AN: Hello, everyone!

This is the first fic I publish here, so I would be more than happy to receive your reviews. (Especially on grammar and spelling, because I'm not a native speaker, and even though I sort of did my best, I'm sure it's not perfect at all. Well, trying is the only way you can improve, right?)

As for the story, I don't own anything it's all J.R.R. Tolkien's.

It would be so great if you told me your thoughts on the story and the upcoming characters, because each and every character I'll be presenting was inspired by a very special friend or acquaintance or family member of mine, or a fictional character who also has a special place in my heart. And here I have to mention that whatever tiny fracture that is not Tolkien's in this story is definitely George R.R. Martin's (usually words or objects, it's not a crossover story), because I love ASOIAF and it was a wonderful inspiration.

Thank you so much for reading in advance, I hope you will like it!

New chapter

NOBLEMEN'S WIVES:

Ëlyel was waving goodbye to her daughter in the gate of their home.

"Be good, my little sweetpea!" She smiled at Anarys who clung to the nurse's arm one eye shining with excitement, the other with alarm. It must be a scary thing to walk three streets up all alone but for a nurse at the age of three, Ëlyel thought as she watched her daughter leave. She arranged for Anarys to spend the afternoon with her grandparents. Lady Doriel often complained that they saw so little of their only grandchild. Lord Malberen adored Anarys too, as did Florian and Garlon, Barahin's younger brothers. Her husband loved their daughter fiercely, Anarys was the sweetest child in the world, Barahin always said. Ëlyel wished she could give her a little brother, sooner than later. She gave one last smile to the fading frame of her daughter's tiny legs and body before she went back to the house.

The maids already prepared tea and some cakes and set the round marble table in her flower garden. She expected the princess in half an hour. It was fortunate Lady Doriel had time to take care of Anarys now, not like her daughter ever bothered when she had a friend over for the afternoon. Only, this was different, she was doing this for Barahin who expected her to find out as much about the princess as possible. And that would require the conversation to go further than what a sweetheart her daughter actually was.

Ëlyel received word two days ago that the Lady Gilraen accepted her invitation. Since then she got just as curious about the girl as her husband was for close a week now. The princess's reply was but kind and courteous. She thanked her for the invitation and agreed to have tea with her any time Ëlyel found fitting. She couldn't make much out of the handwriting. The princess's letters were small and round as far as Ëlyel was concerned. Analyzing handwriting required the proficiency of Salarien. Barahin always said the two of them together were better than any eastern spies. And Ëlyel always enjoyed 'spying' for her husband.

When the maid hurried up to tell her the Lady Gilraen arrived, Ëlyel was suddenly feeling almost anxious. She trailed to the hall to receive the princess. Gilraen was wearing a soft lavender and cream colored silk gown with tiny flowers embroidered along the bodice, her thick golden locks caged under a hairnet decorated with shining pearls. With her ivory cleavage, peach colored cheeks and shy smile she looked simply gorgeous. Greeting her Ëlyel spotted the pale gold wedding ring on her right hand, in its middle a black amethyst encircled with golden ornaments and the tiniest rhinestones in the gaps Ëlyel had ever seen. She gestured Gilraen into the garden and they sat into the pillowed wooden seats readied for them.

"I'm so happy you accepted my invitation, my lady, I couldn't wait to meet you" Ëlyel said with a smile. She was careful not to You Highness her, the King denied her the title Princess and calling her thus anyway would seem as mocking.

"I was more than happy to receive it, Lady Ëlyel. I was so eager to meet you" Gilraen replied and Ëlyel had the sensation they were both lying. She invited her because Barahin was curious about her and Gilraen probably accepted because Torundir asked her to. "Your home is very beautiful."

"You are too kind" she smiled. So far it was talking to Sybille all over again. No, Gilraen looked as though she had no idea what to say. That would never happen to her sister.

"Congratulations on your marriage. Your wedding ring is very pretty" Ëlyel said.

"Oh, thank you. Yours is diamond?" she asked straightening to see Ëlyel's hand.

"Yes, with red gold" Ëlyel replied, happy that the girl was finally talking. "My husband always said Lord Torundir had no taste for jewels, but it seems he was very much mistaken. Or was it your own choice?" she offered with a small smile.

"No, not at all. Our whole wedding was kind of a surprise."

"To everybody, apparently" Ëlyel added and Gilraen blushed slightly. "If the question doesn't offend you, please share with me how a princess of Gondor comes to wed an officer in secret?" she asked watching every muscle on the princess's face. The question didn't seem to surprise her. Torundir prepared her well.

"A princess of Gondor just… loves an officer in secret." Gilraen replied.

"How exciting!" Ëlyel laughed.

"How stressful" the princess smiled.

"But your life is so much more peaceful now, my lady" Ëlyel offered never stopping smiling.

"Well with Torundir's maids and housekeeper around watching my every step waiting for me to fail, I couldn't say so…" she said a little uncomfortable.

Ëlyel was interested. Barahin told her the housekeeper didn't seem to like Gilraen, but wasn't it only shock? Gilraen told her how unfriendly they all were and how she understood that. Every word she uttered seemed a little uneasy, a little reluctant, like she would have to guard her words. She was feeling sorry for her. The girl looked so alone and so helpless.

"And what is your purpose, my lady? To make friends with your husband's servants?"

"I just don't want them to hate me. I just want to make them see I'm not a conceited good-for-nothing royalty who will boss them around and mess up their life." Gilraen replied wrining her hands.

"You are the mistress of the house, you are supposed to boss them around" Ëlyel said eying her every movement.

"I don't want to make them feel I'm superior."

"I don't understand" Ëlyel pressed on smiling. She really didn't quite understand.

"They had a way of running the household, they took orders from Torundir. He had his ways too. And I just dropped into the whole thing. I don't want to rummage this routine, I don't want to uproot anything. I just want… a place for myself in it."

"I'm sure they'll understand with time" Ëlyel nodded.

"May I ask you something, my lady?" Gilraen asked her after a long and uncomfortable minute of silence.

"Posing and answering questions is what builds up a conversation. Feel free to ask anything!" Ëlyel twinkled encouragingly.

"I know the situation was so different, but… did you feel a stranger in your new life when you married Lord Barahin? Or is it just me? Is it something wrong with me? Or is it that I was a princess? I never thought I was any different because of that…" her voice was thick with well concealed desperation.

Ëlyel was surprised. She never expected the princess to touch on the most sensitive point of her being after twenty minutes of talking. Suddenly she understood her.

"Are you disappointed in marriage?" she asked her quietly.

"No" Gilraen looked utterly taken aback at the suggestion. That surprised Ëlyel even more. She waited for Gilraen to explain. "I… I love being married" the girl went on. "I love Torundir. I so want to be a good wife to him. I just… I don't know how. And everything is so new and I'm so afraid I'll botch it…" Gilraen blushed at her confession.

"You know" Ëlyel told her. "When I married Barahin I felt utterly out of place. Everything was stranger to me. The house, the servants, even Barahin. You are better off in that field at least" she added with a smile.

"You didn't know Lord Barahin when you wedded?"

"Ours was not the passionate, romantic love with secret meetings and running off" Ëlyel smiled. "My father and Lord Malberen arranged the marriage and I only ever met Barahin twice before we were wedded. I think he really hated me at first." She laughed remembering. "For a fortnight my new life felt like a nightmare, to answer your question. Then somehow Barahin decided he would give me a chance and slowly, very slowly we got to know each other. I learnt to trust him and he learnt to appreciate me. He is a good man, Barahin."

"I am sure he is" Gilraen smiled waiting for her to go on.

"We were married for two months when my father died. We got the news at night. The servants woke Barahin and he found me sobbing over the letter my father's wife sent. My mother died birthing me, you know" Ëlyel looked up at the princess sadly. She still missed her father. She wished he could have seen Anarys. "You will laugh at me, but I'm unable to remember anything he said to me then. In the morning I woke in his bed, his arm around my shoulder. We had never slept together before. Well, he visited my bedroom but never stayed afterwards."

Gilraen was smiling. "Sleeping together has far more to it, than one would think" she nodded.

"You will tell that story to me" Ëlyel laughed. "So after my father's death, Barahin was really the only one I had. We started talking. About real things, not weather and dinner. In another two months I was in love with him." It was really a love story, she and Barahin. She was so lucky. Barahin could have been a different person, things could have stayed as they were in the beginning. But it really worked out for them.

"I never thought you and Lord Barahin had an arranged marriage. I always figured it was something like my sister and Florian" the princess shook her head in surprise.

"You did? I'm so glad. So what about the importance of sleeping together, my lady?" she asked her with a mischievous grin.

"Oh." Gilraen blushed. "Well… when I first slept together with Torundir. It was the first time he said he loved me, that's all."

"He didn't really hurry saying he loved you, did he? Only on your wedding night…" Ëlyel mused. "What I'm saying is that there is really no need to press things. Your place in their routine and your way with the servants will just get settled with time. All you need to do is be patient and don't worry. And if you really feel desperate, why don't you ask your husband how to handle them?" The princess seemed to think about that. "How do you handle him, by the way? He doesn't have the easiest nature…"

"No, not at all" Gilraen laughed. "But he is incredibly loving, you know."

"He is?" That was the last thing Ëlyel expected to hear of Torundir.

"Yes. He is really not a selfish scumbag, as he would put it. When he holds my hand and tells me do this and this, my sweetest, there's just no way denying him anything. The day I left the Citadel was really the toughest of my life. I hope you don't know what I'm talking about when I say it felt like everybody I ever loved abandoned me. He was the only one who was there for me" the princess remembered and gave a smile as she looked up at Ëlyel.

"Barahin always said the same. That he is the sort of person who is there when needed. Weren't you afraid that once married he would not be the man you thought him to be?"

"He was always the only man I ever wanted to marry. I never thought I would, though. I really have no idea how I had the courage to leave and marry him against my parents' will. I was never the daring one, you know…"

"No, that was your sister" Ëlyel nodded. "We met before, my lady. Do you remember?"

"Of course I do. Lord Malberen hosted us on the occasion of my sister and Florian's betrothal. I met both you and Lord Barahin. And your lovely daughter too."

"Yes. We never paid much mind to you back then. It was your sister who was going to be in our family. I rue we did not" Ëlyel mused.

"You do, my lady?" she asked amused.

"Please, call me Ëlyel. And yes, I do. You are someone who is really worth getting to know"

They chatted for three more hours. She even asked Gilraen of the horse Barahin mentioned Torundir bought her. The girl laughed and told her of the times she went riding with her husband, before he became her husband. Ëlyel told her of Anarys's accident with the pony. She knew about it already, from Torundir. They ate all the pie the maids served them. Gilraen asked if she herself made it. That resulted in talking about cooking for a whole hour, she promised she would teach Gilraen how to make honeyed duck. As for roast beef on vegetable bed, Torundir's favorite as she learned, Ëlyel promised to get her cook to teach both of them.

Gilraen was about to leave when Ëlyel complemented on the braid under her hairnet and the princess told her at once she would teach her how to do it. In the end she stayed for another hour and they talked more about marriage, cooking, riding and children. She eventually asked her if she missed her family. Her face grew sullen and sad.

"You can't imagine how much. It's all right when Torundir is around, but when he is not… I don't say I had the best relationship with my sisters of late, but it was still better than having absolutely nobody who would talk to me… Well, I was the one who cast them away and I absolutely deserve loneliness, so it's not my place to complain… "

"It is" Ëlyel said giving her a sympathetic smile. "Because you lost them anyways. And the feeling that it was your own choice just makes it harder, doesn't it?" she put a hand on hers. "And I'll happily talk with you anytime you want." Ëlyel had never seen anybody so grateful than the princess looked at that moment.

Ëlyel found herself having just a great time with Gilraen. It was around six in the evening by the time she escorted the princess to the gate and they said their goodbyes.

"And what will you tell Lord Barahin of me?" Gilraen asked half laughing.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll know that by dinner" Ëlyel replied with a knowing smirk.

Barahin got home an hour after Gilraen left. The nurse brought Anarys back and the two of them were already at the dinnertable when he arrived. He kissed their daughter on her cheeks and turned to Ëlyel with an eager grin.

"So?"

"So what, my dear? Dinner is stuffed pheasant. I hope you are hungry" Ëlyel smiled at him.

"Stop that. Tell me how was the afternoon?" her husband glared at her.

"Oh the weather was just splendid" Ëlyel grinned at him. He was really losing patience. She had to laugh. Barahin always complemented on her wits, but Ëlyel figured he mostly just hated it when she was playing around like that.

"Ëlyel!"

"My lord?" she smiled innocently and decided it was enough of torturing him. "She was a sweetheart" she concluded shrugging.

"That's all? You spend more than four hours with her and all you can say is that she is a sweetheart?" her husband rolled his eyes.

"She is very intelligent. And she is kind and tolerant. In fact she may be just the kind of woman Torundir needs."

"Why?"

"Because she is ready to give anything and wants very little in return. She seemed to be the sort of person who will follow Torundir anywhere and submit to his will without a second thought. And all he has to do in return is love her and give her emotional security. If he is sensible enough to see that himself, they might even work out. I don't say they will, but it can happen. Gilraen is a very nice woman. Yes, a woman" she added when she saw Barahin raise an eyebrow. "She is as mature as any grown woman and ten times wiser than Sybille. We sort of became fast friends. It was a really pleasant afternoon."

"Aha" Barahin said humming.

"If you don't believe it, you should just see her for yourself. By the way, she said that filly had a very comfortable gallop."

"Haha" Barahin shook his head and kissed her brow. "Thank you, my dear."

"You're very welcome. I had a nice time. And I was serious. You should invite them for supper. And you'll see she is nice. She really deserves a chance, just like I did." Ëlyel gave her husband a smile and returned to her meal remembering the time she was 'spied' on by Salarien and invited for supper to Torundir's house.

So that was it, and I got the most amusing comment (it's a shame you all write anonymus comments, so I can't reply through PM. Monica says I'm confusing and offensive. Well, if you feel offended, you could have stopped reading, nobody forced you on, I believe. As for confusing and Dunedain culture and stuff, it's mention in the summery that this is AU. So I'm sorry, but these are Gondorian traditions of this alternate universe. Second, I was SO waiting for somebody to claim Torundir is pedophile and asshole :D I think he is neither. Never mind what I think though. As for Gilraen she is very well aware of what she is doing and feels and immense amount of guilt, she is not trying to blame what she did on anybody else. As for Arwen's character, I already commented on that, as for Aragorn's, I don't think I twisted him too much. That is how I picture Aragorn as a King, obviously you are not suggesting that becoming King won't affect one's habits and character. Besides, if Torundir got hanged for having an affair with Gilraen (who is not a child), that would have been a serious damage to Aragorn's original personality (to kill his daughter's love after all his own love story? Aragorn is not that bloodthirsty).

Next chapter is... Chapter 23 - Lazy Days of Summer and it's coming tonight, because it's short and I want to get on with posting this thing...