Chapter 10
The Meeting at the Station
Several years passed since the summer in the country and Peter and Judith remained close friends as they grew into young adults. Peter became a man of confidence and integrity, and he had a knack for finding adventure, even in the most mundane of tasks. Once he had finished schooling, he took employment at a publishing house, and although he was intelligent enough to negotiate contracts, he found little pleasure in dealing with pretentious authors (most of which he thought their stories was hackneyed and boring). Instead, he preferred to work with the printers. There was excitement among the printing presses, and physical labor that he welcomed wholeheartedly (after all, he never just sat on his throne when he was High King and at present thought, "Well, I'm certainly not going to sit around now!") Even though his hands were usually stained with ink and his clothes carried the faint must of the warehouse, he still possessed an air of regality and no one thought any less of him.
His wages were minimal, but he never grew discouraged and picked up odd jobs to add to his income. His real dream was to be a writer himself, and to travel the world looking for the wonderment in life far away from England. But because he was the eldest, he felt an obligation to financially help his family and so whatever money was left over, he put into savings for his future life abroad.
Judith learned to adapt to life away from the woods, and with Peter's friendship, the rumors began to fade. She grew into her awkwardness and accepted that she was awful at making trite conversation about fashion or politics, but found that she could carry a discussion quite well if the topic pertained to science, art, or literature. Her father sent her off to the University of Cambridge for a "proper" education and she found a great passion for archeological studies. She hardly ever returned to Finchley (except for holidays and even those trips were short and scarce), but Peter would frequently stay with his Aunt and Uncle in Cambridge in order to make prolonged visits.
It was early in autumn when Peter and the rest of the Pevensie siblings agreed to pick up Judith at the train station. She was only coming home to ready her things and to say goodbye, for she was given an amazing opportunity and was going away for a year to study and excavate the ancient city of Pompeii. Everyone seemed terribly excited to see Judith before she left, except for Susan, who rolled her eyes at every mention of her name. Susan didn't see why they were all so fond of Judith, but Lucy liked how she made up her own languages, and Edmund found great interest in that she could fix almost anything with string. And since she was Peter's best friend, Susan was careful not to talk about how she thought Judith was "strange and unladylike" because she knew it would upset her brother. But what really struck her, was that their mother appeared incredibly eager to see Judith as well.
Susan reluctantly accompanied her siblings to the station (everyone insisted that she go) and she couldn't help but complain when the train pulled in late. Once Judith arrived, everyone was far too busy fussing over her to care about what Susan could have been doing had she not been forced to come. It had been a while since they had last seen Judith, and something about her seemed different. Perhaps it was only surprising to see her without her old boots and dressed as though she were of high society (she had learned to fake the part very well).
She greeted them all with clasp of the hands and a kiss on the cheek followed by a brief hug (even Susan), but as sophisticated as she had been, the façade crumbled upon her greeting with Peter. Susan, Edmund, and Lucy raised their eyebrows curiously as they watched how awkward the pair became in each others' presence and while attempting to kiss cheeks, the gesture went unsynchronized and they bumped noses instead. Laughing nervously at the blunder, they dropped all formality, and Peter embraced her in his arms, holding her tightly to his chest with a smile.
The boys collected her luggage and as they walked away to load the car, Edmund looked to his brother in confusion and inquisitively asked, "What was that all about, then?"
Peter kept his head held forward and through the teeth of a tightly forced smile he muttered for him to "Shut up." Edmund pursed his lips together as to hold back laughter, but then in a second thought, he froze mid-step and nearly tripped over himself. Edmund, being the most astute of them all, had suddenly figured out what was going on.