This is the first sequel to The Handmaid of Gondor. I don't know how well it stands up to the original, but I hope you like it. Many thanks for all the great reviews I have had so far - my fictions are very happy in their new home!!

Chapter 1

The golden bells chimed on the horse's harness, and the early summer breeze blew the dark hair of the rider about her face as she cantered over the flower-studded grass of Ithilien. Small she was, and slender, clothed in a gown of midnight blue, and there was a grace and subtlety in her movements which, along with her attire, caused many who met her to mistake her for an Elf, although there was no Elven blood in her. Beautiful, too, you would have called her, had your eyes not first lighted upon the regal and luminous figure who rode just ahead of her. For the mistress will always outshine the maid, and there was none in Middle-earth in that day to compare with Arwen Undomiel, the Evenstar of the Elves and the beloved Queen of Gondor. The maid who rode behind her was, of course, none other than Elireth daughter of Elbrin, formerly of the Healers. It was ten years since the day when she had knelt before Arwen at the gate of Minas Tirith, and she was now an accomplished lady-in-waiting, well versed in the lore and etiquette of both Men and Elves, well travelled throughout the realm of Aragorn II, fluent in three languages and tolerable in a fourth.

To this treasured handmaiden, Queen Arwen now turned her head and spoke in the language of her own people:

"The King and I ride now to Emyn Arnen. We will meet you in the Woods of Ithilien ten days hence. Send our love."

"I will, my Lady. Thank you," Elireth replied in the same language.

It was an arrangement now familiar to both. The King and Queen would ride to Emyn Arnen, the abode of Lord Faramir and Lady Eowyn, while Elireth would go ahead of them to the Woods of Ithilien, where Legolas now dwelt with his Woodland kindred from the North. For he had kept his word to her and many, many times in the past ten years had she been an honoured and most welcome guest among the Folk of the Wood.

However, it had now been six months since her last visit. Elireth was tired and fed up and in need of a break. She worked famously hard at court, too hard, some said. She was utterly devoted to her mistress and, unlike some of the lower maids, would tolerate no advances from members of the Guard, although she had not been short of offers over the years. Of course, she would not admit, even to herself, that her unrequited love affair was responsible for any of the strain she felt. If she did suffer periods of anxiety or irritability, she put it down to lingering after-effects of her illness during the time of Shadow. There were, after all, people who never fully recovered, and she could always persuade herself that she was one of them.

She rode now under the trees and into dense woodland, where she dismounted and led her horse, a beautiful Elven steed, the foal of the palfrey on which her mistress had first ridden into Gondor. Around and above her, she could hear the sound of sweet, strange singing. Many mortals, she knew, would have dismissed the sound as imagination and heard nothing more than the wind in the trees, but Elireth knew better and stopped at the foot of a large beech tree. A rope ladder was let down and she climbed nimbly up it. Seated on a flet at the top with their arms round their knees, were two Wood-Elves dressed in green and brown. This was the entrance to the Hidden Grove, the heart of the Ithilien Elf-colony, and from it Elireth could see the many and varied dwellings of the Elves, in trees and under trees, carved from the trees themselves, covered in leaves and leaf patterns, and glowing with summer flowers.

Elireth turned to the two Elves beside her.

"Where is Legolas today?" she said, trying to make the question sound as casual as possible.

But the Elves just laughed at her.

"Come, Mistress Elireth," they said. "We know you do not come to the Grove so often merely to pick the flowers."

Elireth blushed and smiled a little.

"He has gone to hunt," said one of the Elves. "We expect him very soon."

Even as he spoke, Elireth saw a familiar figure walking along the rope, which connected the tree in which she sat to the next one. Legolas seemed blissfully unconcerned by the height or narrowness of the path he walked, and indeed was looking backward to speak to another Elf as he came. In spite of herself, Elireth could not fail to be impressed. She had acquired many skills from the Elves over the years, but this one was quite beyond her.

"Elireth!" cried Legolas, cheerfully, as he reached her. "Well met under branch and leaf."

"Under cloud and sky be blessed," she replied. "The Great Ones of Gondor send their love and will meet with you ten days hence."

The Elf standing behind Legolas whispered something in his ear, and for a brief moment they conversed in hushed tones. Though Elireth did not intend to eavesdrop, she was almost certain the word yrch was mentioned more than once.

"Your pardon, Elireth," said Legolas at last. "We do not mean to be discourteous, but Aragorn's counsel would be greatly appreciated at this time. However, let that not affect us today. We are most honoured to have you once again for our guest. Indeed, we would appreciated your counsel, too, on a certain matter."

"My counsel?" Elireth almost laughed.

"Certainly," Legolas smiled. "Do not underestimate yourself, daughter of Gondor."

Elireth felt a tingle run down her spine. Ten years on, and the look in those starlit eyes still captivated her utterly.

Legolas held out his hand to her. "Will you come and see what we have found?" he said. "It lies just beyond the walkway."

Elireth took the proffered hand with not a little trepidation, as Legolas stepped back onto the rope. One of the Elves from the flet took her other hand, and together they proceeded slowly through the tree- tops. Elireth knew the two Elves were in truth, virtually carrying her along – indeed, her feet barely touched the rope – and yet she still hardly dared open her eyes, not knowing whether it were more fearful to look down and see the ground so far away or to look up and see the leaves so near.

At length, however, the strange journey was over and Legolas and Elireth descended via another rope ladder into a small, sunlit clearing, leaving their companion to keep watch in the trees. The birds were singing in the branches and it was hard to believe the Shadow that had lain on the land only a decade previously.

"Here," said Legolas. "What do you make of this?"

Elireth looked on the forest floor and saw, growing in little clumps, a strange plant with leaves like lavender and tiny, rose-like flowers of red and white, a red and a white bloom coming from each stem.

"We have never seen such a plant before," said Legolas, "for it grows not in our Northern woodland, and never has it bloomed in Ithilien until this very summer. We thought that, as a native of these parts and one who has been trained in herb-lore, you might be able to identify it."

"I have seen it only once before," she said, "and that was not in living form but in the Warden's books of plant life. Its true name I have forgotten, but in the Common Tongue it is called Bond of Love. It is said that, where the bodies of Elves and Men fell together at the close of the Second Age, that Bond of Love grew over them as a sign of their alliance and mutual sacrifice. But when the Dark Lord again took abode in Mordor and all living things withered before his gates, then it vanished from Middle-earth. Its return to these lands must surely be a sign that the dark powers are ousted."

"I hope so," said Legolas, and Elireth remembered again the whispered conversation.

"There was a rhyme of lore that went with it too," said Elireth. "If only I could remember it. Those days in the Houses of Healing seem so distant now. The Bond of Love, ye Elves and Men… No, it's gone."

"No matter," said Legolas. "To me those days seem but a breath away, and your whole life as that of a summer flower, doomed to fade with the coming of the autumn rain."

He looked at her sadly, as if he would say more, but the moment passed and he sighed and turned to climb the ladder.