Camille's Adventure

Chapter 3: Letters

I do wish you were here with us. It's been such an adventure, but nothing like our times in Narnia. America is very exciting. Only, we never see father. He works too hard. I was invited by a naval officer to a tea party of the British Consul who happens to be very handsome. I think he fancies me. 

Lucy sighed. Susan was getting all the attention of guys while she was just sitting here trapped in her uncle's house with Edmund.

Edmund stood up from the bed and walked over to a painting on Lucy's bedroom wall. It looked very Narnian and reminded him of all their adventures and of Camille.

It seems the Germans have made the crossing more difficult. Lucy read on. Times are hard. Mother hopes that you don't mind another few months in Cambridge.

Lucy looked up from her reading and Edmund turned around.

"Another few months?" Lucy sighed. "How will we survive?"

Edmund plopped down on the bed next to Lucy and took the letter from her. "You're lucky," he huffed. "You have your own room. I'm stuck with that mullet mouth."

Lucy stood up and went over to a mirror. "Peter and Susan are the lucky ones. Off on adventures." She studied herself in the mirror, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, they're the older ones and we're the youngest. We don't matter as much," Edmund mumbled under his breath as he laid down on the bed. He held the letter up so he could study it.

"Do I look anything like Susan?" Lucy asked suddenly.

Edmund just snorted then sat up. "Lucy, have you seen this ship before?" He asked, going over to the painting.

Lucy smiled and came over. "Yes, it's very Narnian looking isn't it?

"Yeah, um, just another reminder that we're here and not there," he hummed thoughtfully, thinking of Camille again.

****

"Well, well." Professor Kirke sighed as he got up from his study chair. "Looks like some letters arrived."

The professor rummaged through some of the papers. "Looks like the war is still going on. That means your younger siblings are stuck in Cambridge. I wonder how they're putting up with that." The professor mused quietly.

"They're probably fussing about having to stay with cousin Eustace," Peter joked but his joke lacked humor.

"Oh brother," the professor's other student grumbled. "The boys of Highland house want to meet me at Fare's Lake. Probably to beat me up and get back at me."

"Can't you ask your foster parents to come pick you up?" Peter suggested. 

The boy shook his head. "Can't. They don't even care about me and the lake is on the way home. Worse of all, I have to meet them today. It's them or nothing. I don't have a choice."

Professor Kirke smiled softly at the boy. "Just be strong and don't stop believing that there is a better plan somewhere out there."

"Believing is the only thing I have left and I'm not getting anywhere with that," the boy sighed.