~By the Lion's Mane: The Call~

Epilogue

That night I sat on my window seat in the small parlor-like room of my bedroom suite. I stared out the huge window at the silvery trail the moon made on the waves. I was immersed in thought.

So much had happened in the past twenty-four hours. Aslan had spoken to me through a dream, I had learned I was to be a mother, and Caspian had proposed to me, albeit under unique circumstances.

And I had said yes.

I was scared. No, I was terrified. I had no idea how to be a mother, how to raise a child. I had never been good with children; I had felt I lacked that natural female knowledge of how to handle them. And also, I was afraid of marrying Caspian, even though we both knew it was a marriage of convenience. He had always been just a friend to me; I hadn’t ever really thought about him as anything else. I wondered what being married might mean.

Edmund’s baby. I was going to have Edmund’s baby. It was terrible and wonderful all at once. Terrible because I would never get to tell him, never see him again, and he would never know he was a father or ever get to see his son or daughter’s face. But it was also wonderful, because I would always have a part of Edmund to hold onto, to remember. Edmund’s last gift to me.

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By the time the sun began to peek over the waves outside of my window, I knew what I was going to do. My plan for the rest of my life; the rest of my story.

I would marry Caspian. Since we would be man and wife, we would be expected to… do as married couples do. After a few weeks, it would be probable for me to conceive, and no one would question it. And I would have my baby within nine months, and no one, except Caspian, would ever know otherwise.

After thinking all of this out and forming a plan, I had expected to feel relieved to have a course of action, but… all I could feel was the ache. It didn’t make me feel any better knowing I was going to deceive all of Narnia. And for Edmund to never even know he was going to be a father drove me to fresh tears every time I thought about it. But there was nothing else I could think to do. I wanted the best for my baby, and this was the best I could do with the situation.

I dressed, washed my face, and prayed to Aslan for strength before I went down to the Great Hall, to face my fiancé for breakfast, and to announce to the rest of the country our upcoming marriage…

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A/N: Thank you all so much for reading this looooonnggg and drawn out story and for taking the time to comment and vote and follow, etc! You guys are great!