A/N: You've asked for it, so I wrote it. I know it took a while, but I didn't expect this story to turn out this long. I originally planned to make this a one-shot, but as usual, the muses made me write something so long I had to divide it into two chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or the Pevensies, I just like making up funny stories about them.

Chaperoning Peter

Chapter One

The rustling trees of dried branches competed with clip-clop of horse hooves as the carriage moved forward through the endless row of dark woods. The sounds had gone on for so long that one ought to be used to it by now. But to Queen Susan of Narnia, such sounds appear more dreadful with each 'clop.' It was a maddening reminder that she was going farther and farther from the port where her ship, the Splendour Hyaline was docked.

Oh how she longed to be back on its deck! How she wished for open sea again and fair south western winds that would take her back home, home to Narnia. It had been seven weeks since she had seen the towers of Cair Paravel. Seven weeks since she had kissed Edmund and Lucy goodbye. Seven weeks of traveling to the kingdoms in the Seven Isles. It had been seven weeks of attending fancy dinners, dancing in balls, making speeches and turning down suitors. It had all been grand at the start, of course. She enjoyed these official court visits and was always game for a dance or a fine dinner with political debates. She realized however, that even the most social person had a saturation point when it comes to big gatherings. Susan's marked her own point at seven weeks. Now, all she wanted was a bit of peace and quiet and the familiar friendly company of the talking beasts and the magical creatures that graced her court. Mr. Endon, the fawn; two dwarfs; the three squirrels; and Binky, the cat who accompanied her in this voyage tried to be as gay as possible, but they too seemed to weary of travel.

"Not much further, I suppose," said Peter, though he sounded unconvinced. He too was straining his eyes as if he was searching for any patch of colour that could relieve the monotony of grey and brown that constantly invaded his vision.

He is a comfort at least, thoughtSusan. Enduring boredom with another person somehow made it more bearable. Misery does love company and if Susan had to pick a person to be miserable with, she would rather it be her eldest brother. He was always the patient one and can put up with her tempers. Though, she had to admit, this time she could use a bit more of Edmund's dry humour or Lucy's bubbling cheerfulness, just to entertain her in this long ride to yet another kingdom.

Susan shut her eyes and tried to recall any interesting events that transpired during the last seven weeks. There was nothing much of course, unless you count the irritating suitors she met along the way. But even those were a dull lot. Three of them were self-centered idiots who talked of nothing but themselves, two princes sought to impress her with badly written poetry while another was stupid enough to think she would be awed with his so-called archery skills. The most exciting by far were the four noble dukes from Redhaven who boasted to their entire kingdom that one of them would wed the elusive Narnian Queen and defeat her brother in hand-to-hand combat before their official visit ended. Peter, who was bored to death after a month of fancy balls, gamely took up the challenge. But even that incident could make Susan yawn as Peter defeated them all without breaking much of a sweat. The longest fight among the four only lasted fifteen minutes. The shortest was two seconds (The poor boy didn't even know how to block. Peter gave one swift thrust with his sword and cut the boy clean on the shoulder. As soon as he saw the blood, he dropped his own sword and crawled away). After a turn with the High King of Narnia, all four dukes ate their words and lost even the courage to offer a proposal to his sister.

The carriage suddenly pulled to a stop and Susan opened her eyes. Binky announced that they had finally arrived. Susan looked out the window, expecting to find an interesting scene. She wasn't disappointed, but at the moment she thought she would gladly take disappointment.

The castle that loomed before her was somewhere she would never in a million years wish to approach. It was a mass of tall towers and crumbling walls filled with moss and trellises full of ivy. It reminded Susan of those dark medieval palaces she had read about that held secrets of death and torture. Susan found herself glancing up into some of the dark windows, expecting a horrific face to appear.

The carriage door burst open and Susan felt herself shiver as an unsettling cold came upon her. She shrank back into her seat. Peter had gotten up from his and for a moment Susan wanted to pull him back in and order the carriage to carry them as fast as possible back to the Splendour Hyaline. But it was too late, he was out and she could see his hand beckoning to her to follow him. Susan breathed deeply and took her brother's offered hand. It was warm and reassuring and she was more than grateful for it in the next moment when she finally alighted. The cold that assailed her was startling and she felt everything but her hand was on ice.

Black-robed knights greeted them warmly and escorted them up the steps of the castle towards a pair of huge dark oak doors. Susan squeezed Peter's hand tightly.

"You alright?" he whispered to her.

"I don't like this, Peter," she replied. "Oh I wish we didn't come here. We should have gone on directly to Cepris."

"You know we have to pay a courtesy visit. Ebon is our vassal too, even if it's just a small country. It's only polite we greet King Valdima en route to Cepris. And anyway it's just one night. We just need to endure a dinner and a ball. How hard could that be?"

Susan smiled. "Well, I suppose, it won't be that bad. It just looks so gloomy."

Peter laughed. "Don't tell me you're afraid? It's just an old castle. We can't expect our vassals to afford palaces as good as Cair Paravel."

"Of course not," said Susan who felt she needed to defend herself against his teasing. She was an adult now and shouldn't be afraid of such things as dark places. She and siblings had endured worse horrors in the past. "It's just bad enough being bored with a ball when there's no interesting scenery."

"Well maybe they have interesting men," joked Peter.

Susan glared at him. "Oh bother all the suitors. I can't stand their talk and I have to be polite to them all the time. I almost wish I could just challenge them like you do."

Peter raised his eyebrows. "You? Fight off your suitors with a sword? Oh, that will be the day."

"And why not?" she said snootily. "You and Edmund get to be my protector all the time. I can handle myself. If only someone would challenge me, I'd take it. It's better than playing the meek little queen."

Peter grinned at her. "I've no doubt about that Su. Tell you what? If any suitors come up here in Ebon, I'll let you handle them. I'm not lifting a finger to help you."

"Promise?" smiled Susan.

He put his free hand across his heart. "High King's honour, unless of course it's a matter of life and death."

"Alright."

They stopped talking as their herald dwarves announced their names and the knights opened the great oak doors. They entered a large hall that was just as ominous as the rest of the castle, though it was comfortably warmer due to the fires and lamps that lit it. It was also well-maintained from the inside, though there were a few cracks on the walls.

"Welcome, High King Peter! And also to you, O noble Queen Susan! The Kingdom of Ebon, north-most of the Seven Isles, is honoured by your visit."

Susan instinctively bowed to their host before she took a good look at him. King Valdima was large middle-aged man with a bulging waist, raven hair and deep-seated black eyes. But what was striking about him was his pale face that contrasted with his other healthier features. It was almost as if he was drained of most of his blood. It was made even more striking by his clothes of pure black and his gold crown that was encrusted by no other jewels except onyx. Susan shivered and a single description came into her head: Vampire!

The King eyed her for a moment. There was nothing unusual about that. She was used to being stared at by men. But when he approached to take her hand, Susan almost shrank back, expecting his touch to be cold. To her surprise, it was warm and his kiss on her hand was as gallant as any human suitor. Susan quickly dismissed her earlier thought as silly imagining.

"I would like to introduce my daughters," said the King. Susan tore her gaze away from him and noticed a figure in a dark blue dress appear from a door on the side.

"My youngest daughter and my little swallow, Princess Adela." The girl was about sixteen. She had hair as dark as her father's and skin just as pale that was even more revealed by her low neckline. She possessed a childish countenance about her as she took her bow. She glanced at Susan before her green glassy eyes rested on Peter. Susan didn't know why, but somehow her swift gaze unnerved her.

Peter shook Susan's hand away and Susan realized he had been clutching his hand all this time. He approached the princess and kissed her hand as courtesy demanded. Susan noticed a bit of colour appeared at her cheeks and a giggle escaped her lips.

"My gem, Princess Alana," announced the king. Another girl appeared, this time in robes of gold that were also quite revealing. Her arms were bare and Susan wondered how she could wear a dress like that and not shiver with the cold. She looked about a year or two older than Adela and she made a similar glance on Susan before directing her attention to Peter. Peter did the same to her hand and Susan saw proof that at least she had blood running in her veins by the increased colour on her cheeks. Yet, the same feeling of uneasiness came on Susan.

"The Princess Amelia, a darling to my heart."

Susan couldn't rightly call her a girl anymore. She was a woman and quite a voluptuous one. She was attired in a black dress and she moved like she was gliding across the floor. This time there was no doubt about why Susan had uneasy feelings about her. She looked at Susan as if she was an eyesore then gave a seductive pout to Peter. When Peter bent to kiss her hand, she pulled her hand closer to her chest so Peter could have an ample view of her rather sizeable chest. Susan raised an eyebrow in disgust.

"My sweet nightingale, Princess Agatha."

Susan's gaze was met with another pair of disdainful green eyes. She was built bigger than her sisters and was taller even than her father. Susan was reminded of an amazon and the princess' blood red dress quite complemented the image. She thrust a large arm with a flourish for Peter to kiss. When he did, Agatha grabbed his arm with her free hand and her fingers nudged under his sleeve. Peter looked a bit shocked but couldn't move away.

"And finally, my eldest, my dove, Princess Athina."

She appeared to be the palest of them all and she wore a translucent white dress that showed more than her chest. The fabric was so light and soft it clung to her body showing off her curves among other things. Susan didn't know how he did it, but somehow Peter managed to escape the clutches of Princess Amazon only to come face to face with Miss See-Through.

She didn't hold out a hand, but stood in front of him with her body arched and her hungry eyes intent on him as if he was a piece of meat. Peter kept his eyes on the floor while he slowly reached out to take her left hand. He bent low so he need not have to raise her hand higher and was startled when she bent her knee forward to give him a more tantalizing view of her thigh. Peter gave the princess's hand a split-second less than gallant kiss then backed away very quickly.

Susan noticed beads of sweat falling down the side of her brother's face, which was quite unusual since the room was still very cold. He appeared to have lost all sense of speech so Susan decided to take over. She gave her welcoming thanks to the king and began small talk. The king was conversational enough and introduced them to the other members of his court before leading them to the dinning room.

Susan was used to women falling for her brothers. Peter had been the recipient of a few marriage proposals from kings who dream of having their daughters as the first lady of Narnia. Peter also had his share of women themselves proposing to him. Yet somehow, he could never get used to them like Edmund did who could accept flattery and even flirt back without compromising himself. Peter had only one tactic when it came to flirtation: avoidance. When a woman was after him with an intention of wedding him, Peter made it a point to evade her like a plague until he returned home to Narnia.

Unfortunately for Peter, avoidance was currently a non-option. He was assigned to be seated at the end of the dinner table flanked by the five princesses. Susan was seated at the other end, next to King Valdima.

The King and his courtiers were very talkative and always drew her attention, yet somehow they seemed to leave Peter and the princesses out of the conversation. Susan tried to draw them in as was only polite, but her seatmates would quickly revert the discussion to their own nearby circle, leaving the occupants of the other end of the table to their own devices. Susan sensed a conspiracy was going on here to get Peter to talk alone with the princesses.

Her brother hardly touched his soup and salad. He seemed to have trouble concentrating on chewing when his arm would receive seemingly accidental touches from his seatmates. By the time the main course arrived, Susan suspected there was more touching involved than what she was witnessing above the table, based on Peter's expression.

Just before dessert was announced, Susan heard a barely audible gasp from Peter that matched his panic-stricken face. Susan decided to take matters in her own hands. She called behind for their three squirrel pages and whispered something to their ears. They nodded and set off.

Halfway through her custard, Susan was rewarded by five surprised shrieks from the other end of the table and the sight of the five princesses jumping back from their seats. King Valdima and his courtiers looked at them in surprise for a moment, but Susan was ready to draw their attention back to her with a ready compliment about the delicious custard that could make anyone shriek with delight. She gave Peter a wink and he mouthed a silent "I love you" to her. Susan finished the rest of her custard in peace, knowing none of the princesses would dare play footsie with her brother now that he had three squirrels guarding his feet.

When dinner was over, the king proposed that they moved on to the main hall for the dancing, Susan found Peter claiming her elbow as soon as she stood up.

"I'll escort you," he whispered.

"You're supposed to be escorting one of them," Susan whispered back. "King Valdima is going to escort me."

But Peter held tight to her elbow. If I escort one of them, I'm never going to get to the main hall."

Susan thought he was just exaggerating, but he tugged hard at her until Susan was forced to follow him and leave the king behind. The Ebon monarch didn't seem to mind. He escorted one his daughters and led her to a first dance.

"Give me first dance," said Peter. He didn't wait for an answer but immediately took Susan to dance. They waltzed for a while in silence but when it ended, Peter held her hand and wouldn't let go.

"Peter, I can't dance with you all night," complained Susan.

"Don't leave me with them," he begged.

"Oh learn to deal with it!"

Susan would have said something else but King Valdima had come forward and asked for a dance. Peter had no choice but to give her up and take up with the king's former partner which was Princess Agatha.

Susan told herself she would just ignore him. He was old enough to take care of himself. Yet she couldn't help but glance in his direction. Peter seemed to be holding up though he looked more like he was playing a game of tug-of-war with the "amazon" rather than waltzing. And so far, the amazon was winning. Susan knew she didn't have the heart to leave him alone.

The sudden change in music bought her poor brother temporary salvation. It was a faster number that involved group dancing and changing of partners.

"How are you?" Susan asked when Peter became her partner at one round.

"Barely surviving," he replied before they had to change partners. Susan watched him endure a round with four of the five princesses before falling back to her arms.

"Help me!" he said desperately when he met her again.

"What do I do?"

Peter was gone again and Susan had to wait for a long time before she met him again.

"Don't let me out of your sight."

Susan didn't have time to answer for he was pulled away by Athina and at that moment, the music ended and a slow song came on. Susan excused herself from a courtier who wanted to dance with her. She looked around for Peter but she couldn't see him among the dancers.

She began searching in earnest on the sides of the hall and caught sight of Peter's cape disappearing behind a curtain. Susan ran as fast as she could and tore open the curtains. Peter was backed against the wall while Princess Amelia was in front of him whispering something Susan couldn't hear but made him wince.

Susan cleared her throat loudly.

"Oh Su, glad you're here. Let's get you a drink shall we?" he said, relief washing over his face. He quickly made his way towards her.

Amelia looked startled for a moment and openly glared at Susan.

"Oh yes, I think I'd like that brother, lead the way."

She let him go ahead before Susan turned to the disappointed princess. "I'll get you one too," she said evenly. "I think you look a bit thirsty yourself."

Susan stayed a bit to watch the expression on the princess' face before she turned away, smiling triumphantly at her own nerve.

She turned to join Peter but he was no where in sight. She glanced around and to her dismay, she found him in the middle of the dance floor resisting the arms of yet another princess. Adela was pretending they were dancing, but she was slowly pulling him closer to another dark corner at the other end of the hall.

Susan glanced around and thought frantically. How could she interrupt a dance without appearing rude? She caught the arm of one of the king's courtiers.

"Could you tell Princess Adela that the Princess Amelia is in need of her assistance in the dinning room?"

The courtier bowed out and approached the dancing couple. Susan followed close behind him. As soon as Peter was free, she was getting him away. Susan watched the courtier deliver the news and Adela reluctantly step away from Peter. But before Susan could claim him, Princess Athina had emerged out of nowhere.

"Oh don't worry sister dear. I'll dance with his majesty." And she almost grabbed him and led him back to the middle of the floor.

Susan stomped her foot in frustration. This was getting to be harder than she thought. There was a tap on her shoulder and another one of the noble lords asked for a dance. Susan agreed, thinking it would be the best way to approach her brother. It was easy enough to maneuver next to Peter, especially since a fast song was on. He was again doing that tug-of-war dance and twice narrowly avoided being stepped on by Athina's big feet.

Susan thought fast on how she could get Peter off the dance floor once and for all without any new partners vying for him. Susan suddenly had an idea and engaged her partner in one of those vigorous dance moves that she and Edmund used to do. When she was as close to Peter as possible, she put her leg out in direct path of his feet. He stumbled forward and fell to the floor, dragging Athina who fell on top of him.

Ooops! Didn't mean to get him crushed! Susan thought as she saw her brother's pained expression.

Athina emerged from him, giggling hysterically like a mad woman.

"Oh Peter, are you alright? Is it your ankle?" Susan cried as she gave him a hand to help him stand.

"I'm alrig—" Susan jabbed him hard. "Yes, I—think it's my ankle. Oh bother, I think I've twisted it again."

He stood up normally but Susan whispered urgently to him. "Limp!"

Peter obeyed and pretended to limp and held on to Susan's shoulder for support. A crowd grew around them and King Valdima approached them with a worried expression.

"Oh, your majesty," said Athina who for some odd reason looked particularly happy. "I hope it's not serious."

"I'm afraid it is," said Peter. "I don't think I can dance anymore after this."

Athina shone like Father Christmas had just sent her a sleigh full of gifts.

"Then, we must have you rested," said King Valdima. "Perhaps a few more days here—"

"No!" Peter and Susan cried.

"I mean," Peter said slowly. "Mr. Endon," he nodded to the fawn that had just appeared with their two dwarf escorts. "Is an excellent healer. He'll have me walking again by tomorrow after he sets my muscles right tonight. We would not dare intrude on your hospitality further."

"But it's no trouble," said the King readily. "We would be glad to have you. It would be an honour and I'm sure your longer visit could only benefit our friendship, which my daughters and I are most eager to strengthen."

Susan cringed at what exactly the king meant and knew this was the time to make a graceful exit.

"Oh your highness, we are delighted and so grateful to have such friendship," said Susan, as she put on her most charming smile. "But we are must regrettably decline your offer. The king of Cepris is expecting us in his court tomorrow. Perhaps some other time, when we come to visit the Seven Isles we shall come for a longer stay."

King Valdima hid his disappointment well, but his daughter wasn't as good at hiding her feelings. She looked at Susan as if she was shameless thief. Amelia and Adela who now appeared next to her were giving Susan similar glares. Susan chose to ignore them.

"Please, don't let us ruin your gaiety when my sister and I retire early," said Peter.

"Well, it is rather late," said the King. "I think I shall retire as well." He cast a furtive glance at his daughters. "It has been a pleasure. Please, let my servants be of assistance."

"Oh thank you, but that won't be necessary," replied Susan as she let their own Narnian pages take Peter from her.

"Well then I shall let the servants lead you to your rooms. Goodnight."

Susan and Peter thanked him for his hospitality and they were led upstairs by two servants through a long corridor filled with paintings, suits of armour and other antiques. Susan again felt that sense of being in trapped in one of those haunted castles and expected to see a ghost lurking at every corner. Finally at the end of the corridor, the servant opened a rich suite where Peter was led in with Mr. Endon. The second servant opened the door across from Peter's room and introduced Susan to her own quarters.

It was dark like the rest of the castle, but it was clean and rather cozy enough for Susan's tastes. There was a large bed, a dresser, a few pieces of ancient furniture and a warm fire lit at the grate. There were no pictures, to Susan's relief. Instead there were areas of bare wall covered only by floral printed wall paper where there was no furniture. There was an equally comfortable bathroom on one side that Susan quickly put to effective use.

Susan was exhausted and was glad for an excuse to retire early. It had been quite a day and she was glad it was over. Tomorrow, they would leave after breakfast. She expected the princesses might try something then and she made a mental note to have squirrels guard Peter's feet again.

The worse is over, she thought as she changed into her night robe. She was about to get into bed when there was an urgent rap at the door.