"Ettinsmoor? Is that what we're calling it now?" Imira asked.
"Better than 'the northern lands the Ettins inhabit' don't you think?" Peter asked in return.
"I suppose it's catchy," she agreed. "So what do we do now?"
Peter looked around the room...
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Having finished all my duties, I decided to run away to our bed-chambers. The children have eaten and are sleeping, I have informed Lord Stryder of the invitation he has to extend on my behalf to Lady Daniell, and I have inquired with Roy as to what Lord Persivell has been saying. The knight has to go.
We have a piano in the sitting area and I decide to practice a particularly difficult song I have been having trouble with. I play it on repeat, over and over until my thumb starts to bother me. I busted it while practising today with Nick and Alcibe and now it hurts all the time.
I decide to take a break and when I turn around to get some water and I am startled to find Peter leaning against his study door, arms crossed, staring at me.
"You are making it awfully difficult to concentrate,"
I didn't know he was here, I thought he'd be with Edmund or something.
"I'm sorry, was the music distracting? Because if it is I can go downstairs," It must have been annoying, I wasn't very good at it. If I had known he was busy I would have practised downstairs.
"Don't. I've done nothing but concentrate for the past few hours. I could use a distraction," And he sits down on the chaise.
Since I am the distraction I decide to go back to playing and start a different song. One I am good at. "Tell me something," I ask of him as I reach the first verse.
"Hmm... oh, here's something you don't know yet. We are going to expand our navy,"
"That sounds like a good idea. Whose was it?"
"What? Couldn't I have thought of that all on my own?" he complains.
"I never said that," I reply, focusing on the next note.
"But it was implied,"
"I just meant that, usually, when big decisions like that are made, they happen after some general or politician or commander or officer make a suggestion or request," And I have someone in mind.
He doesn't respond so I ask again.
"So? Who made the suggestion?"
"Oreius," Peter admits. That's what I thought. "But the traders have complained about Terebinthian and Calormen pirates for a while so it's been on my mind,"
"I think it's a good idea. We need to protect our traders and show a stronger presence at sea,"
"We do. And we're also thinking about sending more troops North," Peter tells me.
I stop playing. "Why? Did something happen?"
"Winter just seems to embolden the giants. They've been venturing south lately. Killed a Marshwiggle and two fauns just this month,"
"Oh, that's not good," They probably ate them.
"It's not,"
I get up from my stool and go over to sit by his side. I can't stand my thumb enough to keep playing. He wraps an arm around me and I hug him back as I try to figure out what's wrong with my thumb. It's going to hurt like hell tomorrow over practice.
