Author's note: Wow, I've never gotten four reviews at one go! Thanks lots to Jillie, as always, Callie (glad you're still reading this) and Alix (if you're still noticing this). I hope this chapter's up to mark!

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own any of C.S. Lewis's characters. :D

Chapter 3: A Startling Discovery

The children had been hoping that Mrs. Lafferty had somehow not known about the dreadful incident with Miss Pevensie because they wanted badly to go to town. Mrs. Lafferty didn't mention it at all during dinnertime, and not at all when she tucked them all into their beds, but the next morning, it was the first thing she told them.

"Mrs. Lafferty!"

"No more! Not ever!" she shot dangerously glinting brown eyes at them, and the children shut their mouths at once. She gave them an excellent ticking-off for their disobedience and sent them back to their rooms so that they wouldn't cause any more trouble, especially since today was a party day.

The children had no choice but to shut themselves in either the girls' or the boys' room and did whatever they could to humour themselves. John, who was a huge fan of checkers, invited Anne to play a game with him. Anne was uninitiated in checkers, and she certainly didn't find anything amusing in a board of red and black squares and irritating little pieces that can be 'eaten', but since there was nothing else to do, she tried a hand at it anyway.

And to everyone's surprise, she won.

"No fair!" said John, blushing angrily as Anne whooped and hugged William, who had helped her on the pretext of her innocence.

Laura laughed. "Oh, cheer up, John. It's just a game. Don't get so worked up over it."

"You ever heard of beginner's luck?" teased William.

"Shut it if you don't want this," John shook a fist at his brother. He didn't see what was so funny in his gesture when Laura and Anne giggled and even William cracked a smile.

"Come on, John, let's play another round. And this time I promise I'll be easy on you," said Laura. John knew that she was no good at checkers so he cheered up a bit and agreed. Anne giggled and sat on the window-sill beside William and touched her neck to play with her whistle but she found nothing hanging around her neck. She looked down and the tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn't have lost it. If she really did, oh, oh, she couldn't bear the very thought of it! She ran out and went into her own room and turned her trunk and all the cupboards and drawers higgledy-piggledy in search for her beloved whistle. But no matter how hard she looked or how many times she dug through a particular heap of clothes and books, it was nowhere in sight.

She ran back into her brothers' room, shouting desperately, "I've lost it! Oh, I really have lost it!"

Laura and John, who were playing another round of checkers (John and Laura had argued about a move Laura made and decided to start all over again) looked up, startled, as Anne dashed heatedly into the room. Her face was flushed and she appeared as if she had just ran around Miss Pevensie's large, sprawling estate and back when she had really just left for a few minutes.

"What's the matter, Anne?" asked Laura.

"It's the whistle. It's gone," wailed Anne.

John let out a guffaw. "Oh, goody. I was beginning to think that you'd glued that silly toy to your neck."

Anne gave him an odd look which he noticed at once. His face grew a little red and he said hurriedly, "Have you checked everything properly before you start blaming me?"

"It's you!" said Anne, in a disbelieving and choked voice. "You took it!"

William scowled at John. "Give it back to her."

"No, I didn't!" he half-shouted. "Why would I even want to have anything to do with that – that thing?"

"Because you were mad at me for beating you at checkers," said Anne.

John's mouth fell open. "I am mad, of course, but I wouldn't – I'd never – Laura, I'm not joking - "

"That's enough, John," said Laura. "If you've taken it, do give it back now."

John's expression grew more and more incredulous by the minute. Why weren't they believing him? He would never take anything and hide it – well, there was one time when he threw Anne's lollipop into the drain, and snipped one of her doll Mary's annoying little braids, but he – well, he really didn't do it this time!

"John," said William warningly.

"I'm telling you – I – DIDN'T – TAKE – THAT – STUPID – WHISTLE! So there!"

Anne burst into tears and ran away from the room. Laura gave her brother a look and went after her. William stood angrily, losing the mood to continue the game. He gave John a frown and said, "That wasn't very nice of you, John."

Now he was getting worked up as well. "I'm telling you, I didn't take it."

"You could, at least, be nice to Anne once in a while. I've seen the way you offer to help those pretty girls in your class. Why can't you do the same to Anne?"

"They're not the same! I hope you've noticed that Anne's three forms below me?"

"I do, but that's no excuse!"

"I've been really patient with her, you know," John jumped to his feet and glared at his brother squarely in the eye. William didn't even flinch, and that only inflamed his temper. He hated the fact that William was always better than him, William was this, William was that – he didn't mind Laura because she was the eldest and he knew that he had to respect her authority, but William was only three years older than him. He had no right to push him around like he was some obstinate school-kid.

"Well I don't see it," said William coldly.

"Then shucks to you!" John shoved him as hard as he could and stomped out of the room noisily.

As his anger cooled off, his stomps softened. He decided to pay another trip to the attic to see if Anne had somehow left it there (he knew it was impossible, but you never know). He thought he heard voices in that room and looked into it. The girls were in there. They were seated on the floor. Laura had her arms wrapped around Anne and she was singing 'Hush Little Baby' softly while Anne's sobs turned into hiccups. John felt that he should apologise even if he hadn't done it. He knocked timidly on the door and his sisters looked up in surprise.

"Can I, er, come in?"

Laura smiled at Anne, who nodded and wiped her tears away with a pink handkerchief. "Of course," she said softly.

"Thanks," he mumbled and he walked slowly towards her. After a few minutes feeling properly awkward, he finally blurted out: "I'm sorry for being mean to you, Anne. But I want you to know that I didn't take the whistle. Honest, I didn't."

Anne smiled and sniffed, but she didn't look too happy yet. "I know. And thanks for saying sorry, even if you didn't take it. I should be saying sorry too because I blamed for you for taking it. I thought that you'd done it out of spite."

John grinned weakly.

"Now, it's all settled," said Laura happily, and she tucked Anne's short hair behind her ear, "it'll turn up, Anne, I'm sure it will. They always do, sooner or later."

But Anne was no longer listening to her. Her gaze was fixed on a wardrobe she had seen before in the very same room, but it had been broken before. Now it looked as if it had been fixed and it was even gleaming like newly polished. Laura and John followed her gaze.

"What is it, Anne?"

"The wardrobe . . ." Anne pointed at it. It had elaborate carvings on it and looked to be made of solid mahogany or something like that. Laura and John looked. John frowned. "I don't see what's the - "

"By gum!" said Laura. "Get William. If there's anyone who knows how long it takes to fix a wardrobe, it's him." She said that because he and his friends had often helped Mr. Collins in school repair all sorts of broken furniture. Laura remembered him coming home one day proclaiming proudly that he had managed to fix the canteen larder. Anne hurried off to get her brother.

John looked at Laura, "What's the fuss?"

"When was the last time we came in here?" she asked back.

"Almost a week, I guess. But what - "

"This wardrobe was broken the last time we came in here." She stood and went over towards it. Her fingers traced the delicate carvings on the magnificent wardrobe and when she had finished tracing the shape of two crowns, a thrilling sensation shot through her finger-tips. She withdrew her hands at once and took a step back to admire the full view of the wardrobe.

"Was it?" he couldn't remember.

Laura laughed gently. "You're never one for details like this."

John grinned.

"What's up?" came William's voice as he pushed open the door to the attic. Anne pointed the wardrobe out to him. "How long do you think it'll take to reassemble a wardrobe like that?"

William shrugged. "I don't know, maybe two weeks or more. But hey, wasn't this broken? I remember thinking what a pity this wardrobe's done in the last time we came here."

"I was thinking the same thing. How odd," said Laura.

"Can we take a look inside it?" asked Anne hopefully.

"I don't think there'll be anything interesting in it," said Laura again, thinking of what had happened the last time she had said yes to a plea.

"Oh, it won't hurt us," said William a little hastily and he strode over to the wardrobe and yanked the door open. Anne held her breath and John too became interested when their older siblings peered into the wardrobe. Finally, he said, "Nothing in here. Just some fur coats. And, phew! What a smell!" He made a face and closed the wardrobe door.

"But it's not supposed to - " said Laura, properly mortified. "I mean – oh, how queer!"

Suddenly, there were sounds of footsteps and voices coming from outside the door. Fear stopped their hearts. Miss Pevensie!

If it really was her . . . They didn't dare think of what would befall them next.

John, who was nearest to the door, had some sense to peek outside. The siblings waited for his proclamation with bated breath. Anne went over to Laura and clutched at her skirt.

He leaned a little forward and suddenly gave a yelp. He shut the door and ran towards the wardrobe. "Miss Pevensie and Mrs. Lafferty!" He opened the wardrobe door and jumped in, his eyes wide with fear and his face pale as sheet. "Come on, what are you doing?"

"Are you sure it's them?" asked Laura, her voice shaking.

"Do you think I'd lie to you about this sort of thing?"

The door-knob rattled and the children wasted no time hurrying into the wardrobe. Laura went in last. Anne helped her in, her heart pounding with fright. The door was about to creak open just as Laura had tucked her legs in and pulled the door of the wardrobe shut, but not entirely, because Anne supposed that her sister had heard of what had befallen her classmate, Angela Belamy in school when she had shut herself in the school sports cupboard so that she could escape sports and they ended up calling the firemen to pry the cupboard door open so that she could get out. All the students learnt a valuable lesson.

She backed away slowly into the dark wardrobe, keeping her eyes fixed on the shaft of light from the half-shut entrance. Suddenly, she bumped into something and she gave a little scream. Hurried, frantic shuffling and messy, confused shouting soon ensued in the pitch-blackness of the wardrobe amid the thick fur coats.

"What? What? Who's there?"

"It's Laura – ouch! Don't push!"

"You stepped on my foot!"

"Are you Anne?"

"Whoever that is, stop pulling on my hair!"

"Ow! Who pushed me?"

"Not me!"

"Stop it, John!"

"What?"

"I – WOAH!" Anne felt herself tripping over something and was thinking that nothing could be worse than slamming her face against a piece of wood when, to her utmost surprise, she did fall, but her fall was cushioned by a carpet of rough, dry grass.

Anne groaned and tried to push herself up. "Blearrrghh . . ." she spat out bits of brown grass. Then she realised that they were grass, and suddenly she was aware of standing in a forest. The sky above was a bleak grey and Anne took it to be about morning. Behind her were thick bushes and trees and beyond them she could she the faint light from outside the wardrobe.

"Where are we?"