A/N: Tsk tsk, Faramir's getting really bloody-minded in this chapter. …::shakes head:: I do not own Faramir (oh, how I wish I did!) or Éowyn or Éomer or the Golden Hall or the Valar or Rohan or Helm's Deep or anything you recognize. I do own the hysterical maidservant, Eldred and Éowyn's horse. Profanity warning.

Chapter Four: Fear

Dear Valar, I could not believe I had said that.

She hadn't even looked me in the eye. I must have frightened her. Stupid, stupid, what had possessed me?

I pushed open the door of my room and sat on the bed, staring into nothing. I could still feel her hand in mine, and it had a devastating effect on me. For one moment back there, I had been unable even to breathe. What was happening to me? I knew I loved her, and had since I saw her for the first time, so beautiful and so sad, and yet strong, always strong. But this...

Nothing I had ever known even came close to this kind of obsession. It seemed she did not love my king any more, for which I was extremely grateful. But she didn't seem to look at me any more then she looked at the other men in the Golden Hall, and it was tearing me apart. I had always been second best, and I thought I had accepted that...but with Éowyn, I could not. I would not. I wanted her for my own, and I did not want to be second to any man.

I could not sleep the rest of the night.

In the morning, I cornered Éomer, and told him what Éowyn had told me last night. He looked by turns confused, shocked, and irritated. When I finished speaking, he burst out, "But why didn't she tell me?"

I shook my head. "I thought she was ashamed of how she felt. If I was in her place, that would be my feeling."

"Valar, Faramir, Éowyn has the right to happiness as much as I do!"

"I know, but she doesn't seem to think that. She...I'm not sure what she thinks, but I think she doesn't feel she deserves what she has, let alone what she could have."

Éomer's face grew dark. "I bet it was that bastard Eldred. She used to be in love with him, and he'd flirt with her, and then he went and broke her heart in the worst possible way."

I felt every word like a blow to the stomach. "Who was this?"

"Eldred. He's dead now...died at Helm's Deep."

Damn. That meant I couldn't gut him and hang his privates out to dry. Oh well. "What happened to her?"

"She was very depressed for a while, and then Gríma came, damn him, and made her feel even lower then she did then."

"She's a hero," I said, sternly telling my bloodlust to die. "My people worship her."

"As do my men, but the women think differently. They never say so, not to her face, but the maidservants tell me they gossip about her, saying she's unwomanly, a slut..." He sighed. "I'd put a stop to it but I don't know how."

So would I, Éomer. So I did, in fact...there is no gossip about Éowyn in my country. The people adore her, the men admire her, and the women think she is amazing...oh, if only I could take her to my home! She would get the kind of reverence there that she deserves.

Éomer opened his mouth again, but someone came running up, a maidservant, the anonymous kind that always seem to be hysterical. "My lord, oh my lord!"

"What is it?" The king of Rohan was very obviously irritated. "I'm a bit busy!"

"My lady is gone," the servant sobbed. "Her bed is empty, and her clothes are all there, and her horse is still in the stables...oh, my lord!"

I could feel the blood draining from my face.

Éomer turned to me, and I could see his face was just as white as mine. "She must have been kidnapped," he whispered. "But why...who...Valar, the people worship her! Faramir, who could have taken her?" I only shook my head.

Éowyn, Éowyn, why did you not come in with me? You might still be here... The world was spinning too fast. She was gone...

I heard my own voice speaking. "I'll go after her."

A/N: ::gasps:: My my, could the plot actually have moved on a bit here? This is where opportunities for this plot to go really weird start to spring up…once again, tell me if the plot gets a little too far-fetched for you to swallow.