Watching the Stars

“Your Majesty,” Cornelius had told him, “Perhaps it was best if you let the girl go. There will be other friends.” The Doctor coughed his signature cough.

“But Professor,” Caspian sighed, flipping through his books. “I do not know why it was so hard...”

Cornelius turned to him. “My Prince, you will have to learn that sometimes in life, and you will find this out later when you are crowned King of Telmar, that making sacrifices will be a daily routine. There is always something to give up to make sure that the kingdom is all right. My Prince, I dare say that she was something more than a friend to you...”

“No,” Caspian set his fist on the table. “I am just upset; she has been one of my good friends since I was young. Professor, maybe I should skip out on the rest of the lessons today. I have a terrible headache that must be nursed with warm milk and honey.”

“No games of hiding-and-seeking, anymore, Caspian?” Doctor Cornelius asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No,” replied Caspian. “I am too old for those games now.”

Cornelius turned away, beginning to worry, but shook it off as Caspian pushed past him.

* * *

Estella was pacing around the room, and she was angry. “Caspian, you... you user! I can’t believe he would do that. I can’t believe him.”

She folded her arms. “Well. If he wants to be like that. Fine. I will just go and make some new friends. Yes, maybe I should go to the village and talk to somebody.”

Sighing, she stepped out the door and turned to face the village. “No, no, I can’t. They don’t like me... there is no chance.”

It was true, to some extent. The other village people would probably ignore her, because of her ‘connections’ with the prince. As if it was bad to know the prince. Maybe, she thought instead, they would want to know of her and her time with the prince. But could she easily sell Caspian out? She knew some of his biggest secrets. Well, some, at least.

“Oh, hello!” a voice exclaimed from behind Estella. She turned to see a girl, about the same height and age as her, smiling with a bucket in hand.

Estella jumped at her chance. “Hello!”

“You’re the prince’s friend, aren’t you?” the girl asked. “Well, I guess I will be seeing you around the village.” She hurried past Estella and on to another group of girls, who all whispered and pointed to her.

Estella groaned, and stomped back into her house. Making more friends was harder than she expected.

* * *

Caspian was having an equally bad time. He thought, every second in between concentrating on his lessons, about going back to apologize to Estella. He shouldn’t have left her on a bad note like that. Yes, perhaps he had better go to her house tonight and tell her how he really felt.

How did he really feel?

No, he did not. He hoped he didn’t.

“Caspian?” someone knocked on his door. “Caspian, Doctor Cornelius requests that you visit him in his office, immediately.”

“One second,” the prince replied carelessly. He took a step towards the door, but stopped. No, his thoughts to the Doctor would probably be stammered and make no sense. There was no need to unload his feelings upon his tutor at the time.

Caspian sighed. “On second thought, please tell Doctor Cornelius that I cannot see him at this time. My head feels swollen. I cannot think. Go, please.”

He heard the steps fade away into the halls, and then he collapsed onto his bed. Surely Cornelius’ words could wait for tomorrow.

That night, Caspian could not look at the stars.

* * *

Perhaps Estella was gong about this all wrong.

Perhaps she had no need to find a friend. Perhaps she needed to find someone else. Someone special. Someone to marry.

Well, she had seen the other girls in the village who were her age get married off to other boys of the village. Some were already arranged, and some just fell in love. Like love was so easy.

So, Estella decided. She needed to find a husband.

She wore her best dress outside, careful to roll her sleeves up her arms. It was another blazing day in the kingdom of Telmar, and there were no clouds in the sky to drench the soil with shadows. So everyone walked around in the heat with nothing else to do.

Estella even managed to tame her unruly hair. She ran her fingers through it multiple times, washed it in cold water from the well, and let it dry in braids in the sun. It looked nice and wavy when she let it fall down past her shoulders and to the middle of her back.

She washed her face and used some of her mother’s face creams made from herbs, and she smelled nice and fresh for her ‘walk’ out in the village. The walk was merely an excuse to prance around in her best clothes and look for a boy who was husband material.

“I will see you later, mother,” Estella called as she stepped out the door. She knew that she would not have to do chores today or tomorrow, for she had cooked meals ahead and done the laundry quickly before the sun rose. She had two days to look around. But it wasn’t like there was much to see.

Walking around took a lot of energy, and even though it was still before noon, the sun was out and shining its hot face on Telmar, as if it had nowhere else to shine.

“How will I do this?” Estella asked. Even though her mother had been so proud the night before, telling her that she had finally passed on to the ‘wanting-to-be-a-mother’ stage, Estella had felt no different. Was there an actual stage that one girl had to pass through to marry? And if Estella had hit that stage, would she be able to physically feel it? Because Beatriz had told her daughter over a hundred times that night how beautiful she looked, but Estella felt no different. She just did not feel.

It wasn’t even the longing of motherhood that Estella was searching for; it was the longing of another. And there weren’t many other boys in the village to choose from, so perhaps Estella would need to speed up the process. She wasn’t planning to throw herself at the boys, but if worst came to worst...

Estella groaned, sitting herself on a barrel of what smelled like fruits from another country. She folded her arms, because this plan of loving someone and becoming a wife was becoming more complicated each second that she thought about it. If there was a lesson on love, she would definitely need it.

“Miss, is there a problem...”

Estella lashed out. “If somebody calls me ‘miss’ just one more time...” She stood up to face the person who had spoken to her. Her eyes widened when she saw who it was. “Oh... Forgive me, Prince, for speaking to you like that...”

She blushed, and then remembered their ‘professional relationship’. She curtsied in the best way that she could. People were now looking at them.

“E-Estella?” Caspian asked, his mouth hanging open. He remembered to close it, for it was rude to stare. Even though it had appeared that she looked... different. The good different. “I, um, you look...”

“Yes?” Estella asked. She needed an opinion right now, about how she looked. The best from a boy.

Caspian sucked in quite a bit of air. “Well, I was, uh, here to apologize.” But his eyes kept drifting over her body. He was speechless. If he had thought that she looked attractive before, dresses dirty and soiled and her hair dry from the sun, then now he thought she looked... There were no other words to describe it. For once, for the first time, the prince was at a loss of words.

“Oh.” Estella frowned. “No need, Prince, of course, it’s nothing... I see no reason for you to apologize—”

“Can you stop talking to me like that? Like I don’t know you at all,” Caspian asked, his throat turning dry. His voice was barely above a whisper.

“What about ‘professional relationships’, or, or those other thing you said,” Estella questioned, raising an eyebrow. “What happened to that?”

“Well, what happened to you?” And once it was out, Caspian blushed and wished he could take the words back.

Estella blinked, as if she couldn’t see the red on his cheeks. “Well... well since you wanted to maintain that... those things you said, I... well, I decided that I should get to know people in the village.”

“I see.” Caspian’s gaze floated to the other village people, staring at him and Estella. What could she possibly want from those people that Caspian didn’t have? Well, once he was her friend again, he would give her whatever she wanted.

“And to also find a husband,” Estella slipped in, unsure how Caspian would take it. No, he should be okay with it, she thought.

“Oh.” Caspian gasped, surprised at her words. “You... you want to marry now? I mean, marry someone in the village. Really?”

“Yes,” Estella replied. “And I should go now.” She shuffled past Caspian, pulling the ends of her dress up to hurry on faster, and left him questioning her reasons to suddenly want to marry.