There's no excuse for how long it's been since I last updated this… I don't know will any one even read this! But it's been niggling at me again so we carry on!
"Well my darling. we might have to extract ourselves from the house today." Caspian turned and brushed back the hair that had fallen across his face.
Susan sat up, smiling as his eyes followed her. there was a streak of light shining right across the bed catching his broad chest and the very side of his face.
"Now why would you say a thing like that."
"Well one can only survive on cheese and crackers for so long. Well that and kisses I suppose." He raised an eyebrow and reached forward to stroke the hem of her nightgown.
Susan blushed lightly, still no completely sure how to react to such talk. It was then she thought about how she must look, sitting up in bed, hair loose, not styled for days, her nightdress falling from one shoulder barely covering her. Her mind ran away from her within a few seconds as it dragged her back to the last time she was in a similar state of disarray. She couldn't feel more different now if she tried.
"Darling?" his expression had grown more intense. "Where did you go?"
She smiled, his gentleness only magnified by this new intimacy.
"In all honesty my dear I was just thinking what a state I must look." She sat up straighter. "what kind of a wife must I make. What kind of a queen." She grinned.
His warm eyes widened and that smile that made her melt widened.
"You have never looked more beautiful than you do at this moment."
She knew at that moment that her shattered heart had pulled itself together and was filling more and more by the second.
"That is a very strange way to convince me into leaving this bed." she grinned, relishing in her new found physical confidence. She crawled up towards him and lightly kissed her new favourite spot, the space just behind his ear.
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"I am telling you. I heard it!" Lucy said taking the plates off her mother.
"I don't know what you want me to say here Lucy! Don't follow the strange voices? I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what is happening any more…." Cassidy said leaning back against the counter, her heart pounding.
"Mum?"
"I just don't know what to think. Everything is so… its just a lot to take in and now you're hearing voices…" she sighed. " what can it mean?"
"What?" Susan stepped into the kitchen. "Voices"
"Gran ! I heard a voice calling me last night as I left your room. It was only once and very quiet but I heard it…" she looked pleadingly at his grandmother.
"Maybe…." Susan barely whispered.
"I promise you I did!"
"Darling I believe you, I do." Susun smiled moving forward to take Lucy's hand. "Maybe it's time we had a look at the wardrobe."
Cassidy gripped the counter top as hard as she heard those words. She felt a chill run up her back as they moved towards the door, a breeze she thought, checking the door was closed. She spotted Michael's travel mug sitting on the counter, forgotten.
What on earth is going on she wondered, this was all so farfetched yet she believed it without hesitation. Everything in her childhood was finally starting to knit itself together. She had always known the unsaid stories would be life altering. She had not expecting them to be world redefining.
"Cassidy darling are you coming." She heard her mother call out and she was snapped back to reality.
"Yes, coming."
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"Well I just think if you want it to be less if a lie…"
"You cannot train as a marine engineer!" she laughed shaking her head at the carrots she was chopping.
"But I know quite a lot about marine life and I feel…"
"It has nothing to do with marine life my dear, it is about fixing engines and ships and…"
"I know all about ships! I repaired the Dawn Treader many a time." He reached over and stole a piece, popping it into his mouth.
"These ships are not like the ones you are used to. They are more like buses on the water that the ships you're used to."
"Well how hard can it be to learn? I could attend school and learn"
She smiled at him, adoring his optimistic spirit.
"My darling, you have so much to learn about this world, do you really think going to school for something so advanced is wise?"
"Are you saying I could not do it?" he gasped, a smirk appearing in the corner of his mouth.
"I would never suggest such a thing. You are King of Narnia. You can do anything." She teased, rising up on her toes to try reach eye level with him. "But I do think it would be difficult to attend university to study when you do not even know how to tell time just yet."
His smirk won out and he kissed her lightly on the nose.
"You are right as always. I must walk before I run but I cannot become a burden."
"You are no burden, you will never be a burden. I have more than enough money to keep us living quite comfortably. There is no need for you to work."
"I must be useful."
"Well…" she wiped her hands and crossed her arms to look at him. "perhaps we could make this house more to our tastes. We could update the garden, pack away things into the attic. Repair a some of the sections that have fallen into disrepair."
His eyes brightened.
"Yes that is a wonderful idea! I can mend the fences at the back and the squeaky step on the stairs!"
"You seem very excited at the thought."
"We shall make this the most wonderful home my darling just you wait and see!" she squealed as he picked her up and spun her around. She laughed until she could no longer breath.
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The squeak made her smile as they ascended the stairs. He had never got around to doing it, but it bothered him like nothing else.
Lucy had practically run up the stairs buzzing with excitement.
Susan had opened the wardrobe many times over the past few decades. Every time it had shown her nothing but the other side of the wardrobe. Each disappointment had been a stab to her already fragile heart.
She had held it together for all this time, patching it up with her love for Cassidy and then Lucy, but there was only so much pain one could take in her numerous lifetimes.
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"You are going to wear that thing out!" she said swatting him away.
"I couldn't resist. Do you know how beautiful you look when you think no one is watching you." he mused smiling at her over his camera.
She rolled her eyes and closed her book, it had taken a few months but she was finally getting used to his constant compliments.
"I think a flower bed would be lovely around the foot of this tree." He said packing it all away. "With a little path just here so you can still sit in the tree."
She looked around trying to imagine what he was describing.
"That does sound lovely." She agreed. "Maybe we could have some wildflowers?" she turned lowering her legs. "Lucy had the most beautiful wildflower garden planted in her garden at Cair Paravel. Poppies and cornflowers and daisies. It was remarkable."
"Yes that sounds perfect." He nodded. "I'll start it tomorrow"
"Or you could take a few days off and we could catch the train to the seaside…" His eyes lit up, and she couldn't help but grin.
"Yes! That sounds like a wonderful idea." He was nearly bouncing. "I can bring the camera."
She rolled her eyes laughing.
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Lucy was at the door first, waiting for her grandmother to catch up, her heart was pounding but it was not scary.
Susan stopped a few feet from the threshold. She froze, the hair on the back of her neck was standing on end. she was suddenly overcome with dread.
"Gran you're shaking." Lucy whispered. "here." She held out her hand.
Susan steadied herself and reached out to grasp it.
"Let's go in." she said gripping her granddaughter's warm hand.
Lucy smiled and turned to open the door.
The door however refused to open, Lucy was surprised by the resistance she was met with.
"Is…. Did you lock it?" she said trying the handle again.
"No, I don't think this door can lock." Susan forgot her brief anxiety and moved forward to investigate.
The door was unrelenting to both of their attempts to enter.
"I don't understand." Susan whispered.
"Maybe it's jammed?" Lucy tried shoving with all her might.
"No its…."
"Mum everything ok?" Cassidy called out coming up the last few steps.
"The door is jammed!" Lucy strained giving another go.
"don't hurt yourself Lucy!" Cassidy took hold of her daughter. "It's probably just wedged. I'll get your father to look at it later." She said as she turned to try the handle herself.
She had barely grazed it when the door swung open effortlessly, as if someone had opened it for her from the other side.
Her daughter and mother faded away as Cassidy heard a voice clear as day, calling her.
"Come in…"