I don't own Narnia!
The next morning, Susan woke to faint knocking on her bedchamber door. "Who is it?" She called drowsily.
"It's Lucy, are you awake?" came the answer from behind the door.
"Hardly," she yawned. "But come in." The door creaked open slowly and Lucy's little face peeked through. She padded into the room, shut the door, and scurried over to the bed, climbing up next to Susan. She paused for a moment, almost a little warily. Then, she leaned over and rested her head on Susan's shoulder. The elder wrapped an arm around her. "You alright?" she asked.
"I'm sorry that I yelled at you and acted rude last night," Lucy whispered.
"Rude-ly." Susan corrected her softly, "'acted rudely.'"
"Acted rudely," Lucy echoed. "Will you please forgive me?"
"I do forgive you," Susan squeezed her. "Thank you for apologizing, Lu."
"You're welcome," she replied, causing Susan to chuckle softly.
"I'm going to have a bath before breakfast," Susan said. "I'll be down in a little while."
"Can I stay in here?" Lucy asked. "Until you're finished?" Susan furrowed her brow, puzzled.
"Erm...why?" Lucy gave a little shrug.
"I'd rather go down to breakfast with you." Susan smiled a small smile.
"And why's that?" she asked her. Another shrug. After a few seconds of silence, Susan spoke. "Are you feeling worried about seeing Peter and Edmund after last night?" Abd just as she suspected, Lucy gave a tiny nod, eyes dropping to focus on her hands. Susan reached forward and brushed a strand of hair out of her sister's face. "You know that they love you, Lu. We all make mistakes. They're not angry with you. You simply need to apologize and make amends." She pulled Lucy close and kissed the side of her head. "You're welcome to stay here until I'm ready and then we'll go downstairs together. Alright?"
"Alright," Lucy's voice was low and quiet.
"And Lucy?" Lucy glanced up at her. "An apology is only as good as the action behind it. I don't want to see you going after Edmund and hounding him about that horse later on, you understand? You'll hold it when he's ready to let us all hold it."
"I know."
"Good," Susan pinched her cheek. "Be back in a few minutes." And she rose and disappeared into her washroom.
Lucy sighed, exasperated. She felt torn. One half of her thought that Edmund was being rather stupid and selfish to withhold such a beautiful thing from the rest of their little family. If I were Edmund, I'd have passed around that horse and everyone would have enjoyed it just as much as me, she thought to herself. But then, the other half of her supposed that Peter and Susan must know better, and she had acted perhaps a little beastly at the table last night...she fidgeted with her skirt, tracing the tiny green pattern scattered across it. She hoped that Edmund was not so put out with her that he had decided to never let her behold the horse at all. And then something inside Lucy began to burn, and she sat up straight. I'm going to hold the horse, she resolved.
And then she was snapped out of her thoughts by her sister, emerging from the washroom, hair wrapped in a towel.
"Alright, Lu, what will it be today?" Susan reached her closet and opened the doors, revealing dozens upon dozens of dresses. "Orange? Violet? Grey?"
"The grey one," Lucy called from the bed. "You'ven't worn that one in some time."
"I think you're right," Susan retrieved the dress and carried it over to the bed, laying it out across the comforter. "Oh, I do like this one." The dress was a medium grey (Lucy thought that it reminded her of the color of the sky before a thunderstorm) with elbow length sleeves and a skirt that reached almost to Susan's feet. A white, winding pattern was sown on the sleeves, the v-shaped neckline, and the hem of the skirt, curling up onto the skirt fabric to about just below Susan's left knee. There were birds and vines and leaves in the pattern; it was truly a beautiful dress.
Lucy's stomach growled, interrupting the girls' admiration. Susan giggled as Lucy clapped her hand over her stomach. "Alrighr, alright, I'll make haste and dress! You could have said something, Lucy."
"I think I just did," Lucy quipped. The girls laughed and Lucy helped Susan lace up the back of her dress up to her neck, where Susan reached back and tied the twine, securing it. Then, Susan reached for Lucy's hand, and the two headed downstairs for breakfast.
Peter and Edmund had accepted Lucy's meek apology gracefully, Edmund offering her a simple, "it's alright, Lu," Peter going to her and bending to kiss her cheek before stealing a sausage link off of her plate. She had squealed and shoved him.
The day progressed normally, Peter and Susan attending to their many diplomatic and household management-related tasks, Edmund and Lucy busying themselves with schoolwork. But Lucy was finding it increasingly hard to focus on mathematics, for indeed, her thoughts resided on one thing.
When she found that she could bear it no more, she slid the chair back from the desk she was sitting at in the library and stole upstairs. Glancing around for her siblings and seeing only servants, she snuck quickly down the hallway until she reached the opening to the hallway where the siblings' four bedchambers were located. Lucy looked this way and that, walked to the doors and tapped on Peter's door and Susan's door to make sure they were not there. Then, she approached Edmund's bedchamber.
She gave a quiet knock. "Edmund?" she called. When she received no answer, she cracked open the door. The room was empty. Lucy turned to look behind her one more time.
And as soon as she saw that she was alone, she opened the door the rest of the way and slipped into Edmund's bedchamber.
To be continued!