Helena Pevensie (Caspian Love Story)

13. Words Better Left Unsaid

"Well," Helena said, the moment the woman was out of sight over the arch.

"Up to no good, I'll be bound," Puddleglum remarked.

"Oh, rot!" Eustace retorted. "I thought she was simply super. And think of hot meals and warm rooms. I do hope Harfang isn't a long way off."

"Same here," Jill said excitedly. "And hadn't she a scrumptious dress? And the horse!"

"All the same," said Puddleglum. "I wish we knew a bit more about her."

"I was going to ask her all about herself," said Jill. "But how could I when you wouldn't tell her anything about us?"

"Yes," said Eustace. "And why were the two of you so stuff and unpleasant? Didn't you like them?"

"Them?" Puddleglum repeated. "Who's them? I only saw one."

"Didn't you see the knight?" Eustace asked.

"I saw a suit of armour," Puddleglum replied. "Why didn't he speak?"

"I expect he was shy," said Jill. "Or perhaps he just wants to look at her and listen to her lovely voice. I'm sure I would if I was him."

"I was wondering," remarked Puddleglum. "What you'd really see if you lifted the visor of that helmet and looked inside."

"Hang it all!" Eustace cried. "Think of the shape of the armour! What could be inside it except a man?"

"How about a skeleton," Puddleglum guessed with ghastly cheerfulness. "Or perhaps, nothing at all. I mean, nothing you could see. Someone invisible."

"Really?" Jill asked with a shudder, "you do have the most horrible ideas. How do you think of them all?"

"Oh bother his ideas!" Eustace exclaimed, "Puddleglum is always expecting the worst and he's always wrong. Let's think about those Gentle Giants and get on to Harfang as quickly as we can. I wish I knew how far it is."

"You really think we should go?" Helena retorted bitingly. The children stared at her in shock.

"Why wouldn't we?" Jill replied in surprise.

"Why would we?" Helena countered. "We were told to go by a woman who we have no reason to trust!"

"We have no reason not to," Eustace replied defiantly.

"We know nothing about her," Puddleglum said.

"Not you too," Jill said irritably.

"Jill, we have no reason to trust her," Helena said. "For all we know, this could all be some kind of elaborate trap."

But by now, Jill was in such a temper that she snapped angrily, "You just don't like the fact that she's everything you are and more."

"Excuse me?" Helena retorted, her eyebrows raised and her voice shooting up at least an octave.

"Pole-" Eustace began.

"She's got your beauty and grace and kindness but only with her it isn't so shallow," Jill snapped. Helena stared at her for a long moment unblinking with an unreadable expression as the other two awkwardly looked between the two girls, each trying to decide what her reaction was going to be. It was so long, in fact, that Jill began to feel shame for what she had said. Just as Jill opened her mouth to apologize, Helena turned, starting up the path silently. Eustace, Puddleglum, and Jill glanced at each other before following along behind her.

.

Although they never spoke of what happened that day by the bridge between Jill and Helena, it was clear to everyone that something had changed. Helena was a little colder and withdrawn around all of them. And as the terrain grew rougher and the ground harder, tempers all around declined. Helena now only regularly spent time with Puddleglum while the two children trailed behind or ahead. She was beginning to find the pessimism of the marsh-wiggle strangely comforting. It was far better than the complaining of the children.

Something like two weeks or possibly even a month had elapsed since the meeting of the lady in green when they spotted far beyond them the light of some kind of civilization. It was that night as they made camp and a large fire that Puddleglum and Helena stole away from the children to talk.

"I don't like this," Puddleglum said. The children had by sheer force of will convinced the two older ones to agree to go to Harfang on the condition they did not reveal that they were from Narnia or what their mission was, but the entire business still did not settle well with either adult.

"Me neither," she confessed in a whisper, wrapping her cloak tighter around her to fight off the chill. "I wish to goodness we had never encountered her."

"What do you think of her?" Puddleglum asked curiously.

Lowly, Helena said, "I think it's a funny coincidence that a supposedly gloriously beautiful woman in green lured away Rilian and now we find an again supposedly gloriously beautiful woman also dressed in green luring us somewhere."