I don't want to meet the Pensives

The day before the newcomers' arrival finally came around. Missus Macready was preparing her things to do the groceries when she found Ella lazily raiding the kitchen cupboards for a cup. She knew there was someone else in the kitchen, but she paid them no mind as she went to pour herself some lemonade.

"You should come with me, tomorrow," Missus Macready said softly, watching the girl.

Ella stared at her glass cup for a moment before blankly looking up at the woman. "Where?"

"To the train station."

"Why?"

It had been this way for a while now. When Ella asked questions, it would only be one word, even when she was asked some in return. She would reply with either a yes, a no, or a maybe.

"To pick them up, of course."

Finally, she showed a hint of emotion as she stared at the woman with a questioning gaze. She finished the bit of lemonade she had poured herself then put the glass in the sink before turning to Missus Macready. "Who?"

Missus Macready sighed. "The Pevensie children."

Ella narrowed her eyes slightly as she straightened her posture. "I don't want to meet the Pensives." It had barely been audible, but at least the woman heard, and that was good enough for Ella as she gracefully whisked her way out of the room.

Missus Macready sighed again. "It's the Pevensies," she said, but of course Ella was no longer there to hear the correction. At least this time she said more than one word, she thought before grabbing her coat and making her way to the door.

The next morning, when Missus Macready left to pick up the guests, Ella wasn't in her room like she had been expected to be. She had walked down the rarely visited hallway till she stood in front of the door. The door that led to the wardrobe, which was dustily covered inside the spare room. She stepped forward and placed a hand on the doorknob but didn't open it. She simply stood there, like that, head now pressed against the wooden door as she shut her eyes and let out a sigh. She stayed that way for a while before letting out a loud groan and slamming her head purposefully against the wooden entry.

"I can't take this anymore!" she shouted at nothing before stepping away from the door, turning on her heels and running for the stairs. She needed to leave the house. She needed to leave that slight countryside...

She needed to enroll.

Bobbies waved traffic around a crater as firemen hosed a smoldering building. The Pevensie family walked through the crowded Trafalgar Square, the children carrying their suitcases and gas-mask boxes. Lucy stopped suddenly, staring up at a giant bronze lion.

"Come on, Lucy. No time for daydreaming," Susan said softly, pulling Lucy on her way as a train whistle shrieked, not too far ahead of them.

The train station in North London was packed, due to the evacuation. Everyone was slightly hustling against each other. Hundreds of children were saying goodbye to their families on the platform, bags and prized belonging lying stacked all around.

"Alms for the poor. Alms for the poor."

"Hurry, this way!"

"God bless you, sir."

"Children and evacuation staff... Attention, would all parents ensure that their children have the appropriate identification papers," said the announcer.

There was a poster of a destitute family that read:

HELP THE CITY CHILDREN. HOUSING EVACUEES IS A NATIONAL SERVICE!

Lucy stared glumly up at it as her mother, who was wearing a WVS uniform, pinned her name and destination to her coat.

Sighing, Missus Pevensie placed a gray bonnet on the little girl's head. "You need to keep this on, darling. All right? You warm enough? Good girl."

"Say hello to Auntie Laura. Goodbye, darling, we love you," they heard one of the other evacuees say, bidding their farewells to their mothers as well.

Edmund, grouchy as usual, glared around. "If Dad were here, he wouldn't make us go."

"If Dad were here, it'd mean the war was over, and we wouldn't have to go," Peter deadpanned.

Sighing once more, Missus Pevensie pursed her lips as she took a long, sad look at her children before turning to her youngest son to pin a label onto his coat. "You will be good and listen to your brother, won't you Edmund?" She tried to hug him, but Edmund turned away. She sadly settled for kissing his cheek before turning to Peter to whom she handed a sheaf of documents.

"It's not for very long," she said, pulling him into a hug. "Promise me you'll look after the others."

Peter gave her a small smile and nodded as they pulled apart. "I will, Mum."

Missus Pevensie smiled and nodded as well, patting her son's cheek. "Good man."

"All aboard! All aboard!"

"Bye, darling! Bye!"

Missus Pevensie turned to Susan and smiled tearfully. "Be a big girl." Susan nodded and hugged her mother who squeezed her gently before letting go. She turned to hug Lucy and Peter goodbye once more, though when it came to Edmund, he refused to meet her eye, stifling a tear as she sighed and slightly pushed her children toward the train. "There now, off you go."

"Hold on to your brother's hand. Don't let it go."

"All right. Off you go," Missus Pevensie repeated.

"All aboard!"

"Bye-bye. Love you."

Edmund looked at Susan, who had grabbed him, and glared. "Hey, get off. I know how to get on a train by myself. Get off me!"

"May I have your tickets, please?" a woman standing by the train asked them. "Tickets, please."

"Peter. "Susan snatched papers off him and gave them to the woman.

The woman nodded in approval. "That's right. On you go." She then scurried them off.

Peter nodded. "Yes, thank you."

"Come along. Come along this way, please," said a man.

Peter gave Lucy a small smile. "Come on Lucy; we've got to stick together now. Everything's gonna be all right. It's gonna be fine... it's gonna be fine."

Edmund tried to glimpse his mother in the crowd. Suddenly, he bolted.

Susan saw him and panicked. "Edmund!"

Edmund dashed past the guard and into his mother's arms. He gave her a tight squeeze and then scampered onto the train with his siblings. They felt themselves sadden a bit more as they heard other children calling out to their mothers: "Bye, Mommy! I love you!"

The children hung out of the window as their mother pushed her way to the front of the barrier. They waved to each other calling out their farewells.

"Bye-bye, dear," Missus Pevensie said, tearing up.

"Bye, Mum. We'll miss you! See you soon," Peter said.

"Bye!" Susan called out.

"We'll miss you!" Edmund said.

"Write to us, Mum!" said Peter.

"Love you!" Lucy said.

A whistle screamed as the train eased out of the station, its pace quickening every five seconds, and before they all knew it, they were off.

The engine chugged past bombed factories and anti-aircraft guns as it entered a tunnel. It was a long ride; slow and slightly boring as it chugged down the railway.

The train emerged from the tunnel into the countryside. Inside the train, in a compartment, Lucy sat by the window across from Edmund. Her feet did not quite reach the floor, so Peter took a suitcase down and propped it under her toes, causing her to smile as the train pulled into a station. Edmund watched from the window as two children were collected by somber foster parents. He swallowed, worried, as the train whistle shrieked anew and chugged down the train tracks one more.

A few more hours passed before the moment they had impatiently been waiting arrived.

"Coombe Halt Station," the conductor called out through the megaphone.

The four Pevensies grabbed their luggage and stepped out of the train, onto the platform. They waited there for quite a while, becoming slightly excited at one point when they heard a car coming and ran down to meet it, but it drove past them, leaving them upset again, and slightly disappointed.

"Shouldn't someone be here for us?" Lucy asked. She was the only one who didn't know who they were going to be staying with.

"The Professor knew we were coming," Susan said with a frown.

Edmund frowned as well, looking down at his name tag. "Perhaps we've been incorrectly labeled."

"Maybe he's forgotten us," Lucy suggested.

Not long after he said that, they heard a horse neighing. They looked up and saw a middle-aged lady sitting in an old-fashioned, motor-less buggy— a carriage— that was being pulled by a beautiful white mare.

"I wish he had," Edmund muttered as the woman approached.

"Come on, hup! And whoa. Whoa," she said, pulling the horse up by the platform.

Peter hesitated. "Missus Macready?"

She looked at each child from behind her rectangle spectacles. "I'm afraid so…" she said, shifting her gaze to their belongings. "Is this it, then? Haven't you brought anything else?"

"No, ma'am. It's just us," Peter replied.

Missus Macready raised her brows in slight amusement. "Small favors." She motioned them towards the back of the cart, and they immediately scurried, climbing onto the back of the carriage.

Once they were settled, Missus Macready turned back to the mare and ushered the mammal forward. "Come on. Good girl. Come on. Come on."

The professor's house loomed through the trees, three stories of stone and stained glass, later that day. The children stared up from the rattling, horse-led buggy.

"I hope you all appreciate that this house is of great historic value. People come from all over England to view it," Missus Macready said. The buggy turned onto the tree-lined drive.

"Really? Why?" Susan asked curiously.

"It is in all the guidebooks."

The moment they stepped into the mansion, Missus Macready wasted no time in listing the rules to the four children. A gnarled claw dug its sharp talons into a wooden sphere. Lucy stared at the ball-and-claw legs of an oak table, almost tripping over her own feet, as Missus Macready led them up the stairs.

"Professor Kirke is not accustomed to having children, other than his granddaughter, in this house. And as such, there are a few rules we need to follow. There will be no shouting. Or running. No improper use of the dumbwaiter."

Susan was about to touch an old, strange looking statuette while Edmund had reached out to touch a gleaming suit of armor, only to have his hand smacked away as Susan received a glare. "No touching of the historical artifacts!" They stopped by a closed door, where the light flickered off behind it. "And above all, there shall be no disturbing of the professor, nor his granddaughter."

Granddaughter? Peter frowned, puzzled. Mum never told us about the Professor having children, even less a granddaughter. As soon as he thought this, a loud SLAM! came from outside.

"Don't you dare walk away from— Eleanor? Eleanor, get back here!" they heard a woman shout. Not long after, the front door of the mansion burst open, and a furious girl stormed in, followed by a woman who seemed to be in her mid-twenties, scurrying not far behind her. "Elea—"

The girl spun on her heels and glared at the woman. "Don't you dare finish that," she glowered. Despite her voice being so low, at that moment, and sounding so dark, it still sounded more like golden wind chimes.

The woman sighed. "Fine, but just listen, will you? You promised your brother—"

"I promised nothing. I said I'd stop, but I never promised it. If I did, I wouldn't have gone."

"Well, you better stop for good! Do you want them to take you? Do you—"

"Yes! Why the heck do you think I tried to enroll for the fifteenth time?" Ella snapped.

The woman groaned, placing her hands on her hips. "First, you've got to stop hanging around Tommy."

Ella rolled her eyes. "Not my fault your brother was always around when he should've been at home. He's gone now— left with my sib, so you've got nothing to complain about, Chris."

The woman clenched her jaw. "It's Christina. And second, you've got to stop trying to get yourself into the army."

The Pevensie children couldn't help but stare in shock at the young girl who was being scolded at the entrance of the mansion. Did this girl seriously try to enroll into the army?

Missus Macready sighed and shook her head. Not again, she thought.

Ella let out an exasperated breath through her nose. "But it's not fair!" she shouted before sprinting her way up the stairs, ignoring the many pairs of eyes set upon her, and toward her room, where she slammed her door shut the moment she stepped into it.

The moment that followed was filled with silence. No one dared to talk.

Finally, Christina Jameson, Tommy's older sister, sighed and looked up at Missus Macready with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, ma'am."

Missus Macready shook her head. "It's alright, at least they didn't send for her brother this time."

Christina shrugged. "They were about to. Let's just say we're lucky I was in the right place, at the right time."

"They sent you back?"

Christina shook her head. "Temporary leave. This conflict is reaching a critical point; we're in need of more soldiers."

Missus Macready nodded in understanding then hesitated. "Did she...?"

"Throw her usual tantrum? Worse." Christina shuddered as she recalled the earlier events. "She made herself a make-shift bow in half an hour, broke a stick, and then shot it to prove she had good aim. She also tried the many weapons that were on display, and disassembled most, each in eleven seconds tops. In the end, she almost blew up the establishment... she's very gifted. But they still don't think it's a place for a sixteen-year-old, let alone a girl, to be there," Christina replied, her voice becoming slightly bitter toward the end.

She was now starting to see why Ella was so infuriated. Men were being so sexist— women can fight just as well. Heck, she enrolled a while back as well. She was lucky to get accepted, though she wasn't placed in the field she wanted to be in. They put her in a supposedly top-secret government agency. She didn't complain much as she actually loved science, and that's what she did in that agency, but she did want to go to the field. She still somewhat does. Unfortunately, it can't be changed.

"How exactly did you manage to get her out of there without a severe penalty from the feds?" Missus Macready wondered, eying the young woman curiously.

Christina chuckled softly, exhaustion apparent in her eyes. "Let's just say we're lucky Lieutenant Jaubert has taken a liking to us," she said, referring to herself, her brother and the Kirkes' in general. Shaking her head to herself, she sighed and smiled at them all. "I'd better go before they send someone else."

Missus Macready nodded. "Of course, stay safe."

Christina nodded. "And you take care." She started for the door, but then stopped and turned to look back at the elderly woman with a serious look on her face. "Oh, and please see that whenever she leaves she is being supervised. We can't afford having her run off to try to get into the army again. Not at times like these."

"I will make sure of that. Good day, Miss Jameson."

Christina smiled once more and nodded. "Good day, Missus Macready." She smiled at the Pevensies and slightly waved. "Good day, children." And with that, she was off.

Once she was gone, Peter, Susan, and Edmund followed Missus Macready down the hall while Lucy lingered behind, eyeing the closed door they had stopped by, curiously. Suddenly, a shadow moved under the door. Eyes widening, Lucy dashed away.

Later that night, three siblings loitered in the room given to the two Pevensie girls. Lucy laid under the covers, a tiny girl in a large bed.

"This bed's too big," she mumbled.

Peter chuckled and ruffled her hair. "You sure you haven't shrunk?" Lucy smiled, despite herself.

In the next bed, Susan tucked herself in. "The Professor's just not used to having kids around."

"Supposedly," Peter said. "But in case you've forgotten, Missus Macready mentioned he has a granddaughter. And I doubt she is any older than us; it was probably that girl who was all... fast and furious."

"She looked pretty," Susan said, sending a pointed look at her older brother who tried to fight back a blush.

Lucy hugged her pillow. "I still miss Mum."

Edmund then entered, carrying a plate. "Well, if you're homesick, go stand outside the Macready's door. She snores like an air raid siren." Lucy giggled as Edmund put down the plate filled with biscuits. "The pantry's a gold mine."

"We've fallen on our feet and no mistake," said Peter. "This is going to be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like."

"I think he's an old dear," said Susan.

"Oh, come off it!" said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be tired, which always made him bad-tempered. "Don't go on talking like that."

"Like what?" said Susan; "and anyway, isn't time you were in bed?" Susan asked sternly.

"Yes, MUM!" Edmund exclaimed sarcastically before glaring at his older sister. "Who are you to say when I'm to go to bed? Go to bed yourself."

"Ed!" Peter glared at his brother, though his intervention went ignored by both Edmund and Susan.

"I am in bed," Susan deadpanned cheekily. Defeated, Edmund scowled at her.

"Hadn't we all better go to bed?" said Lucy, trying to ease the tension with reason. "There's sure to be a row if we're heard talking here."

"No there won't," said Peter. "I tell you this is the sort of house where no one's going to mind what we do. Anyway, they won't hear us. It's about ten minutes' walk from here down to that dining-room, and any amount of stairs and passages in between."

"What's that noise?" said Lucy suddenly. It was a far larger house than she had ever been in before and the thought of all those long passages and rows of doors leading into empty rooms was beginning to make her feel a little creepy.

"It's only a bird, silly," said Edmund.

"It's an owl," said Peter. He turned to look at his little sister, his gaze soft.

He took a biscuit and gave it to her. "This is going to be a wonderful place for birds. I shall go to bed now, but tell you what. Tomorrow, we'll go outside and explore. You might find anything in a place like this. Did you see those mountains as we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be stags. There'll be hawks."

"Badgers!" said Lucy.

"Foxes!" said Edmund.

"Rabbits!" said Susan.

They all shared a small halfhearted laugh.

"It'll be great," Peter concluded, before smiling at his littlest sister again and ruffling her hair. "I promise."

Knock, knock.

Ella sat at her window seat, staring out the beautifully framed see-through glass at the woods. She had heard the soft knock on her door, but she had chosen to ignore it. But then, there it was again.

Knock, knock.

Sighing, she got up from her seat and lazily made her way to the exit of her room. Opening the door just a crack, she murmured a small "yes?" not bothering to speak any louder as she knew she was clearly heard.

"They're still awake, you know," Missus Macready said, holding a dimly lit candle in one hand, and a book in the other.

"And?"

"I thought you'd like to meet them. It'd do you some good to interact with others your age," Missus Macready tried to encourage softly.

Ella was silent for a moment, eyes narrowed as they looked down at the golden doorknob.

"I already told you," she mumbled. "I don't want to meet the Pensives." And with that said, she shut her door, making Missus Macready sigh.

"It's the Pevensies."