Kindle My Heart

Lea of Mirkwood

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Merry smiled cheerfully, like he hadn't done for a long time. "So, my lady, are you ready to get up?"

Éowyn lifted her head briefly to give the Brandybuck a skeptical look. "Stand?"

"Stand. Look, I am just about the right height for an arm rest or a crutch!" he said, spinning slowly around to demonstrate. Éowyn sighed and propped herself up on her elbow. "All right, all right. But I worry I may be too heavy, and too weak to support myself."

Merry smiled again. "My lady, I am sure you are as light as a feather."

He sat down on the mattress next to her and looked down expectantly. She sighed again and held out her left arm.

"All right, Master Meriadoc. Help me up, then."

Merry did, and Éowyn was as surprised as he at how easily he helped her out and up. They smiled at each other, and Éowyn took a shaky step. A broad smile spread over her face as she realized she had done it.

"I did it!" she cried joyously. "I did it!"

Merry laughed at her amazement, almost childlike in its wonder. As they took a few more shaky steps he looked up at her face. Her brow creased in concentration, and her grey eyes narrowed as she took her careful steps. His gaze inadvertently strayed to her lips and he wondered fleetingly what it would be like to have her kiss him back. He shook his head, trying to stop himself from thinking that.

"You get stronger every day, my lady Éowyn," said Merry with a smile, a secret smile, because he was still thinking what he shouldn't be. Éowyn kissed the top of his head and didn't notice how his cheeks turned a deep shade of red.

"It's thanks to you, my dear Merry. You have kept me happy, and I am healing faster. I think I am almost healed now!"

She tottered unexpectedly, and Merry wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from using the table as an impromptu bed. The hobbit laughed out loud as Éowyn glared at him.

"I suppose, my lady, you're not so healed."

Éowyn scowled at Merry, irritated at having one of her shortcomings pointed out to her by someone who only came up to her chest in height. "Silence, Merry!"

Merry lifted his shoulders in a careless shrug, then blinked up at her and frowned. "Don't scowl. Gives you jowls, not attractive." *

The White Lady of Rohan obligingly put her hands to her face and pulled the sides of her mouth up in a fake smile. "Better?"

"No."

"Oh."

Merry helped Éowyn sit down in a chair near the door, then walked over to the wooden door, which was open a crack. He peered out, checking for people in the hallway. He looked back over at Éowyn, who was trying to braid her hair with one hand to keep it out of her face. "Do you think we can sneak past the healers and go into the garden?"

Éowyn looked up at Merry, her face lighting up at this suggestion. "Really? There is no one in the halls?"

Merry checked once more to be sure. "Perhaps a fly or two, but nothing to raise the alarm."

Éowyn nodded emphatically. "Yes, that would be wonderful. Let's try to make it to the garden."

Merry helped her to her feet again, and then after a few frustrated sighs and archaic swearing at the impossibly heavy door whacking their backsides, they were in the hall. Éowyn straightened her back and sighed in contentment.

"Feel that, Merry."

He looked up at her, but she was looking down the hall to the door leading to the gardens, the breeze ruffling the slight wisps of hair framing her face.

"Feel what?"

"Freedom."

Merry smiled. "I feel it, and I can smell the flowers, too. Let's go to them."

Éowyn nodded, and took hold of Merry's shoulder again, using him for support as they slowly made their way down the hall. Finally they were at the door to the garden. Merry swung it open and they stepped outside into the garden. Éowyn sighed sadly and her shoulders slumped. Merry looked up in concern.

"What is it, Éowyn?" he asked worriedly. "What's wrong?"

The shieldmaiden shook her head. "I had forgotten..." She trailed off, then spoke again. "The sky darkened, and no more sun to be seen."

Merry realized suddenly that he had grown used to the endless night, and the coldness it brought to Gondor. Éowyn had been in her room, with torches and candles to light the room to a near-normal brightness, but here there was not even a moon, just a vast expanse of clouds passing over. The flowers were duller in the dark, and not as lovely. Merry silently led her to one of the stone benches under a lattice of rose vines.

"It is not so lovely as it would be in the light, Éowyn," said Merry softly. "But when the sun comes out again they will be even more beautiful than before, because we will have missed them so much. And they are pretty yet."

He reached over to a bush and picked a white flower from the branch and squinted at it. "This is a flower they never had in the Shire," he said absently. Éowyn lifted it from his fingers and looked at it closely.

"It's called a white star in the language of the Rohirrim," she said, and spoke a lyrical word in her native tongue that Merry would remember the rest of his life. "I do not know what they call it in Gondor." She handed the blossom back to Merry, who set it on the bench next to him. Éowyn reached back with her left arm and tried to pull her hair back again, using her bandaged right arm to try and keep her flaxen hair out of her eyes. The wind overhead made soft noises at them, but they weren't evil sounds this time, only mischievous noises.**

"Here," said Merry. "I have a lot of girl cousins, and I can braid hair." He took the ribbon from Éowyn's hand and had her turn away from him. He deftly divided her hair into three bunches and expertly began to plait her long hair. "I remember my cousin Pippin's sisters, especially Pearl, used to get their hair tangled up in the rope swing they kept in the tree. Pippin, who was much younger than her, would come screaming to me that Pearl had gotten her hair tangled again." Merry laughed. "She learned, after a while, to braid her hair before going on the swing."

Éowyn laughed, imagining a much smaller Merry untangling his cousin's hair from a rope. "You sound like you had a happy childhood."

"I did," reflected Merry. "The Shire is a wonderful place. You should visit there sometime. I'll show you everything."

"I would love to."

"There!" said Merry, tying the ribbon around Éowyn's hair. "Braided." He picked up the white star flower and tucked it in her hair over her ear. She smiled at him, reaching back to touch the braid.

"Thank you, Merry," she said with a smile, and kissed him on the cheek.

From a window further up in the Houses of Healing, the young Steward of Gondor looked down at the two in the garden with soft grey eyes.

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* - Becky. I couldn't resist using that little expression, it was just too perfect. (Everyone, go read Zeech's fanfiction!!!)

** - In the very end of the movie Forces of Nature, with Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck, there's a scene between Ben Affleck and Maura Tierney that has the same kind of feel as I was trying to get in this scene, a sort of dreamlike darkness, with a cool breeze.

To shirebound: You will notice the change in summary? Thanks for the suggestion, and thank you for the review. Your stories are wonderful.

Look soon for four new fics!!! Two Arwen/Aragorn companion pieces based on the appendices, a simple fluff type romance (testing the waters...) with an Elf OC and Legolas (no following on quest, no real sueishness, just fluff inspired by sappy books) and a fanfic with an unusual OC set in Rohan.

Come on, click the review button. When no one reviews, I am afraid no one is reading!

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