"There was no need to be insensitive," Peter scolds Edmund as we walk away from the dining room.
"I was merely pointing out how the news is a week old and the month is near its end. She promised me she'd help me on the hunt. I've got to beat Darren,"
"Oh, for the river gods, you can't possibly expect her to care about your silly little competition when she's just received such tragic news," I say, resisting the urge to punch Edmund for being so insensitive to Susan during breakfast. There were better ways to convey the message.
"Silly little competition? For the past year, I've been trying to beat your stupid cousin,"
"Oi," I consider Edmund family now, but Darren is my blood. Only I get to call him stupid.
Ed just ignores me. "And now that I'm this close to winning, this close," he says making a hand gesture, "Susan decides she can't be bothered to help? Come on, that letter was weeks old. Staying here to cry won't help anyone," he finishes.
So he wants to be selfish for a change, well alright, nothing wrong with being selfish every once in a while, but can't he be selfish a few days from now? I am sure Susan will live up to her word, it's just the timing that's not right. She doesn't feel ready to have fun just yet, she said so last night to Lucy and me.
"Empathy, Ed," Peter says slapping his brother lightly on the head.
"Oi, no need to get physical," Edmund complains dramatically, and I can already see this will become an issue.
I sigh tiredly.
"Well, if you don't want to get it, then don't be indifferent to Susan's feelings," Peter says. "You should go and apologize," he orders, his tone making it clear it is not a suggestion.
"Alright," Edmund agrees disgruntled. He hates it when Peter tells him what to do, especially when he's right. "Don't get your panties in a twist," he mutters under his breath.
This, of course, only makes Peter angrier.
"Alright, come on, let's calm down," I intervene before Peter can make things worse and place a hand on his shoulder. "There is no need to act like children,"
"Well, I won't behave like one when he stops acting like he's my father," Edmund complains loudly.
"Oh, grow up," Peter replies with an eye roll and starts to walk away. He has heard this many times before. Whenever Edmund gets moody about Peter or Susan giving him orders he says they're behaving as if they were his parents. It bothers Susan a lot, but Peter just tends to ignore it. I can see he's ready to ignore him this one as well, but Edmund's next snarky comment changes things for the worse.
"Boss your own children," Edmund mutters.
"Alright, that's it,"
Peter grabs hold of Edmund's shirt and Edmund readies his fist. There is an awful lot of yelling and wrestling as I allow them to fight a bit and let it out before stepping in to try and separate the two brothers who, at this moment, are behaving like anything but the Kings they are.
Ugh, it is far too early to deal with this.
"Stop, just..." I look around for a way to separate them, they are far too strong for me to try to take on. I look around for something or someone who can help, perhaps Lucy or... or that. Yeah, that will work.
I calmly stride down the hall and come back carrying a spear from one of the old suits of armour that decorate the hallways. Careful not to use the pointy end, I break my way through them through jabbing and poking.
"What the..."
"Will you two please stop embarrassing yourselves. Anyone could have come down the hallway and seen you two fighting like eight-year-olds,"
"What- you heard him, he's a scalawag!" Peter complains.
"Don't use words you can't understand," Edmund retorts and the fighting renews.
Why do I even bother? They never listen. I can either stay here and attempt to separate them, or I can go to have tea with Henry and catch up on all the gossip with Thea who has only recently come back.
"You could at least have the decency of fighting in enclosed quarters!" I yell at them as I make my way to my friends.
"No,"
"Yes,"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"And you saw it?" I ask excitedly. The first bit of gossip of the year and it's as juicy as a ripe peach.
"I did," Thea says excitedly.
"Sign here," Henry interrupts once more with another law or invitation, or letter that requires my signature. Honestly, I'm not even paying attention anymore.
"Agh and I can't believe I missed it," I complain as I scribe my name yet another time.
"You should have been here, her face was priceless," Thea says as I relish the thought of Danielle's shock face. It must have been glorious.
"I bet it was. Ugh, I've been waiting for this moment since they got together. I really should have stayed," I exclaim now completely convinced going away was an error.
Apparently, while I was away making a royal mistake, my cousin and Lady Danielle split up right after Thea saw him kiss another girl.
"So, who is she?" I ask.
"And sign here," Henry asks for the hundredth time.
"Just some random dryad" Thea explains as I comply with Henry's request.
"No,"
"Yes,"
"Ah, this is great. I completely support that,"
"Aren't you leaving out one significant bit, Thea?" Henry says.
Alright, if he's stopping work to join in our gossip it's got to be important.
"What? What is it? What did you leave out?" I ask with urgency.
She and Henry stare at each other.
"They got back together," Thea admits.
"What?!"
"They had a big fight but then they got back together," Henry says.
"But- are you certain?"
"My brother overheard it," Thea says. "He was walking in the garden, beside your former residence. He overheard the whole thing,"
I sigh in defeat. "And here I was celebrating I had gotten rid of her for good,"
"Not anytime soon," Henry says. "Sign here,"
As I walk down the main stairway I find Peter and Edmund chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened earlier.
"I see you two aren't fighting anymore,"
"After the first few punches were exchanged we figured it wasn't worth it," Peter explains.
"It took you a few punches to figure that out?" I ask laughing.
"Hey, we stopped fighting, alright. That's what matters here," Edmund says.
"Of course, you're right," I do not wish to get into an argument over it. "So, what are you boys up to?"
"Well, I apologized to Susan for pressuring her and she said she couldn't go on the hunt with me so, I am off to recruit Lord Peridan to help me beat your cousin," Edmund says. "See you two later," and he heads off.
"What about you?" I ask Peter. He places a hand on my waits and starts walking me down the other end of the hallway.
"I am off to a series of briefings and meetings. Care to join?" he asks expecting to hear a no, so of course, I say yes.
"Really?" he asks with surprise.
"I could use some catching up on all matters Narnia,"
"No but really? You want to come?" he asks, still incredulous.
I stop walking and cross my arms, annoyed at his thinking I am joking. "Is it really that surprising I want to get more involved?"
"Considering how your last attempt at getting involved went, yes,"
Can't we just get over that? Yes, I made a mistake, but as Edmund said, if I keep dwelling on it I will never get anything done. "Well, I never said I was getting actively involved," I clarify. "It's all about taking small steps. I can passively listen and nod and maintain a presence in all matters without having to engage in making any decisions just yet,"
He chuckles at my response. "Well, alright,"
As Peter and I discuss going to Datram for mine and James' birthday, we run into Edmund on our way to dinner.
"Good news," Edmund says with a bright smile. "I have sorted it all out and the hunt is tomorrow,"
"Tomorrow?!"
"Yes, isn't it great? Don't be late, we meet on the yard outside the stables and leave at eight," he says and heads off.
"Ed, aren't you coming for dinner?" Peter shouts after him.
"Too busy!" he replies and disappears with a sharp turn right.
"Hmm,"
"What?" I ask Peter.
"He's up to something,"
"He's always up to something," I remind him. "Come on, I'm hungry,"
"Shouldn't we wait for Lucy?" I ask Susan when she starts to eat.
"Oh, she's not coming," She says.
"She's not?" Peter asks confused. Lucy always shows up.
"Apparently, Edmund is having a secret-not-so-secret meeting to plan tomorrow's hunt with her and the others, and since I am no longer on his team I am no longer welcome into his schemes,"
"Oh, that's not nice," I said disapprovingly.
"Right? He said he didn't want me snitching on his team. He just popped by to ask me if I could lend him my horn. Can you believe him?"
"So rude. What did you say?"
"Of course I did not want to lend him my horn after that, but since Lucy is going with him I couldn't exactly say no,"
"That was a good call," Peter says. "I'll try to keep an eye on her, as I am sure Ed will, but she does like to wander off,"
"She does," Susan agrees. "Who knows what sort of trouble she might run into,"
"Did he happen to mention who he recruited for his team? He said earlier he wanted to get Lord Peridan, but he still needed one more person,"
"Unfortunately, he did not. But you'll find out soon enough,"
"Shouldn't we be having a secret meeting of our own?" Peter suggests. "Edmund's really going out of his way to try and beat Darren and your cousin hasn't even shown his face today,"
"Ugh, don't even get me started on him. He's probably having dinner with that silly little-"
"Prince Darren!" Susan says looking past me. Oh, shit, thanks for the heads up, Sue. I hope he didn't hear that. "Come to join us?"
"Queen Susan, good evening," Darren greets her. "King Peter, cousin,"
"Darren,"
"I was hoping I might steal the both of you for a little while after dinner?"
"To discuss tomorrow?" Peter asks.
"Precisely,"
"Yes, I'll be there," I answer instantly and then remember perhaps Peter has other plans so I turn to look at him.
"We'll be there," he confirms.
"Perfect," Darren says pleased. "You are welcome to join us, your majesty," he says turning to Susan, "Although it might run a bit late..."
"It's alright, thank you," Susan replies. "I've got business of my own to take care of. But you three have fun,"
"I don't know about you, but I enjoyed myself," Peter says once we reach our quarters.
"Yes, I saw that," Having fun and chatting with Danielle as I tried not to let it show how much I hate her. I don't even know why I despise her so passionately, I just do.
"Oh, come on, she's not as bad as you make her out to be,"
Ugh, I really don't want the last talk of the day to be about Danielle and how I might be wrong and unfounded in my dislike for her and how she might not be as awful as I make her out to be. That would mean she wins. Just thinking about it makes me angry. "Maybe," I say very quietly and proceed to clear my throat. "So, those trees that are being chopped down in the Dancing Lawn, I think we should send someone over there," I try to change the subject, but Peter won't let it go.
"Perhaps after spending some more time with her tomorrow you'll see that she's not as bad as you say she is," he persists.
What part of me changing the subject did you not get, Peter? "Or maybe we could go ourselves," I go on trying to focus on something else.
"That's already being taken care of," he reminds me.
"I know but I just thought we're heading into the woods tomorrow, why not take care of it ourselves?"
"You really care about the trees, huh?" he asks in what I can only say is a sarcastic tone.
"Of course I care about the trees!" I love dryads, they are the best. "For the Lion's mane, is it truly that hard to believe that I care for other beings?!" And now I'm shouting. Great. That ought to make me sound reasonable.
"What? No. When did I say that!" Peter replies.
"You didn't have to say it, you implied it," I point out bitterly.
"I didn't imply anything! I-" he sighs exasperatedly and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Look if it means that much to you then yes, we'll stop by the Dancing Lawn and take care of the trees,"
"Thank you," I say a little too loudly.
"So... we're good?" he asks taking my hand.
"Yes, we're good," I reply evading his gaze and feeling guilty about freaking on him. I don't even know why I freaked out, as he said, the thing with the trees is already being handled. But just the mere mention or allusion to Danielle... it makes my blood boil. Why, oh, why being so many other women out there does my cousin have to fancy her? I don't know why she has such an effect on me, but she does and I hate it. And now I can't stop thinking about her. Danielle: one; Imira: zero. Ugh, stupid red-head.