Chapter 2

An unexpected visitor

Diggory sighed and turned back to the big stack of wheel caps he still had to finish. Slowly the light from outside was failing, and he had had to open the doors of the workshop as wide as they went, to let the last bit of daylight inside. Not that there was any sun, or any real light to speak of, it was gray, and rainy outside, which made it hard to see in the dark workplace.

Diggory was the apprentice of Mr. Coloney, the district blacksmith. His teacher was very strict, and often worked his charge late into the night. He was in fact a very good man, but believed strongly in hard work and perfection.

Now, as the daylight was fading away, Diggory whipped away the sweat on his forehead, and moved toward the fire, with a hammer in one hand and big pliers in the other, holding a wagon cap. This was going to become impossible as even the electric light could not give enough light so he could work properly.

When he felt the grimy shirt stick to his body, drenched with sweat from the hard work on the anvil, Diggory turned around and pulled it off, instantly feeling a lot more comfortable.

'I hope the master doesn't come in,' he thought and continued working though he knew this was dangerous and therefore very stupid, because any small glint of hot metal could burn his exposed skin.

Though he knew his teacher had left for home an hour ago, it being an emergency concerning a sick baby of his, Diggory could not get rid of the feeling, that he was being watched. Suddenly he turned around and saw a pair of very blue eyes looking at him from the far corner of the room.

"Woah, who are you?" he shouted, nearly dropping the hot wagon cap on his foot. He put it down carefully and looked up again. "Are you a customer of Mr. Coloney's?" I am sorry, but he is not here at the moment, he will be back on Monday."

The woman that stood in the corner only shook her head never taking her eyes off the young man in front of her. She had been rather surprised to see him in this way, bare-chested and sweaty. 'Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all', she thought, but never moved her eyes off him.

"Excuse me," Diggory said, "what can I do for you?" He started walking toward her, but stopped when the woman held up one hand as if to warn him to come no further.

At this moment he seemed to notice, that he was not wearing anything above his belt, blushing slightly turned away to fetch his dirty shirt.

"I can not believe you don't remember me, Diggory," the woman had a beautiful voice, stern but musical at the same time. "Has it been that long?"

Diggory froze in mid movement, half way buttoning up his shirt. Could it be? Could it truly be…

"Its me, Polly you horse," she laughed and whipped off the hat. A cascade of golden blonde hair fell onto her shoulders, and now that he could see her properly, Diggory wondered how he hadn't recognized her immediately.

She had the same penetrating blue eyes and glinting hair. The last time Diggory had seen Polly though, she had been a child, and now she was unmistakably a woman, in all her beauty.

Diggory could not stop staring at her and blushed again when she laughed out loud, stepped forward and buttoned up the rest of his shirt for him.

"There you are," she said, and looked up at him, " I always thought you would be an intellectual, a professor or at least a doctor. But look at you, sweating and dirty in a smithy in the middle of the city!" She smiled at him, and he saw the familiar dimples that did not seem silly at all anymore, but gave her smile a cheekiness that made his heart jump.

"I had to take a break," he said, stepping back. "I have been studying ever since the last time you saw me, and I needed a big break from my father."

"Is he still so tiresome? Does he still want to go away to India again?"

He nodded and looked at her sideways. "How about you? What are you doing in London? What brings you back to the place you swore never to be in again?"

He wondered much about her sudden return.

"I wanted to see you and I wanted to talk to you." She fumbled at her dress pocket and continued.

"Diggory, I haven't seen you for so long, many things have changed," she blushed, and he knew she was thinking of the evening under the apple tree out at his father's mansion in the country. The summers she had spent with him after their special adventure with uncle Andrew still remained very clearly in his mind. The apple blossoms lay in the grass all around them when he kissed her pink lips for the first time. 'And the last time,' he thought, as he saw her stand there in front of him in her full loveliness. She must be engaged or promised to be married, such a beautiful creature she was.

"I want to go back to Narnia for the last time." She said this in a complete calm, but Diggory nearly dropped the hammer he was fumbling with.

"What? Are you insane?" he hissed. "We are never to go back, how would we, the rings, we buried them, you where with me!" He was angry by now and backed away when she tried to lay a calming hand on his shoulder.

"We promised to Aslan, that we would get rid of them, we did and now you come here talking nonsense! Did you go and dig them up?" He looked furious, and Polly took a step away from him.

"No I did not!" She exclaimed forcefully.

"Then how do you want to get there?" he asked coldly.

Polly felt herself grow warm once more, this was happening too often for her liking.

"Look, I am moving away, far away, by Christmas I will be gone to Australia. There will be a new life awaiting me there, my parents are staying in Ireland, and all I wanted is to go there one last time!" She was loosing some of the composure that had taken a whole afternoon to build up, and hung her head sulkily.

"You have no idea what I went through when we left," she sighed and looked back at him. "I missed you so much, it was torture, Diggory, and I need closure. I need to know you are well, and I need to know that Narnia is too, before I can leave everything behind." Her eyes glistened now in the firelight, for it was dark outside and no one had switched on the light.

"Well, you know I am well now and you can go to Narnia by yourself. You don't need me to look after you do you?" He felt the old hurt come back into his chest, the pain he had subdued ever since she had left and moved away with her family.

"Of course," she murmured, and slowly put her wet hat back on. Diggory turned away toward the anvil, picked up the hammer and noticed that the fire had burned right down. He would have to build it up again, and that would take at least an hour to get it to the optimal heat.

"Damn," he growled and threw the hammer into a corner. When he turned around Polly had gone, the only thing left where she had been standing was something small, yellow, glittering very brightly.