Edmund's notes: This bit about your almost-courtship with Susan always sits oddly with me. Funny to think there was a moment where we all thought you might make a match with her.

Just when I think Kingship is complicated enough, something else arises. That's when I start to feel strange, like I'm a lot older than sixteen. It is a bit weird, when you think about it, how they let four kids run a country. But it's probably best not to dwell on that too much. I don't need another insecurity.

The first one showed up a few weeks after our return from the Lone Islands. Peter scanned a letter and his mouth fell open.

'What?' I demanded. Lucy and Susan looked up from their breakfasts.

But Peter continued to stare at the letter, open mouthed.

'What?' I said again.

He finally seemed to have heard me. He shook his head in a bemused sort of way. 'I suppose I should have expected it, but it does come as a bit of a shock.'

I was about to really snap at him, but Susan laid her hand on my arm.

'Peter,' she said, 'I think it would help if you told us what's in the letter.'

Susan's voice seemed to really call him back to himself. He looked up, directly into her face. 'You have a suitor,' he announced, and passed her the letter.

The three of us were struck similarly dumb, and Lucy and I crowded round Susan to read the letter over Susan's shoulder. She tried to push us away, but we weren't having it.

After scanning it, Lucy and I pulled a face at one another. Peter snickered.

'It's not funny,' Susan admonished. But she held the letter at arm's length.

'On the contrary,' I said. 'This is the most comedic thing I've read in ages.' I plucked the letter from Susan's hands and struck a pose to read, 'Your eyes are pools of forget-me-not blue, and indeed, who could forget a beauty greater than that of Queen Swanwhite?'

'He is really mixing his metaphors there,' Lucy commented. 'Are her eyes pools or flowers?'

'Points to him for paying attention in history class though,' I noted. 'Let's see what he has to say about himself.' I scanned the letter. 'Oh. He is her humble servant apparently, prostrate before her beauty.'

'Do you think it's more like this?' Lucy draped herself over the arms of her chair. 'Or this?' She changed position, slumping back and casting her arm to her forehead. Peter burst out laughing.

Susan snatched the letter off me. 'Stop it, all of you. He really sounds quite sad and lonely.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Susan, you've met him. A dozen times. At no point did he ever look like he was wasting away.'

Susan pursed her mouth. 'Even so. It's poor form. Come, Lucy. We have a dress fitting.'

Lucy groaned and heaved herself from her chair. 'Must we?'

'Yes, because you've already grown out of all your court gowns and we have several functions coming up,' Susan said primly. I could tell she was nettled, because she was being particularly motherly. The Galmian lord who had written the letter was nearing thirty and curled his beard. Not a candidate.

Peter and I watched the girls go. I shrugged and returned to my breakfast, but he stared at his plate, which was very unlike him. I raised my brows at him.

'This won't be the last,' He said.

'No. Far from it,' I agreed. 'I mean, everyone does say she's beautiful. I can't really comment, obviously. She just looks like Susan to me.'

'It's true though,' Peter said, his voice rather distant. 'They do say she's beautiful. And they will be expecting us to marry.'

I pulled a face. 'Marry! We're still kids.'

Peter heaved a sigh. 'And monarchs. Come on, Ed. You remember history from…from…the Other Place. Spare Oom, or whatever. There were always wars about who gets to inherit.'

This did not sit well with me.

Sure enough, a few nights hence at the ball, the Galmian Lord was there, trying to talk to Susan. He went down on his knees and took her hand and she blushed deeply. I think that made him want her more, because he started singing, and I had to work not to laugh. Beside me, though, Peter was glowering.

'Oh, come on. Looking at it a certain way, it is rather funny,' I said.

'Not when she's so uncomfortable,' Peter said, frowning still deeper. I saw his point. Susan clearly didn't like this lord, but he wasn't taking any hints. With a little growl, Peter strode forward and claimed her for a dance. I frowned a bit as I watched them. This did not bode well.

Susan did some prevaricating. She hated to be so cruel to him, she said, when he was so attentive. Lucy and I rolled our eyes at each other.

'It comes down to this,' Lucy said. 'Do you intend to marry him?'

Susan looked nonplussed. 'No. Of course not.'

'Then you do him no kindnesses by letting him think he has a chance at all. And you do yourself no kindnesses by letting him fawn all over you.'

A servant placed a massive bouquet of forget-me-nots before Susan and she sighed. 'It is getting a bit much.'

So she sent him packing. But he was enough to open the floodgates, and every other week we were hosting suitors. They put Peter in a very bad mood and he took this out on me in our practice sessions.

One day after he had knocked me down for the fifth time I rubbed my hip as I frowned at him. 'Look, I know you don't like these suitors but you don't have to take it out on me,' I said.

'I know. I'm sorry,' he said, pulling me to my feet.

'What's the big deal, anyway?' I said. 'You yourself said that we should expect this sort of thing.'

Peter sighed and swung his sword. I jumped back. Even in practice, a sword in his hand was dangerous.

'Yes. We should. All of us. But Su—she's so gentle hearted, and these men are all so…'

'Rapacious?' I suggested.

'Yes. That. I know we're here to carry out Aslan's will, and duty comes first, but…I think she has a right to be happy. And these men are making it very difficult.'

I couldn't disagree. Turning down suitors seemed to wear Susan down, and I wondered if she might get so tired that she would eventually accept someone just so she didn't have to go through the rigamarole anymore. It was a bit depressing.

And then, just when the suitor thing was really dragging us down, Lord Peridan shows up. A very intriguing turn of events, I thought. What brought him from the Lone Islands, and all on his own? And yet he had enough money to come with his own ship and set up lodgings in town and begin a trade business with said ship. A story I couldn't quite put together.

Susan summoned me to her one afternoon. I found her in her office—so comfortably arranged it was really more of a parlour—poring over yet another guest list. I sensed she had called me to aid in diplomacy. I do not like the diplomacy of parties.

'I'm just going over the guest list for the summer fete,' she said. I dug my hand into the bowl of sugar shelled chocolates on her desk and cast myself into the chair opposite her, lounging on it crosswise. I tossed a chocolate in the air and caught it in my mouth. I grinned, but Susan looked less than impressed.

'Could you please help?' She said.

'With what? You know who to invite. You always do,' I said.

'Yes, but I'm trying to…discourage certain people while not slighting them.'

I shrugged. 'The answer's easy. Make it a true Narnian party. Maying, horse rides, a picnic. Every activity a group one so that there's no time for romancing.'

Susan mulled this over. 'Maybe. Do you think it would work even better if I paid particular attention to one of the other lords?'

'Why do you think I would know?' I said, wrinkling my nose in distaste. 'I have nothing to do with that sort of thing.'

'You will one day,' she pronounced.

I snorted. 'Anyway, that's a dangerous game, pretending to go after a lord you're not interested in. It might make him pursue you because he thinks he has a chance,' I said. I caught two chocolates at once with no reaction from her.

'What if there was a lord who I wanted to know more about?'

I sat up properly. 'Is there?'

She shrugged in a mysterious way, and I rolled my eyes.

'Come on, Su, that's hardly fair,' I said. 'You can't hint at something and then not tell.'

She looked at me, weighing me up. 'You must promise you won't tease.'

I held up my hand in promise.

'Well,' she said blushing, 'I do find myself very curious about Lord Peridan. And he is rather handsome.'

This nettles me, and I can't say why except for a distinct feeling that I was intrigued by him first. While Susan was being curious, I had actually gone and talked to him, found out that he is exceptionally clever, and not just in the book learning way. He has a keen mind for problem solving, and I fully intend to include him on future plans which involve Lionshaim. I wouldn't have believed that a kid was doing such a sound job of running a town, but we're the same age and I'm running a country, so there we are.

Peridan came to the fete, and Susan flirted spectacularly with him. He played his part pretty well too. He knew all the right things to say and exactly how to behave—attentive without fawning or breaching manners. And yet, there was something in his face which made him seem as though he was thinking of something rather witty and mischievous under his court mask. He never said it though.

Susan has now decided that she very much likes Lord Peridan and talks of him constantly and frets over whether she can personally extend so many invitations to him. Then she frets over what to wear and whether she will dance with him. It's all very stressful, and it seems to me that if you were really meant for someone all the fuss wouldn't be necessary.

For his part, Peridan is…nice. He bows at all the right times, and says all the right things and knows all the right steps to all the right dances. He does cut a rather artistic picture dancing with Susan, but that's about it. That spark of intrigue is gone, and he's become rather boring.

Last night Susan was dissecting every single action of Peridan's. While Peter and I were trying to play a game of chess, she went through every detail of his movements, dress, speech, interactions with others. I rolled my eyes, but Peter kicked me under the table.

We stayed up late to finish the game after Susan had finally talked herself out.

'Do you like Lord Peridan for her?' I said.

'Now that,' he said, planting his bishop on the board, 'Is a tricky question.'

I raised my brows. 'Why tricky?'

'Well.' Peter sat back and cracked his knuckles. He does this admirably—there are a lot of satisfying cracks. 'He is a good match.'

'On paper he's perfect. He'd hardly have to move to be part of the castle household,' I said, playing devil's advocate.'He's wealthy and high ranking.'

'Exactly so. And personally he's a good match too. He's polite and kind and…' Peter trailed off, seeming to search for a word, and then got lost in thought.

'And?' I prompted.

Peter shifted in his seat. 'And he's not going to take her away,' he said, his voice heavy.

I saw at once what he meant. Suitors for Susan could be disastrous, because like as not they would expect to take her away to their homeland. But Narnia could not do without her Queen. And we could not do without Susan.

'I won't let that happen anyway,' I said. Peter looked doubtful. I frowned. 'I can, you know. As King, and chief diplomat, and the person who will draw up any charters and arrangements. Nobody gets to come in and just whisk her away. Nevertheless, I take your point. With Peridan, it wouldn't even be a point of contention.'

Peter nodded, then he got up and poured us each a measure of whisky.

'So why the long face, if we get what we want?' I queried.

He drank, and then pulled a face. 'It's because—because I like Peridan fine, but I don't like who Susan is around him.'

I pursed my lips before I drank. I couldn't disagree. I could do without all these questions of suitors and marriage, if I'm honest. They just seem to be upsetting the balance and pulling us all apart. But for all my frustration, I don't think they're going away. Maybe Susan will stop simpering so much with Peridan, because at the minute, he seems like the least worst solution.

It feels like that should sit better with me.