There is absolutely no way of apologising for the delay in this story... so I'll just say sorry! And if you do continue reading.. Thank you!
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Lucy smiled as she watched the ring shine, slipping it on her middle finger, knowing it would be too big.
"He stood in the front hall, holding that. And I knew that things were going to be ok." Her grandmother said. Her eyes never leaving the ring. "It was his mothers, made for her by his father after their wedding. He said it was Edmund that had told him of our customs when they had been aboard the Dawn Treader." Lucy let it slide off her hand and handed it back. "I said yes of course, after a few seconds. Now before you call it compulsive Cassidy please remember I was a lot older than twenty-two really. I had lived an entire life in Narnia."
"Scores of suitors sailed the seas for a glimpse of the queen, and the chance to win her heart. None succeeded in even turning her head. No man could capture her heart." Lucy said almost to herself. Susan smiled broadly. "You said that in the first book. You lived your life as Queen without a King."
"It always felt incredibly vain to write such things, but that was taken from Edmunds journals. It was true though, they came from all over in the early days to woo Lucy and I. She found it even more tiresome than I did."
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"You have not stopped smiling since we left the office." She said slipping her hand into the crook of his arm. They'd shared a lovely lunch in one of her favourite haunts in Covent Garden, spent mostly in a comfortable silence, punctuated occasionally with a light laugh or an affectionate kiss.
They walked slowly along the river, Big Ben watching down on them.
"How could I not. It's my wedding day." He said simply, not taking his eyes off the river. "I have never been happier." A grin crept across her face, she was feeling quite similarly.
"How sad you have deprived Narnia of a lavish celebration." She said absentmindedly, his steady pace faltered, and she looked up alarmed.
"I was just thinking…" he stopped speaking.
"Yes?" she questioned.
"We have not thought about what happens if we go back." he said, his tone becoming graver. He stopped walking entirely and turned to face her. "We have not discussed the future."
She looked away and spotting a bench moved towards it, her brain racing.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you today."
She shook her head and smiled gently.
"You haven't, and you're right. We should have spoken about this before. I think we got a little carried away."
He sat beside her, knowing to just let her speak.
"Caspian you know Aslan told me my time in Narnia is done. There's a reason I was left here. I wont be returning."
"You don't still believe that do you?"
"Aslan wouldn't say such a thing if it wasn't true." She reached up cupped his cheek in her hand. "Look, all I know is I was lost, alone and hopeless. Now I have love, I have happiness and most importantly I have you." his eyes lit up. "I want to live my life with you now. Take each day as it comes and enjoy ever second. Narnia may call you back and rightly so, you are the king. And if it does, and you go back then we will accept that and appreciate this time that we were given, no matter how long it will be. How does that sound."
"That sounds very wise and sensible my Queen. My wife." He grinned and kissed her for all the Southbank to see.
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Susan smiled at her daughter, Cassidy sat on the couch absentmindedly stroking Lucy's hair as she slept on her lap.
"We married that morning and for a few blissful hours I was relieved of my grief." She finished her train of thought.
Cassidy grinned widely, her eyes even lighting up.
"Did you…" she started but Susan raised a hand to silence her.
"I don't think Lucy would be too happy if I told you any more without her. I will continue the story in the morning." She stood gracefully and helped rouse the sleeping teen.
It was only when she closed the door to her own room and was left alone that her mind drifted back to that day over thirty-five years ago.
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She heard a light knock and moved to open the door. He stood there towering over her, The low light highlighting his strong features.
"I… I couldn't wait any longer." He said his dark eyes looking pure black as they bore down on her.
She had left him sitting with a drink in the living room as she changed into her night clothes.
She had taken to sleeping in her parent's room weeks before and Caspian had taken her brothers room. The day after their engagement though she had summoned all her new-found strength and made it into her own room, she carefully pack away her mother's makeup and clothes and her father's glasses and books into a trunk before tucking it under the bed. She had pulled out the guest sheets and dressed the bed that morning before they had left the house. Now it would become their room.
She had known what would come next and she was equal parts excited and terrified. She had always imagined having that discussion with her mother before her wedding day, yes there had been talk amongst the girls about the ins and outs of it all, but she'd always oddly looked forward to that sure-to-be reassuring conversation with her kind, calm mother. Now she would have to discover married life on her own. Well with her husband.
"Well I guess you had better come in." she said moving away from the door.
She stepped back towards the window and smiled at him shyly.
"It's funny, I have faced armies of hundreds and devastating wars, but I have never been this frightened." She said in barely a whisper.
"Frightened?" he echoed, worry crossing over his face. The expression cut through her as she realised what she said.
"No! No not frightened that's not what I meant. I just… I don't know what happens now."
"What happens now my queen…" he said stepping towards her. "… my darling wife." She beamed. "What happens now is we find out together."
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She sat on the bed and ran her hand across the throw, the same one they have lain on that night on the floor by the fire.
She thought of him often, every day in fact, but telling their story for the first time was a very different experience.
Reaching into her bedside table she pulled out her old journal and flicking through the well-worn pages she found what she was looking for.
Two crinkled photographs of Caspian along, one sitting in their garden taken on the same day as the one Lucy had found of her.
"Well my darling, what happens next…." She heard the door opening behind her, and turned "You're meant to be asleep Lucy."
"I couldn't settle." The teenager shrugged.
"Would you like to see your grandfather?" she saw Lucy's eyes light up, joy taking over her entire face.
"Yes please."
She patted the bed beside her lightly and pulled them out properly from the book. Not taking her eyes off them she passed the two of them across.
"Wow…" Lucy said under her breath.
"I always wonder what he'd look like now. Would he still have such dark features."
"Mum has his eye."
"An exact copy." Susan smiled.
"I like this one" Lucy grinned holding up the other photograph. Susan laughed,
"So do I, goodness he loved Big Ben. We walked there every weekend. When I saw the man with the camera on the bridge I had to get a photograph of him."
"Is this really all you have?"
"He didn't really like having his photo taken he preferred taking them. I wish now I had insisted more. But you must remember everything was so new to him."
Lucy nodded.
"I do have one more actually." Susan opened her notebook again and turning to the very last page pulled out a long strip. "We found a photobooth the day of our wedding." She picked it up delicately and held it out.
Lucy had never seen such joy on her grandmother's face as she did in the four small black and white photographs. They were sitting side by side, laughing in the first two, smiling straight ahead in the third and looking at each other in the last one.
"That is lovely. Why do you keep it hidden away?"
"Some days it hurts too much my dear. We agreed to carry on with our lives and that is what I tried to do."
Lucy nodded as a large wave over took her.
"Off to bed now young miss." Susan said kissing the top of her head. "See you in the morning."
"Goodnight." She smiled and made her way down the hall.
Lucy's head was whizzing but her body was succumbing to tiredness.
Suddenly a shiver ran through her as if a cold wind had blown the hall and she heard a distinct voice whisper
"Lucy."
