The Queen's Tales

Chapter 2: Rainy Day

It wasn't a great day. Normally, the sun would be shining in the gardens. But instead, it was dark and gloomy as rain poured down on the house. But that wasn't the worst of it. At breakfast while Chloe, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy ate, there was a knock at the front door.

"Now who on Earth is knocking in this weather?" Mrs. Macready scoffed as she made her way to the front door.

Upon opening it stood two adult men in soldier uniforms, "We're looking for the next of kin to Oliver Dean and Annie Kirk," one spoke as they removed their hats.

Their grave tone told the old woman that it was a serious matter and ran to fetch the professor, while at the mention of her parents, Chloe walked out of the kitchen, "Are my Mum and Dad coming home?" She asked, confused as to why else they would have soldiers at her door.

The Pevensie siblings peeked their head out to see what was going on, but when the professor ran down the steps he ordered Mrs. Macready to take Chloe back to the kitchen to finish eating while he spoke with the soldiers. The five kids ate as quietly as possible as they tried to hear what was going on. But through the whispers, all they caught was, "Bombing....apologies."

That was when the girl realized, her parents wouldn't be coming home. The rain beat down on the window and thunder boomed outside as she shoved her plate away from her and walked out of the kitchen, ignoring Mrs. Macready's protests.

The soldiers were leaving, but seeing the girl run up the stairs to her room they felt terrible, she was an orphan. The Pevensies all exchanged sad looks, their own father was fighting in the war, and they couldn't imagine how broken they would be if they found out he'd died.

"She's lost both in one go, talk about unlucky," Edmund shook his head.

Susan shot him a stern look, "Don't go telling her that. You'll only make her feel worse!"

"I wasn't going to!" He fought, the boy hated how his siblings would always yell at him if he said absolutely anything.

The siblings passed her bedroom, and through the shut door they could hear her crying. They decided to let her be alone. Which was a smart decision, seeing as Chloe was in no fit state to pretend she was alright. The girl was sobbing into her pillow, clutching it desperately to drown out her sobs. A few minutes in, her grandfather peeked his head in, but she didn't let him speak, throwing the pillow at the door. The old man shut it so as not to be hit and I would swear that for a moment the whole room shook.

Her parents would never get to read the letter she wrote. It was hard for her to believe that not even a week past, her mother had written, saying she was missed, and how they were excited to come back home. Her mother would never get to be a doctor. She'd never get to hug her father again, or hear his war stories. She cried into her hands, her breathing picking up speed as she struggled to catch her breath. The only other thing that could be heard was the sound of the wind blowing harshly outside.

It wasn't a few hours until Chloe had finally calmed herself down. She couldn't hole herself up in her room, no matter how much she wanted to, she knew it wasn't something her parents would have wanted her to do. So, with a solemn face, she silently walked through the halls, the usual skip in her step gone.

She found herself following the sounds of talking that were coming from the sitting room. Inside she saw the four siblings lounging about bored. Susan was reading from a large dictionary with Peter not paying any attention, Lucy was staring out at the rain longing to go outside, and Edmund was fiddling with the underside of a chair.

From what she gathered after standing there for about a minute without being noticed, Susan would read a word, and the object of the game was to determine its language of origin and definition.