Ruth's Magpie

Chapter 34: Blushing and Beautiful

PETER (seven and a half years later):

Ruth sped around the corner, nearly tripping over her flowing dress.

"Sorry," she muttered, zipping away, counting something on her fingers. I lunged for her arm and swooped her up in a tight embrace.

"Hey, slow down, or else you'll get red in the face and flustered and I'll just want to kiss you even more than I already do."

"Peter!" she squawked, struggling against my arms. "Let go of me! I need to make sure that the third row has enough seats for Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and all twenty-three of their children because they asked to all sit together and-"

"Oh Ruth," I sighed, pressing a kiss to her forehead, as she was still securely in my arms. "I promise you it will be alright, my love."

She stopped struggling and sighed as well. "But I want it to be more than alright; I want it to be perfect. They deserve it."

"And you deserve to trust yourself after the months of hard work you've so diligently poured into this day."

"But I want to go make sure, just in case. Please, Peter?"

I squeezed her tighter. "But I wanna hold y- ow!"

She jabbed me with her elbow and dashed away down the hall, giggling and calling a "See you at the ceremony!" over her shoulder. As she disappeared down the hallway, light on her feet as a jackrabbit, I couldn't help but smile as I massaged my ribs.

I'm going to marry that girl one day.

The ceremony commenced under the dancing trees, who would occasionally get carried away in their excitement and dump so many flowers that half the guests would succumb to a ruthless round of sneezing. By the end of it, I couldn't tell if Ruth's eyes were bloodshot from tears of joy or from allergies. But despite her stuffed nose and watery eyes, she was once again the life of the party. Rather than try keep up with her as she swept around the ballroom, greeting each of the twenty-three young beavers by name and spinning with the dryads and fauns on the dance floor, I opted to sit with Su instead, watching from afar.

"This could be you, you know," she said after a while, as Mr. Tumnus and his new wife took to the dance floor an begun spinning in slow circles. "This could be you in the near future."

I felt a slow warmth creep to my face. "Su..."

"Oh, don't deny that you want to."

"I'm not," I said quickly. "I do, I do very much, I just... I don't know how it would work."

"She would very obviously say yes."

I hesitated. "We're so young."

She laughed. "Mum and Dad married at eighteen. Mum had you at twenty, and I was already on the way when she was Ruth's age."

I remained silent as I watched Ruth across the room. She and Lucy were telling a very animated story to a captivated audience of young foxes and beavers and even a couple of dwarf children. Dwarf-Narnian relations had improved dramatically, largely thanks to Ruth, who had shared the story of Hesturi with many Narnians, encouraging them to show mercy to the dwarf race. Though some villages of vile dwarves still existed, many had become valuable members of the small standing army due to their prior experience. Ruth must have felt my stare, for her eyes met mine and her beautiful face broke into a smile. I smiled back and turned to Susan, whose eyebrows were raised in the universal symbol of "See?"

"I'm going to marry her," I said then.

She smirked. "Good choice. Now shut up, she's coming." I jumped to my feet and pulled out a chair for her.