Childhood's End
Rating: Kid-friendly
Spoilers: all the way through tLtWatW
Summary: Every childhood comes to an end…
Royal gowns, even riding habits, hid the swell of her stomach. She would tell her royal brothers and sisters, she swore to Sol, as soon as the marriage contract was negotiated. After the fiasco with Prince Rabidash of Calormene, no one was taking any chance. They still had at least five months before the birth, Sol reckoned, based on what he remembered of his sister's pregnancy with the twins. And while eyebrows would be raised, she was betting on her rank as both the Gentle Queen and a Daughter of Eve to avoid some of the fuss. Neither of them wanted to keep the secret. And neither could wait for the day they saw their child's face for the first time.
When her eldest brother suggested a ride into the Wild Woods of the West after the elusive white stag, she had second thoughts. Her healer, sworn to secrecy, thought it wouldn't hurt her unborn child. And she had never turned down a chance to show off her skill with a bow. But she couldn't shake a feeling of dread, as if nothing good would come of this. But she still put on her brave face for her royal siblings, because, as the Gentle Queen, that was what she did.
Word came to Prince Sol of Archenland, most favored suitor of Queen Susan, that his betrothed was missing and presumed lost. He gave no reaction to the news, waving the courier off without a response. When it came time for him to address the court, everyone remarked on how calm and even his voice was, how dry his eyes. No one mentioned the scrap of cloth clutched in his fist, something that looked like a baby's silk bonnet.
A world away, four children tumbled through a wardrobe door into an empty room. And while the others bounced about and exclaimed over their adventures, twelve year old Susan Pevensie only looked down at her flat stomach and burst into tears.