Author's note: Hi again everyone! I know, for now, I have been posting chapters pretty consistently everyday, but I should warn you, with the Holidays coming up soon, school is getting stressful and finals are going to kick my ass. So if I'm ever too late or too slow uploading chapters, send me a message and I will do my best to post faster.

Enough of that, onto the story!

After closing the door I tugged the dress over my head and searched through the wardrobe for a suitable nightgown. I hated wearing nightgowns to sleep, it was so much fabric, I felt like I was suffocating. After having only found ankle length dresses, I opted for a plain white tunic that was in a drawer at the bottom of the wardrobe, along with a pair of pants or two.

I was just about to go to bed when there was a knock on the door.

I stared at it for a second, wondering who it was, and then I sighed, crawled out of the warm bed, and opened the door. There stood Caspian, leaning against the wall outside the door, examining his feet. When he heard the door open he looked up and I blushed, looking down.

"Um, hey, Caspian."

"I-I was….i was just coming to make sure you were settling in," he stated, staring at me with slightly parted lips. My blush got darker as I remembered what I was wearing. Both my shoulders and almost all of my legs were exposed, as well as a fair portion of cleavage.

"I'm settling in very well. Everything is so wonderful here." I shifted my weight from foot to foot.

"I am glad to hear that."

"So, I hear there's a ball soon," I attempted to make conversation. I didn't want him to leave, but I also felt very awkward, wearing such revealing clothes. "Um…yes, yes there is. It's after the coronation," he replied, still staring.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, you're going to be king soon."

He nodded, not really making my attempt at conversation any easier. "So, am I going to have to bow every time I see you, and call you king Caspian and stuff?" I laughed. He chuckled. "No, no of course not. We're…." he paused, searching for a word it seemed, "Friends. You don't have to do that."

I smirked, "Ok, that's good."

"yes. I'll let you get to sleep, goodnight, milady."

He grabbed hold of my hand and pressed his lips against my skin very slowly. He didn't look down. His deep brown eyes burned into mine the entire time. A dark blush spread across my cheeks as I considered how amazing his lips felt against my bare flesh.

"Goodnight, Caspian," I breathed, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

As soon as I had the door closed I skipped to my bed, hopped into it, pulled the sheets up to my chin, and fell asleep, cuddling my hand against my cheek.

"You know, Ari, I'm having a horseback riding lesson and a dancing lesson today, and this dress doesn't seem very practical for either of those things," I stated, taking in deep breaths as she tightened the straps at my back.

"Nonsense, this dress is perfect for either of those."

While she was finishing, I ran a brush through my hair, making sure it was straight and somewhat neat before following Ari out the door and down to the dining hall to have breakfast before my riding lesson.

I sat down beside Edmund, across from Lucy, and picked at my food.

I couldn't actually focus on eating anything, even if I was hungry. My stomach kept doing nervous flips, for two reasons. 1.) I didn't want anything bad to happen during my riding lesson today, and 2.) I kept thinking about my conversation with Caspian last night and I felt extremely awkward sitting near him knowing that he had seen me in such a little amount of clothing.

Finally breakfast was over and everyone went their separate ways.

I followed Lucy to the stables, which smelled like a farm. She asked a stable boy to saddle up two horses for us. After he did so he handed us the reigns and I slowly, and very very carefully, led the horse out of the stable to the field outside the castle.

Lucy left her horse to graze in the grass and walked over to me, taking the reins from my hand and holding the horse still. "Ok, all you do is-" she was cut off by the sound of a horse neighing right behind me.

I whipped around to see Caspian sitting on top of Destrier, looking very regal.

"Oh Caspian, I'm glad you're here! I forgot that Susan and I were having Christina's dress for the ball made today, and I promised Christina I would give her horseback riding lessons," Lucy called.

I turned my gaze on her, glaring.

"Would you, perhaps mind, giving her the lessons? I know you are a wonderful horseman, and I am positive you will be a wonderful teacher," she continued, a sickly sweet smile on her face. My face heated up as I thought of spending an hour riding horses with Caspian.

"It would be a pleasure," he answered, smiling at her.

Her smile got wider as she turned back to me while he dismounted his horse. "What are you doing?!" I whisper/yelled. "I said I wouldn't get you alone with him for dancing lessons, I never promised anything about riding lessons."

She flashed me another sickly sweet and innocent smile and trotted over to her horse, swinging up into the saddle and waving at both Caspian, who had taken her place holding the reins, and I before riding off back towards the castle.

And I was left alone with Caspian.

"I did not know you did not know how to ride a horse," he stated, adjusting something on the saddle of my horse. "I technically know how to…I just can't do it," I mumbled, extremely nervous and embarrassed.

"I suppose we'll work on mounting the horse first."

He took a step closer to me, causing my heart to speed up a bit. "All you have to do is," he paused to position himself right beside me. "Put your left foot in the stirrup," he put his left foot in the stirrup and grabbed onto the saddle, "get a firm hold on the saddle, then, when you think you're ready, push off with your right foot and swing your leg over, and then sit down."

He stepped away from me, grabbed the reins so the horse wouldn't move, and motioned for me to give it a try. I put my foot in the stirrup and grabbed onto the saddle. I tried not to focus on the fact that Caspian was staring at me, and took a deep breath. I bent my knees and jumped, but I wasn't high enough to swing my leg over the horse, so I tried again.

I jumped into the air, my left foot secure in the stirrup, and swung my right leg over the horse, tucking my foot into the other stirrup, and sitting down slowly and carefully.

"Very good!" Caspian cheered, handing me the reins and mounting his own horse.

"Now, we'll focus on walking. All you have to do is nudge the horse's sides just a bit with your feet, and it will move forward," he tapped his feet against his horse very lightly twice and it began to walk forward.

I slowly pushed the sides of my feet into the horse's sides and held my breath, waiting to move.

I let out a little squeak when it began to move. It was simply walking, a nice and slow pace, but I was still scared. I had to direct this animal; it wasn't like riding with Mel, when all I had to do was sit there.

"Caspian, how do I steer this thing!" I wailed.

He chuckled as he directed his horse to walk next to mine, but not close enough to make me uncomfortable. "Just pull on the reins. If you pull them to the right just a bit, he'll go to the right, pull to the left, he'll go to the left."

I pulled the reins to the right, more than I had originally thought, and it moved closer to Caspian.

Our legs brushed one another and I immediately glanced down to how close our horses were. A blush colored my cheeks and I pulled my horse to the left just a bit, but not enough to be far away from him.

"sorry," I muttered, still blushing.

"Do you think you're ready to start trotting? Or would you rather just practice dismounting?"

"Um, I think I'll do dismounting," I answered. "Ok, first you have to stop your horse. All you have to do is pull backwards on the reins, and he'll stop." I did as he said, but more gently than he did, and when the horse stopped I dropped the reins and looked down at the ground.

"Oh god, this is high. Caspian get me down from here!"

He chuckled again and jumped down from the horse, letting his horse graze while he walked over to mine. "Oh god, this is really high. I hate heights, please, Caspian, get me down from here!" He smiled and held his hands up to me.

"Just get a firm grip on the saddle and swing your right leg over like you're mounting the horse."

I did as he said, but then I froze. I didn't want to pull my left foot out of the stirrup because I knew I would fall, but I didn't want to risk reaching towards the ground with my right leg because that would most likely hurt.

"Now, slowly reach down towards the ground with your right foot," I hesitated, "Christina, you can do it," he encouraged. I still didn't move. "I don't want to fall," I whispered, looking down at the ground.

My pulse sped up and my breathing hitched when I felt his hands on my waist, gentle and comforting.

"I have you. I promise I won't let you fall. Now reach towards the ground with your right foot." I did as he said, very slowly, glancing down at the ground every few seconds. Soon enough, my foot touched the ground and I let out a deep breath, placing it flat on the ground and pulling my other foot out of the stirrup.

Unfortunately, I had moved too quickly.

My foot got caught in the stirrup, and I fell when I began to turn around.

I fell right on top of Caspian.

A dark scarlet blush painted my cheeks as I examined our current position. Him, lying flat on the ground, looking up at me, and me, lying completely on top of his entire body and my hands on his chest to brace my fall.

"I-I'm so sorry," I rushed, standing up and offering him a hand up as well.

He just smiled, brushed himself off, and grabbed the reins of both horses. "It's quite alright, don't worry about it," he replied. We walked back to the stables silently, me contemplating my first somewhat successful horseback riding experience, him leading the horses and probably day dreaming about Susan.

Once he had handed the horses off to a stable hand he led me back to the castle, where Edmund stood at the bottom of the grand staircase waiting for me. He walked up and wrapped his arms around my waist with a smile on his face.

"Ready for lessons?"

I nodded my head, a small smile forming on my lips and I turned to Caspian.

"Thank you, for that lesson today, I had a lot of fun, and I learned a lot too." I flashed him a smile and the returning smile was almost blinding. "It was an absolute pleasure, milady," he responded. "Caspian, I told you before to just call me Christina," I called to him as Edmund began to lead me away.

I followed Edmund, thinking about my riding lesson with Caspian, through hallways and corridors and up and down staircases. Finally, he stopped at a door and opened it. I stepped into what appeared to be a decent sized library. Bookshelves covered all the walls, there was a fireplace with big brown leather chairs by it. There was more furniture scattered around the room, but it appeared to have been moved.

In the center of the room was a large, colorful rug, clear of any furniture. Off to the side of the "dance floor" was a small table, on which sat a very old fashioned record player.

"Isn't this great? Lucy found this record player in the castle yesterday, I had no idea Narnia had records!" Edmund called, closing the door behind the both of us before walking over to the record player. He placed a black record on the disk and moved the needle.

A slow, classy song began to play.

Edmund grabbed my hand and dragged me to the center of the rug.

"First things first, before every dance you must bow to your partner; it's tradition."

He swept into a short, graceful bow, and straightened up, smiling at me. I attempted a very ungraceful curtsy and then stood back up. He stepped in front of me, put one hand securely on my waist, and took my other hand into his own.

"Now, put your other hand on my shoulder," he instructed.

Once I had done so he smiled, and waited for a cue in the music. When the song began to pick up pace just a bit he took a step toward me. His chest bumped into mine. "Ok, we'll try this again. When I move, you move. We're just going to be walking in a small square, almost."

"What?"

"First, we move backwards," he took a large step forward with his left foot and I stepped back with my right foot, "Then we go to the left," he stepped to the left, and I moved my foot with his, "Next we go forward," he stepped backwards and I stepped forward, "finally we go to the right," he stepped to the right and I followed suit.

"And we're back where we started, just a simple little square."

We danced quietly for a few more songs, him giving me instructions and correcting me when I did something wrong. And the best part was I only stepped on his foot a few times. Apparently, I was a lot better a dancer than I thought.

"So…." Edmund hummed.

"So….." I repeated, looking up at him.

"You fancy Caspian, don't you?" he blurted out.