Part 4: Let steeple bells be swungen
The first princess at Cair Paravel was born during a snow storm that howled around the castle walls with a fury that was almost alarming, but Edmund did not notice it at all as he paced the corridor outside the birthing chamber. The only sound he was really aware of was Olwen's cries as she labored to bring his child into the world, and each scream tore at his heart. His brave little Olwen, he felt so ashamed for doing this to her. Thank Aslan that she had Moira and her two sisters there to help her; Olwen had been frightened when the birthing pains started, but the witches had calmed and soothed her much better than Edmund ever could. Then they had thrown him out of the room and told him to stay out until it was finished. That had led to his current predicament; pacing incessantly up and down the corridor, wearing down the elegant rug with his leather boots. Lucy, Susan and Peter had retired to bed hours ago but Edmund knew that he would not be able to rest until it was over and he could see Olwen, so now he was all alone with his worry and anxiety. It was at this point in time Caspian showed up.
"I thought I'd wait with you" he said quietly, and Edmund felt the impossible urge to just collapse into his arms. He still loved Caspian with all he was, and he was infinitely grateful to Olwen for understanding and accepting that. But to rest in Caspian's arms while she suffered? No, it was unthinkable. And yet… he had not been in Caspian's arms for so very long, and he had missed him so badly… He thought of Olwen, and what she would say if she saw him now. No, he knew what she would say. "Kiss him, silly." So Edmund did. He kissed Caspian with all the passion in his heart, all the love in his soul, and somehow that lit a fire that had been smoldering between them since they met; one kiss became two, became three, and then Caspian was pulling him into an adjacent room and his clothes were falling to the floor. How could something that was so wrong feel so right?
Edmund entered the birthing chamber with rumpled clothes, still leaking slightly from earlier activities, shame burning on his cheeks. Olwen lay in the bed, her sweat-matted hair spread out about her and a babe suckling at her breast. She was looking down at the child with a facial expression Edmund knew well at this point and found absolutely adorable on his wife: a look of complete bewilderment. She looked up at him.
"I had a sapling" she said. "I think she's human." Edmund laughed softly as he gingerly sat down on the bed, leaning forward to see the child properly. The baby was rather squished and red, with a scrunched up nose and a tuft of black hair. He had never seen anything as beautiful in his life.
"Thank you, Olwen Pevensie. I love you." he whispered, smiling at the woman who was his best friend, as dear to him as his sisters. She smiled back at him, a beaming happy smile full of dimples.
"And we love you" she said, "Gloria and I." He laid down carefully next to them, gazing in wonder at the marvellous sight in front of him as, in the distance, he could hear the castle bells ring to tell the people that a princess had been born.
Gloria proved to be a combination of dryad and human, in that she to her appearance was completely human with her rosy skin, dark hair and blue eyes, but she grew as quickly as a dryad and by her second summer she was both running and talking, much to her parent's delight. The summer was bright and warm, and princess Gloria was an endless source of joy and happiness to her father, who always had time to play or sing or tell stories. He spent all the time he could with the child, and they were utterly devoted to each other. That was why it felt as if Edmund's heart was splitting in two when Caspian announced the plan to journey on the Dawn Threader to the Outer Isles. He knew that he was to go with him, he and all his siblings. But oh, how he wanted to stay with his family! He raved and ranted, cursed and begged to be allowed to stay, but in the end it was, unsurprisingly, Olwen who convinced him to go.
"The lion told me you must go" she whispered into his shoulder as he held her close. There was no arguing with that, and so Edmund kissed her and Gloria goodbye and boarded the ship.
Many months later, as summer once again faded into autumn, the Dawn Treader returned to the joy of the people. The pier was crowded nearly to overflowing with people wanting to greet the heroes, returned at last. But Olwen was not among them; she stayed behind in the castle with her daughter. She was not there to greet King Caspian or the Star Daughter, and she would not be at their wedding or see their son born. For Olwen had known, the moment she heard that King Caspian was bringing back a woman that he was very much in love with, that she was now a widow. Edmund would not have been able to bear the sight. The few servants who had stayed behind at the castle would later tell of how the great Aslan had come to Cair Paravel and spoken to Queen Olwen in the garden King Edmund had planted for her that first spring, and that she had climbed onto his back, the little princess in her arms, as Aslan bore them both back to the forest from which Olwen had come once.
"Will we ever see him again?" she had been overheard asking as the lion carried her away.
"One day, child. When the story ends."
Fin.