Kindle My Heart
Lea of Mirkwood
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Merry ducked his head shyly. "Why did you go?"
Éowyn sighed and turned her head to the side. "I wished to defend my home. As did you, little one."
Merry looked away with a hint of shame. "You are strong, and I even need someone to hold me on a horse."
But you are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. When you stood on the field facing the shadow and your hair flew out behind you like a golden banner you were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
But Éowyn couldn't hear that. Because he only thought it. He stayed silent for a moment until he worked up his courage. He fancied that this terrified him a bit more than facing the Nazgûl. No. No, the Nazgûl was worse.
"Éowyn," said Merry tremulously. "You are beautiful."
Éowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan and daughter of kings, let out a short, humorless laugh. "Even now? Even now you think this of me, when I am too weak to lift my head, cannot lift a spoon to feed myself?"
Merry nodded solemnly. "Yes."
Éowyn shook her head brokenly. "But I am only a shieldmaiden...and even now that is taken from me."
Merry's heart pounded in his chest as he gazed at Éowyn, a broken dove - no, like a hawk – laying on the bed with her golden hair fanned out over the pillow.
"It's taken from me, too," he stammered. "I mean, I can't fight either. They're leaving tomorrow, my cousin and all my friends and I won't be able to go with them. And my other cousin, the Ringbearer Frodo and Sam are already gone and they may be dead.
Until that moment Merry had never really come to terms with the idea that Frodo and Sam were never coming back. A tear slipped down his cheek before he could stop it and hit the pillow next to Éowyn's face.
"And I'll never see them again," he whispered. "Éowyn, Éowyn you need to live. Live for all of us."
Éowyn smiled softly. "Oh, Merry, I will not die for a long time. But I think you weren't really talking to me then." Tears welled up in her own eyes. "My king is dead. My uncle. I stood over his body."
Merry cast his eyes upward in despair. "King Théoden was a father to me for a time. My heart weeps to think of him. Oh Éowyn, his last words were of you! 'Dearer than daughter,' he said to me. But he did not see you. I tried to tell him but he was gone."
"Merry," whispered Éowyn. "You did best. Darling, beloved, blessed Merry. You saved my life. Somehow when I needed aid you were there."
Merry looked down. "I looked at you and just thought you shouldn't die." So desperate, so fair.
Éowyn smiled sleepily and her eyes slowly closed as she drifted into sleep. Merry looked down at the fair Éowyn, whose desperate beauty had been enough to kindle his heart and made him face the evil. That same evil had held him captive in Bree, but now he had overcome it. Merry reached over and gently smoothed her hair back from her brow. He gazed at this lovely woman before him. Bending down, he kissed her pale cheek reverently. He paused for a moment and than placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
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