Well here is the last installment. I hope you've enjoyed this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
Epilogue (Lothiriel)
I stood on the landing outside of Meduseld, pacing back and forth and wringing my hands. I continued to glance at Eomer who was standing stoically, waiting for the eored to come into view.
His graying hair did not glint in the sun as it used to. For the most part, his aging was imperceptible. There were a few more lines on his face and his muscles may have softened over the years, but to me he would always be the young King I had married more than twenty years earlier.
"Lothiriel, he is fine," Eomer murmured to me without looking in my direction as I passed behind his back once more.
Eomer had deemed that it was time for Elfwine to lead an eored on his own. There had been murmurs of unrest to the south of Rohan and so our son went for the first time without his father.
They had taken care of such matters together in the past, but Eomer claimed he was too old for such things and that Elfwine would have to learn how to manage his entire Realm when the
crown was passed onto him.
My husband was weary of ruling. I had an inkling that he would not continue to do so until his death, but would wait until he deemed Elfwine capable and abdicate in favor of our son.
"I cannot stand this," I replied.
"The men will have looked after him. He is their prince."
"But not like you would have."
"I cannot watch him all his life. He is a man grown now." Eomer deftly snatched my arm and pulled me into his side.
It was true. I could hardly believe that we had just celebrated Elfwine's twentieth birthday, but we had.
I worried Eomer's tunic between my fingers as we waited for what seemed an age.
"What if he is injured? What if that is the reason they are taking so long?" I asked.
"We would have already heard that news. He would have been here quicker if he were hurt," Eomer said. There was never a note of irritation in his voice. He knew that I could not calm the mothering side of myself. All I ever thought of was my children and their wellbeing.
I felt a presence on my free side and looked over to see my daughter, a couple of years younger than my eldest son.
Adlanna was a striking combination of her father and I. All of my children had my dark hair, but their eyes were dark like Eomer's. Their facial features were sharp and they were tall like their father.
"Where is your brother?" I asked her, not referring to Elfwine.
Before she could answer a small body came crashing into the back of my legs. "Nevermind," I said to my daughter.
"What have you been up to, Theomund?" I asked the curly headed child that looked up at me. "Getting into trouble?"
He gave me his signature mischievous grin and shook his heads, curls bouncing.
"I do not believe you for a moment." I pulled him around so he was standing in front of me and I could rest my hands on his shoulders.
After Adlanna was born, a more difficult delivery than that of Elfwine, we had had trouble conceiving any more children. We were happy with our two though; a sweet son and a spitfire daughter who reminded me terribly of her aunt Eowyn.
Theomund had been our late in life baby. I had been nearly thirty-eight when he was born. Both of our eldest children had then been spending their days with tutors and taking lessons, so I was long unaccustomed to what the trials of having a baby entailed.
But we managed to figure it out once more and since his siblings had not been able to spend their days in the nursery with Theomund, he had become my constant companion and at five years old I was beginning to dread when he would leave my company for tutors as his siblings had.
The horn of the city finally blew when the eored came into view and I sighed in relief when I saw the dark hair of my son at the head of his fair-haired eored. The minutes it took for him to ride into the city and saddle his horse felt like an eternity. Eomer had always acted as though he were another member of the eored and not the King of Rohan when he had ridden out and he would sleep and eat and take care of his horse among his men. There had been no leniency for Elfwine to do otherwise.
I could see that he was weary from his travels as he climbed the steps to Meduseld. His shoulder length, dark hair was being blown from the clasp that held it back. Moving around Theomund and away from Eomer and Adlanna, I quickly pulled my son into my arms.
Elfwine's low chuckle rumbled against me and I was brought back to similar reunions I had had with another warrior. I eventually pulled away and held him at arm's length to look him over. There was a cut on his cheek and I ran my fingers over the scab.
"I am fine, Mother. It is merely a scratch."
I nodded, not able to speak from the joy that he had come back home safe and sound.
As I had since very early in our relationship, I could feel Eomer's presence behind me without hearing him or seeing him. I grudgingly stepped away from our son and the two men clasped forearms and hugged briefly.
Elfwine was nearly as tall as his father, but not quite as sturdily built. He looked more like my brothers, the lean Swan Knights of Dol Amroth.
"Has everything been taken care of satisfactorily?" Eomer asked, getting straight to business.
"The uprising is over and the people have been subdued," he replied proudly.
"Very good. Get cleaned up before we celebrate your first success," Eomer said with a smile.
"Elfwine, did you get those bad men?" Theomund demanded as he ran up to his brother, having complete faith that he would catch him as he leapt through the air.
His brother swung him up and onto his shoulders despite the weariness I could see in his face.
"Of course I did," he laughed, spinning around so that Theomund had to grab under his chin to stay upright. "You surely did not think that I would be defeated, did you?" Elfwine asked dramatically.
"Never!"
I reached my arms up for Theomund, though he was getting so big that I could hardly do more than set him firmly on the ground. "Alright, let your brother clean himself up and then you will see
him at dinner."
Before he went inside, I grabbed Elfwine's arm and got on my tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek.
"I am glad you are home, son."
"As am I, Mother." He smiled down at me before heading into Meduseld, followed by Adlanna, and then myself, Eomer, and Theomund.
"Someday I will be big like Elfwine and I will ride away to fight the bad men," he exclaimed, jabbing an imaginary sword.
"Why must you break my heart?" I asked, feining sadness. "Why do you want to rush into manhood. Would you not like to stay near to me?"
We approached his nursery, Theomund still fighting his invisible enemies. "No Mother, I must defend Rohan!" I knelt down before dispatching him to a nurse to prepare him for dinner. "But I will always return to you." He wrapped his arms around my neck and I inhaled deeply the scent of his dark curls.
"Then that will have to do, I suppose," I said, kissing his cheeks and forehead before sending him into the nursery.
I stood, my knees creaking a bit as they had begun to do.
Eomer was looking at me with his arms folded across his chest. "You coddle that child."
"Are you going to lecture me on child-rearing?" I put my hands on his arms. "You seem to forget that I have raised two children successfully to adulthood."
"You are clinging to his little boy stage," Eomer said.
"Of course I am. Because when the little boys grow up they forget about me and go into your care and tutelage and they come back warriors, not the affectionate sons that I had." I tucked myself under one of his arms, not caring to argue. "I have seen it done with Elfwine already. I must cling to Theomund because now we are surely done adding to our family."
Eomer laughed. "We can only hope. We barely keep up with Theomund, devilish little thing that he is."
"He does exhaust me, but fear not, soon enough that energy will be transferred into learning all the things it will take to be a Marshal of the Mark."
Eomer kissed my temple. "But your boys will always come back to you."
"You always did."
"With a few cuts and bruises, but I always remember how I was welcomed home." Eomer pushed the door open to our rooms and allowed me to pass into the sitting room.
"And how was that?" I asked, turning to face him.
"It always started with you helping me from my battle attire, joining me for a bath, washing my hair, and kissing me right here." Eomer pulled me into his arms and placed his lips on my neck.
After twenty years, my heartbeat still quickened when he did such things.
"You will have to remind me of the rest," he said.
I laughed. "We do not have time."
"You often forget that we are the King and Queen still. They will wait for us." Eomer deftly unlaced the back of my dress and pushed me down onto one of the sofas.
"What if Theomund comes looking for us?"
"The other two have come bursting in once or twice. It is what children do. I refuse to live in fear of that, especially when you are so inviting," he growled into my ear.
Luckily, we weren't interrupted and I had a satisfied smile on my face as I sat at my vanity, brushing my dark hair out. It was not quite as gray as Eomer's but everyday I felt as though it lost more and more of its dark luster.
The door to our rooms banged open and Theomund came running to me wrapping his arms around my middle and burying his head against me. "Mother, I am starving," he groaned dramatically.
His nurse came hurrying in, giving a frantic bow. "Your Grace," she panted.
"You may leave us," I told her. "And relax a bit." I gave her a knowing smile over the head of my energetic son.
"We will go in just a moment. You have mussed your hair," I sighed, taking my brush to the knots.
"Mother!" He groaned, trying to move away from me though I had learned his tricks and kept him firmly in place.
Eomer came out of the bathroom and took Theomund's hand. "Are you ready?"
"Yes!"
The three of us made our way to the dining hall where the returned eored was already deep into the barrels of ale that had been provided. Eomer's face lit up at the prospect of such an occasion. He may have missed the merrymaking that followed a successful scouting as much as he missed riding out itself.
Theomund was immediately lost in the crowd, but that was not unusual and Eomer and I made our way to the head table where we could oversee what was going on. I saw my son's curly head bobbing in and out of the crowd until he had found a group of children close to his own age.
"Would you care for ale?" Eomer asked, eager to be a part of the crowd after we had eaten. He could have easily had someone bring it to him, but he wanted to be among the men that ridden out.
"I am alright for tonight," I replied.
As he left, Adlanna sat next to me, impatient with all of the merrymaking. Out of all my children, she was the one who would have fit in the best in Gondor. Though she was Rohirric through and through and could be quite heated like her aunt, oftentimes she was quiet and reserved.
"Are you not enjoying yourself?" I asked, reaching out to push her long, dark hair behind her ears.
"I am bored."
"There is no strapping young soldier out there to hold your attention?" I asked, jesting, but knowing that my daughter could soon be married.
Adlanna surveyed the scene before her with a pinched mouth. "Not quite."
I squeezed her hand under the table. "You may retire whenever you wish."
"Thank you, Mother," she said, kissing my cheek as she left. I knew she would happier in her rooms with a book, though there was not much in the library of Meduseld that she had not read.
Shortly after that, Eomer came back up to the high table with Theomund in his arms. Our son hated to be carried in public so I knew that he must be exhausted from all of the running around.
"I will take him to his bed," I said. "I was about to retire myself."
Eomer gingerly placed him my arms and I held on tightly, so that I had some chance of getting to the nursery with him. My husband kissed his son on his head and my lips gently before we were off.
I slipped Theomund's small boots from his feet and removed his overshirt before tucking him into bed. "Did you have a good time, little one?" I asked, as I brushed his hair back from his face and kissed his forehead.
He could barely nod his head in response and so I headed to my own rooms.
As I turned the corner, I almost ran into an intertwined couple leaning against the wall, in a passionate embrace. Not many people came down that particular corridor as it was where the royal chambers were located and not many people had business there.
I gasped when I realized that the couple in question was Elfwine and his betrothed. They had not noticed me as they were so entangled in one another. However, as I clasped my hand over my mouth, Elfwine pulled away quickly and removed his own hands from the body of Leofwyn.
The poor girl stuttered wildly and executed a terrible curtsy. "Your..your grace," she managed to get out.
I shook my head. "Do not mind me. I was merely on my way to bed."
"Mother," Elfwine began, face flaming red as I imaged mine was and as I could see Leofwyn's was as well.
I waved away whatever he was going to try to stay. "Enjoy the rest of your night."
The scene in the hallway was the last thing I had wanted to see. I had just become accustomed to the idea that my son would be married, that he was a man grown, but I did not want to see what that meant. My eldest son would, in a matter of months, belong to someone else. I knew that Elfwine had entertained women before. He was handsome and brave and it did not hurt that he was the heir of Rohan. It was unsavory for me to think of, but not to be unexpected. I found myself struggling more with the fact that he was taking a wife. Leofwyn would be the keeper of his heart and I was expected to relinquish those rights to her without showing that it broke my own.
For a long while I sat in front of the fire in our sitting room with a cup of tea contemplating the changes that were going on in my life and the life of my family. It had all flashed before my eyes.
The door creaked open behind me. I was no longer able to discern Eomer's footsteps from Elfwine's as the the son's had began to sound like the father's.
I turned to see Elfwine coming toward me, head bowed, hands behind his broad back.
"Why, you look as though you are in trouble," I laughed, trying to make light of the situation for his sake and mine.
"I would speak to you of earlier, Mother," he said quietly.
I moved on the sofa to make room for him. As he sat, I realized that he was nearly a copy of his father, taking up so much space everywhere he went.
"We do not have to speak of it," I said. "You are young and in love and about to be married. It would be strange for the two of you to not act in such a manner."
"Were you and father like that?" He asked.
I had to laugh at that. "Absolutely not. We were practically strangers and at the beginning found much to dislike about each other."
Elfwine remained quiet and I took his hand in mine. "But ou are so much like him," I said. "He always put so much pressure on himself to be perfect in everything he did, to keep up appearances as though he were not just a man like everyone else."
Elfwine met my gaze with his father's eyes. "Truly?"
"Truly. Even kings have desires. It is alright for kings to take pleasure in the things that everyone else does. You should love your wife and let it be known. In the end, it will only make you more relatable to your people."
My son gave me one of his gentle smiles.
"But perhaps you could keep such things under control for the time being. It is only a couple of months before you will be married," I said, the Gondoran princess I had been coming out. The thought of the bride of the Crown Prince coming to the altar with child was unseemly to me, though it was a commonality in Rohan.
"Of course, Mother," Elfwine laughed lightly and stood. "Goodnight."
As he went to leave, Eomer came in. "Why are you hiding from your own celebrations?" He asked Elfwine.
"I am returning to them. I just wanted to speak with Mother."
"She is a fountain of wisdom. Heed whatever she told you," Eomer said, smiling at me.
Our son left and Eomer leaned over the sofa. "Was everything alright?"
I nodded. "Of course, but some things must remain between a mother and her son."
ooooOoooo
Everyone was in Edoras for the wedding of my son. All three of my brothers and their families were present, though Erchirion had remained a bachelor. Elphir and Klymena had not been able to stop having children and had added five more after Alphros, who was a man grown with a son of his own. Amrothos and Dernhild had only added another son, Adrahil, to their family. Eowyn and Faramir came from Ithilien with their son Elboron, only a few months older than Elfwine, and their daughter Finduilas, named for Faramir's mother and my aunt who had passed when we were children.
As our families had grown older it had become harder and harder to see one another, so it was good to have everyone under one roof, even if it was for an occasion that I was not thrilled about.
It was not that I did not care for Leofwyn. I thought she was lovely and after having held the position for as long as I had, I thought she would be a kind and competent Queen. She would have it easier than I had, as she was from Rohan herself.
The four women of my family walked through the gardens a few days before the ceremony. Whenever Eowyn visited she wanted to see her mother's roses that Eomer had always tended to himself. It was springtime and they were especially fragrant and full.
"This is an exciting time," she said.
I looked at her and Klymena laughed. Both she and Eowyn's sons were married so they would understand how I was feeling. Alphros and his wife had had a daughter a little over a year prior. Elboron had been married only a few months before Elfwine. He had always done things a little faster than Elfwine and he would teasingly flaunt his status as the eldest cousin, even if it was only by a few months.
"Truly exciting," I responded. "Though you will be a grandmother soon."
It was my turn to laugh at Eowyn's expression. "Who knows? You could be one as well within the year," she returned.
"Being a grandmother is much more fun than being a mother," Klymena put in. "You do not actually do the raising, but you do all of the spoiling and cuddling and when they misbehave you get to give them back to their parents."
Dernhild sighed. "I wish I could get either of my boys to settle down long enough to take more than a passing interest in women. They have turned all of my hair gray."
Everyone laughed at that. It was true that we had all aged considerably since we had first started our families.
The sun was setting and we began to head back into Meduseld, but as we did so we came across Adlanna sitting on a stone bench at the fountain very near to a young man who I did not recognize. They were far enough away from us that they need not rise and greet the Queen and her family. I tried to study them discreetly until they were out of sight once more.
Eowyn took my arm. "A man of Gondor can be very appealing to a shieldmaiden."
ooooOoooo
"Theomund sit still or I swear to Bema you will go with your nurse straight to bed after this instead of to the celebration," Eomer whispered to our son dangerously during the wedding ceremony.
I was, for once, not paying attention to my youngest son, but watching Elfwine intently. He and Leofwyn were holding hands as Hama, just as he had done for Eomer and I, presided over the ceremony. Hama was a bit more stooped and gray than he had been all those years ago when we married, but he had remained a trusted friend of Eomer's.
As the ceremony neared its end, Eomer and I stood and joined the couple, along with Leofwyn's parents, to do the tying of the knot which preceded the kiss.
Elfwine, much like his father, pulled Leofwyn to him for a passionate kiss before all those present, though she was not nearly as embarrassed as I had been. There was longing as plain as day on her face, which I had to turn away from.
The newly married couple led everyone into the great hall where the feast was set up. They sat where Eomer and I would normally have and we sat to their right. It was going to be quite a merry night.
Legolas of course was present for the wedding of his namesake and he had brought with him barrels and barrels of his father's finest wine for the occasion.
After the feasting, Elfwine and Leofwyn led the first dance. They were so completely lost in one another. It was obvious that they were oblivious to anything going on around them.
My hand found Eomer's under the table and I gave it a squeeze. "How is this possible?" I asked quietly, resting my head on his shoulder. "Was it not yesterday that you put him on a horse for the first time?"
Eomer chuckled lowly. "It is now time to see if we did right by him. I have a good feeling that we did."
"As do I," I murmured. As I glanced around the hall, my eyes landed on Adlanna and her companion who had come from Ithilien with Faramir and Eowyn's party. Eowyn had informed me that he was a nobleman's son and that Faramir quite liked him. "It looks as though we may be travelling for the next wedding."
"Do not speak of such things," Eomer growled.
For him, I realized it would be harder to give away our daughter than our sons. He had been taken with Adlanna from the moment she was born. He had tolerated things from her that he never would have from Elfwine and especially did not with Theomund. When she had been in her terrible toddler stage she would escape from her nurses and interrupt his council meetings and Eomer would just pick her up and set her on his knee, continuing the meeting as though nothing had happened.
"Mother, would you dance with me?" Elfwine asked, from behind my chair. Leofwyn had joined a group of her friends and I could see them all watching the prince.
"Of course." I stood and took his hand as he led me onto the floor. Elfwine was a graceful dancer, though he had spent most of his life on a horse. I was quiet for a long moment as we moved slowly around the floor. "You will be a good husband, will you not?"
"I will try my best," he replied, looking down at me.
"It is not always easy," I said. The marriage of a royal couple was always up for public scrutiny and there was no way to get away from it. It was common knowledge what had happened very early on in Eomer and I's marriage. I had never spoken of it to Elfwine and I was not sure if Eomer had, but I was sure that he knew of it from other sources. "You might hurt each other. You might want to give up on each other, but you must not. You are a hard worker and a good marriage takes work."
Elfwine nodded. "I know that. I was raised by two of the most hard working people I have ever seen."
I had to smile at the compliment. The song ended and I knew I should let him go. "Alright, you have done the obligatory dance with your mother. Now you may enjoy the rest of your night."
"I will always want to dance with you," he assured me, before transferring me to Eomer who had come onto the floor.
One of his thumbs wiped away a tear from my cheek before I even knew that I was crying. "Now none of that. This is a happy occasion. Does it not make you think of our own wedding?" He asked.
"There is not much to remember. As a I recall we left the celebration rather early," I replied with a grin.
"Quite the memory you have," Eomer laughed.
"Well Theomund has been sent to bed with his nurse," I said suggestively.
"Then shall we slip away and leave the night to the next generation?"
"I think we shall," I said, taking his hand in mine and leaving through a discreet door in the back of the hall.
I just want to thank you all for keeping me motivated and encouraged through this story. I'm pretty pleased with it. Stay tuned for my next story which I think shall revolve around Aragorn and an OC. Please let me know what you thought of this! I love nothing more than to hear from readers.
Happy reading,
Avonmora
