Late Summer of the year 900 of the Third Age: The Day of the Dance at the Palace
"A marchwarden! Truly?" Amarie squeeled and threw her arms around Unede leaving floured hand prints on her back.
Anaire looked up from the rabbit breast she was cutting up and smiled broadly at the her new friend.
Unede laughed and nodded "Aye, so now I'll have to manage Curufin's pining and fighting."
"Did he pine for me? Tell me his words exactly." Amarie whispered quickly her gaze suddenly becoming serious as she handed Unede more flour.
"Yes tell us quick it is all she can think of, does he love her?" Anaire prompted eyes wide.
The newly minted marchwarden grabbed a handful of flour and sprinkled it over the countertop, then scooped her fluffy dough out of a woven basket and lay it on the counter before she began to knead it.
"Gentle with it, else you'll make it tough." Amarie scowled and slapped her hand. "Come on now, you've been gone for months and we haven't heard word since you arrived."
"Aye and that was three days ago, you can not leave your friends to sit and scowl in the kitchen. Amarie neigh died from grief of no word." Anaire laughed.
"Well Unede will choke on her rock of a cob if she keeps at it like that." Amarie flicked Unede on the shoulder and grinned
"What need you of my news of Curufin then, if we are all dead?" Unede toyed and elbowed the sister. "Alright, alight, I pried a bit for you."
"Spied is more like it." Miriel said walking into the kitchen. "What are we talking of."
"Curufin." Anaire said waving her hand to silence the cousin. "Unede has spied for Amarie as you say."
"In the eve he spoke of a fair maiden twice, he said no names, and his conversation was brief, but he hoped that she would seek him out on his return." Unede said simply.
"Oh Amarie those pies cannot come soon enough." Anaire whispered.
"Did you seek him out then?" Miriel said filling the glasses of the ladies with wine.
"I will after the feast tonight I think." Amarie said quickly. "Oh I am all out of sorts and covered in flour, it shall take me all afternoon to prepare for fire tonight." She wiped her hands and drank quickly from her cup. She looked around at the ladies gathered in the small kitchen, before settling on Unede and placing her hands on the dough she was kneading. "Its done, see how smooth it is, put it back in the basket to proove."
"What are you making Unede, when did you take a fancy to baking?" Miriel interjected and peered into the basket to see the lumpy dough sitting in the rings of wicker. She took a long draw from her cup to hide her judgement.
"A trade of skill, a cob for a coney." Anaire held up the leg of the rabbit proudly. "Amarie set the snare herself-"
"Both for the hare and the heart. She means to send the pies with Curufin on his next scouting assignment." Unede laughed, and gave Amaries shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Speaking of trades of skill, your good with braids surely you can help prepare Amarie for tonight."
Miriel nodded as she prodded the dough again. "Sure sure… Unede what is this supposed to be. If its Lembas you want to make my naneth can teach you, they aren't supposed to be lumpy."
"It's a cob!" Unede protested and covered the bread with a floured towel and shewing away her cousin.
"Hardly a cob!" Miriel laughed.
"Oh be gentle with her Miriel, its her first time, give it a century and she will have a right loaf." Anaire said. She stood and walked to the sink to clean her hands.
"It'll take more than a century for this abomination to work out." Miriel muttered.
Unede shot her cousin a look and changed the subject. "Lord Curufin is a fine lad. A good watchman and keen with the knives. He has a liking for the jigs, and a good singing voice. Perhaps after the feast you can join him in a dance at the fire." But Unede's musings were interrupted when Miriel let out a little gasp and a laugh.
"The Quadrille!" She squealed. They watched her as she jumped up and down and finally took Amarie's hand.
"I'll dance it with father, and Anaire with my brother. Then Unede can speak a word to Legolas, and Legolas can bring it up to Curufin, and that's four couples for our corner!"
"Oh yes, yes it should work! Then after the quadrille come's the jig and we can make sure you stand next to him!" Anaire finished clapping her hands! "Miriel its perfect!"
"It's not perfect though." Amarie said half heartedly, she filled her glass again, and took a seat at the table. "Those dances are for the palace feast, and none of us are of a noble house, we will all be feasting in the valley, and he will dance with another before the fire tonight, and she'll have him for the black nag and the rufty tufty around the fire, and I'll just be left to marry some rafter."
Miriel looked pointedly at Unede. But she shook her golden head vigorously. Miriel's face reddened and Unede crossed her arms. Miriel pursed her lips into a tight line her eyes drifted towards the basket of lumpy dough.
"Shall we talk about the cob then Unede? For I know who likes them." She hissed.
"Oh fine!" Unede said "I shall take you to the feast, alright?" Miriel squealed and clapped her hands.
"Unede, can your marchwarden title get us all into the palace feast?" Anaire asked quietly.
"No, it can not." She muttered and crossed her arms.
"Hah, she can get us into that feast." Miriel said teasing her cousin and drawing deeply from the bottle of wine.
"Unede, how did you come by that fair hair?" Anaire whispered standing from the table and taking a lock delicately into her hand. Miriel watched the color drain from her cousins face, and tried to find words to ease her mind but none came.
"I" she muttered at last, thinking it best that her new friends know the truth of it. "I am of the House of Finarfin."
"She shall be High Queen of the Noldor one day, or I shall eat my hat!" Miriel said excitedly, and she clapped her hands together.
The room felt silent and the eyes of the sisters fell on Unede who stared into the cup of deep red wine and watched the liquid swirl along the edges of the clay cup.
"Queen of the Noldor?" Amarie whispered. "But I thought Lord Elrond-."
"He is a half elf, and has half a claim as such, and his mother denied her crown. Galadriel is the Crown Princess, but she is cursed by the valar. Tis Unede's right and we all know it. Who wants an elven King that can choose a mortal life-." Miriel started but her cousin interrupted quickly.
"That is enough, I said I will take you to the feast." Unede shifted, and looked out the window to check the time, but the sun remained high in the sky and the shadows short. The hour was no excuse to leave.
The two sisters squealed and giggled with joy and Unede watched them laugh breathlessly at her kitchen table. Perhaps the excitement of romance would distract them from Miriels lack of propriety and her own desire to rid herself of crowns and the twisted cursed titles her family name carried.
"That title shall get us into a feast I am sure of it!" Anaire said and she grabbed her sisters hand.
"You'll need a good gown." Miriel said with a smile.
"We have them." Amaire replied. Unede breathed a sigh of relief, they were easy enough to distract, or at least polite enough to know she was uncomfortable.
"Not you two, Unede. All she has is cotton kirtles!" Miriel jested and elbowed her cousin.
"Alright then, we shall get you a dress."
"I have a gown for the occasion Miriel." Unede crossed her arms.
"The rabbit needs to rest in these spices, and the bread to prove, we ought to go and get our clothes together, then prepare here while the bread and pies are cooking." Amarie suggested, taking her sisters hand. "Come quickly Anaire you must help me pick right." Unede nodded and the pair walked to the porch and climbed down from the tree, and were gone faster than the hare on the table could hop.
Unede looked at Miriel and raised an eyebrow. "Queen of the Noldor?" She said unhappily.
"What was I supposed to say?"
"I don't know! Not that!" The marchwarden protested.
"Why are you learning to make a cob?" Miriel said flatly. "You hate cob, you always say they are to tough."
"A trade of skill for the sisters, to make Amarie feel better about all the rabbit killing." Unede said dismissively, she gingerly lifted the edge of the fabric to check the dough.
"Why not have the kitchen girls teach you to make the tarts you like."
"And be doomed to eat bad tarts for a thousand years?" Unede said quickly. "Come and look at this gown, tell me if I need another." She stood and beckoned her cousin towards her room.
"Why? Are you trying to impress someone? Are you not keen to wear your floured kirtle?" Miriel teased. She took the bottle of wine and followed her cousin to the bedroom. "We will cinch you up, and set a thousand stars on your brow and you shall look as mighty as your cousin Gil-Galad, though far more handsome!"
"How drunk are you?" Unede turned swiftly away from the wardrobe and looked angrily at Miriel. The young elleths cheeks flushed red and tears came to her eyes, and she drank deeper of her wine before the water slipped down the corners of her cheeks. "Oh Miriel I'm sorry. Forgive me I meant not to upset you."
Miriel cried quietly, and buried her head into Unede's shoulder.
"You get to dance with the prince, and slay orcs and, and train soldiers and protect the forest, and I am not even allowed to dance with anyone but my Ada! It's not fair!"
"Miriel, you've not seen even a century, you are not grown."
"I am grown!" She protested. "I am old enough to drink, and dance!"
"Your not old enough to drink this much. Give me the cup!" Unede took the wine from her cousin and finished it herself. "Help me with this dress and we will let the wine leave you so you can drink this evening and still be able to hold yourself upright. The bottle too, for I saw you take it as well. I need the rest of that wine if I am to get through a thousand dance's and a dinner at the King's table."
"You'll not be sitting with us?" Miriel exclaimed and then quickly began crying again, and patting her face dry on Unede's floured apron.
"Not if you're going to have me announced! I can not bring so many guests if I am not introduced, it would be rude." Unede turned and vigorously pulled dresses out of the wardrobe before finding a green velvet gown buried at the bottom.
"Will this one do?" She said holding it up for Miriel to see.
"Aye" Miriel said with a hiccup. "Though it really is not of the current style."
"Oh valar help me." Unede muttered.