A/N. Again, thank you so much, girls for all your kind and truly fabulous words.) *love you all* Hope you like this chapter, enjoy!

Chapter 7.

The next morning Edelle slowly opened her eyes and smiled dreamily- Edmund's arms were still around her as he was still sleeping. She sighed peacefully and tilted her head to look at him; he was so cute when asleep. Her eyes scanned his face; he was indeed the most handsome man she's ever seen. Everything about him seemed so perfect to her: his dark hair, his nose, his lips, his brown eyes she loved gazing in…

"It's not nice to stare like that."

She momentarily forgot her thoughts as her head shot up and she found that his eyes were still closed, but he was grinning slightly. In a moment his eyes slowly opened and focused in her, his grin turning into a playful smirk. "Haven't we been through this already?"

Edelle smiled lovingly at him "Yeah, yeah, but I can't help it. You were just so cute. And by the way, - she tried to make a serious face- I'm actually supposed to be offended that I always look at you when I get the chance, and you don't."

Edmund's smirk grew naughtier "Just because you don't catch me looking, doesn't mean I don't."

Her eyes lit up "So you do?"

He laughed "Of course, you silly, beautiful thing! How can I not? I'm just a bit more careful, than you are."

She giggled happily and leaned down, kissing him full on the mouth. He responded eagerly and sat them up, so she was half-sitting on his lap, while kissing her passionately. Edelle clutched his shoulders and deepened the kiss even further. They never wanted to stop, but the need of air became almost unbearable and they parted, breathing heavily.

They smiled at each other mischievously and Edelle got up from the bed.

"We better go upstairs, others are gonna miss us."

Edmund nodded and got up too. "Yeah, let's go. The sun's bright- it's probably very late morning already." He reached for the doorknob, when Edelle halted him.

"Hey…we probably shouldn't show off that we're…well…-she gestured to him and her- I'm not worried about everyone, I know Lucy's going to be happy for us, everyone else too, but Eustace…I don't think he should know yet. -she sighed- We will have to tell him anyway, but not now. He's going through enough misery already…"

Edmund understood and sighed "I know. You're right, not now…"- he eyed her up and down for a moment- "Though it will be quite hard to keep away from you."

She smiled. "You don't have to strictly keep away from me, we just have to try and not be too obvious. Especially around…him."

He nodded and gave her one last peck on the lips for now, and they exited the cabin and headed upstairs. Luckily for them, everyone was up already, and no one saw them while they walked. Or it would be quite difficult and awkward to explain why they are walking together at the same time from the same cabin! They made it to the upper deck and Edmund remembered something extremely important and turned to Edelle

"Why don't you go and talk to Lucy, I have something I need to discuss with Caspian, right now."

"Sure, go." She said lightly and went to Lucy as he walked away to see Caspian. He never forgot about what happened yesterday. And now, he had to tell Caspian that Edelle was attacked by one of his sailors. That damn bastard was definitely going to pay for what he did, or tried to do. And this time, he would pay officially.

…20 minutes after…..

"What?" Caspian couldn't believe his ears. "But that's not possible- all of my sailors are good men…"

Edmund just looked at him with a stiff expression. "Well, I guess you missed one then. Cause' I didn't see much good in him."

Caspian slowly shook his head in shock and disappointment "Unbelievable…so who was it? Do you remember him?"

"Can't you guess? I bet there are not much sailors with broken faces on your ship."

Caspian closed his eyes for a moment, in sad realization "Drake. One of my finest men. This morning I asked him what happened to him and he said he tripped on the stairs…so it was you." –he concluded, rather than asked.

For a second Edmund thought that Caspian was not pleased that he damaged his sailor and furrowed his eyebrows "Yes. It was me. What did you expect me to do- kindly ask him to stop what he's doing and leave the place or what?"

Caspian shook his head fast "No, no, Edmund. What you did was absolutely right. He deserved it…and much more."

"So what are we gonna do about him?"

Caspian thought about it for a moment "He will be sent to prison once we get back home. And for now…I have this small basement, I think we can put him there." he looked at Edmund again and saw it in his eyes just how much he wanted to make that man regret what he did. "Ed, I'm guessing you probably want to get some alone time with him."

Edmund still had his stiff expression, but at the mention of his exact yearning, his gaze shot up "Absolutely. Thank you, Caspian. I'd love to look in his eyes as soon as possible."

"Done."

Caspian ordered to seize sailor Drake and throw him into the basement, he told Edmund that he could do whatever he wished, but only as long as the man stays alive and not too damaged. Edmund gave his word to control himself and went down to the improvised dungeon and, with the sense of a sweet revenge for his Edelle, entered the room. Once the sailor saw who his visitor was, he visibly tensed up and his eyes gave away that he was afraid of the High King. He remembered how he almost punched his guts out; he knew he was extremely strong for his age and complexion. The sailor was slightly shaking, but did his best to brace himself for whatever was coming.

For several minutes Edmund just looked at him. His look was not of pure fury like last night, it was like he was trying to look into his soul. His eyes were burning a hole in the man, and after a moment Edmund started walking closer. He slowly approached the man and kneeled to his level. He could see the man was scared of him and that thought cooled him down a bit. Finally he decided to try and speak to him

"Why did you do it?"

Drake just stared at Edmund not sure if it was safe for him to reply.

"Answer me!" Edmund ordered in a louder tone which made the man back up against the wall a bit.

"I d-didn't she was y-yours…" he stuttered.

"Well she is!" Edmund shouted and slammed his fist in the wall, mere centimeters to the left from the man's stomach. He breathed in and out deeply, calming himself down and looked at Drake again.

"What made you think you had the right to go after her? What made you think you could touch her?"

The man opened his mouth several times before he managed to respond

"I-I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I was drunk, I don't know what came over me, but I haven't seen a woman in months and she was just so beautiful and young…I'm really sorry, I wish I could take it back…"

Edmund slowly shook his head. "You're not sorry because you regret what you've done. You're sorry because you got caught."

The man averted his gaze.

"Yeah…that's what I thought." Edmund said bitterly and went to the door. Just when he reached the doorknob he turned around. "By the way, you won't see a woman in another several years. At first I wanted them to sterilize you…"

At that the man's eyes grew big and terrified.

"… but then I thought of a better idea. Since you like women so much, I think having it and not getting a chance to use it will be a much more severe torture for you." He took one last disgusted look at the man and exited the cell, slamming the door behind him.

Later that day, Edelle was leaning against the bark next to Lucy, squinting from the sun.

"So, Lucy, how did you sleep?" she asked absentmindedly.

"Oh, um…not too bad."

Edelle looked at her questioningly "What? Did you get seasick or something?"

Lucy shook her head. "No, I don't get seasick. It's just Eustace. Our cabins are too close together, the wall is too thin, and he snores."

"Ow…sorry, Lu." She felt bad for her, there was still a long way, which meant many more nights.

"Yeah well, it was pretty bad but…it wasn't horrible."

Edelle cocked an eyebrow with a "yeah, right" look on her face. She had slept over at their house before a couple of times, so she knew what it's like.

Lucy looked at her and sighed "Okay, it was horrible! He sounds like Uncle Harold after a party!"

Edelle laughed.

"That's not funny!" she faked an offended voice, but was laughing too.

"Actually, it is." She chuckled. "Well, you could always ask Edmund how to cope with that. Imagine: he had been sleeping in the same room with him for months!"

"Whoah, you're right, I almost forgot about that…"

"Edelle!"

They turned around and saw Eustace approaching.

"Speak of the devil…" Edelle muttered and Lucy chuckled.

Luckily, Eustace didn't hear that and came to Edelle. "I need to speak with you, privately, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, sure." She said, slightly confused. What could he possibly want to talk about?

Lucy smiled "I'll just go talk to Reepicheep." and walked away, leaving them alone.

"Okay," Edelle looked at Eustace. "I'm all ears. What's on your mind?"

Eustace glanced around at all the busily moving sailors around them. "It's kind of noisy, here, let's go downstairs. He carefully took her by her elbow and led her downstairs. Once they reached the corridor, he let her go and faced her.

"It's getting impossible to talk to you; someone is always in the way."

She rolled her eyes. "So, there, we're alone. Spill it!"

"Fine. Edelle, you do remember the agreement our parents made, don't you?"

She glared at him "How could I forget?"

He nodded his head. "So I expect you to understand that someday you are to become my wife…"

"What's your point, Eustace?" she cut him off, not wanting to be reminded of that again.

"My point is, I don't think I like the way you and Edmund look at each other when you talk or do something together. You mustn't have any affection for him, that's just how betrothal works- you don't develop affection for anyone but your husband."

"Listen, Eustace Clarince Scrubb."- she placed her hands on her hips, warningly, looking at him with calm but angry eyes- "You are so certain that I will marry you someday, and you will become my husband, and order me around all the time. But until then, you have no right to tell me what to do and until then, my relationship with Edmund is no business of yours! Good day!" she turned around.

"Edelle!"

"I said, good day!" she snapped and stormed back to the upper deck.

Eustace lowered his eyes. "Blast it! I knew this conversation wouldn't end good." he sighed deeply and bitterly shook his head. "Why don't you understand…" he stood there for a moment, looking slightly defeated, and then went to his cabin.

Edelle got to the upper deck and went to the bark of the ship. How dare he? He was not her fiancée yet, he was not even her boyfriend! And he never will be…She sighed confidently. He could think he will, for now, but he never will be. As soon as they get back home, she will stand up to her and his parents and refuse the entire thing.

"There you are!" Edelle jerked her head and relaxed as she saw Edmund next to her. "Where were you?"

"Eustace alert. "I don't think I like the way you look at each other…"- she mimicked his voice, but they didn't laugh.

Edmund's expression stiffened. "He's getting suspicious…he'll figure it out sooner than he should."

She sighed. "I know. And you know what? I know it's pretty odd, but I think he's also getting…jealous."

Edmund raised his eyebrows, surprised. "Jealous?- he thought for a moment. – So that means, he likes you."

"Yeah, something like that. Urgh, this makes it even more difficult. I mean, he's a snob and everything but…he's still sort of a friend and I don't like hurting people, no matter who they are. And he just keeps talking about that stupid affair our parents made. " she lowered her eyes, pitifully.

He looked at her, warmly and wrapped one arm around her waist. "Don't worry, I'm not giving you to anyone." He cupped her chin and made her look at him. "Ever."

Edelle got lost in his chocolate-brown eyes and her heart skipped a beat at his promise. She felt so much emotion for him at moments like that. She smiled lovingly. "Eustace is in his cabin."

Edmund grinned "Good." and he pressed his lips to her's gently, but firmly, not caring if anyone saw them.

*dreamy sigh* Oh, can't you just feel the love radiating from those two? I know I can…Hope to hear from you soon!)