Disclaimer: I own nothing of Narnia, none of the characters, none of the ideas, none of the places, none of the anything. The only thing I own is my OC. Everything else is the property of the estate of CS Lewis.

Imagination, Reality, and the Space Between

Chapter One: Extra Guests

After nearly a month in her grandfather's house, Marilyn was becoming a bit restless. Though the weather was fair most days and there was a myriad of things to do out of doors, the weight of the events that were taking place at home pressed heavily on Marilyn. The bombing of London was getting worse, and now they (though Marilyn had to admit she wasn't quite sure who 'they' actually was) were evacuating children from the cities. This worried Marilyn more than anything else, because her best friend, Anna, lived within the city, and with all the children being sent to a variation of locales, who knew where she would end up. Needless to say, the wireless didn't make things out to be going particularly well (neither did the papers for that matter).

The fact the weather had decided to take a foul turn and that for five days of the past week it had rained for at least half of the day did not help much, in fact, if anything, it made matters worse. There was little to do in the house when it was raining. For the first time, Marilyn was glad her mother had made her take up needlepoint as a 'ladylike' hobby. It was nearly the only thing to do in the house since she was alone most of the time.

She had taken to sleeping in, just so she had less time to pass in a day. Her mother would have hated that she was doing that, but, no one at the house seemed to care. In addition to sleeping later, Marilyn had also taken to doing needlepoint while sitting on the window seat in the library. She had set the little basket that held the various coloured threads she used and her current project. She had taken to working on pillowslips while listening to the wireless in the library.

On one day when the rain was particularly bad and the wireless was more static than anything, Marilyn overheard Mrs. Macready talking to one of the maids. It hadn't been that she had intended to eavesdrop, but she had gotten up to turn off the wireless as the static was becoming rather annoying and could hear them talking.

"I do feel bad for the children in the cities, but must the Professor take in more? Honestly, four more children in the house? They'll be underfoot something awful. His granddaughter alone is bad enough."

That had been Mrs. Macready. Even if Marilyn hadn't been able to identify her by voice the last statement would have given it away.

"Oh, I don't know Mrs. Macready. She's not a bad girl. Besides she's been out of the way most of the past month. But, it surely won't be too bad. After all, it isn't as if they'll be staying forever."

Marilyn suddenly wished she knew the maids better. She knew them in passing, but she couldn't tell who was speaking.

Mrs. Macready had merely huffed in response, and they had both walked away. Marilyn stood at the door for a long moment, contemplating the fact that more children were coming to the house.

That had been a week and a half ago, and in the afternoon on that particular day, Mrs. Macready had left to go to the train station to collect the other children. Marilyn had been rather looking forward to it, not because she was glad that they had been evacuated, but because it would be nice to have someone to talk to.

Within the same hour, Marilyn could faintly hear the opening of the front door. She quickly put away the book she had been reading and headed towards the stairwell. By the time they were in earshot, she could hear Mrs. Macready in the midst of setting forth some rules for the others to follow (technically Marilyn was supposed to follow them as well, but Marilyn tended to ignore Mrs. Macready if given the opportunity which was probably why the woman disliked her so)

"No improper use of the dumbwaiter." the housekeeper said, before pausing and starting again in a higher pitch. "No touchin' of the historical artifacts."

Marilyn stifled a laugh. So the other's had apparently done something to set the woman off within their first half an hour or so with her. It was really quite laughable.

"… no disturbin' of the Professor." Mrs. Macready said. Not a moment after that, Marilyn could hear footsteps on the stairs.

Mrs. Macready led the others up the stairs, each head appearing in quick succession, straight past Marilyn farther down the passage. Marilyn followed, hanging back a little.

"This'll be the room for you two girls," Marilyn could hear Mrs. Macready say. "And that one there is for the boys."

The housekeeper then swiftly turned on her heel and left the way she had come, leaving four rather flabbergasted faces behind. 'Apparently they hadn't expected for her to be quite so personable' Marilyn thought sarcastically to herself. She looked over the others, but before she had a chance to introduce herself, the smallest one, and presumably the youngest, burst forth with a question that Marilyn hadn't been expecting.

"Were you evacuated here too?" the little girl asked, either not noticing or ignoring the stern glance from her sister.

"Well… um. Yes, I suppose. My mother sent me here when the raids had just started… The Professor's my grandfather. I'm Marilyn, by the way." Marilyn said, offering her hand.

The little girl smiled, and set down her suitcase to take the proffered hand. "I'm Lucy Pevensie. That's my sister Susan, and my brothers, Peter and Edmund." The girl said enthusiastically.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you all. I suppose I should let you all get unpacked. I just wanted to introduce myself before suppertime." Marilyn said.

Lucy waved as Marilyn walked away. "Nice to meet you too!" she called out as they all trooped into their respective rooms.

Author's Note: I had intended to post this at the same time I posted the prologue, but alas, there was a read error on the file that caused me to have to rewrite the whole thing. At any rate, if you've made it this far (and weren't scared away by that monster of a note last chapter) I'd very much appreciate it if you left a review. Any thoughts on the piece are very appreciated, and constructive criticism is always nice to get. Thanks and happy reading,

ElvenSailorGirl (ESG)