Disclaimer: I own nothing that is from C. S. Lewis' books. But Evie is mine.

italics thoughts

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The Victorian style mansion loomed ominously ahead of them, its great east and west wings spreading out from the main entrance of the structure like the expansive wings of an albatross, a bird known for its record- breaking wing span. What secrets could an edifice such as that be hiding? Secret passage ways that had once housed rebels to the Crown? Hidden rooms with rare and expensive medieval weapons, or paintings by renowned painters such as Botticelli, Raphael, or Durer? Evelyn could see a greenhouse tucked next to the end of the west wing, a wide expanse of carefully cultivated gardens right next to the greenhouse to accomodate the less tricky plants that did not require the exact temperature that the greenhouse provided. The next thing she saw just about took her breath away. As they came closer to the house and the carriage drove out of the small outcropping of trees leading up to the house, a perfectly clichéd version of English countryside hit her eyes with the gentleness of a cool breeze against a face on a balmy summer's day. The gently rolling hills that the house was situated among were filled with lush, green fauna, with small white and lavender clumps where wild flowers were growing, a perfect nesting for hungry little insects. A small rivulet ran meandering along, like a happy drunk stumbling through the street, unable to walk in a straight line. It bubbled merrily, almost musically, its water lapping gently around the curves in its path like a lover caressing his woman. It was, in short, positively the most intimidating place that Evelyn had seen in her mere sixteen years. And she could not wait to go exploring the towering structure in looming in front of her, and then afterwards, perhaps, take a stroll on the green knolls, and probably not be able to resist rolling down them like a barrel that has escaped out of its owner's hands.

"It's so big!"

"It will certainly have no problem of holding all of us, Lu" replied Peter, hitching his jaw up from where his and the rest's had fallen to the floor of the carriage when they had gotten their first look of the house.

"I expect you children to be on your best behavior while you are here, as the Professor is not accustomed to having children around" said Mrs. Macready, "I will tell you the rest of the rules when we get to the house."

"You mean he lives here all be hisself?"

Mrs. Macready frowned dissaprovingly and muttered "For god's sake what do they teach kids in school these days?" and said in a louder tone to Edmund, "Himself, all by himself. And yes, he lives here by himself, except for us servants and the frequent visits by his good friends."

"No wonder he wanted some kids around. He must be awfully lonesome" said Lucy knowingly, as if she had just found out his secret.

"I am quite sure that his reasons are his own, and it is not your place to be asking about them, young lady"

"Will we be able to play outside? Or go walking around on the property?"

Peter sniggered at Evelyn's still slightly dreamy expression. He knew that she had always been unable to resist tromping around outside, a fact which he knew Susan disapproved of sternly. But it was a fact he was happy of, glad to know at least one girl who was not perturbed about getting messy. In, fact, she seemed to quite enjoy running around outside, staying out of doors for hours on end, especially if it was an open space, just feeling the wind through her hair. Yes, she is most definitely an outdoors kind of person. And that is an understatement, he chuckled silently.

"As long as you don't mess up the gardens" said Mrs. Macready suspiciously, as if wondering what mischief this newcomer might possibly be brewing on her precious flowers.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Hmm" she clucked disapprovingly, "Quite."

Oh my dear Lord, I've died and gone to heaven! She thought dazedly still staring in awe at her surroundings. If I had a choice of where to live, this would be exactly my decision. But I wouldn't be able to live alone like this professor does. I wonder what sort of man he is. Is he strict and stern like his house keeper, or is he the paternal, grandfatherly sort of Oxford professor? The kind who wears matching tweed suits and hats, with his glasses perched on the end of his nose, always ready to tell you a story and who reads in his library next to a fire in the evening. Oh, I do hope he is no strictt like Mrs. Macready.

The carriage pulled to a stop by a tug on the ribbons controlling the horses. Evelyn jumped excitedly out of the cart, followed closely by Lucy, who almost equaled her in enthusiasm for this new place. Then Susan jumped down with more dignity trailed by Peter and Edmund. The group walked up to the great double doors where Mrs. Macready took out her keys, and inserted one brass, old-fashioned key into the ancient keyhole. As she pushed it open in creaked as if the hinges had not been oiled in some time.

" They really must fix that. Visitors will think they are coming into a beastly haunted house" mumbled Mrs. Macready in aggravation.

"Well, here we are. This here is the entrance hall. If you lose your way, try to find this place and you can access any part of the estate that you might want to visit. Just don't go looking for any place you are not supposed to be" she warned, giving them a suddenly stern look.

"As I said previously, the Professor is not accustomed to having children in the house and as such I expect a few rules to be followed."

She led them through a door on the right and up a set of stairs. "There shall be no shouting, and certainly no running. No any improper use whatsoever of the dumbwaiter, NO touching of the historical artifacts!" This she barked at Susan who had been about to touch a bust of a historical person. "And above all, there is to be no disturbing of the Professor."

"You mean we can't meet the person in whose house we are staying in? Isn't it a little rude not to even thank him for letting us stay?" asked Susan incredulously, but all of the other children knew that she was trying to appeal to Mrs. Macready's loathing of anything rude or impolite. They all grinned at each other victoriously as Susan bested the martinet housekeeper.

Mrs. Macready floundered for an explanation. "Young lady! It is not your place to question your elders."

"I think that's her excuse for everything" whispered Evelyn to Peter who nodded with a role of his eyes and a chuckle.

Mrs. Macready gave her a withering look and Evelyn had the grace to look sheepish. The housekeeper took them through doors, down endless hallways, down another set of stairs, through yet another hallway, and up a set of stairs, and made so many twists and turns that after a while Evelyn was completely and hopelessly lost. Okay. I can do this. To get back to the entrance hall just take a left, 2 rights, one more left, down some stairs, a left, through a door, a right...wait that's not right its a left. Right? No, left. No, I mean right. No left. No—Oh I dunno! This is absolute bollocks. How are we ever to find our way to dinner or even to the loo?

"Right this way please. Your rooms are right down this hallway. The girls will sleep in the door on the right, and you boys will be on the left in that door a little ways down. Dinner is served at 7:00 sharp and if you are late you will have to go without as the cooks can't be troubled into fixing you up an additional plate if you refused to show up on time for the regular meal. Tonight I will send up a maid to take you to the Dining Room where you will be served, but after that you are on your own. But if you do get hopelessly lost, as you are bound to do, then there is a bell pull in about every major room and a servant will come and help you find your way back. But if I find you have been pulling at it for a bit of fun then you shall find yourself scrubbing the kitchen floors and washing the dishes for as long as I want you to, in addition to a few more things that you will be punished with. If you fancy a snack, but find that it is not mealtime, then find your way to the kitchen and if the cooks are generous you may find a snack."

Once they had absorbed the slew of instructions they all raced to their respective rooms.

"It's not really fair that they get to have a room all to their selves and we have to cram three of us into this room. Girls need more room anyway."

"Seriously. But at least it's not too cramped. We all even have our own set of drawers. And look, the beds are even comfortable." Evelyn sank down onto her plush four-poster bed and lay down, testing it out. "Really comfortable actually."

She ran her fingers over the soft down comforter. It actually wasn't that bad. It was quite a lovely room as a matter of fact. She could see herself curled up with a book her on her bed if she ever fancied reading one. The room was of a large size with three four-poster beds in complimenting places around the room. Their down feather comforters matched the purple color scheme of the room except instead of just a straight up solid color of purple there was a swirling of silver thread entwined into the pattern of leafy fronds and fleur de lis with lilies. The four poster frame was of a dark chocolate kind of wood that matched the three sets of drawers and bedside tables in the room. There was a glossy wood floor of the same grain and color as the furniture with tasteful thick purple carpets in the appropriate places. There were plain white walls but with a border around the ceiling that had purple fleur de lis and lilies in a pattern that matched the comforters exactly. There were rich dark purple curtains over the two large windows that promised to have a gorgeous view. Evelyn took a peek. Yep, there was a view, understatement of the century. Evelyn noticed two double doors on the right side of their room and stepped inside of them with Lucy and Susan peeking around her curiously. Inside was a bathroom with all of the amenities that they might need. It was not overly large, but it was not so small that they would have to elbow each other to get a little space. A bath tub with a rim of opaque shower curtains draping down from above it if one wished to take a shower stood in the corner next to the toilet. Above a sink with silver fixtures was a mirror about one meter wide that had a gilded frame of silver engraved with filigree scrolling around it in the shape of -big surprise- fleur de lis and lilies.

"This room reminds me of a fairy princess' room!" said Lucy delighted.

"I think I may have to take back my first impression of this gorgeous room." said Susan in awe of the detail of the fabric and the engravings and...well, just about everything.

Evelyn laughed delightedly. "Oh, this will be such fun! Just think of it! Gothic style house with a mysterious host—the only thing that is missing is a murder to solve or a ghost that haunts the other wing!"

Chuckling knowingly, Susan squashed Evelyn's imaginations "Now don't be letting your imagination go running wild. Either of you. This is a perfectly normal house. It's only a bit older and bigger than some of the others we've seen."

"Oh, Su, you're such a spoilsport. There might be something magical here! You never know" protested Lucy, disgruntled at her sister ruining her picture of princesses and dragons and swords and knights and princes. Good thing she had not really been paying attention to Evelyn's own imaginings for she would have had nightmares for at least a week.

"We need to unpack. I don't fancy living out of a trunk for however long we're to be here."

"Alright. But after that, can we get the boys and go exploring or do something fun? I'm so knackered of sitting after that train ride. We left at, what, eight in the morning? And it's now about 4 o'clock? That's 7 hours on that bloody train. I want to do something."

"Evelyn! Don't swear!" Susan said with a pointed glance to Lucy. Evelyn winced. She had forgotten about not swearing in front of Lucy. "And yes, I'd like that too but it's more practical to do it now and not before we go to bed when we are all tired and grumpy, so we'll have some fun after we unpack."

"You're right. Ugh, I do so hate it when you are right. Even though you are all the time" she said with a grin.

"Well if we're gonna unpack can we get started already instead of standing here?" giggled Lucy.

"You got it, Lu. I call the bed next to the window! Sorry, you know how much of a sucker I am for views" Evelyn said apologetically.

Lucy and Susan laughed. "Yes, we know, that's why we didn't take that one for one of our own."

"Oh. Well, cheers!"

After several curses about trunks that wouldn't open (from Evelyn), strewn clothes (again, Evelyn), calm remarks (from Susan), and giggles at Evelyn's antics (from Lucy) later, their drawers were finally filled and their trunks were blessedly empty. They took a collective sigh in relief, and trudged out of their rooms to Peter and Edmund's, where they assumed they had just been doing the same. Imagine their surprise and envy when they found that instead of unpacking like they had been doing, they were both fast asleep on their beds, too pooped out from the trip here to do anything else. Typical. Ugh, boys. Evelyn shook her head hopelessly. Well, at least some of us got to do something they wanted to.

"Well, there's no use trying to wake them up. We might as well go do the same. Besides, I'm beat."

"Oh, yes please. A nap sounds wonderful right now."

"You two go ahead. I'm not really that tired. I think I'm going to go find the library in this maze of a house and see if there isn't anything I can find to read. I'll come back to the room when it's almost time for supper."

"Ok, Evie. We'll see you when it's almost suppertime then."

"K, see you later."

Evelyn walked out of the boy's room after Lucy and Susan but turned to go down the hall the opposite direction from their room. She wandered aimlessly around until she found one of the rooms that Mrs. Macready mention that had the bell pull. She gave it a hearty tug but did not hear the slight tinkling she had been expecting. Well, maybe since they haven't had guests in the house for so long they haven't bothered to keep the bell pulls useable shape. In that case, I guess I'm on my own in finding the library, unless I can find a servant or maid to ask for directions. She mentally groaned, not looking forward to just walking around without a destination. Well, I could make my way back to the entrance hall, but I don't think I could find my way. She began to just leave the room when a maid came almost bowling her over from around the next corner. The maid hastily straightened her skirt and apron and brushed her dirty blonde hair out of her face. She was not much older than Evelyn, maybe only 21 at the most, and had a pretty, kind face and inviting smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I heard the bell pull from it's receiver in the kitchen and I was hurrying as fast as I could to where it had been rang. I suppose that was you?"

"Yes, that was me, sorry. I was wondering where the library was. All of my friends decided to take a nap and since I wasn't tired I decided to find a book to read. Could you, perhaps, if it's not too much trouble, show me to the library?" explained Evelyn shyly.

"Well, as I'm already here it would be even more trouble to go all the way back to the kitchen after coming here for no reason. But, yes I would be happy to show you to our library."

"Oh, thank you, and once again I'm sorry for interrupting your work."

"It's not a problem, kid. As there is only the Professor and this big empty house there is not much work to be done except dustin' and even then the Professor doesn't like for us to dust the rare artifacts so much, because if they are dusted to often, they might be ruined. Oh, and by the way you can call me Mandie."

Mandie led her back to the entrance hall, which seemed to Evelyn in a much quicker route the Mrs. Macready did, and took her down the lengthy halls and stairways to the library.

"As you may know, our library here houses some of the most well known folios and manuscripts on history in England. I must ask you to use gloves if you handle them and to put them back just the way that they were when you're done. You should find the books categorized rather obviously, but if you need any help finding something then there is a bell pull over there in the corner whose end is in the librarian's study. If you need more help than that then the librarian will find the Professor, but I ask that you only request for him if there is an emergency." Mandie said the entire bit about the folios and manuscripts with obvious pride and absolutely delighted in the look of awe that was on Evelyn's face.

"This is huge! Thank you so much, Mandie."

The library was the perfect model for any mansion. The room was a circular shape, but much bigger than you would think an elliptical room would be. There were large, floor-to-ceiling windows framed by scarlet drapes and small little window seats tucked into niches around the room with scarlet and gold patterned cushions. It had the customary caramel colored, oak wood paneling, scarlet carpeting, and, most importantly, was filled to the ceiling with shelves and shelves of books. Where the shelves were highest, there was a ladder attached to a gold rim along the ceiling so that you could climb up and reach a book at any place in the whole library, thanks to the curved shape of the room, which probably had that convenience in mind when it was built. On the ceiling, which was rather high up, there were map designs in cream and brown, with each country and body of water included, most likely a play on the circular room being like a globe. It was artistically but tastefully painted, not frivolous looking at all. On the oak paneled walls at certain intervals there were oil lamps with scarlet lampshades that winked merrily out of the corner of your eye. At the far end of the library, there was a painting of what looked like the landscape of this very mansion, but with a few exceptions. The trees were not so tall and in the distance, the mansion did not yet have an additional west wing. It must have been painted some number of years before.

Evelyn happily ambled up to the nearest shelf, and scanned the book. The Cell's Growth and Its Uses, Planetary orbit, Genetics...ugh, this must be the science section. I hate science. It takes the mystery out of everything. Hmmmm, where's the fiction? Or even history? She wandered a little further down the shelf, scanning titles, and began to see some that looked promising. Hmm Jane Austen, no she has way to happy endings and no action. Charles Dickens? no. Shakespeare? no, not in the mood for sonnets or reading script from a play. Alexander Dumas? oooh, he's perfect, a little bit of action, a little romance. I think I'll read The Count of Monte Cristo.

She skipped happily to one of the window seats tucked out of the way, curled up and prepared for a nice long, peaceful afternoon of a riveting novel.

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The sun had long since set on the picturesque English countryside. But what the light had rendered beautiful and majestic now seemed haunting and ominous in the dark. Inside the mansion of a lone man, a Professor, there was an uncharacteristic disturbance. Three of the five children he had taken on seemed to think that their younger sister was going crazy, making up strange lands in her head as they were playing hide and seek, and the fifth child was no where to be found. Not to say that the fifth, a teenage girl, had disappeared. No, the maid he had questioned told him that she had left the child in the library, and after he had looked in said room, he had found the girl curled up on a window seat with the drapes closed in around her, so as to prevent discovery, fast asleep. He had left her there for the night and allayed the other children's fears and told them that she had fallen asleep in the library, where it was best to leave her for the time being. Besides, he had more important things to worry about. The youngest child! She had entered into Narnia through the wardrobe! Was this the child Aslan spoke of? He somehow did not think so. But who else could it be? Certainly not the others. But even so, he would keep a watchful eye on them all for the Special One. But what about the other piece he had made from the wood of the Narnian tree, the one which was not a piece of furniture, but a part of a room? What part did it play in all of this? As of yet, he had not gotten the feeling that Aslan said he would. Aslan said he would just know. And he didn't. Know that is, at least not yet. Well, that was damned irritating, that's what it was. Was there anything more ambiguous than that that Aslan could have possibly said? Damned bloody irritating, that is, he thought again. Ah, well he would just have to play it by ear and hope that he would know soon. I wish that Polly were here to help me figure this bloody thing out. But she's on the continent right now visiting some monasteries. What the devil is that woman doing visiting monasteries anyway? he grumbled to himself.

Aslan would be waiting too, waiting for the one he had waited for since she died and since she went away. Just, waiting.

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YAY another chapter finished. Sorry this one took so long but I won't be able to update as often as I like over the week days b/c of school. So who is the Special One? Hehe I know I'm evil. Just to clear up any confusion, yes, Lucy has already been into the wardrobe. The other children woke up while Evelyn was in the library and played hide and seek before dinner. After that while they went to bed, Lucy entered it again with Edmund. So yes, Evelyn has missed allot this excitement. But there's a reason...I didn't want her to know where she was at all when she went there herself, and since she was asleep...she won't know what to think when she gets to Narnia cause she'd have never heard of anything like that before. Anyway hope that clears some stuff up. Tell me what you think! I think this is my best chapter so far :D

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