Chapter 17-
"Good morning, sleepy heads," Edmund greeted, smirking as Peter and Analiese sat at the table.
"Hi," Peter replied with a smile, trying his hardest to act casual.
Edmund's smirk decreased a little bit, but quickly gained back when he saw Analiese out of the corner of his eye, looking down at her plate. "Hello, Analiese." She nodded politely, barely looking up. "How did you enjoy your night?"
The Courteous Queen's head snapped up, staring at her brother-in-law with wide eyes. She glanced quickly over to her husband who gave her a warning look. She looked back to Edmund and smiled slightly. "It was fine."
She looked back down at her plate, stabbed a piece of chicken onto her fork, and was about to put it in her mouth when the Just King said, "Did you have fun?" An evil, crooked grin was on his face and he had one eyebrow raised.
"I-I- the party was great." She turned to Susan. "The decorations were very pretty and I enjoyed the food choices."
"Thank you," Susan smiled. "I quite enjoyed it myself." Then she glanced at Caspian, blushed, and looked away. Analiese made a mental note to ask her about that later.
"Uh, ahem, Analiese," the youngest Pevensie boy said, grabbing his brother's wife's attention. She looked at him expectantly. "How did you enjoy the mid-party festivities?"
"I like them," she looked at Peter and smiled. "A lot."
"Aha!" Edmund shouted, jumping so he was standing on his chair, towering above everyone else. "I knew it! I just knew it!" He began doing a dance on the seat of his chair, turning in a circle and waving his arms all around.
"Edmund," Avaline hissed. "Sit down. You're embarrassing me."
"So?" he replied, as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Why worry about me when you have them to worry about?" The Just King pointed between his brother and sister-in-law. "They had-"
"Edmund Pevensie!" Avaline yelled, causing everyone to jump in fright. Avaline didn't yell very often, and when she did, it wasn't pretty. Edmund had learned that the hard way. When he jumped, or fell rather, he landed hard in the seat of his chair. Moving slightly, he winced. That probably bruised his tailbone.
When the Passionate Queen was positive she had her boyfriend's attention, she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to the corner of the room by the double doors, where she knew the others would hear nothing but murmuring.
"Do not get mixed up in their private love life," she warned, keeping her voice low. "If they're ready to do that, then they're ready. Just because we made a bad decision doesn't mean that it's a bad choice for them."
"I didn't say it was. I just-" Edmund said. She stopped him mid-sentence. "But Ava..." he whined.
"Don't 'but Ava' me. You know perfectly well what you can and can't do when you're teasing people."
Edmund sighed. "And for the record, what we did was not a bad decision."
"How do you figure?" she asked sarcastically.
"Well, for one, we're getting a little baby of our own out of this," he said. "Secondly, it made you all mine. And last, I love you." He kissed Avaline's forehead and placed his hand on the small, swollen lump that had begun to form on her abdomen.
"I love you, too," Avaline replied. She looked down at Edmund's hands touching their baby through her skin and smiled. There was no doubt in her mind that he would make a wonderful father. "Now let's eat."
And so they went back to the table to join the others, who were all throwing suspicious glances at the couple when they weren't looking. Caspian's eyes narrowed. Yes, he vowed to himself, he would get to the bottom of this.
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Susan, Caspian, Peter, Analiese, and Lucy all sat in a circle on a chair and two loveseats that had been pulled up in the library. Caspian and Susan sat on one loveseat, Peter and Analiese on the other, while Lucy sat solemnly in a chair.
"I've called you all here today to bring to your attention the strange behavior going on btween my cousin and Edmund," Caspian said. All eyes were on him as he continued. "Right now, they are in Avaline's bedroom, seated on the bed. When I walked by, the door was half-open, and I saw their fingers intertwined and smiles on their faces. This is normal behavior for people that are in love."
Here he looked pointedly at Susan, and to his disappointment, he didn't catch it. With a sigh, Caspian continued. "However, lately, I have noticed unusual behavior. Things such as suggestive actions. I have walked in on them in many an awkard position. I have seen them straddling each other while completely making out. I've seen hands roaming. But perhaps the most disturbing of all was seeing my cousin's boyfriend kissing her belly and talking to it."
Lucy looked at Caspian confusedly, then looked to her older brother with furrowed eyebrows. Peter simply shook his head. He mentally slapped himself. He had been trying to tell himself he'd give her 'the talk' for a year now.
"Now," Caspian continued, "If any of you have even the slightest idea of what is going on, I want to know." He waited for someone to speak up and, eventually, someone did.
"Caspian, I don't think it's very fair to get mixed up in their love life," Analiese said. "But I am wondering what you think is going on."
"I think that my cousin is pregnant."
Analiese's composed face faltered at this. "W-what makes you think that?"
"A lot of things. The morning sickness, the mood swings, the enlargened appetite, and, my most recent observation, the small, almost unnoticeable, bump that has formed on her abdomen," Caspian replied.
The other four monarchs in the room sat silently, taking in everything Caspian had just said. Everything was there, clear as day, and Peter could hardly deny it. But he couldn't let anyone know what his brother did. He had to protect him.
Peter was just about to speak up when his friend spoke again. "As you all now know, Avaline is pregnant, and who else could have done such a thing to her besides Edmund Pevensie?" Here he turned to Peter with a finger pointed directly at him. "Your brother has gotten my cousin in more trouble than she can get out of. I have a good mind to-"
"Your accusations are prepostrous!" Peter exclaimed. "How dare you falsely accuse my brother of such a thing?"
"My observations are nothing but fact," Caspian said with a shrug.
"No, your observations are blasphemy! My brother has no intentions of harming Avaline, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or socially."
"The Just King has gotten my cousin pregnant!"
Peter rose from the loveseat, his face red with fury. "Your cousin is sleeping around with-"
"Peter!" Analiese exclaimed, pulling him back down. "You're only getting yoursself deeper," she whispered. "All you have to do is deny it."
He nodded, then said, "Edmund would never sleep with a woman, and if he did, he would be married to her first."
At that moment, Edmund and Avaline came into the library, Edmund with his arm around her shoulders. Avaline had her eyes closed, laughing. When Edmund saw the five kings and queens staring at them intently, seated in a circle in the middle of the room, he froze. Avaline opened her eyes and stared back at them.
"H-hello," she greeted, somewhat nervously. She bit her lower lip.
"Lucy, pull up another loveseat," Peter ordered, never looking away from his brother. When the couch was pulled up between Lucy's chair and Peter and Analiese's loveseat, he gestured for them to sit.
Edmund grabbed Avaline's hand and led her over to their seat. He was about to sit when she pulled his hand lightly. Turning his head, the Just King met Avaline's pleading eyes.
"Sit down," he told her quietly, and she obliged with worry still in her eyes.
"We have something to talk to the two of you about," Caspian said, looking between his cousin and friend before locking in a glare on the latter. "Avaline," he said, looking at her. "How long has your illness been going on?"
"Uh, two months or so," she said.
"And has it stopped?"
"For the past week, I haven't felt ill."
"Good. Now, has your illness been giving you an increased apetite?"
"No..." Avaline looked each person in the eye, stopping at Edmund. "You need to get out of here," she whispered to him so the others couldn't hear.
"No, I'm not leaving you," Edmund said, squeezing her hand comfortingly. "I don't care what they do to me."
The couple turned their attention back to the others in the room. Caspian said, "Avaline, is it true that you have gained some weight over the past couple of weeks?"
"Yes, but Caspian, I don't understand. Why do you care how much I weigh? You never have before."
"I am taking a such a sudden interest in your weight and other aspects of your health because of something I have observed lately. So I need you to answer my next questions truthfully, without holding back a single detail."
Avaline gave her boyfriend a worried sideways glance, which was returned by a small, regretful nod.
"Avaline, are you pregnant?" Caspian asked.
The Passionate Queen looked her cousin in the eyes and said, "Yes."
"How far along are you?"
"Two months," she replied quietly.
"Okay. You're doing good, and I respect that. Don't stress yourself out too much, though. Now, how long have you known about your predicament?"
"About a week."
Her heart pounded in her chest as she anticipated her cousin's next words. She knew what he was going to ask, and she knew that she couldn't answer. "Avaline, who is the father?"
The Telmarine girl looked down at her lap, tears brimming her eyes. She couldn't do this. Admitting what she had done was bad enough, but telling everyone who had done it with her was maddening. She couldn't throw Edmund to the wolves like that. But she also couldn't lie to Caspian about something like this.
Avaline looked up slowly, meeting everyone's stares. The four other Pevensies watched her, their mere expressions making her head whirl. She couldn't do this, she couldn't hurt Edmund... She saw Caspian's taunting stare; it was if his eyes were daring her to lie to him.
She suddenly turned to her left and threw herself at Edmund, burying her face in his chest. Her fingers gripped his dark blue tunic tightly, and her free hand moved up and down his shoulder a few times before finally resting on top of it.
"Shhh," he murmured in her ear, his arms around her with one hand resting on her lower back and the other rubbing the top of her back. "It's okay. I love you, it's okay." But the silent sobs continued to rack her body, tears streaming down her face and staining his shirt. His hand stopped rubbing her back. Edmund leaned in, resting his face in the crook of her neck, and closed his eyes. Then he whispered, "I'm so sorry."
And so Avaline cried herself to sleep in his arms, leaving Edmund to tell the others the truth.
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Dinner was a quiet affair. When a guard came in to ask if Lady Morgana could join them, Peter's muttered, "Okay," was all that could be heard. The kings and queens had sworn secrecy, and it was decided that Avaline was to be kept indoors as much as possible.
Avaline barely looked up from her plate when Morgana walked in the room, taking a seat on Edmund's left. The Calormene girl looked over the Just King and greeted Avaline, and with a forced smile, she uttered a 'good evening.' There was silence all around. It wasn't awkward, nor was it tense. It was just silence. Dead silence.
Morgana, obviously uncomfortable in her surroundings, left fifteen minutes after she had arrived, making up something she had to do so she could get away from the palace.
Caspian didn't lead Susan to her bedroom that night like he had been doing for the past few weeks; Peter and Analiese went to bed without a word, the latter's eyes were open as she laid with her face against her husband's chest, both of them deep in thought; Lucy walked to her room without conversation with anyone. Avaline, however, couldn't bear to go through the night alone.
She and Edmund were walking wordlessly down the corridor to their bedrooms after dinner, but turned to face each other once they got to where they went separate ways. The dark-haired king stroked her cheek once, then turned to leave.
"Edmund," Avaline's voice said quietly; he could barely hear it. Nonetheless, he spun around to face her. "Stay the night?"
He nodded, not a sound escaping his lips, as they made their way to her bedroom. When they finally were in bed, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, her back against his chest. "I love you," he murmured, pressing his lips to her hair.
And that's how they remained for the rest of the night.