(Untitled)

[withoutasea]

In the days after the Lady Lyanna's disappearence, for Ygraine's sake, Jenny took pains to make sure that things didn't change. The child whined and grizzled for her birth-mother, but the woman who had had a hand in raising her since the day of her birth did her best. They visited with family in Summerfell and the clinic. They spent hours in the

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[giftless]

Edmund winced as he came upon Jenny and Ygraine, the child howling her head off. At least the direwolves could hit a note, in a lonely but beautiful sort of way.

"Not a good day?" he asked, cautious but friendly. He didn't know Ygraine, or Jenny for that matter, as well as he did Rickon and Eddara, but spending time with them had bolstered his confidence when it came to small children.

[withoutasea]

"We are in a frightful ill temper."

For a moment, it was not clear whether Jenny referred to Ygraine alone or the both of them. She pressed one hand against Ygraine's head and cradled her, red and sobbing, hough mostly spent, hiccuping unhappily.

"And nothing pleases us."

[giftless]

"You'd think they'd run out of breath," Ed remarked. He came closer, angling himself so he could catch Ygraine's attention without intruding on Jenny, wondering if a distraction might help. "But it really is the pits being a kid sometimes. You can't blame her."

[withoutasea]

"I think they devise a way to breathe through the ears, and we forget it as we grow," said Jenny, watching as Ygraine quietened, finger stuffed in her mouth as she watched the boy who might as well be another Uncle.

"I was married when I was fourteen," she told him, a smile twitching the corner of her mouth. "I barely remember being a child."

[giftless]

Edmund waved at Ygraine, thankful for the moment of silence, and went through the series of silly faces one makes to entertain a baby.

The thought of Jenny marrying at fourteen was preposterous to him, the sort of thing the Calormenes did to their daughters, but she was from a time long past when they did that sort of thing. Things had changed and it seemed she must know that. "I was ten when I was crowned," he said. "Peter was the oldest and he was only thirteen. Sometimes I think that's why the magic turned us back into kids when we left Narnia, so that we could actually be children again." Not that it had been very pleasant the second time around, or easy.

[withoutasea]

"So young for such a heavy thing," said Jenny, and reached out to touch his face fondly with her free hand.

"My husband was twenty when I was fourteen, and the crown did not always suit him well. He was pretending to be a commoner, the first time I met him in the woods."

Her teeth touched her lip and she hefted Ygraine's weight in her arms.

"And how do you like sixteen the second time, heart?"

[giftless]

It was such a motherly touch, something Edmund hadn't been able to feel in quite some time, and it warmed him down to his toes.

And it was odd to realize that she was speaking of King Arthur, the King Arthur. Edmund always called her Jenny because it was easier to think of her and talk to her that way, but even so she was Guenevere, always queenly in her bearing.

"It's actually a lot more fun the second time around," he admitted with a flash of a smile. "Especially without a kingdom to rule, not that I didn't enjoy every minute of that as well."

[withoutasea]

She smoothed his cheek with her thumb and then, remembering how little men grown (and, to Jenny, sixteen was certainly that) liked to be fussed with by women who were not their wives, she returned her hand to Ygraine's head.

"Good," she said, with a secret smile shared only between the two of them. "I think I never learned to be a child, sweet heart. I think I was a wild thing instead."

[giftless]

"I think children are wild things," Edmund replied. Perhaps it was strange to hear a young man speak so, a boy who was not all that far removed from being a child himself, but Ed managed it without sounding ridiculous or pretentious. "Or at least I was. And it seems Ygraine will be."

[withoutasea]

"Some of them more than others, surely."

She looked down at the little girl in her arms and kissed her forehead.

"She'll be a creature of mists and hills, and lovely because of it," she said, with a little smile. "Like her parents before her."

[giftless]

Edmund did not know much of Arthur and Lyanna, but he rather thought the great, stoic man he had glimpsed was like earth, sturdy and lasting, while Lyanna was easily made of wind and wisps, impossible to hold on to.

"What do you hope she'll have of you?" Ed asked.

[withoutasea]

"Little," said Jenny, her face open and honest, as Ygraine reached for Edmund, and turning her body so that he could take the child if he wanted to.

"I would not pass on my failings, dearest heart. Better she grow up herself."

[giftless]

With those little arms reaching out for him, Edmund could hardly refuse Ygraine, and he carefully took her from Jenny's arms in a way that had become natural since his time on the island and meeting his nephew.

"We all have failings," Edmund said, settling Ygraine against him with a kiss to her forehead. "But that's not all we are. You've plenty of good qualities she's sure to learn from you."

[withoutasea]

Though she had never known him when he was as young as Edmund, for a moment, Jenny felt a pang that she had never been able to give Arthur a child to hold in such a way, with such grace and ease.

She smiled, though blue eyes stayed sad, and she shook her head.

"You do not know the stories, heart."

[giftless]

"Stories don't always have much room for truth," he replied. He remembered the way Trumpkin looked at them after he realized that they were the kings and queens of old, the carvings on the walls of Aslan's How lit by flickering torchlight. They'd become legends, but they were only kids.

"I know you well enough, and I know Lyanna trusted you with her own child. I don't need more than that to know you'll have a good influence on Ygraine."

[withoutasea]

In the end, the Queen of Camelot put up both hands in surrender to him, because it was too beautiful a day to argue on such a silly thing. Ygraine seemed in much better temper now that she was in Edmund's arms, not Jenny's.

"The Lady has a weakness for a handsome face, it seems."