The nighttime air was quiet in the forest by the lake, except for the sounds of crickets or the leaves swaying in the gentle breeze. And also the occasional kissing noise, as (R/2) was lying on top of Peter in the grass. But he wasn't kissing her back.
"I thought you said everything was sorted out." (R/2) says as she pulls back and looks down at her boyfriend, who was being as emotionless as the rocks in the water.
"It is." Peter says, his numb hand on her waist suddenly gaining life again, "In a fashion. I told her all about you, but she still needs a little convincing."
"About me?"
"About Edmund."
Cricket noise. Peter raises one hand to place on (R/2)'s upper back and then he sits up, with her in his lap and her hands on his shoulders.
"Tomorrow we'll go for a picnic." Peter says, "I want you to meet her and pretend you really love me."
(R/2) leans back slightly and sighs almost as if she is in pain.
"I don't need to pretend, Peter." She says with an offense.
"I didn't mean it like that." Peter quickly says.
But (R/2) can see that he's avoiding direct eye contact and her heart begins to feel heavy.
"She's in love with you, isn't she?" (R/2) asks.
"How can she be in love with me?" Peter snorts, "(R/2), she's married to my brother."
When (R/2) doesn't say anything, Peter holds her close to him again. But she stiffens the moment his hands press on her waist.
"Did you know that your name and my name don't mean anything?" He asks, "Not like Edmund, for instance."
"And (R/1)." (R/2) finishes.
Peter hesitates and looks down. The woman in his lap isn't enjoying herself, as much as he had hoped a woman in his lap would. He looks back up at her and then with one hand, he takes hold of hers.
"Will you marry me?" He asks.
He's expecting her to smile. He's expecting her eyes to widen in happiness and for her to excitedly kiss him and say that she accepts. But her face doesn't shift.
"No." She says finally.
"No?" Peter almost shouts, "You've been driving me crazy!"
"Do you know what love is, Peter?"
"Of course I do." He scoffs, "Love is... love. That's what it is."
"It's wanting to be with someone."
"I want to be with you!" Peter insists.
"It's not being able to get them out of your head." (R/2) continues.
"I know that."
"It's dreaming about them."
"I dream about you!"
"And waking in the morning with their name on your lips."
"...That too." Peter says after a moment.
(R/2) shakes her head and moves her hand out of Peter's hold.
"If only I knew you loved me half as much as you love your brother, Peter." She says.
"He's my brother, (R/2)." Peter says, "He's my brother."
(R/2) shakes her head, looking at Peter like she's trying to locate a place on a map.
"Why can't you be more like him? Thoughtful, considerate." She says, a tad more gently.
"I'm thoughtful. I'm considerate!" Peter says.
"Honest."
"I want to marry you. (R/2), honest. I want to marry you!"
(R/2) slides herself off of Peter's lap and then stands up next to him.
"When I know that you mean it and that you want to marry me because you love me, and not because you want to help your brother, Peter Pevensie. Then maybe I'll marry you."
She turns on her heel and walks over to the horse she rode on here with Peter. He looks over at her and then scrambles to his feet, walking over to where she is already mounting the horse.
"Maybe? What's maybe?" He asks.
"May-be." (R/2) emphasizes, sitting comfortably on the saddle, "That's what it is. Maybe then I'll think about it."
She positions her feet into the stirrups on either side of the stallion and then looks over at Peter who is still standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face. She kicks the stirrups back slightly, causing the horse to lunge forward, and Peter yelps as he steps to the side.
xxx
The siblings sitting at the table in the dining room were quiet tonight. No one had said a word since they had started eating. But Edmund wasn't feeling hungry. Susan walks into the room and sits down on her chair.
"I think she's asleep." She says.
She had left the table a while ago to check up on (R/1). Edmund is glad that she's able to sleep after everything that's happened. And she must be tired from her journey here.
"Go to bed, Edmund." Lucy says, placing her hand on top of his.
He looks at her for approval, wondering slightly if he even deserves sleep right now. Lucy smiles at him softly and nods her head.
"Go on." She says.
Edmund sighs and moves his hand up from under hers to give it a gentle squeeze.
"Alright. Goodnight, Lucy."
"Goodnight, Edmund." She smiles.
Edmund stands and tucks his chair under the table.
"Goodnight, Susan." He says, walking around to where she sits.
His sister smiles up at him and kisses his cheek as he leans down.
"Goodnight, Edmund." She says.
He smiles briefly before turning around and leaving the dining room. The two Pevensie sisters look at each other and sigh. When Edmund was in his private room, he found himself standing in front of the wall that is directly across from Peter's private room. He knows there's a fair distance between their doors as each room is so big, but he still presses his ear to the wall to find if he can hear (R/1).
She, on the other side of the wall, is doing the exact same. Her hand is pressed on the wall to give her the balance she needs when she presses her ear against it more fully. But she couldn't hear a sound. At least, there was no sound after she had heard a door down the hallway open and shut. And when she was certain that whoever had come and gone was asleep, she walks across the room and over to the wardrobe.
Her fingers tug at the door handles and she swings them open as slowly and as quietly as she can. The wood makes a faint squeaking sound as she opens them completely. Then she looks inside to see what Peter has as his possessions.
There were many drawers and shelves in the wardrobe. On the left hung the dresses she had taken with her, pressed in-between what remained of Peter's clothes that Susan had not taken with her earlier that day. Her hands wander over what lay on the shelf at eye-level, and she finds herself opening the lid to a medium-sized glass bottle.
When the lid came off, an aroma passed by her nose and she inhaled deeply. It smells like sea salt and mint leaves. She picks up the bottle and turns it in her hands, gazing down to look inside. She tips the bottle slowly and the perfume liquid spills onto her fingertips. She quickly tilts the bottle upright again and places it back on the shelf. She takes another sniff of the liquid on her fingers before she dabs it on her neck.
A comb lay further at the back of the shelf and as (R/1) stretches her hand over to grab it, she hits a tall glass bottle and knocks it over; hitting the wood with a sharp bang. Her face scrunches up briefly as she carefully sets the bottle back up, then she takes the comb and brushes her fingers along the bristles. Then she puts it back and picks up another object.
She did this for some time-- almost losing herself in her fascination of what Peter owns. After she had her thrill of looking through the shelves, she turns to look at the clothes hung up. She takes one of his long-sleeved tunics and looks it up and down. Then she places one sleeve onto her shoulder, her hand holding the tunic up by the collar, and she grasps the end of the other sleeve.
(R/1) pretends that Peter is inside the clothing, with his hand on her shoulder. She imagines the two of them dancing around his room for a little while, and then she drapes the tunic over her head and lets it sit on her body. It was big, but not too much. It hangs on her, ending above her knee. Her nightdress is still worn underneath, so she wasn't completely naked in his clothes.
She turns back around towards the wardrobe and holds onto one of the drawers to pull it open. But it stays firm in its spot, so she tugs at it a little more forcefully. The drawer quickly slides out and then halts, making the objects inside clatter against the wood loudly. Edmund's head raises from his pillow as he hears the noise from his private room. He stares at the ceiling for a while wondering what (R/1) could be doing.
(R/1) doesn't find much that was different from what she had already seen, except for the sketch of a very beautiful woman. Her dress was drawn tightly on her body and her chest was puffed out. (R/1) turns the sketch over in her hands and then places it back inside the drawer. Then she takes out an expertly woven hat. She almost cannot see the seams. There is also a satchel and what is a long piece of fabric in which the top of it was tied in a knot.
Not knowing what it is, (R/1) places it back inside the drawer and slides it shut. Then she steps back to close the doors to the wardrobe and as she does, the door to the private room swings open. (R/1) gasps and backs away slightly, afraid of who has just caught her going through Peter's personal things.
And who else could it have been than Peter himself?
He looks almost as shocked as she feels as he looks her up and down. But his lips are slowly turning upwards into a smile.
"I couldn't sleep." She says, her hands clasping together in front of her.
"It's alright." Peter finally says after looking at her for so long, "I forgot that I was sharing with Edmund."
He should have taken a step back, but he didn't. He should turn around and leave (R/1) alone so as to spare her from any more embarrassment, but he isn't. Peter has never seen another woman wear one of his tunics before.
"You don't have to explain." He says.
"Please." She says quickly before he can move away.
He keeps his focus on her eyes.
"I want you to understand." She says.
"There's nothing to understand." Peter answers, "It's simple. You married my brother, Edmund. And that has nothing to do with me, apart from him being my brother. And if you want to wear my tunic for whatever reason, that has nothing to do with me either."
He clasps his hands together as she has, and quickly looks her up and down one more time.
"I don't mind, not at all." He says, his smile becoming more conspicuous, "Wear it."
The two of them look at each other for a moment, and then Peter is turning back around to open the door again. But (R/1) keeps him from leaving once again.
"When they first told me that I was to be married..." She starts, "And that I would have to go a long way away. To leave my mother and my father, my brothers, and my sisters, my grandmother. I was scared."
Peter's expression softens at her words, his body turning back around to face her. He slowly moves his hand away from the door as he listens to every word she has to say.
"I was scared to be alone in a foreign land with a man I did not know." (R/1) continues, "What will he be like? How will I go to him? What will I say? I tried to imagine... to feel I knew him enough to want to be with him. And to love him."
Peter has only heard the word 'love' in, sadly, a few scenarios. Most of them were in a platonic sense or between siblings-- even though he has heard (R/2) use the word in a sentence with his name in it also-- but for some reason, the sound of it from (R/1)'s lips felt different. It felt right.
"And so I wrote these stories." (R/1) says, walking over to the bed and holding a book that was lying there.
Peter looks down at the book in her hands and then back up at her.
"Stories about us?" He asks.
"How we met." (R/1) nods, "The first words we spoke. How we fell in love. Every moment."
"(R/1), none of it ever happened." Peter says, stepping toward her, "None of it."
"The first time we kissed."
"Edmund should never have sent my sketch." He was trying to get the two of them back on the right track.
"But he did." (R/1) says quietly.
"It was just a thoughtless thing he did. A mistake. A silly thing. But he's not silly, not at all. He's smart. There is so much to like about him. And he's decent. He's a decent human being, (R/1). Not like me. I lie, I cheat. I'm not a nice person compared to my brother."
He has never said truer words as intimately as he is doing right now with (R/1).
"You're not bad." She shakes her head.
"I'm worst than bad." Peter admits, "You don't know me. You think you do, but you don't. You have no idea. Neither does (R/2), to be honest. I see other women. It's true. Show me a beautiful lady and I can't help myself."
(R/1)'s lip starts to tremble.
"But that doesn't mean that I don't love (R/2). I do! I love her very much and she loves me." Peter says, then he pauses. "That's why we're getting married. I proposed to her tonight. And I know you mustn't believe me and why should you after I told you of what kind of person I am, but it's true."
"And she accepted?" (R/1) asks, a tear running down her cheek.
"Accepted? She cried tears of joy. That's how much we love each other. Tears of joy."
Peter was trying not to focus too much on how (R/1) was crying tears as well, but they weren't of joy. He was breaking her heart.
"So that's how it is, (R/1)." He continues, "And if for one moment you think that we're going to end up together, you may as well pack your things and go home."
A moment of silence.
"No don't do that!" Peter suddenly says, "Edmund. Think of Edmund. He loves you. Give him a chance. It's not too much to ask, is it?"
(R/1) slowly shakes her head.
"I know that these stories mean a lot to you, but they don't mean anything to me." Peter's finger points at the book in (R/1)'s slightly shaking hands, "Nothing at all. How can they?"
Another moment of silence. When Peter takes a breath in, he can smell his perfume. He had smelt it before when he had entered the room, but he thought it was coming from his clothes. But now, he realizes, the smell is coming from (R/1). Did she put on my perfume? Peter can feel himself losing control at the thought of his smell on her, so he makes sure to drive his point home.
"For Edmund." He says, "Please, (R/1). That's all I ask. Do it for Edmund."
Peter doesn't wait for her to reply, he immediately turns on his heel and walks over to the door; swinging it open and then shutting it once he leaves the room. Once the door shuts in its place, he lets out a sigh. He wishes he never had to see her cry.