His Majesty, Her Grace - Sequel to A Prince Caspian Love Story

Chapter 1 - Yearning

Althea's POV

The days that Caspian is here pass in the blink of an eye and the months he's gone drag on for what feels like forever. His letters are the only thing keeping me sane, the occasional gift, feather, or flower he sends keeping me happy. My semi-new job keeps me busy and distracted as well. My duties as the envoy between Narnia and Telmar mainly consist of visiting both countries and resolving minor disputes between its people.

The Kings and Queens have been gone for three years now and I miss them more than ever, especially when I'm alone. People in the castle either treat me absurdly well because they know of my close relationship with Caspian or the opposite, for the same reason. To put it simply, I haven't made many friends.

Caspian did put Reepicheep in charge of the castle security in an attempt to integrate the Narnians and Telmarines. It worked. Everyone loves him, including me. I spend most of my time with him. Speaking of Reep, he's supposed to stop by right about now.

I hop off my window sill and walk over to one of my bookshelves. The last time Caspian was here, he gave me a book about stars, their alignments, and how to use them for navigation. I've already read it several times, the same with most of the books in my room, but I pick it up and flip to the first page.

"Again?" Reep asks from the doorway. I'm used to him silently appearing in my room.

"Why not?" I laugh lightly.

"Surely you've memorized it by now."

"Not quite."

"Anyways, I just delivered your letter earlier today." He says.

"Thanks, Reep. I would deliver them myself or just visit more, but I don't want to miss Caspian, just in case he gets back. He might be worried if I wasn't here to greet him." I explain, tossing the book on my bed.

"It's no problem, Althea. I was just about to go on my night patrol, would you like to come?" He asks.

"I'd love to. It feels stuffy in here anyway."

We continue to make small talk as we stroll through the endless halls of the castle. I now have the whole thing memorized like it's the back of my hand, which I thought would never happen. We turn down one of the larger corridors and pass two young girls who appear to be maids. I've never seen them before so they must be new.

"She's not even Narnian." I barely hear one of them whisper as we pass each other.

"She's clearly not Telmarine either. I would make a better envoy than her, whatever that title is supposed to mean." They both giggle and turn the corner, their conversation no longer audible.

I glance down at Reep and he's trying not to laugh.

"What's so funny?" I ask, smiling nervously.

"How would she do better if she doesn't even know what an envoy is?" He holds his stomach and openly laughs now.

"I have no idea." I say, but she has a point, I'm not cut out for this position.

I'm used to sour looks and glares but very rarely has someone spoke like that so shamelessly to my face. I remember the first couple of weeks I was here, the woman who showed me around said something about me being here right in front of Caspian. It took a lot of convincing from me for him not to fire her. She works in some other wing of the castle now so I hardly see her anymore.

"Don't let it bother you. They're probably just jealous of your closeness with King Caspian." Reeps says.

"That's easy for you to say, everyone loves you." I scoff at him.