears as anger surged within her making her throw a rock at the river with all the force she could muster , imagining it were their fancy china she was smashing to tiny pieces.

"Make sure no one comes around Mirzam," she said looking back at her wolf as she began to unclothe herself to submerge into the cold water to take a much needed bath. ´It´s not because of Edmund´s words´ she told herself as she got into the water with her dirty dress in one hand to scrub the mud out of it ´ I was intending on taking a bath either way´ she said over and over herself as she scrubbed her dress over a rock, perhaps with greater force than she intend to, and soon enough it wasn´t only the clear water of the river that was cleaning her dress, but her salty tears as well.

-000-

Edmund was riding Philip, as he and the rest of the party finally arrived to the villages, the farmers, peasants and their wives came out of their small wood houses to greet them.

The place looked arid, the ground below Philip´s casks was beginning to crack and a lot of dust raised into the air as the carts and horses made their way.

Isabel was riding behind him and he would often found himself looking behind him to steal a look at her, she didn´t seem to notice him looking her way, they hadn't talked since the misunderstanding at the Great River, she didn´t exactly avoided him, but rather seemed to search for the company of others when before it was mostly only his company that she sought. She would talk to him when he came over to her and inquired about something but it was not the same, whenever he talked to her it was like clashing with a wall, a wall that just a few days ago he had the key to went through and now the lock had been changed and his key had become useless.

He even was now becoming a victim of her mischief, at the moment he was wearing leather gloves even if the sun was blazing hot over them making his hands sweat profusely as last night she had somehow managed to slid into his tent and use some sort of paint to smear his hands in a sick-like green colour that wouldn´t wash away no matter the amount of water or soap he would use. He had become used to be on the other side of her tomfoolery...it should be the captain wearing the gloves to hide his green hands as he and Isabel shared a knowing look between them...

He knew he should apologize, talk to her so that he could explain himself but he never managed to be alone with her to do so, and every time he tried his brain got in the same state of confusion as in the river, his tongue got tied not letting the words get out of his mouth, he didn´t knew what had gotten into him for he used to pride himself to have become quite good at forming a proper argument to explain himself and prove out his point of view after all the years he had been King.

He looked back once again, she seemed to be paying attention to the captain as he talked to her, but Edmund knew she was just pretending to hear, Isabel caught him this time looking which made him quickly move his vision to the road before him.

Philip snorted as he laughed silently.

"Don´t laugh," Edmund said to his horse trying to hide the embarrassment from his tone of voice.

"I´m sorry sir," Philip said but there was still laughter in his voice " his majesty has been brooding since we crossed the river," Philip said just loud enough for the King to hear.

"what do you mean?" Edmund asked defensively, he was sure he was acting normally as always.

"well you´ve been in a fowler mood, quite silent..." offered Philip.

"You have been staying up longer at night," Adhara offered joining the conversation as she was walking just next to them silently hearing them talk.

Edmund grew silent as he thought the matter over.

"See there you go again!" Philip said " you are over thinking this sir."

"Just talk to her," Adhara said with a kind smile.

Edmund dared to look back at her once again small children were giggling and saluting as they went by he smiled to the children as they called for him. Isabel looked uncomfortable, he knew she didn´t knew how to treat with children and he found himself distracting the children from her so they would leave her alone.

He stopped to allow a little boy no older than five to mount with him, the smile the little boy gave him made him smile as well he learned his name was Colin, and that he had two older sisters who he saluted as they went pass their little home. The oldest of the girls seemed to be quite alarmed to see her younger brother riding with the King and ran to apologize for his brother.

Edmund found himself smiling and laughing and assuring the poor girl it was alright.

Isabel past him in her mare at that moment, she gave him a silent thanks for keeping the kids away from her and looked with incredulousness at the child in front of him before moving forwards in their party leaving him a few paces behind.

They soon were at the town house. Edmund helped Colin down and moved to go to help Isabel, but she refused his hand and dismounted on her own, having to hop down as she was too short to dismount properly on her own, she tripped doing so earning the giggles of the children, who grew silent as Mirzam blared his teeth in their direction.

"I don´t need your help, I quite able to get back on my feet, thank you," Isabel said refusing his hand for a second time making his stomach uneasy. Philip and Adhara were right, he needed to talk to her and soon.

When Isabel had first arrived to the Cair, he had tried to befriend her as his siblings seemed to be quite put out about her and he felt guilty and well a bit sorry of her having to stay always on her own even if she didn´t seemed to mind. Then as he got to know her better he became quite intrigued with her and still felt he was doing her a sort of favor to do her company and give her some social interaction, but now that they had spent these days apart he was starting to get confused on who had been doing a favor to whom.

The town leader came out to greet them, he was a small plump man in his fifties, his brown hair was starting to grey at it´s base and his neck was lost behind his two chins. His skin lacked the coloration and damage of working hard below the sun, his hands were not callused so Edmund guessed the man was some sort of scholar.

"By Aslan!" the man was saying his little onix eyes exited as those of the little children when they had spotted the royal party " we are so honored to have you here your majesties!" he was saying as he tried to bow to them and shake their hands all at the same time. "My name is Harren, son of Gawin, I have some royal blood in me too you know? my father used to say we descend from an Archen prince that had a little affair with my great great grandmother who was one of the serving cooks at the palace at that time..."

Isabel managed to rise her eyebrows at the ridicule story, her mouth was set in a scowl, for the man smelled as he had bathe in a privy, yet neither Edmund nor anyone else seemed to notice, the smell was making her start to go dizzy, her lunch threatening to make a sudden and unwanted appearance.

"...so you see, I´m quite like you your majesties, we are all with some royal blood here and I´m sure that you will enjoy your stay here at Shadestone," Harren said quite pleased.

" Please , just make someone take us to see the crops," Isabel said with some sense of urgency

"I...sure your Majesty, I can take you there myself if you want is just..."

"No, I insist someone else to take us," she said as she took one of her hands over her mouth as dissimulating as she could to stop herself from retching.

"Very well, I guess it would be better for me to stay, I will assign someone of my trust to go with you instead," he said quietly.

Isabel nodded and walked away.

"Why didn´t you want him to take us to see the harvest? he was a bit off with that story, I give you that, but he seemed a fine man to me," Edmund said once he joined Isabel again.

"He reeked like if he had lived in a privy for all his life, I don´t know how you could be so calm around him, I really don´t know how I managed not to vomit just right there," she said making Edmund frown.

"You mean Harren?" he asked making sure they were speaking of the same person.

"Yes the fat old man, couldn´t you smell him?"

"No, he was a bit sweaty but nothing too bad, he smelled quite normal to me."

"hmmm, maybe I´m just tired then," she said, but Edmund knew she was keeping something to herself leaving him in the dark of the matter.