The celebrations must have gone well, as I have but a blurred memory of them. Of course, that may have been the mead, but one cannot say. Certain things I have a very keen memory of. I can recall Sigrid's great beauty as she removed her mask and let her face been seen by me, and all the dwarves assembled. We sat side by side on the dais, in strange silence, and I could hardly bear the suspense.

"Are you happy, lass?" I asked her at last, not caring if it were too forward. We were married, in Durin's name, nothing should be forbidden now, not questions, not unguarded looks, not the sensation of touch...

"Aye, I am," she told me, and I met her eyes, looking deeply into them, drowning in them. Her hair was plaited upon her head in admirable imitation of the rulers of old, but all I could think of is what she would look like with her hair down, spread over her shoulders, her face in a deep shadow of the chamber we would share.

"Let me kiss you," I murmured, my voice catching, and she flushed; of course. There were so many about, and though it seemed they were all absorbed in eating or dancing, any movement from us in our great chairs above them all would attract undivided attention. So I simply took her hand, and pressed it to my lips, feeling the soft skin and delicate bones beneath, holding it there as long as I dared. I looked up with my lips still pressed to her skin, and saw her leaning almost imperceptibly closer to me, regarding me with the becoming mixture of abashment and joy. I released her as our eyes met, and leaning in still closer, I whispered the joyous fact to her that later we should know each other more deeply than we had ever been known by anyone.

In another rare moment of wisdom I pulled out my meager remainder of restraint and stopped there. The festivities were beginning to seem endless until Kili at last came and pulled me bodily from my seat, saying, "Come, come, you're going to turn to stone if you don't get moving! Bring your lady with you, and show her how we celebrate!"

Throwing a glance over my shoulder, I caught Sigrid's wrist and pulled her from her chair to join the dance that was rapidly forming. It was a great circle dance which we call the felek, because legend has it that this dance was performed by our ancestors to carve out the mountains with their very feet.

Standing with Sigrid, flushed, and excited by my side, I joined our hands, and took the hand of the dwarf to my right side, and we began the energetic stride to the centre of the circle, only to turn on the eighth step and pull each other back outwards again. A laugh was startled from my bride, and I caught her eye as she managed, "I don't know what we're doing!"

"You'll learn!" I called to her, as I left her side to join hands with the dwarves in the centre and and cut capers to our new positions; then I watched as Sigrid's hands were caught by a dwarrowdame on each side, and rushed about into their steps. Sigrid twisted around, searching for me again, and I caught her by the waist as they swept by, pulling her into position by me as we joined hands and surged inwards again. She was flushed and breathless, tiny tendrils of hair beginning to escape around her face, and I regarded her with a quick smile.

"Like it?" I shouted, and she nodded as we were pulled outwards again and separated by the next steps of the dance. When it came time for us to join hands and spin us about, I said, "Four counts, alright?"

She looked confused, but allowed me to pull her round, and I clarified, "Four counts to reverse positions."

"Ah," she breathed, and I caught her eye. "Next time we'll do it faster; we'll switch twice in the time it takes everyone else to switch once."

Her eyes widened, but when we joined arms again, we spun each other around so vigorously I could have kissed her for how we'll we'd done; cheers filled the air, and Kili managed to be by my side the next time we formed a circle. "Shall we trade spots, then?" he teased, trying to take my place, but I made my steps wide so that he could not get a foot in to trade positions next to me when the parts split, and he eventually gave up and returned to Bofur (there are not enough of the dames for us all to have an actual partner, but this we are used to).

Kili danced with Tilda for the next set as Bofur joined the musicians on his flute; there was a time when I did not dance much myself, but played my fiddle along with the best of them, but those days were over, as attested to by the sweat that beaded my brow and the hand in mine.

"A drink?" I inquired, and she nodded, so we wended our way back to the dais and sat upon the edge of it, taking draughts of the sweet mead between catching our breaths.

"Do you think we ought to –" Sigrid began, her eyes fixed on something, and then I saw the great crowd of my kin surge forward and begin to usher us from the hall. Ah, so it was the time. Even drunk I had a better sense of direction than my uncle and I knew whence we were headed; our chamber. The chamber I had prepared for us, and which Sigrid had slept in alone for the past week. Never again.

Somehow the usual cajolings that I participated in bestowing in the past – at the wedding of Gloin – did not seem appropriate, and I was glad the Sigrid likely did not understand the things being shouted good-naturedly at us. When we were pressed against our door by the mob, I took her hands and she leaned down to me. "I'm going to kiss you," I said, and she nodded, so our lips met, and the crowd rocked with applause. Kili was shouting, and I kissed him for good measure, and something happened with Bain and Sigrid that I didn't understand but which the other dwarves seemed to find immensely funny, and at last I got the door open behind us, and we practically fell within, shutting it against the shouting and cheering.

We stood there, looking into each other's eyes, alone, at last. Most certainly, and quite assuredly – alone.

"What do you think of it?" I asked, more to have something to say than anything else as the revelers returned to the hall and the casks of ale. She looked about, and hugged her arms to her chest.

"I like it very much."

"Do you really?" Pleasure was in my voice.

She nodded, her fingers gripping the fabric of her sleeves.

"Are you cold?" I asked, furrowing my brow. The room was cooler compared to the heat of so many bodies in the great hall, but certainly the weight of her robes...

"No." She shivered. "Just..."

"Afraid?" I pitched my voice low. Her eyes met mine, and she parted her lips, but seemed to find no words. I stepped closer and took her hand, feeling the flinch.

"Don't fear me, lass," I murmured, my eyes pleading with her. "I only mean well for you."

"Isn't it –" she stammered, and I chuckled.

"It's alright. We're married."

"I know," she echoed in a small voice. "I can hardly believe it."

"Allow me to convince you," I whispered, and I led her over to the mirror. "Look there. What do you see?" I asked.

"I see you." Her face colored. "And you're beautiful."

"Well, I see you," I said slowly. "And you are even more so."

While I admired our reflections together, she slowly turned and laid a shaking hand upon my face. Her hand was cool, and it sent a thrill of giddy pleasure through my body, and my eyes drifted shut. I'm ashamed to say I believe I swore, because when I opened them, she was regarding me half-fearfully.

"Is it –"

"No, no..." I hastened to assure her, my voice breaking, and betraying me. "You are so beautiful." I drew her close to me, feeling her small waist give under my touch like a tender sapling, and pressed my face into her shoulder, feeling her slowly, ever so slowly, droop her face to mine, her hands finding rest somewhere upon my back. Suddenly irritated with the impediment to sensation, I started to release her to fumble with my belt when I felt her waver, and hurried to help her to a seat upon the bed.

"Are you alright?" I asked, thinking that perhaps it were not well to have urged so much of our ale upon her, she could not be used to it... I thought then of offering her my pipe, but it seemed to me that it would be all wrong, so I simply knelt by her feet and took her hands. "Are you –"

"Fine," she breathed, covering her face with her hands. "Embarrassed."

"Of what, love?" I asked her, trying to reclaim her hands so that I could see her downturned face. She looked at her lap. "I promise I will try not to hurt you..."

"I will displease you."

"You could not. It is impossible."

"But –"

"Hush now." I took her head against my chest and held her there as I used to hold Kili when he would creep up against me during the night, and she inhaled a deep breath, meeting my eye after a long moment.

"Help me get out of this dress," she said, quite firmly, and again, the thrill raced through me.

"Of course," I managed, barely suppressing a smile, and so very methodically, very chastely, we undressed each other, and began to explore the skin we laid waste to the desolations of love. It was a better journey, by far, than any of the others I have yet experienced, and full of wondrous discovery. Her kisses made me more drunk than I have ever been on mead.

Eru, I am beginning to wonder how much of this I should be writing here.