Chapter 34 -- The Lord and Lady of Beaversdam

"Don't worry about getting me some sleeping medicine, Lu. I'll be alright on my own."

Lucy knew better than to think that Peter was actually alright, but she also knew better than to push the matter. "Alright, then. Call if you need anything." At the very least, she was hoping that Peter would come to her later, looking for sleep. She wandered off into her own room and prepared a quick sleeping remedy before slipping into her own bed.

She woke several hours later with a parched throat. She realized with a frown that she'd used the remaining water in the jug in her room to make the sleeping remedy. Pulling on a robe, she shuffled down the hallway, yawning. When she reached Peter's room, she paused outside door before she decided to check in; she wanted to offer him her sleeping remedy one more time. It wouldn't do to have him go without sleep, and it would put her mind to rest if she found him already sleeping.

Yawning a second time, Lucy pushed the door open and froze in shock. A squeak and a sigh later, she was on the floor.

Lucy groaned as she opened her eyes. Everything around her was so blurry that all she could pick out were two blots of colour against the white ceiling. Since one was a blot of fiery red, she knew that one was Amelia. The other let out a loud sigh of relief and she realized that it was Peter.

"Oh. Good morning," Lucy murmured, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

Amelia let out a quite laugh and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Did you sleep well?"

Lucy took another look around the room, confusing sweeping across her face. "What am I doing in here?" she asked; this was not her room, it was Peter and Amelia's.

Amelia and Peter exchanged meaningful glances, both faces reddening noticeably.

"Well, um, you fainted," Amelia answered vaguely.

Peter snickered, earning a glare marred by a smile from Amelia.

Lucy sat up and rubbed her head. "I did? But, I remember going to bed last night."

"You did, but you woke up in middle middle of the night," Amelia explained. "And then... you, um, saw something... unpleasant, so you fainted."

Peter snorted. "Unpleasant isn't exactly the word I'd use for it." He grunted, grinning, as Amelia dug her elbow into his ribs; despite her apparent displeasure at his words, he could tell she was trying desperately to keep from laughing.

Lucy may be innocent, naive even, but she wasn't stupid. She watched the exchange suspiciously, trying to force her memories to give up something that would give her a clue as to what in the world they were talking about. When she couldn't do that, she turned to Peter. "Alright, I'd like an explanation please. Just what exactly were you up to?"

Peter raised an eyebrow. "Why would you think we were involved in it at all? We just found you afterwards."

Amelia winced and Lucy realized that her elder brother had just contradicted Amelia. "Oh, well then how do you know that it was something I saw that caused me to faint? Could it not have been caused by anything? In fact, how do you know that I even fainted? Maybe I've started sleep walking. Anyways, you just said that I fainted because I saw something unpleasant, and you wouldn't have known that if you weren't there to see it, too."

Peter stared blankly at his sister for a moment, trying to figure out just how to get out of the situation he'd just put himself in. He gave up on logic after a few moments and, pulling himself up to his full height and crossing his arms, he said, "It doesn't matter anyways, because I won't tell you what you saw."

Lucy scowled for a moment before she finally put it all together: it was the middle of the night, Amelia had returned from her disappearance and they'd obviously made up. If Lucy had woken up and come into Peter and Amelia's room, it was suddenly clear what she must have seen. Her eyes went round as saucers and she blushed heavily. "I'm terribly sorry for just barging into your room. I must have come in without knocking; you never would have let me in otherwise."

"Do you remember, then?" Amelia asking slowly, looking almost afraid of the answer.

"No, but I can certainly guess at what I saw. I don't particularly want to remember, thank you."

Peter rolled his eyes as the the judgement he perceived in her tone. "Some day you'll understand, Lu."

Lucy stuck her tongue out at him. "I understand perfectly well, and you two are welcome to do whatever you please. I just don't want to see it."

Peter laughed. "Then maybe you should knock first, next time."

"Oh believe me, I've learned my lesson very thoroughly."

Things began to return to normal, slowly but surely. The royals, who had stayed almost entirely locked in the private wing of the castle, began to re-emerge in the public eye as soon as Lucy's leg had finished healing enough that she could get up and down the winding staircases on her own. With the end of summer came another sighting of the White Stag, and several hunting excursions. As winter approached, the sightings began to move inland, towards Beaversdam, and shortly before Christmas, a invitation arrived at Cair Paravel for a winter ball, held by the Lord and Lady Beaversdam, to be followed the next day by a grand hunt for the Stag. It would be the last hunt before the snows arrived, after which tracking the Stag would be almost impossible. Nearly everyone who was anyone in Narnia would be there, and even some nobles from Archenland were coming. It wouldn't be the first gathering they had attended that year by any means, but it would certainly be the largest.

Amelia, riding ahead of the others on Farheart, lifted her face to the sky and grinned when a snowflake landed on her bottom lip. She licked it off and looked at Peter, who rode up beside her at that moment.

"Hopefully it won't gather on the ground, or the hunt may be very short lived," Peter noted.

Amelia shrugged and looked back up at the sky. After a moment of silence, she said, "I remember the first snow after you were crowned."

"The creatures flocked to Cair Paravel, afraid that the Witch had returned," Peter answered.

Amelia laughed quietly. "We kept a permanent patrol of the Witch's palace until spring. Deirdre was paranoid. The rest of us... well, our patrols quickly escalated into snowball wars, the likes of which Narnia has never seen, nor will probably ever see again."

Peter gaped at her. "You did this in the Witch's Palace?"

"Oh, those columns in the entry hall made for the best ambushes," Amelia replied impishly.

Peter shook his head in disbelief. "I think I'd still be a little afraid of the place, even today."

"I doubt it." When Peter raised an eyebrow at her, Amelia grinned at him. "Not with the gigantic snowman we made on her throne."

Peter burst out laughing at that, and Amelia, encouraged, continued, "He's got a blue scarf and a spruce-branch crown. And his eyes are made of buttons, but they are so badly mismatched that he always looks like he's winking! And fat red lips made of winterberries, and bright green chest hair made of pine-needles! That was Adrianna's idea."

Each item just made Peter laugh harder until he was doubled-over in his saddle, resting his forehead against Arian's mane. "I wish I could have seen that. I would ride out there just to see the snowman alone."

Amelia shrugged. "We could, I suppose. He's probably still there."

Peter stared incredulously at her. "He must have melted that next summer."

"No, the palace always stays cold, even in the summer. Most of the walls and things are made of ice; the whole thing would have collapsed during the Great Melt if she hadn't magicked it to stay cold somehow."

Peter's face became abruptly serious. "So, her magic lives even after her death."

Amelia's expression took on the same grimness as Peter's. "So it would seem. But, perhaps it is the magic of that place that made her the Snow Witch, rather than her own magic placing the palace under a permanent winter."

Peter stared off into the distance. "Maybe." It was clear from his tone that he didn't put much stock in the idea. He was startled back to the present by the feeling of Farheart's side against his leg and Amelia's hand slipping into his.

"You shouldn't worry about her. She's gone; you brought peace to Narnia. You deserve to be proud of your victory, instead of having to worry about some residual magic in her stronghold."

Shortly afterward, Susan and Edmund rode up, flanking Amelia and Peter, followed shortly by Lucy. At Peter's urging, Amelia related the story of the snowman to the others, which sent Lucy on a tangent about how snow-people are always men, and how she wanted to build a bunch of snow-women this winter with her sisters to make up for it. Susan and Amelia agreed whole-heartedly, causing Peter and Edmund to challenge them to a snowman-making contest, and it was decided that the team with the most snow-people in the courtyard of Cair Paravel by the end of the winter was the winner.

By the time the rules of their newly-created contest had been ironed out, they had reached the edge of Beaversdam. There, they met a page from the household of the Lord and Lady of Beaversdam, who led them back to the winter lodgings where the party would take place.

"Your Majesties! I'm so pleased you could come!" Lady Beaversdam greeted as she came out of the house to meet them. She was an elderly, regal woman with white hair who looked much younger than she truly was thanks to the air of energy constantly surrounding her.

"Thank you so much for the invitation! We were all so excited when we received it!" Susan exclaimed, dismounting and greeting the elder woman with a warm hug.

The light snow turned to heavy rain then, with almost no warning, so with a cry of surprise and dismay, Lady Beaversdam ushered them into the house.

Amelia bit her lip, trying to hold in her laughter, when she got a look at her companions in the front foyer of the manor. As regal and royal as they had looked on the ride over, it had only taken a few moments of the torrential downpour to turn them into drowned rats.

"Oh no!" Edmund moaned as he took one last glance back out the door before it was closed. "The rest of our clothes are still on the horses and are, undoubtedly, wetter now that we are," he informed the group, frowning at the look of growing displeasure of the faces of his sisters and brother.

Lady Beaversdam clicked her tongue. "Terrible timing! My ladies, come with me. I'm sure I can find you something dry to wear of my own. Or perhaps something belonging to one of the maids might fit you better, though I can't promise the kind of luxury you would be used to..." She paused at the bottom of the sweeping staircase and poked her head through the doorway at the foot of the stairs. "John! Love! Come here, please!"

In a moment, Lord Beaversdam came rushing into the foyer. "By the Lion! You must be freezing!" He rushed over to the drenched Pevensie family and took a quick look over Peter and Edmund. "I'm afraid nothing of mine would be big enough to fit either of you, but my nephew is here and I think you might fit into something of his. Come upstairs with me, and we'll get you something dry to wear."

Both Lady and Lord of the house led the way up the stairs and into the private wing of the manor. The Lady of Beaversdam led the girls down a short hall and into the private quarters she shared with her husband, while the Lord of the house led Peter and Edmund along a terrace to the guest room being used by his visiting nephew.

When Amelia, Susan and Lucy entered the sitting room that led the way into the rest of the private quarters, the maids waiting within took one look at them and flew into action; the girls were ushered behind screens, piled with towels and blankets, and told to remove their wet clothing as quickly as possible. "It won't do at all to have one of your Majesties catch cold!"

In only a few moments, all three ladies were wrapped snuggly in bathrobes and blankets and sitting before a fire while the maids went about finding some suitable clothes that would fit them.

Lady Beaversdam joined them only after sending one of the maid for tea and another to make sure the Kings had been similarly dried and warmed up. "Tea and relaxation are the best cures for a cold, and I intend to ensure that you get as much of both as you need, your Majesties."

"Thank you for your kindness, Lady Maria. You've done more for us in the ten minutes since we've arrived than we could ever have asked of you," Amelia said, smiling gratefully.

"You're most welcome, my Lady. I just wish we had something for you to wear. The girls are already working on drying the clothes that you brought with you downstairs, but until they are dry, I'm afraid we don't have much clothing that would be suitable for three Queens..."

"Truly, we are extremely grateful for what you have done for us already, and we're very thankful to both you and your maids for so freely lending us your own things while our clothes dry off," Lucy assured her.

"Whatever your maids can find will certainly be gratefully received, and I'm sure it will be perfectly suitable," Susan added.

Lady Beaversdam still seemed to be fretting over the quality of clothing that she had to offer the young Queens. "But I'm afraid it won't be the luxurious clothing that you're used to."

Amelia couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry yourself over it, Lady Maria. Given a choice, my sisters and I tend towards simpler, more comfortable clothing in private settings like this."

Lucy giggled. "Pretty clothes are lovely to look at, but they're rarely as comfortable as a fine cotton dress."

Susan was about to add her own opinion when, in turning her head, she realized that her wet hair was dripping on the carpet behind the chair. With a cry of surprise and a spout of polite apologies, she got to her feet and twisted her hair over her shoulder, trying to contain the dripping while in fact, she only succeeded in making it worse.

"Not to worry, your Majesty. The carpet will be fine, I'm sure. Perhaps we should put it up to keep it from getting your robes wet?" Lady Maria suggested.

Susan relaxed into her chair again, nodding. "That would be lovely."

Lady Maria soon discovered that all of her maids were already busy preparing other comforts for the visiting queens and so, taking a ribbon from her dresser, offered to braid Susan's hair herself.

Amelia soon discovered that her own hair was as sopping wet as Susan's and Lucy, whose hair was much finer, had hair that was nearly dry already, so she pulled one of her own ribbons out of her hair and offered to tie Amelia's up as well.

And so the women sat in front of the fire, Maria and Lucy sitting in chairs with Susan and Amelia sitting cross legged on the floor in front of them, talking quietly, laughing often. At some point during the conversation, they became less royal guests visiting their noble subjects and more like sisters visiting an Aunt.

For the hundredth time, Lady Beaversdam tugged accidentally on a loose strand of Susan's hair, and said, "Are you alright, your Majesty? I do apologize if I'm pulling. My fingers aren't quite as deft as they used to be."

Susan smiled. "I'm alright. With all the fancy hair-styles that my girls like to put me in for the balls at Cair Paravel, I'm rather surprised I can still feel the top of my head at all! And truly, you don't need to call me 'your Majesty' all the time. It's a very long and awkward title, don't you agree?"

"What would you prefer then, Queen Susan?"

Susan hummed her delight as Lady Maria raked her fingers through her hair. "Perhaps, for this evening, we can be a little less formal than propriety requires. You are, after all, playing with my hair, which I doubt is considered strictly proper." Lady Maria paused and tentatively removed her hands from Susan's head, prompting Susan to look up at her with a smile. "No, no, I quite enjoy this. It's so nice to take a break from formality. Would you be terribly opposed to the idea of just calling me Susan?"

The look of surprise was evident in the expression of the Lady of Beaversdam, but it soon turned to quiet delight. "I'm honoured that you feel you can be so informal with me. I agree. For tonight, we are just four women spending an evening in each other's company. You will be Susan, and I should certainly just be Maria."

"I quite like this idea," Amelia added. "Just Amelia for me, then."

"And I, Lucy!" the youngest queen exclaimed. In her usual style, Lucy emphasized her pleasure with an exuberant motion of her hands, which would have been alright if a few strands of Amelia's hair hadn't be caught in the ring she'd been wearing on her index finger.

Amelia let out a squeak of surprise and pain, rubbing her head. "Gently, please, Lucy."

Lucy blushed, trailing gentle fingers over the spot that she'd pulled the hairs from. "Sorry." She removed the two of the three rings that she'd been wearing, and showed the third to Amelia, still on her hand. "I promise, this one won't pull. It's far too worn to have anything to catch on. I just dislike taking it off."

Amelia bit her lip to hide her smile. "Is that the one Mr Tumnus gave you?"

Lucy nodded. "At my coronation. I've only ever removed it to move it from finger to finger as I grew."

Susan was looking curiously at the ring Lucy was now staring at. "I'd never really noticed it before. It looks almost the same colour as your skin." She paused, looking closer. "Is it made of wood?"

Lucy nodded. "He made it for me himself. I feel very strange if I take it off. Like I'm missing some little part of me."

Maria looked surprised. "I hadn't heard anything about Queen Lucy having a suitor."

Lucy blushed. "He's not my suitor. Just an old friend. My first, in fact. And please, just Lucy if you don't mind."

Susan let out a strangled giggle Lucy's explanation, and Amelia realized that Susan saw the growing relationship, too.

Maria looked a little chagrined. "My apologies. I just assumed he was courting you because many women feel that very same way about their wedding rings, myself included."

"Not to worry. I'm certainly not offended. It happens strangely often, in fact," Lucy noted, frowning a little as she thought about the number of people who assumed them to be courting.

Amelia couldn't hold in her laughter this time, and she let out a high-pitched squeak before bursting out laughing, which in turn caused Susan to break into laughter as well.

Lucy and Maria each looked at each other in hopes of finding an explanation, but both were equally lost, which just sent Amelia and Susan into another fit of giggles.

A maid chose that moment to knock on the door.

"Come in," Maria called, not looking up from her work on Susan's hair.

The maid walked in and paused for a split second when she saw the scene before her. It didn't seem to take her long to accept it, and she even seemed a little bit pleased at the sight, once she got over her surprise. She took her place just behind Lady Maria's chair and curtsied. "The dresses are dry. We can bring them up whenever their Majesties would like them."

"I suppose if you just bring them up now, we'll change into them once we're finished here," Lucy suggested, smiling brightly at the young maid girl. "Thank you for letting us know!"

The dresses arrived shortly after, and each woman had her dresses taken into one of the private rooms in the master quarters. The hair was finished by then, so, one by one, they drifted off into the rooms to get changed.

Amelia stepped back into the main room to have Susan sneak up on her from behind. She yelped in surprise when the Gentle Queen touched her shoulder, spinning around and gasping for breath.

Susan giggled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to ask you about something."

Amelia grinned, her eyes dancing. "Lucy and Tumnus, by chance?"

"So you've noticed it too, then!" Susan confirmed, guiding her elder sister-in-law back to the chairs that were still positioned in front of the fire.

"Of course I have! It's a miracle that all of Narnia doesn't know!" Amelia exclaimed, earning a "Shush!" from Susan.

"Well, certainly they don't even know themselves yet..." Susan noted.

"But those involved in the relationship always figure it out last of everyone close to them."

Susan bit her lip, grinning. "Including you and Peter, I'd like to point out."

Blushing, Amelia shrugged. "Well, yes, but that's not what we're talking about here." That made Susan laugh, rather loudly, and Lucy opened her door with a curious expression.

"What's so funny?" she asked, coming to join them.

Susan fell into another bout of laughter, this time out of the embarrassment of nearly getting caught in their conversation, but Amelia answered easily, "Susan was teasing me. Nothing particularly unusual."

"Not being mean, I hope," Lucy prodded with a smile.

"Of course not! Su doesn't have a mean bone in her body!" Amelia said, making a motion like putting a halo over Susan's head, who couldn't defend herself as she was still incapacitated by laughter.

Lucy let out a ringing laugh and made wings on Susan's back out of her hands.

Susan tried to swat her hands away but gave up easily, still giggling and settling instead for hiding her face in her hands.

A knock at the door distracted them and, as Lady Maria was coming out of her room, the door into the terrace opened. A young man was standing there, with a charming smile. "Your Majesties, the Kings are downstairs with my uncle and request your company."

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Tada! I'm back from the dead! Actually, school's kicking my ass. On the plus side, though, I seem tobe finally getting over my writer's block. And I've been writing more about the end of the story :) So! Reviews are nice, like always, and I hope you enjoyed the chappie!