Wondereye:What suggestions will efhelm give to Eomer and will the info on elfwine leak to Rohan to push her back.
hi Wondereye, you don't have an account so hopefully you read this! Personally I would expect him to always be the voice of reason. He always has taken on that roll in this story for me. I feel like he would just be the support for Eomer, and to keep it private till Lothriel and Eomer were ready to deal with this together. He knows that news would reach Rohan about Elfwine without him saying anything, but I know that he would rather not cause anymore drama especially after everything they have just been through. He knows them both well enough not to push, I feel like everyone in their families knows that they can not push them to do anything they are not ready for especially when it will cause their stubbornness to snap. I hope I answered your question?
Sorry about the delay everyone. Been busy with lots of new things in life. Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorite.
Lothriel sat in the sitting room holding the baby who had half fallen asleep, she was furious with how things turned out in her life. She knew she was being stubborn, but Eomer did what he did and she could never trust him again. She could do what she needed to do, have her son be raised in Rohan and she only be seen as title of Kings sister, but if Eomer did take a new wife she would die further. Even if they pretended to be married as they were, it would be as it was when they first were married with fights, argum
ents, and possibly another mistress in her life. They would have separate rooms and separate lives completely miserable because of the situation they were trapped in because of the baby. Maybe if he tried hard enough she would go and visit for a month out of the year until Elfwine was old enough to stay there alone for a longer period of time without her. She looked down at her precious child who still had his dark hair but slowly started to show more signs of Eomer's facial features especially his nose, eyebrows, but above all his facial expressions. When he would get angry or frustrated he would furrow his brow together just like Eomer would, and his little nose would flare out all the same as his Fathers. Lothriel traced his nose with her finger actually happy he did not have her nose which she hated. Eomer's was perfectly suited to his face, not to big or small and smooth no bump in it like her's. She loved Eomer's nose, she loved many things about his physical appearance, but she also once loved everything about who he was on the inside. Lothriel sighed holding in her tears just as Amrothos walked in.
"What are you doing sister?" Amrothos asked her as he sat down next to her.
"He is going to Aragorn to talk about the baby."
"Are you making peace with the idea of letting Elfwine go?"
"I am not giving up without a fight, even if it means literally fighting Eomer for my child."
"You might have to? What were you thinking about? You seemed like you were thinking about something?"
Lothriel sighed and continued "Of what would happen if I was required to take him to Rohan."
"What do you think might happen?
"That we would be the most unhappy family in the history of the world."
"Maybe. Or he would rule in your favor and you would be free, and never have to worry about Eomer bothering you again."
"Wishful thinking, but you know things do work for us. We are not common people we are royalty, I was once Queen of Rohan. This child is the Heir to the Throne, it does not matter about what we want."
"I do not know what to say anymore about what is going on. I just hope that somehow it will work out for Elfwine."
"I wish to take my Son out into the sun and fresh-air." Lothriel said as she stood up carefully with Elfwine in her arms.
"Do you want me to come along?"
"No, we will be fine. I will manage!"
Amrothos smoothed the babies hair then carried him around in his arms talking to him, "You and I are going to be the best of friends. I am your Uncle Amrothos, I am the best Uncle out of us all. We will have the most exciting adventures together." He looked down at his Nephews face smiling. Elfwine looked at him with shining eyes and a slobbery grin on his face.
"I am going to take a blanket for him to stretch out on." Lothriel said as she grabbed a blanket from the seat next to her. Amrothos placed Elfwine in his basket with the blanket for Lothriel to take him in, she smiled at her brother and walked out the door. As she walked through the palace all the other Ladies and Nobles walking past her stared at her making her feel uncomfortable. They leered at her peering into the basket looking at Elfwine and whispering as they past. Lothriel held her head up high trying to get through the palace to escape into the peaceful garden that she hoped would still bring her solace. Finally she reached the doors of the garden which the Swan Guards opened for her as she entered happily. She walked through a few of the winding steps till she reached the tree garden and stopped. Eomer was in there sitting with his head bent low as though grieving. Just as she turned away to run Elfwine started to fuss loudly.
"Lothriel!" he said excitedly as he stood up and cautiously stepped towards her, "Please do not go!"
She stood there wondering if she should humor him, or just run off as she first thought. "Can I please see him? Can I hold him?" Lothriel looked at him and backed away from him, "No please, do not leave." He pleaded.
"I was going to lay out a blanket for my son to lay on." She replied. "However, I am now unsure if that was such a good idea any longer?"
"Please, stay. I... I just, please allow me to stay. I just, I need to explain everything to you. May I stay?" he asked as he watched she tentatively moved still unsure of what she wanted to do. However she placed her blanket out in a shady area and took Elfwine out of the basket and place him onto it. Eomer watched her as sat next to him and pull out a small stuffed toy cat from the basket. Elfwine reached out for the cat and promptly stuck its paw into his mouth.
"May I sit here with you both?"
She shrugged her shoulders in response not looking at him. Eomer bent down and sat on the other side of Elfwine on the soft grass looking at him in wonder.
"Can I hold him?" Eomer whispered looking at Lothriel, she looked at him and nodded. Eomer looked down at his son and apprehensively went to pick him with his hands. "What is his name?" he asked as he slowly picked him up awkwardly frightened that he would drop him, or crush him on accident.
"His name is Elfwine."
"Elfwine." he whispered, "Am I doing it right?" He asked looking at her.
"I do not think he likes it, he looks unhappy." Sure enough Elfwine started to fuss, "Hold him in your arms, not with your hands." She replied plainly.
"Oh, I see." Eomer said as he adjusted Elfwine into his arms who stopped his complaining. Eomer looked down at Elfwine and smiled at him. "He makes the same faces I do when I get upset or angry." he added as he looked at Lothriel.
"I know." She replied as she avoided his gaze.
"He also has my nose." Eomer added as he gently touched the bridge of Elwine's nose. Elfwine looked up as Eomer studying his every movement with the same furrowed brow and flared nostrils.
"I know."
"He is wonderful."
"I know"
"Lothriel I am truly sorry." She looked at him and said nothing, just then Elfwine began to fuss and she took him from Eomer holding him as he began to whine.
"I need to go, he is hungry." Lothriel said as she stood up with Elfwine in her arms.
"Why can you not feed him here?" Eomer said as he rose up after her.
"Eomer that is a private moment, you are not welcome to." She said as she gathered her basket and walked away. Eomer lunged after her and took her arm in his hand. "Let go of me!" she screamed as she turned around to face him.
"Do you promise to let me see him later?" he said as he looked down at her.
"Promise?" she laughed as she pulled out of his grasp and walked away back towards the palace. He walked after her calling out her name. "What?" she said as she turned around.
"Please, promise that I can see him again!"
"Can we speak of this when my Son is not crying because he is hungry!" Lothriel snapped back at him.
"Just say yes, or no. What is there to think about?"
"No, you can not. Now leave me and my Son alone."
"I am trying Lothriel! Please stop acting like this out of spite against me. I am sorry, and I pay everyday for what I did. I pay everyday by not having you, or our Son with me. By losing the love we had together."
"Eomer, I do not care for your words."
"Will you never forgive me?"
"You have hurt me, and every person in our life we shared together. But above all, you ruined Elfwine's life even before he was born."
"You are trying to protect him from me?"
"Yes I am, you are a terrible man. If I take him back to Rohan and he learns of what you did to us both, do you not think he will resent you? I will never tell him, but he will learn of your selfish betrayal of me Eomer. I want to protect him from that."
"I am sorry Lothriel, I am sorry." Eomer said he dropped to his knees in front of her. "Please, Lothriel."
"Stop this." Lothriel said as she glared down at him.
"Do you feel nothing for me? Nothing at all? Not even when you look at Elfwine?" He asked pleadingly.
Lothriel remembered their time together, the way that he made her feel when they were with each other alone or in a crowd. He was her love, her Husband, her King, and above all best friend she shared everything with. Yes life was not always perfect, but at one time he proved to her how much he cared for her, and who she was. He worked so hard to make it work between them, but in the end he betrayed her and everything they worked for.
"I feel hurt when I see you." She whispered, "I remember how you were the first man I ever loved, and gave myself to. I now only feel betrayal and fury when I now look upon you." Lothriel said with tears running down her face "I prayed every day that this feeling would go away. I hoped that with time, I would be able to forget you. Then to be able to forgive you. I wish that tracker never found me. I was a peace with myself in my little cottage with Elfwine, it was like the world melted away and it was just us two. No Eomer, no title, just a Mother and her tiny infant Son."
Eomer rose up and looked into her eyes, "I love you, I will love you till the day I die Lothriel. Please, please just believe me that I am sorry and will make it up to you everyday, everyday of my life! Please it is all I ask. Forgive me for my mistake. When you lost our first child, I was so grief stricken with my inability to help you out of your darkness that I lost myself to my own. I love you too much to live without you anymore, I am a shadow of what I once was."
"Eomer stop, I do not wish to hear anymore." she cried as she wiped her tears on her sleeve.
"I can not, I love you too much to let you be. Please just promise me, just promise me that I can see our son everyday while you are both here. At least give me that chance." Eomer replied as he reached for her free hand.
Elfwine fussed louder breaking their moment.
"Eomer, Elfwine is hungry I must go." She said as she pulled away.
"Please, please just let me see him."
"Yes okay, just let me go." She replied just before she walked away with Elfwine fussing loudly in her arms. Eomer watched as she left with his Son in her arms, grateful that he had this one thing he could look forward to. He still foolishly hoped that she would forgive him soon and come back with him to Rohan to be his Wife once again. He walked back towards the palace taking his time in the direction of his rooms hoping to be left alone till the dinner. He was stuck here for a few more days with prying eyes, and he hoped that he would somehow be able to have alone private time with his Son, but he was unsure about that also.
Lothriel walked to her Family's rooms and went to the sitting room to start feeding Elfwine who has become unbearable with hunger.
"Where were you?" Imrahil said as he walked into the room suddenly.
"I decided to take Elfwine out for fresh air and sun in the garden, but then unfortunately ran into Eomer."
"And what took place?" He asked folding his arms impatiently.
"He apologized hundreds of times, claimed he was still in love with me and could not live without me, and asked if he could see Elfwine again later today and more often while we were still here."
"What did you tell him?" He questioned sternly.
"Only that he could see Elfwine, and nothing more." She replied with a sigh.
"Do you still love him?" Imrahil asked quietly looking at his Daughter who was still feeding Elfwine who was covered with a blanket. Lothriel burst into tears when she heard her father ask her that question. She covered her face with her hand not wanting to her Father to see her like this, grieving for the man who ruined not only her life but her whole family.
"If you do, I do not blame you Lothriel. He was the only one you have ever loved, that love does not just fly away like you think it would." He added gently as he sat next to her, placing an arm around her shoulder, "Do you love him?"
"I do not know exactly how I feel, I feel hurt, upset, tired, excited, and confused mostly." She replied as she rested her head on her Father's shoulder, "I'm not sure how I feel about Eomer, I do not think I will know until I can find some sort of trust in him. Trust in him, I am not sure I can find now. I do not know, I want to know Father? I do not know what to say or think anymore?"
"This is not that difficult of a question, it is either yes or no." Imrahil replied softly.
"Yes Father, I still love him." Lothriel confessed. "I am so violently angry with him, but I love him still. I look at Elfwine and see Eomer in him. It gives me a strange strength I can not explain."
"What do you wish to do?" Imrahil replied quietly looking at his Daughter.
"What do you mean?" she answered wiping her eyes to look at him clearly.
"What do you want to do now? Do you want to go back with him, and be his wife again?" Imrahil asked calmly. Lothriel looked conflicted, she didn't know how to answer that question? She was still immensely hurt by him, she needed time to understand herself and what she was feeling. "Lothriel? What do you want to do? Do you want to stay with us and allow Eomer to visit, or you and Elfwine to visit him? Or do you think it is time for you both to return to Rohan as a family?"
"What?" Lothriel replied confused.
"Stay or go? What do you chose?"
"May I have time to think about this? I need time! I have days yet to decide!"
"Yes, but begin to think about what you wish to do."
"Father, I still may love him," Lothriel said quietly, "but I still am worried and unsure about returning with him."
"You worry about how you and Elwine will be perceived if you return? Or if he would hurt you again, but above all Elfwine?"
"I do not want anyone to think I am weak for returning. The people of Rohan are strong father, they expect their royalty to be stronger than all of them combined. I stood up to Eomer, with all the strength that I had, but what if they thought what I did was weakness? What if they see Elfwine as an illegitimate bastard?"
"I will have you know that no one in Rohan thinks, or thought you were anything of the sort. You showed a good example to standing up to something you thought to be disgraceful to you, and other women that have had that happen to them. It may have even helped women in Rohan to hear of how you stood up to him, and refused to be stepped upon! And no one will ever deny that this precious child has not been sired by their King."
"That too is also what I am frightened of, what if I disappoint them by coming back?" Lothriel replied sadly.
"This is something I can not answer, we are not like most people Lothriel." He replied firmly.
"I know, we have a duty to uphold. If Elwine had not been born, things would have been different. I would not be second guessing myself in this matter."
"Please my child, be honest with me. Did you know you were with child when we left Rohan?"
"No Bab, I had no idea that I was carrying a child. I found out when we got home when you insisted in me seeing the healer. If I did know then, I still would have left him father. I could not stay there after what he did."
"I know that you would have left. I do however in truth like seeing how Eomer is excited about fatherhood. It gives me strong hope in him trying hard to make it better between you both for Elfwine. I have noticed that you use have been using Elwine much more in your arguments more than he does. It shows me that he has grown not only as a King, but a man."
"So now I am the wicked one in all of this?" Lothriel replied annoyed.
"No, no one is good or wicked in this. It just shows you are still hurt which you have every right to be. I also understand you need to think about what you wish to do about this little one and his father."
"I will, I will take all of this and think about it. Thank you Bab for your understanding, and council."
Imrahil nodded kissed her on the head, and smiled at his daughter not sure what to say or think. He said nothing more as he stood up and walked away from the sitting room into the atrium where he heard a knocking at the door.