Right so it's been a full 3 months and I figured I should take time out of my life to give you all another chapter! Obviously there's no Peter-Felicity action in this chapter because she's just run away, but this the plot developing and shizzle...I like to think that I have successfully come up with possibly my best story line ever...however I have just had a quick scan of my first few chapters and I apologise for how bad it is! But here's the next chapter (I like to think my writing skills have developed...) as always please review because other people see the number of reviews I have and the more there are, the more likely people are going to read my story! Oh and check out my other Narnia fanfiction "I Couldn't Leave Her" (that is if you haven't already...) Thanks everyone!

Exactly two months later Felicity was in the far west. Having lain in the clearing for a day she had finally been found by a friendly bear named Caramel who had taken her in and forced her to eat soup and honey on toast. Once she'd coaxed Felicity's story out of her, Caramel had kindly given her some money she'd found whilst hunting in the forest one day as she herself had no need for it. Since then Felicity had walked every day in the hope of putting as much distance between herself and Peter, stopping only to eat and sleep in cheap taverns. She had avoided Calormen completely, adding an extra week to her travelling as she skirted the edge of it before finally reaching Gardania. The land was small in comparison to such places as Archenland, but its society functioned in much the same way as the human population of Narnia had and Felicity quickly brought herself a new dress and found accommodation for the night.

"Excuse me." She said politely to the taverns owner as he brought her a bowl of soup that night. "I'm new in town and have very little money, do you know of somewhere I could get a job and somewhere to live?" She looked at him hopefully, glad that his face was relatively kind, if not a little shrewd.

"Nice lookin' girl like you," he said gruffly, "jus' happens to be a job up at the palace."

"Doing what exactly?" She asked, smiling at him as she realised how ungrateful she sounded.

"I dunno, I jus' get told when there's a vacancy. It's a live-in job."

"Thank you for your help." She said, pressing a bronze piece into his hand as thanks.

He grunted in reply, "keep goin' left out of here and you'll get to the palace."

She thanked him again and ordered another bowl of soup as one definitely wasn't going to be enough. Noticing a beefy man across the bar staring at her, and the one beside him, and the thin man beyond them, she started to eat quickly, unwilling to attract further male attention.

The next morning Felicity stood outside the palace gates, freshly clean from the bath house. Was she supposed to just walk in and ask the first person she met to point her in the right direction? Deciding that this was the only option if she wanted to progress, she walked up to one of the guards and asked where she should go for the job application. He looked her up and down slowly and leered at her before pointing her in the direction of a large wooden door to the right of the main entrance.

She knocked loudly on the door and walked boldly in, remembering all of the talks she'd had in England about how appearing to have confidence can get you far in life. Just inside the door stood a young man speaking to a beautiful young woman; both turned to look at Felicity at the same moment and paused in their conversation. The closeness of the pair made Felicity realise what had been bothering her about the people of Gardania. They were all blonde. They all had blonde hair, pale skin, grey eyes and many of them looked weak and insipid. It seemed to be hereditary in this country and she realised exactly how much she must stick out.

"I'm here for the job application." Felicity announced to them, swishing her own dark hair over her shoulder. They both stared at her in surprise for another minute before the man's face broke into a cheshire cat smile. Turning to the blonde girl he spoke in a clipped and professional tone.

"You're services will no longer be needed. The position has been filled."

Her mouth opened in amazement and annoyance as he turned away from her and beckoned Felicity forward, "You're absolutely perfect for the job, come this way please."

Felicity followed him quickly, avoiding the eyes of the now glaring other girl.

"So what actually is this job?" She asked as she trotted after the man, trying to keep up.

He remained silent and moments later, they stopped at two large, grand doors with two guards standing to attention outside. One of the guards knocked and then pulled open one of the doors, ushering them both inside. Felicity kept her head down as she entered, aware of the guard's stares.

The room was large and lavishly furnished. At a desk sat a young man in his late twenties, and – like every other Gardanian – he had blonde hair and grey eyes. He jumped up in joy as he saw Felicity, causing her to take a step back involuntarily as he bounded towards them. "Splendid Jonathan!" He cried. "By Jove, she's perfect! And so exotic-looking! They'll be so happy someone like this is speaking to them they won't even realise what she's asking them!" He gave a guffaw of laughter, oblivious to Felicity cringing away from him slightly as at this point she was seriously regretting her decision to apply for this job. So far, she didn't even know what the job included and this man's exuberance was starting to scare her.

"Do please turn around." He said to her. She stared at him blankly. Was he speaking to her? Did he think she was some kind of clothing model that would just spin on command?

"She does not yet know what the job is your majesty." Jonathan suddenly said solemnly.

Ah, so this was the King of Gardania.

"Really?" He asked, looking at Felicity with a new kind of disbelief.

"I thought that you would be better at putting it delicately your majesty." Jonathan said, pausing before saying "delicately".

"Oh, but of course!" The King turned and sat back down at his desk, gesturing for Jonathan to fetch another chair from a different corner of the room. Jonathan brought over the plush chair and put it on the other side of the desk, pulling it out slightly for Felicity to sit in.

"Now my dear, what is your name?"

Felicity instinctively knew not to say her real name. "Lolita." She said after a slight pause. She had read the book by Vladimir Nabokov back in England as background reading as it had been suggested by her psychology teacher as insight into the mind of what society considered a criminal.

"Absolutely beautiful! You see my dear Lolita, Gardania is only small, so evidently we have to be very careful of attack from others. This of course means that we have to constantly monitor the size and effectiveness of other countries, and so we invite small parties of the royals and aristocrats down from each country at different times of the year. We don't want to start a war unnecessarily because of a lack of tact, so we generally have an attractive young woman like yourself to ask questions as we have found that the visiting men from these countries tend to be more open with attractive females..." Throughout this explanation the Kings voice had become lower and quieter, finally trailing off suggestively.

Felicity took a moment to absorb this information, "and what exactly would I have to do to extract this information?" she asked, looking into the kings expectant eyes.

He suddenly became jolly, surprising Felicity enough to make her jump back in her seat. "Oh, only smile a little more generously than usual, perhaps lean a little towards the gentleman you are speaking to and invite him to a little after-dinner drink with you upstairs in your private rooms..."

"You mean prostitute myself?" She asked, springing up in shock and indignation. The chair clanged loudly against the stone floor as it tipped backwards.

"No, no my dear. It never comes to that..." Jonathan righted the chair for her. "You are not prostituting yourself, you are merely using your beautiful looks to obtain information. If you wish it, there need be no physical contact..."

She sat back down slowly, mulling it over in her head. "What would be my pay?" She finally asked.

"You would live here in the castle with a large bedroom, and a dressing room and you would be treated as a member of the royal family with all servants at your beck and call. You will be supplied with a horse of your choice, a maid and a guard. We will pay you £1000 gold coins a month and this is too buy yourself dresses for all occasions and any other accessories you deem necessary to make yourself as attractive as possible. Any money left over is yours to keep."

Felicity tried to think how much £1000 gold actually was...one simple dress only cost 1 gold piece, whereas an elaborate dress cost 5...after a moment she realised exactly how much money she would have left over at the end of the month.

"I would be happy to start as soon as you need me." She smiled.

The King clapped his hands happily and smiled at her. "You start straight away! Jonathan, show Lolita to her new home!" Jonathan pulled out Felicity's chair for her as she stood and opened the door for her. "One more thing though," the King said, his mood again shifting so suddenly Felicity was sure she'd develop whiplash if he continued, "you can at no point during this job fall in love. We have previously found that this...complicates things..."

Felicity smiled again. "That's not a problem for me."