The Telmarine Wife

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Have you had enough to eat?" Susan asked. "There's no need to be shy around us. If my brother's and my sister know anything, it is how to eat."

Lena looked down at her less-than-half-eaten-plate of food and smiled faintly. Her old Nurse would have certainly admonished her for her utter lack of decorum, but Edmund would have smiled in his easy way and finished what she could not. Lena was never a heavy eater, none of the girls of La Bugia were. Then, back in the other place, her world, her real world, Lena learned to survive off the war rations. Eating light was a habit that stuck with her, even when it was unnecessary.

"Yes. I'm fine. Thank you, Susan." Lena pushed some of the food around on her plate. "It was quite...delicious." She frowned as she removed what appeared to be a feather from her stewed veggies. She quelled the disgust rising in her and reached for her glass of ale; it, at least, was free of beastly sheddings.

Sara's laughter rang through the air, and for a moment Lena was distracted as she watched her daughters play. They, like their Babbo would have, ate quickly and then asked to go play. Currently, Sara was dancing around with a few younger versions of the goat-like creatures they saw in the forest; Lena tried to remember what they were called but couldn't. Meri tapped out the beat nearby.

"Were you in the forest long before Peter found you?" Susan asked, drawing Lena's attention back to her.

"Oh, I... No. Not very. I don't think so at least. I was never good at tracking time like that. Ed tried to teach me, but I never had the mind for it. Meri does, however; she'd be the one to ask."

"And how did you come to be in the forest?" Peter asked.

"I...I don't know. I woke up there, but I... I can't remember falling asleep." Lena tried to put herself back to a time before the forest but everything was gray and dim in her mind, like a foggy haze. The harder she tried to remember the more her head hurt until a blinding light flashed before her eyes.

"Mamma?" Merri seemed to have a sixth sense for when Lena was feeling ill, especially as of late.

"*Sto bene," Lena replied, waving off her daughter's concerns as she forced the headache aside.

"We can send for Willa again if needed," Susan offered.

"No, please. Thank you, but no." Lena sighed. "I have seen more healers, physicians, and doctors than I ever cared to see." In the last year alone, Lena had begun to feel that her life was nothing more than a revolving door of healers and physicians, and none of them had the answers she and her family hoped for.

"Perhaps...Perhaps we could simply move elsewhere? I think this heat is beginning to affect me," she asked.

"Certainly. We could make our way to the east wing parlor. Peter?"

"That seems reasonable enough," Peter agreed.

"Meri, vieni."

Meri looked at her mother and quickly came when she was called. Sara remained laughing with the young Narnians.

"We're moving inside," Lena told her in Italian. "Stay with your sister, keep an eye on her and on them. Be careful."

"Mamma, they're fine. They're young Fauns, like Mr. Tumnus." Meri also spoke in Italian.

"I don't know a Mr. Tumnus."

"He's from Babbo's tales. He's the first Narnian Aunt Lulu met and one of her greatest friends. Really, Mamma, if you had listened to any of Babbo's tales you—" Meri stopped short at the look she received from Lena. She knew better than to cross that look. "Yes, Mamma. Sorry, Mamma. Of course I'll look after Sara. Don't worry about us; we'll be fine. I promise."