There was a woman who lived on the edge of a village. She had a small farm which she managed since the death of her husband with only such help as she could obtain from the villagers. It was lonely there, especially on cold winter nights when the winds howled from the north but it was a living and as she told herself more than some people had, but the ache in her heart was ever present. It was on one such winter night when she went to check on the livestock in the barn that she encountered the stranger. He had been sleeping in the hay but he stirred at her entry and heard her gasp of surprise and perhaps a little fear.
" I mean you no harm" he told her speaking softly and holding out his empty hands to show her his intent. "I only wish to pass the night in some warmth, I will leave in the morning."
She regarded him then, this unbidden guest, he was well built but his demeanour suggested hard nights spent in the open. Little wonder then that he considered the barn a good shelter on a cold night. Somehow he did not seem frightening despite the sword laid by his side and the dagger in his belt.
"Come into the house out of the cold" she told him. "I have food enough for two and a fire in the grate." He hesitated but she saw the weariness in his eyes. "Well come along!" she urged "I don't intend to stand here all night and if you are on my land then at least be where I can see you."
He stood and meekly followed her into the house and sank down gratefully into her husband's chair by the fire. In the light she got a better look at him. Tall, taller even than her husband, keen grey eyes, and a man no longer in his youth although what his age was impossible to tell. The clothes were old but of good quality and the sword which he left by the door was, as far as she could judge, a fine weapon, more suited to a lord than a vagabond. She brought him water to wash his hands and knelt to help him remove his boots. He was, she reflected. in as much need of a bath as he was of food but she attended to his hunger first. She had been intending to bathe herself that evening and the copper was well filled with hot water but she decided his need was greater than hers and without asking filled the bath and dragged it in front of the fire.
"Get undressed and get in" she directed briskly.
"Mistress! It is hardly proper" he protested.
"This is my house and my rules prevail" she told him "and quite frankly sir you stink! So let us have no more of your modesty" I will bring a sheet to cover the lower half of the tub – and if you are not in the bath by the time I come back with it I will undress you myself now get in!"
"But Madam!" he stuttered "It is surely not right"
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
"I grew up with four brothers and I was married for fifteen years" she told him. "I doubt you have anything I have not seen before, now stop whining and get in the bath!"
She turned and went into the other room not waiting to see if he obeyed, which he did sitting meekly and obediently in the bath when she returned, his hands clasped modestly over his most private parts. She spread the sheet over the bath and handed him the soap.
"Do you have a change of clothes in your pack?" she asked him he nodded and she fetched the bag and drew out a rather sorry collection of tattered and well-worn garments. She tutted at the state of his spare clothes and went back into the bedroom where she had kept some of her husband's things. She brought back and laid out some clean body linen, woollen hose and a shirt which he man had kept for high days and holidays. The soiled clothing he had discarded she took aside for washing and the clean for repair. In the meantime she fetched a pail and some scissors and over his protests washed and cut his hair and then held up a polished salver so he could trim his beard.
" "I cannot take these" he said examining her husband's things.
"it is only right that they should be put to good use" she told him "and you certainly need them. I will attend to your own clothes while you rest but I want you to have them"
"Please" she pleaded when he renewed his protests "I think he would want this, my husband knew about the rangers and said they kept us safe. Accept them in his memory."
He bowed his head and murmured his words of thanks. She left him to dress and brought him a blanket telling him to sleep in front of the fire.
The nest morning she gave him his cleaned and mended garments and filled his bag with food before sending him on his way.
"I will always remember your kindness" he told her kissing her hand.
"My mother's people believed that Eru sometimes would walk this earth disguised as a traveller, and seeking hospitality of his children" she told him.
"You do not believe that of me?" he asked smiling.
"I do not think that Eru would ever smell as you did!" she retorted but she reached up and put her hand on his head and blessed him as the women of her country were wont to do.
Aragorn arrived at the clearing where he had arranged to meet Legolas.
"You're late" the elf informed him and then taking in the trimmed hair and faint aroma of soap and clean clothes added " You look less terrible than usual, what happened to you?"
Aragorn grinned. "There was a woman who lived on the edge of a village…."