*Chapter Five.*

Grima

I had spent most of the day asleep it seems. Two maids had come and helped me wash in the morning. I have felt so weary, the wizard's spell had stopped the hurting but the pain of memories had come back. Arwen had come and sat with, reading from one of the old favourites from the library and I had been lulled by her soft voice. Aragorn is a lucky man.

A soft sound and a light weight sat on my bed at dusk; twilight was coming earlier now. I opened my eyes, expecting the fair elf. To my great surprise, I found Eowyn with a soft smile that never reached her eyes. There was some amusement there but none for my benefit. Here was someone who dearly hated me and I was afraid. I had once loved this woman and that love had been my undoing, and my past actions seem about to be re-paid with interest.

A tray was laid across me with the evening meal on it. The heat seared through the sheet, hurting my legs. I did not dare to move. Her voice was low and calm.

"Did Saruman follow you constantly snake? Did he pour poisoned words into your ear at every turn? Haunt you from the shadows to make you fearful of the dark?"

"I did not know that I made you frightened..." I panted up at her. Images were clouding my mind and her fingernails digging into my arms brought me back.

"Fear was not my intent, my lady!" I was begging now but it made no difference.

"I was never your lady! Never! How could you think that you worm? When my brother comes to his senses he will abandon you like you abandoned us. Do you think people have forgotten what you did? You cringe there with your scars and strangers pity you but we know different." Such scorn, such bitter bile from her...

I made the mistake of glancing away and her hand locked around my jaw and forced me back. "Your tears should scald you Wormtongue, you spared no pity when you galloped to Saruman. You should have begged for forgiveness and yet you ran like the coward you are. You could not fight to help defend us. I fought, Worm. Now I have turned to healing but I will not heal you. What was your reward Grima? What did you get when you could not stare after me?"

My reward?

The nights in the dungeons of the Tower, the spiteful leering idiotic orcs, Saruman's frustration taken out on his failed spy. I had done it all for her and she hated me for it. No one wanted me, no one liked me, I was a liar, and thief and Rohan's losses made me a murderer. I would die unloved and as unwanted as when I was born. What did I get? A queue of creatures ready to hurt me; the orc pounding into me as Saruman grinned and waited his turn.

I fall out of the bed and crawl away from her as she backs away, she did not expect this, it seems. But as I wrap my arms around myself and rock she drifts away, it all drifts away and I know nothing.

I could not see, I could not speak and when I finally came to my senses I was on the floor in the corner. My legs were red from the heat and a fan of blue bruises lay on each arm with four red crescents behind them. I crawled to my king's door but he was not there. Despair overtook me and I knelt with my forehead pressed against the stone Eomer

It was late when I returned to my room, pausing to wash before noticing a heap on the floor.

No. No, no no! Why had he crawled here? He was supposed to rest, be peaceful. I turn him over and his arms are tacky, sticky with something and in the gloom I see the dark brown of blood. There are painful flaps gouged out of his skin, red half moons caused by...

Eowyn.

Her smile was one of revenge.

I will not forgive this.

His eyes will not even focus on mine, they roll back. I lay him on my bed. There are angry red patches on his legs and a glance into his room confirms that the food was split over him at some point, the sheets are stained with it. I clean his arms as best I can. He is so silent, so still! I am not handling anything living here. His condition frightens me.

"Grima, speak! Tell me."

He merely looks at me, lost. I go to pick him up to place him back in his own bed and he grips me, staring back at me. I give in and place him in mine, kick off my shoes and slide in next to him. I do not sleep that night but he does. His dreams are bad and I curse my sister.

I rise and leave him in bed, asking the guard in the corridor to summon the maidens to clear his room. I find Arwen in the corridor, going toward his room and I direct her to mine.

" I knew something had happened," was all she would say and leaning over him, she murmured a few words of Elvish whilst holding his arms. I had forgotten that she had descended from a great line of healers. If anyone could help him, she could.

I had other things to attend to. The ride out and the organising of rations to sort. And Eowyn. How can I stand to ride out with her? How can I leave him?