𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝑨𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑, peter pevensie

𝒙𝒙𝒗 . . . edmund and louise

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐔𝐌 𝐎𝐍𝐄 morning during early March. Charlotte's seventeenth birthday on the twenty second of January had been and gone, and with her coming of age, multiple suitors asking for courtships had turned up at the gates of Cair Paravel.

They were let into the throne room one by one where Edmund, Peter, Charlotte, Susan and Lucy were all sat in a line, and were turned away one by one after Charlotte had either deemed them; too annoying, too old, too egotistical, too sexist, or simply too repulsive.

Susan didn't think this was particularly fair on the men, but she didn't know the other contributing factors to why they were being turned down. There was an illicit affair. And nobody was meant to know. That was the whole point of the deal. It just didn't go quite as well as either Charlotte or Peter had hoped.

✰

"𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄, 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 this morning, you said you would—" Louise ( Who had been living at Cair Paravel for a few months now as one of Charlotte's ladies ) stopped mid-step in the middle of her best friends study, blinking rapidly as she was trying her best to comprehend what was infront of her.

"Honestly, Lu. I don't see why you have to go out with the beavers every Tuesday, Lottie's been doing all of your paper work for you at the moment, she's been trying to teach you how to do it. She has her own stuff to be getting on with, you know." Susan was walking beside Lucy down the corridor, dragging her towards Charlotte's study with a lot of effort. The beavers were more of a priority, paper work could wait until the afternoon in a twelve year-old's mind.

"Don't call her that, Su —"

"She can't hear me, what she doesn't know won't hurt her."

"You don't know that. She always knows, you know. Last week, when I came back a bit later than usual before dinner, she could tell I'd eaten some chocolate cake when I was with Tumnus, even though she'd told me before not to have any because it would 'spoil my dinner'. I even made sure to wipe away the crumbs, but she still knew! I reckon it's because she's the oldest now. It's some sort of power. Hey, why's Peter with Charlotte, it's only nine o'clock in the morning!"

Susan was nodding along to what her sister was saying, however ludicrous her theories may have been. But then she remembered Lucy was right about Narnia being in the back of the wardrobe, so maybe Charlotte did have some sort of power.

The theory was entirely plausible. She just didn't have the heart to tell Lucy that Charlotte had always been the oldest, even when they arrived at the estate in the countryside.

"What?" Susan had only just heard what Lucy had said about Peter being with Charlotte, "It's nine o'clock in the bloody morning. What is he doing in there?" The gentle and the valiant had stopped short of a motionless Louise, eyes still owlishly wide.