Ina spurred her horse onwards. She had been riding hard and fast for almost a day, but the animal was well rested and healthy, so her journey was swift. She folded her cloak more closely against the cruel wind, which whipped her hair as the grasses of the plain. She whispered in her mount's ear: "On Windfola! Make haste my sweet!"

Over the mountains in the distance loomed Orthanc, large and grim though still dishearteningly far. She refused to give in to her weariness, though she despaired of reaching that black and jagged tower by nightfall.

Her presence in the capital would have been long missed.

Ina galloped round the last of the mountains and into the Gap of Rohan. She looked northwards towards Isengard, and her heart leaped as she saw, on the banks of the Isen not ten minute's ride distant, a grazing and riderless horse. It was Lyg, Lord Grima's horse, recognisable even from this distance if she was any kind of stable mistress. With a glad heart she made north and galloped along the line of the Isen.

She slowed to a walk as she approached the grazing horse. It was indeed Lyg as she had guessed, jet-black he was and happy to see his stall-mate Windfola. Ina dismounted and the two horses nuzzled one another as old friends, naturally so for they had been foals together. Lyg was tethered with a long rope to a nearby tree, of his rider there was no sign. Ina felt unease rise in her breast. Orcs roamed the lands between Rohan and Isengard, only her steed's quickness of foot had saved Ina from being spotted by a raiding party, and now that it was nearly night they would be out in force.

She comforted herself with the knowledge that if Grima had been taken by orcs they would not have spared his horse.

"You have come." Ina started and whipped round. It was he. He stood in the long evening shade of a tree, and could have been watching her for some time. Relief was a well inside her, and she would have run to him but for his face, which was stark and unfriendly.

"I have come, my Lord, after many hard hours of riding. Art not pleased to see me?" she asked. He only blinked.

"I did not think you would come. I have waited all this day and I could not believe..." he stopped and was silent.

Ina smiled and remembered why she loved this fragile, unsure man. She went to him. "But I am here. I would have been here sooner were there a better horse I could have taken." He looked at her with eyes filled with some emotion. She thought it looked like fright. "Had I charge of a Mearas I would have ridden it to reach you. As it is I took Lady Eowyn's Windfola-" she began, but he froze in her arms. He shrank back from her and she saw that he held his left arm close to his side, and that his collar was high upon his neck.

Hesitantly she reached for his arm but he snatched it away, and she said "My Lord, what is wrong?" Gently but insistently she took his arm and, holding his white and delicate wrist she slipped his sleeve up on his pale forearm. She gasped. Purple and black bruising was strung between elbow and wrist. She looked up, mouth and eyes wide in sympathy. "Oh, who has done this thing to you?" she asked in a strained voice. His face was flushed and he did not answer her. She reached to his collar but he pushed her arm aside. When she did not desist he lashed out angrily and hit her across the side of the face.

She raised a hand to the livid red marks on her cheek. He looked shocked and a little frightened at his own action, and he took a step back. She looked at him, and he blinked at her, his hands were shaking. She reached again for him and he seemed to expect a returning blow, for he flinched but did not stop her as she pulled at his collar. She moved it aside and gasped again. An angry red gash surrounded by purple and yellow bruising stretched from collar to jaw-bone, and as she stared he closed his eyes in humiliation. She looked to him again, and repeated her question. This time she received an answer.

"My master. He was angry with for my expulsion from Meduseld..." Ina was incredulous.

"Your master?" she asked. "And do you continue to serve such a master?"

He nodded. She was dismayed. "But why would you do such a thing? Why would you cling to one who treats you so, who strikes you?" His eyes strayed to the red marks on her cheek, and she blushed and fell silent. To break the silence she said "What did you mean in your letter, a great evil which will befall Rohan?"

"That matters not. All that matters is that I wished to see you." he replied. Ina was astonished to see that his old air of quiet self-assurance and power had returned, here and now of all times! She felt she should press her question, but desire was over-ruling her judgement and she moved forward to kiss him. They stayed like that under the trees for a long time, each trying to forget the parting that must come.

Just as Ina felt that her self-control was slipping entirely, he pulled away from her. She sat down heavily on a mound of grass and he stepped a little distance away. She looked at the darkening sky. Some stars were already visible.

"And now we must be sundered, I suppose." she said quietly. "You must return to your master..." this last with distaste, "and I to my duties in Edoras, though it will be a hard and dangerous road to undertake in the dark."

He said nothing. Ina had the feeling that he was gathering his resolve to make some statement or execute some difficult action. He murmured something to himself and turned to face her.

"I would not have you risk the journey back to Edoras alone. And...I would not be without you. If you will come, I will request to my Master that you stay with me in the tower of Orthanc."

Ina looked up at him, and he pulled her to her feet, and he kissed her in the twilight amongst the mountains, on the banks of the river Isen.

Ina was no longer the stable mistress of Edoras. She knew she would never go back.