- Chapter 23 -
On the third day of winter, as the plants were becoming dormant and the trees were just bare branches, it was decided that the baby princess' birth would be revealed. The number of Narnians that knew about Queen Avaline's pregnancy at all were limited.
In all, there were the other six Narnian rulers, the three nurses, and Biff. The Magnificent King had called those "in the know" to a brief meeting that morning after breakfast.
The group of Narnians and their rulers sat around the large dining table. Lucy and Caspian had returned home as quickly as possible when they heard the news of their niece's birth.
At the head of the table was the High King. To his left was Analiese, and beside her Lucy, Caspian, Biff, and one of the nurses. On Peter's right were Edmund, Avaline (who was holding a sleeping Adela), Susan, and the other two nurses.
"I have called all of you here today to meet on the behalf of the newborn Princess," Peter announced, standing from his chair to speak. "As you all know, for twenty-four hours we have put off announcing the child's birth due to the unfortunate circumstances. Today, we will make the decision regarding the news."
Peter shot an irritated glance at his younger brother, then motioned for Avaline to stand and speak. She did so gracefully, careful not to wake the baby.
"Hello," she began. "I would like to start off with what is known. Edmund and I engaged in premarital love. It was inappropriate. As King and Queen of Narnia, we made the executive decision to not inform anyone of the result of our actions, our daughter. I would like to request that each and every one of you keep her existence quiet, as it would set a terrible example for the country if the news were to get out."
One of the nurses, Ziena, raised a tentative hand.
"Yes?" Avaline asked, nodding at her.
Ziena said, "Your Majesty, if I may ask, how do you expect for the information not to get out? If you remember, Calormen has already spread word to several neighboring countries about the pregnancy."
"Yeah, and here's a question," Biff joined in.
He rose from his seat and looked around to meet the eyes of each and every person in the room. The dwarf stopped his wandering stare on Avaline and Edmund.
"How will you continue to care for the princess and take care of royal duties without including her? You can't possibly expect to keep her locked up for the rest of your life."
The Passionate Queen couldn't find anything to say to that comment. She stood speechless for several moments, leaving an awkward silence. Finally, she looked down at Edmund helplessly.
"Ava," he said quietly from her side, "we can't keep it up. There's no way."
She was about to protest, but he raised a hand to stop her.
"No, we can't. You know it's impossible. At this point, our courting is official and has been for a year. Our mistakes have already been made. Keeping them with our subjects is just as bad as making them. She deserves a normal life, not a secret one."
Avaline broke eye contact with her boyfriend to look down at the sleeping child in her arms. The short, brown hair on the top of the baby's head matched the color of Avaline's. Her eye shape matched her mother's, but her father's eye color was represented. She had the nose of her father, and plump lips like her mother. The light, olive-toned skin was a mixture of the two parents.
The Telmarine-born queen couldn't help it; she had fallen in love with the baby in her arms. She would do anything for her and if that meant being called bad names or being gossiped about by other countries for her mistakes, then so be it.
"Okay," she said, looking back at Edmund. "Tonight we make the announcement."
Peter stood once again. "Our meeting has concluded. Narnians, please do not discuss the princess until after the news is released."
After that, all of them had left the room to prepare for the night's excitements.
Now, Avaline sat in the royals' private sitting room. She held her two-day-old daughter in her arms and fed her from a bottle. Susan sat on a couch with Analiese that sat next to Avaline's chair, and Lucy sat with her legs crossed on the carpeted floor.
"Aslan, look at you," Analiese thought out loud. She watched Avaline longingly. "I wish I had a baby."
"Well, you could if you wanted to," Avaline replied, barely looking up from the baby long enough to make eye contact.
The High Queen chuckled. "Not really."
"What do you mean?" Susan asked. "Of course you could! After all, you're married."
"Um, what I mean is..." Analiese hesitated.
"What is it, Ana?"
Analiese took a deep breath. "I am unable to bear children."
The three other queens gasped, and Avaline dropped the bottle from poor Adela's mouth in shock.
"Goodness, I had no idea!" Susan cried, leaning over to embrace her sister-in-law. "I'm so sorry."
"No, it's fine. Aslan came to me several months ago with the news."
Another three gasps.
"You've seen Aslan since the wedding?" Lucy questioned with wide eyes.
"Yes, but only in a dream."
"Well, I for one know better than to question Aslan when I see him," Lucy gave her sister a pointed look. "But I can't believe he would allow you and Peter together without the intention of having you produce an heir."
Analiese shook her head. "I couldn't believe it either."
"Does Peter know?" Avaline asked.
"Yes, and I've explained how deeply regretful I was of marrying him with this disability. I wish I had known beforehand."
"He wasn't mad, was he?"
"No, not at all. He was quite understanding and realized how pained I was."
The four young women remained quiet, going back to their work to occupy them. Susan was knitting a hat for her new niece, Lucy was sketching designs for a new nursery, Avaline tended to her baby, and Analiese was writing letters and signing official documents pertaining to the trouble in Calormen.
After a good amount of time had passed, Edmund entered the room. Avaline's chair faced away from the entrance to the sitting room, so he couldn't see her.
"Is Avaline in here?" he asked.
The three queens pointed in her direction, and Avaline turned her head to look at him.
"Hey," she greeted him. A warm smile spread across her face at the sight of him.
"I need to talk to you for a minute," he said.
She began to stand, little Adela still in her arms.
"Actually, can you leave the baby with Su? I wanted to talk alone, if that's okay."
"Uh, sure," Avaline said, surprised. She gently handed her daughter to Susan.
As soon as her and Edmund were outside of the room, he stopped. "The baby has really brought us together, but that doesn't resolve our issues. We need to talk it out because if we don't now, we never will."
"You're right," Avaline agreed.
"Let's start with Morgana," he suggested.
"I don't want to talk about that night," she interrupted before he could begin. "I'm not ready for that yet. If you must, then please keep the details to a minimum."
"Okay. You know how Lord John and Morgana were acting rather flirtatious toward the both of us throughout their visit. Several weeks ago, she decided during one of our friendly talks - or so I had thought they were back then - that she wanted to kiss me. I just stood there for the longest time, shocked. But then... I started kissing back."
There were several moments lacking speech in which Edmund wiped at his eyes. He finally composed himself enough to continue, but he still couldn't look her in the eye.
"Ava, I don't know why I did it. Thinking back, I really don't. I just... did, I guess. It felt right in the moment. And she just kept kissing me, and all I could think of was-"
"Whatever happened to lowering the detail?" Avaline interrupted.
"I'm sorry," he muttered before continuing. "Anyway, then I heard something and I turned around to find you."
Edmund squeezed his eyes shut to try to fight the tears. A few slipped down his cheeks and he wiped them off. "When I saw the look on your face," he whispered with a broken voice, "it was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. It was like watching an avalanche after years of snow. Like everything you had ever known was falling apart."
By now, Avaline was crying, as well. Silent tears fell down her face.
"I'm so sorry, Ava. So, so sorry," he said as he reached for her. She took a step toward him and let him wrap his arms around her. He buried his face in her shoulder for a while, and she knew that to refuse him now would be to break him. She had to forgive him. Deep inside, she knew she already had though. The moment she laid eyes on their daughter's face, she knew she couldn't afford to hold anything against Edmund any longer.
Eventually he let go so as to continue. "When I got to Calormen with Morgana several days later, I was relieved to know that I never had to lay eyes on her again. But she had convinced the Tisroc to allow me to spend my trip with her in her own home. It wasn't until the first night of my stay when I became drowsy directly after dinner that I knew something was up. And it hit me a few seconds before I blacked out what she had done - she had drugged my wine.
"When I woke the next morning, I had no idea where I was and no memory of what had happened the night before. I began to get out of bed, but then I realized I was undressed. I turned around to see if I had thrown my clothes on top of the bed only to find her lying next to me.
"It took everything in me to hold down the contents of my dinner, and even then I couldn't control it for long. I had to run out of the room moments later. When I returned, she was waiting. She sat in the bed, and that's when it hit me. I had been raped."
"I'm so sorry, Ed," Avaline whispered, putting her arms around him once again.
"In hindsight, I suppose I deserved it. After all, I had cheated on the woman who means most to me in this world. How could I expect to escape punishment so freely?"
"Stop," she said, grabbing his hands. "Nobody deserves this. Nobody, do you hear me? I wouldn't even wish it on Morgana, though I suspect she has much worse awaiting her soon."
"How could I hurt you like that?" he asked, his eyes searching his girlfriend's. He wanted to find a sign of anger, he wanted her to be mad. At least then he'd be getting the punishment he needed. But there was nothing but forgiveness in her.
"When you love someone, sometimes it means getting hurt. I'll live with the consequences of loving you, as will you. We'll get through it together. That's what love is, Edmund."
He smiled at her for the first time in a long time. A true smile.
"I love you," he whispered.
He kissed her forehead, then brushed his thumb over the place where his lips had touched her skin.
"As long as I live."
00000000
Queen Susan sat in the library in her favorite armchair, reading a romance book she had discovered a few days ago. She fell in love with it upon reading the first few pages, and could barely put it down.
It wasn't exactly a love story so much as a crush story. Susan hated that word more than anything, it reminded her of her not-so-fabulous days as a young teenager back in England. But seeing as this book had to do with a girl falling in love secretly, that's the only word that could be used to describe it.
"Good evening, Gentle Queen," a heavily-accented voice said in a low tone from behind Susan.
She jumped slightly in surprise and dropped her book in her lap by accident, losing her page in the process. She turned her head in the direction of the voice only to find her face to be inches away from that of King Caspian's.
"Caspian," Susan said breathlessly. "What brings you to the library?"
"Why, the books, of course! Does the intelligent Queen not know of my love for reading?"
"You're kidding," Susan raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "You told me just a month ago that you hated reading. If I do recall, I believe your exact words were, 'If I could burn every book in Cair Paravel, I would do so in less than three hours.'"
Caspian raised his hands above his head in defeat. "Alright, you caught me. I came here to see if I could find you."
"Me? Why?"
He leaned in to kiss Susan on her cheek. "Because we're unofficially courting now, remember?"
"Oh, right. With all the stress about Avaline and having to keep up Narnia with you, Lucy, and Edmund gone, I could barely focus on you at all!"
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she gasped.
"Oh dear... Caspian, you know that's not what I meant."
"I know, I know. I couldn't get you off of my mind, though. The entire trip."
"Well," Susan said under her breath, biting her lip. "I'm glad I could make a mark on you so easily."
"I'm glad you recognize your beauty - inside and out," Caspian smiled at her.
The clock in the back of the library made several dongs to symbolize that the new hour was upon them. He looked back at it and his eyes widened at the sight.
"Oh no, your brothers are going to kill me!" Caspian ran to the library entrance and called out, "I'll see you at dinner, Queen Susan!"
"Bye, Caspian!" she called after him.
After three years of knowing the young man and all but begging him to call her just Susan, he still insisted upon calling her by her royal name. He did the same with her siblings and Analiese. It annoyed her, yet she adored that about him as well.
It showed Caspian's character. How, even though he knew it was okay to call them by their first names, he refused to do so because he felt they deserved to be called by their respectable titles.
One of the many reasons I like him, Susan thought, smiling to herself.
With nothing else to do beside occupy herself with thoughts of Caspian, she decided to return to her own personal world, back into her new favorite book.
A/N: Sooo you should totally review this... Back before I stopped updating for forever, I would get anywhere from 6-11 reviews for every chapter, but this time around I think I had 4. That's pretty sad so yeah please review and make me happy happy happy!