𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘, s. pevensie

viii. interrogation

SHE DID NOT TALK, IN FACT, SHE KEPT QUIET AGAIN. The stranger's patience had finally found and end and they pressed the knife closser to James' throat, only a few millimeters away from actually cutting her.

"What are you doing here?", the hooded person demanded once again, sich of James' silence.

"I uh, I got lost," was the simple response. It was obvious that the girl did not speak the truth.

"Don't lie to your queen!"

The dominant voice was loud and echoed on the walls of the kitchen, which made them sound even more powerful.

James' head shot up and in the heat of moment, she jumped um from her chair and tore down the stranger's hood. She was presented with a gentle face, sprinkled with freckles, dark brown hair and ice blue eyes that slightly showed James' reflection. The thief recognized her immediately from all the stories that described her perfectly and the paintings she saw all over town, history books and the castle. There was no doubt that in front of her was standing the one and only High Queen Susan The Gentle of Narnia.

The Queen's eyes were wide open, she seemed unable to do anything, glued to the ground and her knife shifted sk it still was pressed to James' throat. She tightened her grip around the weapon, so that her knuckles turned white. The blade trembled in the queen's shaky hands, but it went unnoticed by James who was more focused on the royal's facial expressions.
Susan Pevensie's eyes relaxed again, she was not allowed to show fear, she was a queen after all.

James on the other hand had her mouth partly opened and stared at her Majesty without a relaxed expression, while her heart and thoughts were racing. After all, this was the last person she had expected to see at this hour in Cair Paravel's kitchen. Even worse, the person in front of her could, with a single blink of an eye and a shout, be the reason for James' death for thievery.
This was bad; extremely bad.

James cleared her throat, broke her obvious stare and straightened her back. Putting on a very poor 'noble' accent, she asked,
"Did I understand this correctly? You are the Queen?"

"Yes."

An awkward silence fell once again between the two women. Neither of them knew what to say, overstrained by the unusual situation.
The confrontation of a thief who stole royal silver- and goldware by the Queen of Narnia.

The two women held a deep eye contact once again as if they were both trying to find something hidden, unspoken by the other person, ready to expose each other. Susan's blue eyes swallowed James and she could not look at anything but her face. Her nervousness made something in her stomach tingle.
As soon as James realised that she had been staring for a far too long than it would have been acceptable again, she broke the contact between the two quickly by awkwardly looking around the kitchen. For some reason this did not feel like a usual interrogation.