Peter and Lucy took to Beth instantly. Lucy, touched by the ribbon, was delighted to report that she was friends with Anne at school. Peter got along amiably with her like another sister. "Better than Susan anyway," was something he said later, as it became more common for Beth to fill the older sister's place as the fourth member of the party, and she listened to their stories about the old days, believing them to be games played in the backyard. "At least she doesn't change the subject."

True to her word, Beth wore the golden ribbon at all times, and true to his, Edmund tied it to her wrist at the beginning of every meeting. Peter asked Edmund about it one day, after hearing the tale end of a conversation between Beth and Lucy about it. Being the older brother, he couldn't help the amount of teasing that slipped into his voice as he brought up the subject. Edmund listened to the jibe and then really did throw a shoe at him. Peter laughed and apologized. "I suppose I understand. It's just weird."

"I know it is, but," Edmund had shrugged, looking for a way to explain, "it never feels that way when I'm with her."

Peter had ruffled Edmund's hair and then changed the subject.

Beth and Edmund met each other's parents at dinners and all approved, though the mothers were worried about the couple's young age and the speed of their developing relationship. In fact, just two months after their meeting, Edmund gave Beth a ring. It had happened under extraordinary circumstances, so much like their meeting, Edmund said later, that it just made sense to give the thing to her then.

They had been walking through the park. Beth was reporting her parents' remarks on the recent Pevensie/Candley dinner. "Mum's wondering how Mrs. Pevensie figured out how to raise such fine young gentlemen like you, because you showed such remarkable table manners."

Edmund smiled and kissed her cheek. "Mum wonders as well. Peter and I amaze her everyday." Here he was cut off by horrific sounds.

Up ahead, two dogs were trying to rip each other's throats out. Mothers were snatching up their children, and the owners were trying desperately to call the dogs off, hesitant to put hands into the matter. Everyone gave the scene a wide birth. Rather than walking off the path, Edmund and Beth paused while two police officers quickly intervened, and with the help of one leash and their battering sticks, managed to pull the animals apart. Both dog owners were given a hard warning, and told to take their pets home.

The park's pleasant scene slowly picked back up again, but with the heightened sense of awareness that comes once your nerves have been jangled. One of the owners dragged his dog out of the park by its leash. The other dog sat in the grass, licking his wounds in defeat.

"I wonder what set them off?" Beth said.

"He must have said something to offend the other one."

Beth laughed but Edmund was almost serious. His encounter with talking animals in Narnia has forever altered his understanding of them. To him, even these smaller animals talked; humans just couldn't understand them.

It was as if Beth's giggle was a trigger.

The remaining dog's master shouted in fright as the canine lurched forward with a terrible bark and charged down the path toward Beth. She screamed. Edmund jumped in front of her and braced for the attack. He had fought in a war once with wolves on the opposing side. He knew dogs' strategy of a kill, where one would strike a larger animal to bring it down. He also knew a way to avoid a good bite when a sword wasn't readily available.

The dog leapt. Beth and the onlookers screamed again. Edmund felt groomed claws rake his chest, but the sharp teeth only grazed his right arm before his left shot out and connected with a pressure point. The pooch yelped and crashed fully into Edmund. He fell onto his back with one hundred pounds of dog on him.

"Goodness!" The owner cried, sliding to a stop over him. "Are you okay, sir?"

"Ed?" Beth cried.

"What did he do to the dog?" someone asked.

"Did he stab it?"

Edmund sat up and gently rolled the dog to the ground beside him. "I'm all right—so is your dog, he's only sleeping."

"Scared me to death," Beth said, a hand on her heart. The owner was beside himself. "I am so sorry about that! I just got him from my cousins in the country. They didn't tell me he was so temperamental! That was some fast thinking on your part, though, kid, really! I can take you to a hospital. Are you okay?"

"That won't be necessary." Edmund said after examining his arm. "Barely broke the skin. He doesn't have rabbis?"

"No. No, I had him checked out for that just yesterday. He's just a mean dog! I am so sorry!" The man said, helping Edmund to his feet.

"It's okay, no one was hurt." Edmund said when the owner cursed the dog and apologized again.

"What do you mean no one was hurt? You're bleeding!" Beth cried. Edmund waved her down. "Scratches only, and better me than you or someone else is what I'm saying."

Beth's eyes were huge. "You can't be this chivalrous in real life!"

"I'm not. What would anyone have done?"

"I don't know," the owner said, forming a makeshift leash with his belt in order to hold the beast off anyone else now that it was stirring. "You seemed to know what you were doing. You had a plan before he even got to you. Are you a dogcatcher or a vet or something? I mean, how did you know where the pressure point was?"

Ed smiled and shook his head. "I read it in a book once."

"God love you sir for thinking of it so quickly! Miss, I beg your pardon for my dog's behavior."

Beth sighed. "It's fine, I suppose, so long as we never see it again."

"My plan exactly. Come on, boy." The man dragged the dog out of the park. Beth turned on Edmund and dragged him to a bench. "You need first aid."

"The bleeding's stopped." He said, examining his arm again. Beth raised her eyebrows and tweaked his chin. She showed him the red smear of blood on her fingers incredulously. Edmund blinked in surprise and touched his chin.

"It was his claw," she explained. "And you've got another cut on your neck." She fished a handkerchief from her purse. Edmund felt of his neck and found more blood, though less than his chin. "I didn't even feel that!" he said, finding his own handkerchief to clean his fingers. Beth nearly rolled her eyes, and reminded him a tiny bit of Susan when she asked, "How could you not?" but she smiled afterwards because she believed him anyway.

"I was focusing more on the teeth than anything." He said. Beth nodded and took his face to dab at his chin. His jaw was a bit rough with new stubble. Her fingers were cool against his skin. Edmund swallowed; her touch sent electricity through him.

"It's common for a soldier to overlook minor injuries in light of larger ones. Men have been known to die from infected cuts that weren't seen to when they doctored a major wound."

Beth smiled to herself and said nothing. This was one of the qualities that she loved about Edmund, the way he seemed to speak from experience on extraordinary things. Things he could not have possibly seen in his twenty years. When he spoke like this, a sense of mystery fell over him, a mystery that drove her wild on the inside, because it was never an intended mystery. Everything he said allegedly came from a book, and it could have, but Beth knew the difference between learning a fact in school and learning a fact in life. Edmund often spoke of things in the manner of one speaking of a life-learning experience, just as he was now. To young to have fought in the Great War, Beth knew he could not have been drawing from the experience in this life. She did not, however, rule out his past life.

"I want to thank you, Edmund." She said. She checked the bleeding on his chin and found that it had stopped. He lifted one side of his mouth. "For what? Bleeding on you? I hope that wasn't your favorite handkerchief? Here take mine."

"For bleeding for me," She corrected. She dabbed at his neck and then took his arm into her lap to clean it up. "I've never met anyone as wonderful as you. You are exactly the kind of person I would want to be beside me if I ever found myself somewhere I didn't want to be."

Edmund tilted his head at the odd expression. "Are you planning on ending up in such a dangerous place soon?"

She shrugged, unfazed. "Life is unexpected like that. You should prepare for anything,"

Edmund was suddenly seized with some strong emotions. He took her hands. "Beth Candley, you are the most amazing woman I have ever met."

She blushed. "Woman? I'm only nineteen."

"And nothing fazes you, not muggers, not attacking dogs. I say, if I was a knight in another life, then you must have been there too, surviving alone, because I'd remember it if I had found you." He stroked her hair. "We found each other in this one at least."

She was nearly crying. Their noses brushed when he kissed her once on the lips. It was short but soft and lingering. She didn't see him get the ring out of his pocket. He held it for her to see. "I bought this for you."

Beth gasped. It wasn't a diamond or anything. It was a simple gold band with a bow engraved on it but it was beautiful. She held out her finger and he slid it into place. "I don't know what this entails exactly, giving you a ring without asking for marriage. Is it . . . okay?"

Beth smiled and kissed his cheek, closer to the mouth than usual. "Yes. I love it."

He didn't seem appeased. "Should I not have? I mean, should I have gotten a diamond and asked for your hand?"

"Ed," Beth laughed, cutting across him. She looked into his eyes. "Do you want to marry me?" she didn't expect the "Yes," he delivered with hardly a pause.

"Oh" was all that she could say. Her mind began racing to catch up with her heart, which was screaming its own ideas about an immediate wedding. "So do I." she said with what breath she had left. His face lit up with a smile that crinkled his eyes. Then he looked slightly put out. "I can't afford a diamond."

"I don't need one." She said. "Let this be the ring."

"You deserve a diamond."

"I deserve the best." She said. Edmund nodded. She put the ring against his lips. He kissed it and then her hands. She smiled. "There. It will be a diamond to me if you are there to kiss it every morning."

The engagement was to be for one year; it would last for the rest of Edmund's life.

AN: how'dya like that last line? I impressed myself :P