The Youngest Pevensie Sibling series- book 1- The Faithful

Part 1 chapter 11- The Yellow envolope.

It was the next day that Sophie woke early to the sound of the dawn chorus birds welcoming in the new day. The weather was calm and warm.

Avoiding her sleeping sisters, Sophie crept across the hallway into the libary. She took her position on a window seat to watch the sunrise. She wasn't sure how long she sat there but was disturbed by the post boy coming up the drive on his bike.

Sophie knew that the arrival of the post boy could bring letters from her father, who was frighting in the war. She was never sure where her father was stationed, so she didn't know how long a letter could take to reach them. One thing was for sure she wanted to read the letter before her siblings were there fighting over it.

She ran out of the libary and down the carved original wooden staircase to the large double front door.

Sure enough, there are letters. 10 in total, two for each of her siblings, one for her, and another yellow coloured envelope from the war office.

Sophie began to dread what was in this envelope. She had seen it before when her friends older brother had been killed after his spitfire had been shot down over france.

Behind her, she could hear the sound of footsteps coming towards her.

She knew it was likely to be Mrs Macready coming to check on the progress of breakfast that the maids were cooking.

Sophie, therefore, grabbed the letter addressed to her and, with shaking hands of dread, picked up the yellow coloured envelope and scampered away back to her secluded window seat in the library.

It took her a little while to pick up the courage to tear open the yellow envelope. A piece of paper, a fingernail thick, fluttered to the floor.

Sophie neared down to read it from where it had landed upright.

It was simple and short.

Private George Pevensie, soldier of the London 30th division, was found to be K.I.A. KILLED IN ACTION. We thank him for his sacrifice fighting to protect the King and The Country.

Ministry of War
dated June 13th, 1940.

Sophie was in shock. How could her Father be dead? He had promised her that he would return, and when they did, they would go on a drive together, or he would take her to their favourite cafe. None of that would happen now.

Sophie sat there in shock, denial, and sobbing away for many hours.

She glanced at the libary clock to see that it read 9am. Half an hour late to breakfast at half 8 am. Mrs Macready would go ballistic at her screaming at how ungrateful she had been. She didn't care. She was not hungry, her appetite had disappeared. All she wanted to do was crawl into her bed and not move for her whole life.

She could not even begin to think of her life without her dear father. Sophie was closest to her father, her mother often forgetting her. Her father never did.

"Sophie, Sophie, where are you?" She could hear Susan asking for her.

"You missed breakfast." Edmund added. Typical Edmund Sophie thought always caring about food."

"There is Post probably from Mother and even father." Lucy exclaimed in excited tones.

At the mention of their father, Sophie couldn't help to begin crying again. Little did her siblings know what had actually happened.

Sophie knew she couldn't see her siblings in the state she was in.  So she decided she would sneak back to the girls' bathroom to freshen up and hide her red and blotchy crying face.

Sophie picked up the sheet of paper from the ministry of War announcing her father's death and put it back inside the open yellow envelope. She then folded it with the white unopened envelope and tucked both into her dress pockets before leaving the libary.

She sucesfuly made it back to the corridor where the children's rooms and study were.

She could hear her siblings talking in the study and decided that she would listen in through a crack in the open door.

"Did you find her?" She heard Peter asking.

"Nope, we called her for ages and went through the whole house." Susan replied.

"She will turn up." Lucy commented. "Can we open the letters now."

"I was going to wait to open then with all five of us. But seeing that she isn't here and none of the letters are addressed to her, it might be best to open them whilst she isn't here. I don't want her getting upset at the fact that her letters got lost in the post." Peter stated.

Peter opened one of the letters addressed to him and began to read
"My dearest Son Peter, the news attached may be hard to hear but please do read what is inside the yellow envelope first. It will be up to you to tell your younger siblings what has happened."

" What happened?" Lucy asked.

"I am not sure. Lucy, when you picked up the post from the front door, did you pick up a yellow coloured envelope."

" I didn't see any," Lucy replied.

"Did you drop it?" Susan inquired.

" like a weak thing." Mocked Edmund."how could you be so unorganised to drop an envelope."

"Edmund stop it." Susan shouted back. "Stop bullying Lucy she is only 12."

"Well I don't know where a yellow envelope is, truly I don't." Lucy sighed.

"I know you don't, it's okay Lucy," comforted Peter. "It's probably still in the post with Sophie's letters. Most likely they will get here tomorrow. We can wait one more day to read the letters."

"I'm going to play cricket in the garden." Edmund grumbled.

" We will all go." Stated Susan. " We need some fresh air today."

" I'll bring my book" Lucy piped in.

"Chicken," Edmund added towards Lucy.

" Ed come on," Peter sighed pulling Edmund out of the room.

When the brothers exited the room, they saw sophie running away back down the corridor. They called after her unsucesfully.

"Let her go." Susan commented comming up behind the boys. "She can join us later."

So the four siblings carried on outside to play cricket or read.

Author note:

I am sorry that I haven't posted in months. I have been very busy with university work.
I am also morning the loss of a dear friend who died in March after I knew her for 14 years.
I hope to try and keeps things somewhat regular but I have a lot of end of the year uni work with exams and course work.
Thank you for understanding.
The author 
Em Rose 2048.