Chapter 23

Susan burst into the sitting room followed by two guards to find Georgie seated in a chair and Edmund crouching before her.

In all the confusion from earlier, she had not thought twice about sending Lucy after the guards. But once she had heard the thud of a body hitting the floor in Georgie's room, she had felt fearful of her younger sister alone in the castle. She had rushed after Lucy, hoping the intruders in Georgie's room were the only intruders in the castle. Susan turned a corner quickly and saw Lucy, pointing towards the siblings' apartment and motioning frantically with her hands. Susan let out a sigh of relief and hurried towards her sister and the guards.

"Hurry! King Peter and King Edmund will need your help!" Lucy ordered, her voice trembling with fear. The guards quickly bowed before the two queens and rushed to where Lucy had pointed them. "What's happened?" Lucy cried, turning to her sister. Her eyes were wide with fright.

"I don't know. I was worried about you being alone with intruders in the castle, so I came after you," Susan said.

"Why would you leave? What if something had happened?" Lucy said loudly.

"Lu, it's okay. Peter and Edmund are deadly when together; there's no way anything bad could happen to either of them," Susan said comfortingly, placing an arm around her sister's shoulders. If only I believed that, she thought.

Edmund looked up as his older sister and two guards walked into the room. "The bodies are in there," he said, pointing to Georgie's room. He felt Georgie shudder under his hand which was placed on her knee at the mention of the bodies. "Shh, don't worry," he said softly, squeezing her knee gently before standing. "Where are Peter and Lucy?" he asked Susan.

"They went to find Captain Perth. Peter wants a full lock-down of Cair Paravel until tomorrow morning," Susan said as she walked towards the sofa nearest to Georgie. "Are you okay?" she asked. Georgie turned towards Susan and smiled slightly before nodding. Susan reached over and grabbed Georgie's hand and squeezed it. "Thank goodness. I was so worried about you!" she said.

The guards, who had went to survey Georgie's room, walked back into the sitting room. "Well?" Edmund asked, turning towards them as they entered the room.

"It's quite a mess in there, Your Majesty," the first said.

Edmund sighed and said, "I'm aware of that. Did you find out how they entered the room?"

The first nodded and answered, "Yes, Your Majesty. We saw a grappling hook on the window. It's clear they scaled the wall and entered through the princess's window. I wager the guards at the bottom of the window are dead somewhere."

"Thank you," Edmund said.

The two guards nodded, the second one saying, "We will have someone come in here shortly and clean up. No need to have two bloody bodies in there."

Edmund sighed again, this time out of annoyance, and said, "Please?" He nodded his head towards Georgie, who had gone white at the guard's words.

"I apologize, Your Majesty. Your Highness," the second one said, bowing slightly. The guards left and Edmund returned to Georgie's side.

"You're welcome to sleep in my room tonight, Georgiana," Susan offered.

"No," Edmund said firmly, shaking his head.

The two women looked up at him, Susan saying, "Well she can't very well sleep in her room."

Edmund rolled his eyes before replying, "I'm aware of that Su. Thank you for pointing it out."

"I suppose you could sleep with Lucy..." Susan began, trailing off as Edmund shaking his head.

"She's staying with me tonight," he said firmly.

"What?" Susan cried, standing up in shock at her brother's suggestion. "She can't! What would people think?"

"What people? You? Peter and Lucy? Who else is going to know?" Edmund said, his temper beginning to rise.

"Excuse me," Georgie said quietly, standing up between the two arguing siblings. Susan and Edmund turned to look at her, both seeming to have forgotten she was still in the room. "Do I not get a say in this?"

"I-well, yes I suppose you do," Edmund stammered.

"Thank you," Georgie said, her voice slightly sarcastic.

"Although I'm not letting you out of my sight tonight, so whatever you say had better involve me," Edmund added in a warning tone, causing Georgie to sigh deeply and roll her eyes at his over-protectiveness. Although it's well deserved, she thought, inwardly smiling.

"Susan," Georgie began, turning to look at Susan. "I think Lucy should sleep in your room tonight with you. They came in my room. What if more come? My room is connect to Lucy's and they may go through the hidden door into hers."

"But what about you?" Susan worriedly asked.

"I think Edmund's right. I should stay with him tonight. I don't want to be without him right now," Georgie said softly, turning to stare at Edmund.

Susan stared at the couple before a smile crept on her face. "Of course. I'm being silly to think you shouldn't stay with him," she said. Turning to her brother, her face hardened and her eyes narrowed. "You had better remember that you are a gentleman, Edmund Pevensie," she warned, daring her brother to argue with her.

Edmund chuckled before hugging his older sister tightly. "As if I would risk your wrath by behaving any other way."

Georgie found herself propped up on several large, fluffy pillows in Edmund's bed, watching as he made up a long sofa in his room. He had offered her the bed and decided to sleep on his sofa, mostly to satisfy Susan. Georgie turned her eyes away from him and began surveying his room. She had rarely entered his bedroom and had never seen most of it. He had a large wardrobe, similar to hers, which stood in the far corner, a high-backed wooden chair next to it with the tunic he wore earlier draped over the back of it. His desk sat under a window and was covered in papers, "organized chaos," as he called it. His room had very few decorative items in it, save for one painting which hung over the sofa.

"Happy birthday!" Georgie sang from the entrance of Edmund's bedroom. Edmund, who was still asleep, groggily turned over in his bed and flung his pillow at Georgie, hitting her squarely in the face with it. "Hey!" she yelled, picking up the pillow and throwing it back at him.

"As the birthday king, I command you leave me alone immediately," Edmund growled playfully, covering his head with his pillow.

"Well, as a newly crowned princess of Narnia, I respectfully refuse," Georgie giggled. He slowly pulled the pillow from his head and sat up, giving Georgie a ferocious look.

"You dare refuse a king of Narnia?" he asked menacingly, a hint of laughter in his voice.

Georgie laughed and said, "I do, Your Majesty!"

"You'll pay for that!" Edmund said, jumping out of bed and storming towards Georgie. She gave a slight shriek and, laughing, turned and walked quickly from his doorway back into the sitting room. Edmund followed her and was greeted by a chorus of "Happy birthday!" from his siblings, Caspian and his fiance, who were waiting in the sitting room to celebrate Edmund's birthday.

"You still have that painting hanging in here," Georgie remarked. Edmund looked up at the painting above his sofa and smiled. It was of a sunrise, as seen from his and Georgie's cliff. "I can't believe you've kept it all this time," she said softly.

He turned to her and said, "Of course I did. It's the best gift I've ever gotten." He turned back to look at the painting, smiling wider as he saw a gray-green blob in the bottom corner. It was supposed to be a bush, which was covering up a mistake in the picture. Georgie, who had decided to take up painting, had wanted to paint a picture for Edmund's twentieth birthday. She had painted a sunrise for him and she felt it had turned out beautifully, minus the absence of them sitting together watching the sunrise. She tried to paint Edmund and her in the picture, but they had both turned out to look like squat animals rather than people, so she painted a bush over them to cover up her mistake. He never told her, but the bush was the part of the picture he loved best.

"Edmund?" Georgie said softly, staring at her hands.

"Hm?" he replied still staring at the painting.

"Will you come sit with me? For a little while?" she nervously asked. Edmund turned towards her, his eyebrow cocked in surprise, and nodded. Walking towards her he noticed her hands were twisting the sheets covering her in a nervous gesture. He climbed into the bed next to her and she scooted towards him leaning against his chest. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly against him. Her hands continued to twist the sheets. Edmund reached over and placed his hand on top of hers and squeezed them gently.

"What is it?" he asked softly.

"I just keep thinking about what happened," Georgie said.

"Don't then. Things are fine now. You're safe, I'm safe, everyone else is safe," Edmund said simply.

"I know," she said, sighing softly.

"There's something else, isn't there?" he asked.

She nodded hesitantly before saying, "We're alone in here." Edmund smirked and chuckled, squeezing her tighter to him.

"That's what has you nervous? Being alone together in my room?" he asked.

"Not 'nervous' exactly," she whispered, turning towards him.

"Then what?" he asked in a strained whisper. Georgie leaned closer to him and ran her hand along his cheek, feeling the beginning of a rough stubble on it. He leaned down and brushed his lips against her temple, kissing down her jawline. Georgie moved her head and kissed him deeply, placing her hand on his chest. Edmund wound his arms around her, running his hands along the curve of her body, continuing to kiss her. When he felt her body press tight against his, he sighed and gently pulled her away.

"Maybe it's time for sleep," he said softly, smiling at the dazed look on Georgie's face.

"Maybe... you're right," Georgie said, her heart racing. Edmund chuckled and, placing a soft kiss on her forehead, stood and went to his sofa and laid down. Georgie scooted down in the bed, pulling the covers to her chin.

"Goodnight, G," Edmund said softly.

"Goodnight," she replied.

Both soon fell asleep, smiling.

Georgie woke and noticed she was alone, the bedroom door open slightly. "Edmund?" she called out.

"Out here, G," he called from the sitting room. She climbed out of bed and walked into the sitting room where the four Pevensies were sitting, along with Caspian.

"Caspian!" Georgie cried, rushing to him and throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. "Welcome home!"

"Thank you, Georgiana. It's good to be home," he said returning her hug.

"Why don't I get a greeting like that?" Edmund pouted. The five others laughed and Georgie walked to him and placed a small kiss on his forehead, blushing from her show of affection in front of the others.

She sat next to Edmund and asked, "When did you get back? Where's your wife?"

"We arrived a few hours ago. She was a little tired so she went to lie down. I heard about what happened here last night and what's been happening lately so I came here to find out more," Caspian explained, his voice growing serious. "I understand that the two men were Calormene."

Peter nodded and said, "Yes, but they were hired assassins working for Lord Brin. It recently came to our attention that he had escaped to Calormen with Princess Laira. Brin hired the two men to kidnap Georgiana, revenge for ruining his plans from before. When Edmund was shot, the arrow was meant for her; he was only shot by accident."

"So have you thought of how you want to proceed with handling this situation?" Caspian asked. Peter shook his head but stopped quickly when Edmund spoke.

"I'm going to Calormen to find Brin," he said staring at Georgie.