"My lord, Faramir, you have been summoned by King Elessar. He is expecting you in your father's office," announced the king's new page.
Faramir nodded his head and turned to the Lady Eowyn. "I am sorry to cut our date short. I promise after the meeting, I will come back, and perhaps we could continue the date where we left off." Eowyn smiled and kissed him on his cheek.
"Do not worry about it. It must be important."
Faramir sighed with relief, happy that she was okay with him leaving her. He made his way to his father's office since before Denethor had sent him on his way to Osgiliath where he almost lost his life. He was thankful that the Valar had different plans for him. He had hoped that he would rule along side the rightful King.
As he approached the office, Aragorn was standing outside, waiting for him. "My Lord," Faramir said with a bow. Aragorn looked up and smiled at him. "How may I be of service to you?"
"Faramir, I was hoping to ask for your help with something. It seems that your father was lacking in his duty to look at his dispatches toward the end of his reign. I was hoping that you could help me with going through all of his letters and sort them out and hopefully get through them."
"Is there that many?" Faramir inquired. Aragorn nodded his head and opened the door. Faramir's jaw dropped. He could not believe how many letters were there. "I don't even know where to begin?" Faramir gasped. Letters littered the floor, and there were many on his desk and around it.
"Perhaps we could first go through them quickly and decipher which letters were personal and which letters were for state," Aragorn suggested. Faramir nodded his head in agreement. At least that was something.
"But how will we know which ones that we have gone through and which letters we have not gone through?" Faramir thought.
"We could move the letters in a different room, or two," Aragorn suggested. "There are just too many letters to be able to stack them in piles in here." Faramir nodded. It was going to be a long day. "Since there are two room across the hall, we could put the personal letters in the room on the left and the letters of state on the room on the right." Aragorn nodded in agreement. With a plan of attack, they got straight down to work.
"How goes your time spent with Lady Eowyn. Is there any progress?" Aragorn asked, trying to start a conversation.
"It goes very well my lord," Faramir answered. "We have been spending as many minutes as we can together." Aragorn smiled at this news. It was good that Eowyn found her match in Faramir. "How is the Queen doing, if I may not be so bold?"
Aragorn smiled. "I think she is doing well. She has already captured the heart of the people. She is wise and fair. I know that in her heart she misses her people and family. I know it cannot be easy for her from being in the lush forests of Lothlorien and Rivendell to a city of stone. One of the gifts that I would like to do for her is to build her a cottage just a couple of hours away from here so when we have time to enjoy, we can go there, be away from prying eyes and ears."
"My lord, that is a wonderful idea!"
Aragorn smiled. "Thank you Faramir. I was hoping that you would go with me and find the perfect spot."
"I know the perfect spot! It is a lovely afternoon. After we tackle this for a couple of hours, I would love to show you the spot." Aragorn smiled and nodded. With that, they worked swiftly, getting through a couple of stacks. Some of the stacks consisted of hundreds of letters.
After a few hours, they wrapped everything off for now and they decided that now was going to be a good time to take off on a ride and take a break.
They had ordered their horses and Aragorn told Arwen that they would return in a few hours, that they were just going to look at the surrounding villages and see what they can do to help to repair the damages. Arwen kissed her husband goodbye and wished him a safe trip. Faramir apologized to Eowyn and they met at the stables about ten minutes later. To Aragorn and Faramir's chagrin, they were forced to have guards follow them. Aragorn and Faramir was able to convince them that if they were to have an escort, that their fellow Rangers would follow them. Everybody agreed to that so the King and Steward both felt better about that.
Two hours later, they came across a clearing. "We are nearly there," Faramir informed the King. Aragorn nodded his head and turned to the Rangers. "Men, we will stay here for a little while. Mind the horses. Lord Faramir and I will return shortly. We are just going to look around."
They walked through a patch of trees and they entered a glade. There was a little creek that ran through the glade and the trees. Aragorn was mesmerized by the beauty. "I think this is perfect for Arwen and I for our escape. It is secluded, this glade is absolutely beautiful!" In his mind's eye, Aragorn could see their little house, their children running in the glade, having late night swimming with Arwen. Yes, this was the perfect spot.
Aragorn thanked Faramir for helping him find the perfect spot. "How did you find this place?"
"When my father was getting worse, Boromir and I would camp out here for a couple of nights to escape our father's wrath and criticism." Aragorn was disheartened at hearing this. He remembered when Faramir was younger that it was he that would spend more time with Faramir and Boromir since their father had went into a very deep depression after Finduilas had passed.
"Are you sure that you wish to give this spot up for us?" Aragorn asked.
"Absolutely!" Faramir said with great enthusiasm. "I want you to have it. Consider this, your wedding present," Faramir insisted.
Aragorn was so grateful. He decided that right now was the perfect time to talk to his steward about what Arwen and he were talking about. Aragorn motioned for Faramir to sit on a log that had fallen. "Faramir, there is something that Arwen and I have been discussing at length about and we would like to talk to you about something."
"What is it?"
"We were thinking about how we would be able to thank you for naming me King. If you had not done that, Arwen and I would not have been able to marry. We have decided that we would like to bestow upon you, the title of Prince of Ithilien. From this day forth, if you accept the position, the title of Prince will be passed on to your sons as well. Plus the title of Prince would give you better status for marrying a certain blonde hair shieldmaiden." He gave Faramir a wink. Faramir blushed. "I would also like to ask you if you would be willing to stay on as Steward and be my Right Hand Man. There are few that I can trust on the council and you are one of them. You are fair and you have a good head about you."
"It would be my honor to rule along your side!" Faramir exclaimed. He could not believe his luck. He didn't know how the new king would know about his wishes to marry Lady Eowyn. "How did you know about my wishes to marry Lady Eowyn, my lord?"
Aragorn smiled. "We have seen the intimacy between the two of you, and we fully support this marriage. Some of the Lords of the Council will say that it is a good idea for an alliance, kind of what they said about Arwen and I. I am sure that after years, they will still think that it was still a strategic alliance. And I wish that in private, you would start calling me by Aragorn. I wish this to also be a friendship. I promise I am nothing like your father. There is nothing to worry about with me. If there are any concerns that you have with anything, I want you to feel comfortable with coming to me with anything."
"Thank you," Faramir said, feeling a lot better. "It will take some time and adjustment to get used to calling you by just Aragorn." Aragorn smiled and understood. For years, he called his father just 'My lord'.
After an hour being away from their 'guards', Aragorn and Faramir decided that they should make their way back to Minas Tirith. When they entered the clearing where the Rangers were, they saw that they were resting and eating and smoking. Aragorn sighed with relief. "I am so glad that we were able to take them with us and not have the Citadel guards. I swear, I sneezed the other night and the guards came storming in the chambers." Faramir laughed at that.
"They will need to be trained," Faramir said with a chuckle. Aragorn nodded in agreement. They sat with their Ranger friends and had lunch. They had brought some food with them and while Aragorn and Faramir were off, they also hunted for some food.
"This is what I am going to miss the most," Aragorn mused. "Sitting around a fire with my friends, after a hunt or after a battle with Orcs. Not having to be followed by with guards."
"Why don't you hire some of us as your guards," Arthros suggested. Aragorn looked at the young man that he had watched and help raise with a knowing look. "We know how to keep our distance, we won't jump when you make a sneeze, and we know how to keep ourselves discreet. And you know that you can trust us."
Aragorn looked at his nephew. He did have a point. When they came back to Minas Tirith, Aragorn knew what he was going to do. He would make the Dunedain his guards and Arwen's. "I am not so worried about my safety because I have lived in the wilds for many years and survived, it is Arwen's safety for when I have to leave her side. I know that she is very capable of protecting herself but I would like people I can trust to also be there to protect her as well."
"We have all pledged ourselves to you and the Queen, even before you two became King and Queen of the Reunited Kingdoms. The moment that we knew that she was going to be your wife, we have pledged our lives to her as well," Halbarad's brother reassured his Chieftain. "And we will make up excuses for you to escape the confines of Minas Tirith." At this, Aragorn's mood was made even greater. He would love that, and he knew that his men would gladly do that as well to get back to being Rangers.
"We should get back and make sure that our ladies are not waiting for us long," Faramir suggested, eager to get back to Eowyn and tell her the wondrous news. Aragorn nodded. He too was eager to get back to his wife.
On the way back, both Faramir and his troop of Rangers and Aragorn and his troop of Rangers were teaching each other different songs that they knew. There were a few songs that the Rangers of the South knew and sang along. There was a content smile upon Aragorn's face, even when he entered the City of Stone. He knew that eventually, he would get used to staying here. Being a Ranger, he was not used to staying in one place for too long and now, he was King and had to, but he was glad that he had found a place that he could escape to when he wanted to relax.
He dismounted and ran to his wife and embraced her. "Did you have a good ride?" Arwen asked her husband.
"I did. It was very relaxing. Faramir even agreed to become Prince of Ithilien!" he said with pride in his voice. He viewed Faramir as a son. He could not wait for one day their children be brought up together. He had a feeling that their families would be joined in matrimony in years to come and he was happy with that.
A few days later, they had a council meeting and Aragorn announced that Faramir was no longer going to be just Steward of Gondor but also given the title of Prince of Ithilien. Prince Imrahil, Faramir's uncle, looked upon his nephew with great happiness, feeling that he was finally getting the respect that his father did not give him. Words could not express how happy he was for his nephew.
For many years, Faramir, Eowyn, Aragorn, and Arwen ruled Gondor and the Reunited Kingdoms and there was great peace for many years and everybody was happy.