A/N: I put the original chapters 1 and 2 together, and this is now the new chapter 2. Another departure for me - a new voice. Hope it sounds OK. Seemed to make sense for each of the parties concerned to get their say too (thanks, Deborah, for the inspiration!).

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II

The morning after my wedding I woke very early, and I lay looking at the sunlight on the pale walls while my husband slept beside me. And my thoughts turned to all that had happened during the day. Although I had awoken feeling somewhat nervous, by the time my brother and I left the White Tower, I felt a serenity cover me that I had never known before in my life, and it came to me that perhaps I was at last feeling real joy. So I was most surprised then, on reaching the White Tree, to see, since I knew this was a man who had stood firm in battle against the Witch-King for two days, that Faramir's face was almost as grey as his eyes. But as the ceremony continued, I watched his composure return and, by the end, he was flushed with happiness. And if I was aware that we were standing before the King throughout, this thought was in my mind for only a moment, and seemed to me of less importance than the fact that we were standing before each other.

As the day went on, my feeling of peacefulness had grown and grown; although there was one moment in the evening when I looked out across Minas Tirith and caught a sight of lights on the river, and thought how beyond there was my new home; and all of a sudden I was filled with a deep longing for Edoras and I knew I would greatly miss it. How different the court had been since he had become King, more how I thought it should be from song and story, and I did not like to leave him there alone now. And then a great sadness filled me as I thought how happy my brother and I had been in Edoras in recent months, and that now I was leaving my home. And it seemed to me strange now to think that not long ago, I would have preferred death than to remain trapped there living.

Then someone gently took my arm, and I saw it was my new cousin Elphir. Very like to his father he was; and in only a short time I had come to love the Prince of Dol Amroth and his family for they were brave yet gentle men, very like to my husband. The Prince's son now talked softly about how glad he was that now I would be here in Gondor for so he and all his family would see more of me; and he thanked me for the great happiness I had brought to his cousin. Then he pointed to my brother, who was deep in conversation with his sister, and I saw gladly, for I know my brother well, that he was very close to falling for her. And as we spoke, I felt arms put around my waist from behind me, and a gentle kiss placed on my neck, and I thought I would sing for joy. But instead I found myself laughing, as he picked me up and I realized he had remembered the old and foolish custom I had once mentioned, and was teasing me.

Great attention my husband had given to the accuracy of the ceremonies and customs of both Gondor and Rohan; much more, I confess, than I had troubled myself with, and I knew that he had been worrying himself for weeks about using my language in front of such a large and public gathering. I smiled to think of it. For, despite all the time he had spent in Edoras, and for all his otherwise great gift with speech, he still failed to speak my language like one born to it. The first time he had used it in conversation with my brother, taking great care and with absolute concentration, Éomer had put his head down on the table before him and nearly wept with laughter. He knew my brother's manner well enough by then not to take offence, although I do not doubt he was at least a little wounded. For he spoke it like the scholar that he was. His diction was more perfect even than my brother the king's. But it was not a language to learn through books; it was a language to be lived and spoken and sung. And although he had improved greatly, he would always, I deemed, sound to anyone in the Mark like a man of Gondor speaking a little too precisely a tongue that was very much not his own. And this irked him greatly, partly on my account, and partly because it was the only language he had ever studied in which he had not achieved mastery; and, most modest of men he might be, I think this did offend his pride a little. 

This then was the man now lying on his back beside me on the bed, fast asleep, with his left arm across his chest and the other bent behind his dark head; and his skin was very pale and the lashes covering his shut eyes very long and dark. And I lay and watched him for a while as he slept peacefully. Then I blew into his ear. He jumped, pulled a face, and screwed open his eyes.

'How you sleep, lord! Have you tired of me already?' I asked plaintively.

A look of great tenderness spread across his fine features and sleep-heavy eyes. I had never met a man whose feelings were worn so openly for all to see. He would not, I think, have done well at the court at Edoras while it had been under Wormtongue's sway and, from all I had heard, he had indeed suffered badly at Minas Tirith. Was the new court, I wondered, more to his liking?

'Never,' he said, tracing a finger very gently down my cheek and throat and down onto my shoulder. 'Never. To look upon you is to behold a summer morning filled with promise.'

'My lord, have pity on me!' I laughed. 'It is far too early for poetry!'

'It is never too early for poetry,' he said severely, sitting up beside me and putting his arm about me. 'What would be more to your taste then?' He tapped his forehead. 'I have a great deal committed to memory - love poems, rousing choruses, epic verse. And in several languages.'

'You might recite to me something in Rohirric,' I suggested.

He snorted. 'Ridiculous language,' he said.

I swore at him in it.

'How things have changed already,' he remarked. 'You never said that to me before we were wed.'

'I did not wish to corrupt you entirely during your stay at Edoras.'

'I heard your brother say it often enough; it is, I think, one of his favourite expressions.' A line creased his brow. 'Corrupt me?' he said. 'I must ask, how much of an innocent do you think I am?'

'Not an innocent,' I said, after a moment's thought. 'But a good man.'

He bestowed a kiss very gently on the top of my head and we lay in contented silence for a little while.

'When shall we set out for Ithilien?' I said eventually.

'Thinking on my troubles passing through the city earlier this week, perhaps we should flee under cover of darkness.' He stretched and yawned. 'I do not mind. We could stay here for a while, if you wanted.'

'I would prefer to go to our new home.' For, although I did not say it, I did not much care for the Steward's house in Minas Tirith which, despite all the changes my lord had made since he had become master of it, seemed to me still haunted by the ghosts of Denethor and Finduilas. Knowing nothing of my thoughts, he glowed with pleasure at my reply, for I had not seen the house in Emyn Arnen since its completion, and I knew how much work had been put into preparing it for my arrival. 'But how then shall we escape the city unscathed?' I asked him.

'I thought we might scale down the rock face,' he said.

'A little perilous, perhaps. We could climb down the shoulder of the hill. It is not so high there, if I remember aright.'

'Not that way, I think,' he said, a little too carelessly, and I cursed my forgetfulness, for I recalled now that there lay the Silent Street, and he had been that way only twice since he had learnt what had nearly befallen him there, and the last time had been to retrieve the crown for the Coronation. I did not think he would willingly go to that part of the city again for the rest of his life.

I took the hand which was resting on my shoulder. 'Then,' I said softly, 'we may after all have to bear passing through the city and seeing how much the people love their steward.'

'And his wife,' he added chivalrously.

'That much, I think, can go unsaid.'

As he had guessed, it took us hours to leave Minas Tirith; and this was mostly on account of the fact that my husband's courtesy prevented him from not responding to anyone who wished to speak to him. In the end, we abandoned riding, and walked down to the city gates from the fourth level. But we exchanged a look of great relief when finally we quit the city, got back upon the horses, and rode as quickly as we could for Harlond. But when we had crossed the river, we slowed again, for now we were in Ithilien, and I wanted to see more of the land. As green as the fields of home it was, although more lush; and there were many flowers that were unfamiliar to me, and they perfumed the air around me as I breathed in deep. The afternoon was lazy, and it was hotter than in Rohan, stiller and less dry. We rode now in silence, or now he would point out to me a place that he knew, or I would ask him a question about the land through which we passed. Mostly we were quiet, more than happy just to be in the company of the other. The ground rose and fell beneath us as we rode, and in time we came to Emyn Arnen.

The house lay in a small valley, but we did not go there straightaway, for first I wanted to see the stables, and very fine they were, and I was much satisfied. Then we went through a little gate, and through a small and scent-filled garden, and onto a wide lawn, and so we entered the house.

In Minas Tirith I had found many of the buildings too grave and forbidding, oppressive even; the ancient stonework and engravings seeming to press a great weight of history onto those still living there. This house, too, as most in Gondor, was built in stone, but it seemed somehow lighter. The hall in which we stood ran the height of the house, and it was light and cool, a relief from the hot summer outside. Here and there, set back in the walls were placed various pieces and ornaments, and now and again I saw something of my own.

'I tried to set out your belongings as close as I could make it to how they were in Rohan,' he said, and I knew he would have spent days attending to this. 'But I don't doubt you'll move everything in time,' he added with a laugh. And I took his hand and we wandered off to explore the rest of the rooms together.

A great gift the Prince of Ithilien has for making all about him peaceful, and here in Emyn Arnen he had had one of his greatest successes. Our home was sun-drenched, spacious, and very serene; the gardens about it fair and green and touched with the grace of the people of the Wood; and I knew without a moment's doubt that we would be happy here.