"Please, please," said Edmund suddenly, "please couldn't I have just one piece of 
Turkish Delight to eat on the way home?"
    
    "No, no," said the Queen with a laugh, "you must wait till next time." While she 
spoke, she signalled to the dwarf to drive on, but as the sledge swept away out of sight, 
the Queen waved to Edmund, calling out, "Next time! Next time! Don't forget. Come soon."
    
    Edmund was still staring after the sledge when he heard someone calling his own name, 
and looking round he saw Lucy coming towards him from another part of the wood.
    
    "Oh, Edmund!" she cried. "So you've got in too! Isn't it wonderful, and now-"
    
    "All right," said Edmund, "I see you were right and it is a magic wardrobe after all. 
I'll say I'm sorry if you like. But where on earth have you been all this time? I've been 
looking for you everywhere."
    
    "If I'd known you had got in I'd have waited for you," said Lucy, who was too happy 
and excited to notice how snappishly Edmund spoke or how flushed and strange his face 
was. "I've been having lunch with dear Mr Tumnus, the Faun, and he's very well and the 
White Witch has done nothing to him for letting me go, so he thinks she can't have found 
out and perhaps everything is going to be all right after all."
    
    "The White Witch?" said Edmund; "who's she?"
    
    "She is a perfectly terrible person," said Lucy. "She calls herself the Queen of 
Narnia though she has no right to be queen at all, and all the Fauns and Dryads and 
Naiads and Dwarfs and Animals-at least all the good ones-simply hate her. And she can 
turn people into stone and do all kinds of horrible things. And she has made a magic so 
that it is always winter in Narnia-always winter, but it never gets to Christmas. And she 
drives about on a sledge, drawn by reindeer, with her wand in her hand and a crown on her 
head."
    
    Edmund was already feeling uncomfortable from having eaten too many sweets, and when 
he heard that the Lady he had made friends with was a dangerous witch he felt even more 
uncomfortable. But he still wanted to taste that Turkish Delight again more than he 
wanted anything else.
    
    "Who told you all that stuff about the White Witch?" he asked.
    
    "Mr Tumnus, the Faun," said Lucy.
    
    "You can't always believe what Fauns say," said Edmund, trying to sound as if he knew 
far more about them than Lucy.
    
    "Who said so?" asked Lucy.
    
    "Everyone knows it," said Edmund; "ask anybody you like. But it's pretty poor sport 
standing here in the snow. Let's go home."
    
    "Yes, let's," said Lucy. "Oh, Edmund, I am glad you've got in too. The others will 
have to believe in Narnia now that both of us have been there. What fun it will be!"
    
    But Edmund secretly thought that it would not be as good fun for him as for her. He 
would have to admit that Lucy had been right, before all the others, and he felt sure the 
others would all be on the side of the Fauns and the animals; but he was already more 
than half on the side of the Witch. He did not know what he would say, or how he would 
keep his secret once they were all talking about Narnia.
    
    By this time they had walked a good way. Then suddenly they felt coats around them 
instead of branches and next moment they were both standing outside the wardrobe in the 
empty room.
    
    "I say," said Lucy, "you do look awful, Edmund. Don't you feel well?"
    
    "I'm all right," said Edmund, but this was not true. He was feeling very sick.
    
    "Come on then," said Lucy, "let's find the others. What a lot we shall have to tell 
them! And what wonderful adventures we shall have now that we're all in it together."
    
    
    
    CHAPTER FIVE
    
    BACK ON THIS SIDE OF THE DOOR
    
    BECAUSE the game of hide-and-seek was still going on, it took Edmund and Lucy some 
time to find the others. But when at last they were all together (which happened in the 
long room, where the suit of armour was) Lucy burst out:
    
    "Peter! Susan! It's all true. Edmund has seen it too. There is a country you can get 
to through the wardrobe. Edmund and I both got in. We met one another in there, in the 
wood. Go on, Edmund; tell them all about it."
    
    "What's all this about, Ed?" said Peter.
    
    And now we come to one of the nastiest things in this story. Up to that moment Edmund 
had been feeling sick, and sulky, and annoyed with Lucy for being right, but he hadn't 
made up his mind what to do. When Peter suddenly asked him the question he decided all at 
once to do the meanest and most spiteful thing he could think of. He decided to let Lucy 
down.
    
    "Tell us, Ed," said Susan.
    
    And Edmund gave a very superior look as if he were far older than Lucy (there was 
really only a year's difference) and then a little snigger and said, "Oh, yes, Lucy and I 
have been playing-pretending that all her story about a country in the wardrobe is true. 
just for fun, of course. There's nothing there really."
    
    Poor Lucy gave Edmund one look and rushed out of the room.