Helena Pevensie (Caspian Love Story)

17. Stitches

Helena had never been very fond of storms and as the crashing and pounding of waves, rain, and thunder swirled around the ship in a dastardly hurricane, she felt her worry spike. Instead of simply hiding away in the cabin, Helena had elected to join Edmund in the office in which they had first seen Susan and Peter's weapons of old. While Edmund spoke with Caspian and Drinian, Helena sat in a corner, slowly working her way through the large pile of mending that needed to be done. 

She could not, however, help listening in as Drinian explained, "So, we're stuck here. At half rations, we've food and water for two more weeks, maximum. This is your last chance to turn back, Your Majesties." Helena winced as the constant tipping of the boat caused her to accidentally drive the needle into her finger. Caspian, who had sat next to her, looked over in concern. Breifly rubbing her thumb over the spot, she got back to work and the pain dulled to nothing. "There's no guarantee we'll spot the Blue Star any time soon, not in this storm. Needle in a haystack trying to find this Ramandu place. We could sail right past it and off the edge of the world." 

"Or get eaten by a sea serpent," Edmund said. Caspian glared at him. 

"I'm just saying that the men are getting nervous," Drinian said. "These are strange seas we're sailing, the likes of which I've never seen before. 

Getting to his feet, Caspian retorted, "Then perhaps, Captain, you would like to be the one to explain to Mr. Rhince that we're abandoning the search for his family."

"I'll get back to it," Drinian said. Grabbing his coat, he added, "Just a word of warning. THe sea can play nasty tricks on the crew's mind. Very nasty." 

Once he had gone, Edmund said wearily, "I'm going to try and get some sleep." 

Looking up, Helena said, "Goodnight, Ed." He nodded and went out into the harsh storm to get below deck. Helena went back to her mending. 

Sitting down next to her, Caspian said, "I hope the storm has not been upsetting you too much." 

With a wide smile, she replied, "Oh, not at all, Cas. It's all right. Where there is time for clear skies and sunshine there must also be time for rain. Although, a fortnight of rain certainly puts a damper on things." 

"Have you still managed to sleep well?" Helena frowned, pausing briefly in her mending. 

"No," she admitted. "I don't sleep well normally, you see. The only way I can usually sleep is by tiring myself out, but recently all I've had to do is mending and that is not very taxing. But I'm okay. How about you? Are you sleeping well?" Caspian hesitated, images of his recent nightmares flashing through his mind. Just as he opened his mouth to answer, the boat tipped and Helena let out a hiss as the needle was driven into her finger again. 

"Are you all right?" Caspian asked. 

"Fine," Helena sighed, checking her finger. With a small laugh, she said, "I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally stabbed myself with a needle." 

"You sew a lot?" 

"Well, for ballet," she explained. "We use these special shoes called pointe shoes. We have to sew on the ribbons and elastics every time. They give out pretty quickly so I have to prepare new ones once every two days at least and if we have performances, I need a new pair for every show." 

"That explains why you're so quick with mending," Caspian said. 

"Well, it's pretty easy," she said with a smile. "Here, I can teach you, if you like." Setting aside the shirt she had just finished, she took up another one. "So, you have your needle and you have your thread. You see this small hole on the end of the needle? You need to take the thread and get it through the hole." Taking them from her, Caspian tried for several minutes until he finally huffed in frustration. Letting out a light laugh, Helena took them from him and quickly threaded the needle. 

"So, you measure out however much you need so for this I would probably say this much," she explained, pulling the thread through until she had a good amount lined up. Taking her scissors, she cut the end near the spool of thread and lined up the two ends. "Then you make a loop with these two and pull the end through." She cut the ends off just beyond the small knot and looked at the torn shirt. "So, luckily, this rip is along the seam so it's easier to fix. So when you're mending, the goal is to not make it obvious anything had to be resewn. So, we have to flip it inside out and line up the seam again." 

"What about the knot?" Caspian asked. 

"Well, here is my trick," Helena explained. "Run the first pass through just one side." Once she had done that, she lined up the fabric again. "Now, you just make careful stitches along the rip until it's all put together." After she had finished about half of it, she handed it over and said, "You try." Caspian took them and began to attempt to copy her small stitches. Although his were larger and less even, Helena had to admit it wasn't half bad. 

Once he had gotten to the end of the rip, he asked, "How'd I do?" 

"Not bad," Helena admitted. "Now we just need to tie a knot at the end to make sure it doesn't all fall apart." After cutting the thread near the needle, Helena instructed, "Now separate the two strings and tie them together near the fabric." After he had done this, she said, "Now do it one more time and then cut off the remaining bits at the end." 

Caspian did so and put the shirt back the right way and said happily, "I did it." Helena smiled. 

"Yes, very good, Cas." 

Frowning, he replied, "Is that...patronization I hear?" Helena smiled, letting out a bright laugh.