An Unexpected Romance

Chapter 23

Edmund and Caspian take their places and prepare to spar. I sit down next to Peter to watch the boys, and Susan sits down on the other side of Peter. Edmund and Caspian begin, and once again we all cheer them on. Caspian is certainly tired, but I can tell he's giving it his all. Edmund seems very relaxed and confident as he easily sidesteps and blocks every one of Caspian's moves.

"Getting tired, Prince Caspian?" Edmund taunts as he saunters behind Caspian.

Out of breath, Caspian huffs "This is not fair, I already fought someone and you've been sitting."

"Excuses, excuses," Edmund retorts.

Edmund jabs at Caspian, but he dodges. Edmund swings and thrusts his sword at Caspian repeatedly until Caspian puts his hands up.

"Pause...pause," the Prince breaths out. "Timeout?"

"If you insist," Edmund says mockingly. He comes and sits next to me and kisses my cheek. "How am I doing?"

"Well enough to tire out your opponent," I say with a smile. Edmund takes a drink of his water as I rub his back. He wipes sweat off his forehead and pulls on his collar to cool down.

"Screw it," he mumbles. Edmund pulls off his shirt and blots the sweat off his forehead and neck with it. He stands up to continue his match, and I gasp quietly.

Oh my gosh. I think to myself.

You can clearly see the scratches I had left there the night before clearly on his back.

"Ed," I hiss at him, hoping to get his attention. "Edmund!"

Edmund turns back and looks back at me with a look of confusion. What? He mouths at me.

I try to gesture to him that he needs to put his shirt back on, but before I could get my point across Caspian walks over and notices the marks on Edmund's back.

"Edmund, what's that you got there?" Caspian says with a laugh. "Did you and your Queen spend some quality time together this morning?"

Peter and Susan laugh, Lucy looks at me confused, and I feel myself blushing profusely. Edmund keeps his cool and tries to divert attention away from me answering, "Trying to get me flustered so you can win, eh?"

"I'm not the one who seems to be flustered," Caspian smirks and nods in my direction.

Despite my embarrassment, I cock an eyebrow at Caspian and join Edmund at his side. I place my hand on Edmund's lower back and rest my cheek on his shoulder.

"Oh Caspian," I sigh breathily. "Maybe if you'd enjoyed your night like Edmund did you wouldn't be so tense."

Peter laughs loudly from behind us, and Edmund has a shocked yet amused look on his face. Before I walk back to Peter and Susan, I stand on my tiptoes and whisper in Edmund's ear,

"I'm going to kill you if Caspian doesn't get you first."

I then peck him on the cheek. Caspian is frozen in his place as I make my way back to where I was sitting. Susan gives me a look, but I'm too amused with myself to mind. Edmund gestures to Caspian's sword and says,

"Well, let's go then," and the boys continue their match.

"So you spent the night with Ed did you?" Peter says with his arms crossed and a mischievous smirk.

"Shut up, Peter," I say with an eye roll. He nudges me and laughs. I bite my lip to keep from smiling at Peter's teasing and continue to watch Caspian and Edmund duel. The boys go back and forth, and Caspian is coming at Edmund with a newfound determination to beat the finest swordsman in Narnia. Edmund's eyes are intense, and I can tell he's carefully watching every move Caspian makes.

Edmund slows down his moves, waiting for Caspian to exhaust himself. Caspian's swings and jabs slow, and Edmund sees his chance to take over. He starts maneuvering around Caspian, but never quite taking a swing. Edmund steps left suddenly, and as Caspian shifts to move with him, Edmund lunges forward and knocks Caspian off his feet. Caspian's sword clatters to the ground and Edmund grabs it. He crosses the swords over Caspian and grins, his chest glistening with sweat and moving heavily up and down with every breath.

I rise to my feet and clap at Edmund's victory. I walk over to him with his shirt balled up in my hand. Edmund helps Caspian up and shakes his hand as Caspian congratulates him on his win. As I approach, Edmund looks at me and smiles. I smile back as he grips my waist and pulls me to his side. He kisses my temple and raises his sword as the crowd cheers. I laugh and roll my eyes at his cockiness. I shove his shirt into his chest and look up at him.

"Put this on before even more people become aware of how we spent our time last night," I grin and narrow my eyes at him.

"Don't act like you don't like everyone knowing," he says slyly as he pulls his shirt over his head.

"Actually I don't, but I can tell you do," I reply.

"Fine. Kill me for liking people knowing you're all mine," Edmund says as he leans in for a kiss.

"Oh, I plan to," I smirk at him and walk ahead of him towards the castle to get cleaned up and ready for dinner.

"I'll hold you to that!" Edmund calls after me.

I smile and shake my head as I walk away.

I love that king.