"Oh no, you have to come! Everyone in Erebor attends the summer ball!" Kili urged sitting across from her, while Fili sat in silent thought on the couch in the corner of her office.

"Aye even I'm going." Gorin piped up from the other end of the office where he sat at his desk signing letters.

"I'm just not a ball kind of girl…"

"What?!" both brothers looked at her shocked, turning their heads in unison. It made them look slightly funny, but also slightly exorcist creepy!

"Who doesnt like balls?!" Kili reiterated, his dark brows shooting up.

"They're always so much fun!" Fili concurred, looking rather seriously at her.

"Ok. I get it: you're both ball-enthusiasts!" she struggled to keep a straight face. It was hard to be certain the mischievous young councilmen werent actually talking about different balls altogether!

For Shobha, big, formal parties reminded her of the last time she and Mike fought. He had left in a fit of rage and she had cried herself to sleep. When he had come home, she had left the next day, and would never return back to their place again. Luckily her own apartment hadn't sold yet, so life had been salvageable. But believing she would ever smile again seemed difficult then.

"Bilbo is travelling up from Bagend!" Kili tried to explain. "He's a southerner like you. You'd really like him…"

"Bilbo, from Bagend is coming up for the big ball..." She half grinned at her own silliness. In truth it sounded half made up. "Where's Bagend?"

"In Hampshire…" Fili wracked his brains trying to recall how Bilbo had described it. "It is a hamlet really, but not far from Winchester."

"Aye brother, we nearly got lost in Winchester that time we visited!" Kili nodded eagerly, his hand flying down to his stomach at the memory. "Brilliant scrumpy!"

"I've been to Winchester several times - never heard of Bagend."

"Oh you would like it. High tea, elevenses, supper, strawberries…" Kili smiled at her, as though he knew her inside out.

"I worked in Southampton, huge hospital, but summer weekends we would go strawberry picking. Never tasted anything sweeter than a Hedge End strawberry." She couldn't disagree with him. "Well, I am sure I will meet him another time..."

"Come on. We came to take you out fo lunch." Fili stood from the sofa, checking his watch and stretching. "If we cant convince you to come to the ball, then we'll have to settle for lunch."

It had all turned out to be an ambush. As they all walked into the pub, a woman, possibly in her late forties, elegantly dressed, with raven hair stood up and waved at them. Kili and Fili immediately wrapped their arms around her waist and ushered her along with them. Her piercing blue eyes were a complete giveaway as to her identity.

"So… you are the pretty, young thing that's got my brother all worked up then?" She grinned at a Shobha mischievously.

"Now that you put it so glamorously…" she quipped back half laughing. "I really don't know what I have done to deserve the job title…"

"Oh my dear, you needn't DO anything… I mean you have walked past a mirror right?" She winked before holding her hand out. "Dis."

"Lady Dis –"

"Oh no none of those titles here. I married a commoner after all!" She chuckled. "Now, my boys tell me you are not planning to attend the summer ball?"

"Well, I sort of prefer not to –"

"I will not take no for an answer." Dis insisted. "Your alternative is to come of your own free will, or else I will turn up on the day and dress you in a gown of my liking and drag you there –"

"Oooh…" Fili pretended to draw a sharp in breath. "I wouldn't do that. My mother will probably dress you in the skimpiest dress there is… I mean, not that we would mind that much, would we Kili?"

Kili nodded patting his brother on the back, as Dis waggled her eyebrows.

"Ugh." Shobha groaned. "I will think about it. That's all I can promise."

"Good. Have you got a dress?" Dis asked, and when Shobha nodded, she carried on. "Great, I will send my car to pick you up on the evening at eight. You can be fashionably late."

Shobha watched Dis, worried about her forcefulness. There was an air about her that reminded Shobha of her mother when she was plotting something.

"For us, the Summer ball and Durin's Day are more important than Christmas, New Year or every other holiday. You see twenty five years ago, there was a mining collapse, which brought down some of the mountain. We didn't think it would ever happen. A lot of our people died. You see the school and hospital were built above where the collapse was. But to make matters worse, the surveyors believed there to be a risk of the entire mountain collapsing into a sink hole. All our wealth here is from mining. But it was all done carefully and by hand. None of us could believe it. We have to evacuate immediately. And the insurers refused to cover it. We were practically destitute. Our grandfather, the Lord of Erebor then, died of a heart attack – he was never the same over the last few years since our grandmother died anyway, and he had driven out a few businesses to the Iron Hills. Thorin had just returned from University to take over from Grandfather. Our father never wanted the title. He produced the great heir to take over and dedicated his life to ensuring good succession. They all managed to salvage some raw gems, gold, and a few family jewels and heirlooms before we got out which allowed Thorin to buy the Blue Isles up north. They are poor, hardly suited to farming or frankly living. And using what was salvaged, he sold it all and rebuilt a small community for everyone, and Oakenshield Hall. Anyway we lived off fishing, a bit of tourism, and hand crafted items using an internet business site."

Dis looked at her with tears welling in her big blue eyes, and patted Shobha's hand on the table acknowledging the "I'm sorry" she had whispered, almost inaudibly. Such tragedy needed more.

"Fili was just six, he had started school, but had been ill that day, which saved him, and I was close to delivering Kili. So things could have been terrible. My husband died on the way to the Blue Isles, trying to help repair one of the coaches. Everything was a mess. Thorin was our rock, for every single person that survived. No one went without a roof over their head, or a meal or suitable clothes. And everyone was rehoused, without exception. But he vowed he would rebuild Erebor one day, and lived always looking into the matter, meeting with his Engineering colleagues, hanging on to each new development that might allow reinforcing the caverns." Dis wiped her eyes with a tissue, pausing for a minute.

"Cousin Dáin, offered to buy the land from us, mother. It might have helped." Fili explained.

"Ugh. For a fraction of what that land was worth. He claimed it was the most he could do to help. But where was the aid when we needed it at the time. If not for Thorin's quick thinking, we would have all been beggars!" Dis growled.

"But Amad, you meet him and have him over every year? I didn't realise you felt this way about him?" Kili looked over at his mother, his chocolate eyes filled with surprise. "And he is so nice."

"He's a businessman, darling. This would have been the deal of a lifetime!" Dis rolled her eyes. "We entertain him because one day you might need him, or his son. And he's family. There is little we can do about it."

"Family politics eh?" Fili winked at Shobha attempting to lighten the mood. He too had a inherited the family blue eyes, but not the dark hair. It made her wonder what his father looked like.

"Well… I'm here to escape mine! Don't pull me into yours!" She chuckled back.

"So you will have to forgive my brother. He has lived only for duty all his life. It's made him dull and grumpy." Then she leant forward, as though about to whisper something serious, but her features were awash with sheer delight. "And no one – I mean NO ONE, has ever contradicted him, or told him to mind his own business!"

Both of Shobha's hands flew up to cover her mouth in utter shock.

"I did say that to him." She confessed meekly. She felt particularly terrible at the thought, after having heard of everything he had been through.

"No! I think it's great!" Dis grinned, unable to contain her delight. "He hates it! But he needs to realise that everyone can't be agreeable with him all the time. They treat him like a King, or a god here! And it really gets my goat sometimes… and it's Thorin's way or the highway."

"What my mother is trying to say is, you're good for us all here in Erebor." Fili smiled at her sincerely, making his left cheek dimple. She had always noticed how handsome was, he had a maturity about him that was clearly much older than he could be. She figured he couldn't be more than three or four years older than her, based on what Dis had said. And yet it was all balanced by a cheeky side to him, that had clearly developed because of his younger brother. They really were a sweet family, the three of them, and had no pretentiousness about them at all. It was so easy for her to fall in love with them. "So she wanted to meet you for lunch, to ask you not to be put off by our Uncle and decide to leave Erebor."

"She knew you wouldn't come over for dinner at the manor. So we had to trick you today." Kili gave her his best puppy dog eyes, which frankly worked perfectly. His warm, chocolate eyes, and his darker, handsome features were something from a movie poster. Ultimately there were few women that could resist this one's charms!

"Well, I will have to love you and leave you, sadly," Shobha suddenly noticed the time. "Clinic in thirty minutes I'm afraid."

"I hope you will forgive my boys for their cunning. I am so glad we had the chance to meet finally. I have been hearing so much about you for so long," Dis stood to join her around the table, grasping both her hands. "And you are even more of a charming creature than I expected."

"Oh thank you." Shobha smiled. "It was lovely meeting you, Lady Dis –"

"Please just Dis." She corrected again. "And let us know which weekend you'd be free for a hike and a picnic…"

….

Shobha walked down the corridor from theatres back to their offices. Almost a week of routine work and living had carried on since she last met with Dis. Mel had dropped her dress off, and collected a few items for alteration. She had even felt confident enough to take a walk after work around their house, in the evening light of the lengthening days. It even gave her a chance to assess all possible routes of access to the house, if there was indeed some sort of beast that stalked the land, that might break in, it was was better to be prepared.

As she arrived at their office, she found a man sitting at her desk. He was reading a news paper and waiting patiently.

"Yer late today lass." He spoke without turning, as she stepped through the door.

"Oh. You're waiting for me?" She hadn't expected anyone. And surely he couldn't have heard her, she wore soft theatre clogs that didn't make a sound unlike her usual heels, that usually heralded her arrival.

"Aye lass." He stood up and bowed his head as she made her way around her desk. It seemed a strange old fashioned custom that men from Erebor all seemed to do. And then she recognised him. He was the large, tattooed, burly man that had arrived with Thorin that day to her house, when hey had argued.

"I'm Dwalin, son of Fundin, I am the chief of security for Erebor." He explained.

"Oh. I didn't realise Erebor needed so much security. You certainly look scary enough." She kicked off her clogs and flopped into her chair, pulling off her theatre hat and shaking out her hair waiting for him to explain himself. But he remained silent watching her, almost unblinkingly as though she had started undressing in front of him. "Have I done something wrong Mr Dwalin?"

"Och… er… no… it's just that… um…" he shook his head, as though he had just been punched hard in the head and was attempting to shake off his dizziness.

"But you were waiting for me?"

"Aye lass." He set his newspaper down on her desk and stood up again, turning towards the door. "I am also Thorin's Cousin, so I am here as a favour to him."

"Oh God. No more threats or angry messages I hope?" She groaned.

He picked up an item in a hanger covered with paper and carefully set it down on her desk.

"Has he threatened ya lass?" He looked at her shocked and somewhat upset.

"Something about not travelling around late…" she waved her hands. "But mostly angry words really…"

"Ah well yer a lass, and an outsider. Ye don't know the lands around here –"

"You mean the wolves?" She looked him squarely in the face for any signs of reaction, but there were none.

"Look lass, whatever it is that's going on between ye two, leave me out of it. I am here just to deliver something on his behalf."

She continued to watch him, but he broke eye contact as he adjusted the item he lay on her desk. Apparently he wasn't even going to address the wolf comment she made. It was a clever way to avoid the topic altogether.

"So what is it?"

"He said he looked into the matter of your missing dress –"

"Oh, you mean the one that someone stripped off my body, after taking me in to my room when I got knocked out by that thing that attacked me?"

"Yer didn't take it off on yer own…?" It was now his turn to observe her closely. "Are ye sure about that lass?"

"I think I would know if I got undressed… wouldn't you?"

"Well, Thorin said he found it was an unclaimed dress in the dry cleaners." He replied, frowning at the well wrapped item. "Perhaps it was dropped off there by mistake?"

"Ok, well thank you for dropping it off Mr Dwalin." She sighed and gave up, picking the dress off her desk and walking over to her coat stand and tiptoeing up to hang it again. She turned to find him staring again. And this time she was certain it was at her feet!

After a few moments, realising that she had noticed, he quickly stood from his seat.

"It's just Dwalin, lass. I don't like all these titles." He walked past her towards the door.

"Oh, one more thing Dwalin: could you tell Lord Oakenshield that next time he wants to lie to me, he should come in person, and look into my eyes while he does it, instead of cowering behind his cousin."

He paused in the doorway and turned slowly, his mouth, twisting into a sideways grin slowly. It made him look even more intimidating.

"Yer really want me to say that to him lass?"

"Yep, in fact you can also tell him, that our housekeeper is an honest, hard working, decent woman, who has not mistakenly taken my dress absent-mindedly to the cleaner. And what's more if he accuses her falsely again, I will gift her a thousand pounds too!"

"Aye, I will tell him. I think ye'd both better start delivering yer messages yerselves." He groused as he walked out.

Once he had left she couldn't help herself, she had to look. Silently, she peeled the paper cover up. It was her dress. But there was no claw marks on it. It was perfect, not even repaired. She raised the cover further until it reached the neckline and huffed out as she saw the label cut, which she had done herself because it irritated her neck. And then she thought for a minute, suddenly beginning to doubt herself, but as she looked over the material she couldn't help notice it looked much less worn than her dress, although it could have been her mind playing tricks on her. So, she finally studied the lining of the skirt.

Shifting the dress onto her desk so she could study it better she searched the lining for the tiny stain of squid ink. It was no bigger than the size of a coin, and had ended up there when she had first worn the dress to work and afterwards met Mike's parents for dinner with him. Afterwards he had been unable to keep his hands off her, and they had only just managed to make it back through the door of his apartment, where he had been unable to control himself, and they had uncontrollable sex in the entry hall against the console table, in the process crushing the packet of fresh squid ink pasta she had bought from the same restaurant, where they had a small section to buy ingredients the chef used himself! Most of that stain had been dry cleaned out, but the lining was so soft that her dry cleaner had explained it would have torn had he attempted to do more! Thorin would never have known to look there.

And so she had him. This was not her dress!

…