**Authors Notes: This chapter is a little short, but I still have about 4 more chapters that I can upload after this one.**



***********Chapter 11**********

Faramir finishes getting his horse ready and then leads it out of the stables to the carriage he saw Eowyn in. He smiles at her, nodding politely as he notices the handmaiden with her. He ties his horse to the back of the cart and then climbs up into it, taking a seat. He then says loud enough for a passing Eomer to hear, "Doesn't trust you much does he, Eowyn?" He grins as he hears the horse stop behind him. "What with having to give you a chaperone." He waits until he hears Eomer clear his throat then he turns and looks at the man, a surprised but pleasant smile on his face. "Oh my apologies, Lord Eomer. I did not see you there. I must say, you are keeping quite an eye on your sister. No need to though, as even with just the two of us in here and the side curtains drawn down, I would be nothing more than a gentleman. As I was always taught to respect women. Did you not know of this?" He smiles innocently, watching Eomer's face go red. He keeps a straight face though as Eomer spurs his horse to trot away, obviously angry. He looks back at Eowyn and holds up his hand. "I was only jesting with him, Eowyn. Getting him back for before." He settles back and crosses his arms over his chest, pulling his cloak further around himself.


Eowyn settles back against the pillows and blankets that made a nice place to recline for the ride, shaking her head at him. "You are terrible sometimes, Faramir." She reaches over and lays her hand on his knee, a perfectly proper thing to do, though the motion of her thumb makes it a lot less proper but only he knew of that. She was still basking in his words of earlier this morning and she didn't think that anything could take the smile off her face. "Will I get the pleasure of reading to you this afternoon? Or will you be reading to me again, Lord Faramir." Out of sight of Monica, her thumb was leaving little circles on the inside of his knee. She could not believe she was being so bold as to touch him in such a way, but she blamed it on this morning. You can not just profess your undying love to one another and have it all go back to normal. No, she was completely hooked on this man and she would let him know, in little ways, from this day on. "And you still didn't finish telling me what it was that I had to say to you so that I may forget my anger of yesterday with you." She had lost that anger this morning as well. It was amazing what love could do to someone and their likeliness to forgive another.


Faramir smiles and moves to sit beside her, saying it would be easier for them to read the book if he was sitting beside her. "Well, what I meant was, if there is something you want me to do so that you may forgive me, then I shall do it." He smiles innocently at her, hearing Gandalf's amused little laugh as he passes the cart. He looks at the old wizard and smiles again, then he looks back at Eowyn. "As for your brother, I am only trying to show him his fears are not warranted. About me anyway." He looks at the handmaiden who was watching them. Ah if only she weren't there.

She looks at him shyly, lowering her voice so that only he could hear. "About you? Does that mean he should have fears about me?" She moves slightly, nestled now against the pillows and slightly his side as well as she holds her hand out to him. "I do not know what I want you to do, as of yet, to make up for your actions yesterday morning. I asked my brother why it was he insisted I go. Now I ask you, now that you seem awake and in your right mind, why you did that to me?" She keeps her hand out, waiting for his book as she locks her eyes with his, never once looking away.


He smiles at her, handing the book to her. "Because I lo...." He gives her handmaiden a look and then looks back at Eowyn. He wasn't sure if he should say it out loud with others present just yet. So he smiles and shows her where they had left off in the book. "Because like your brother I care for your well being and did not wish to see you come to harm." He hoped that was enough for now. Later he would tell her the whole truth.

She notices his hesitation, so she lets it go, leaning back more against him, not caring what her brother said, since they were out in the open. She can feel the cart start and knows that the next leg of the journey was underway. She also knew that her brother may be up front, but he would come back from time to time. So she remains close to Faramir, yet not as if to look like she is. She doesn't know if it is her heightened senses or what, but she was certain that his chest was hot and burning a mark against the back of her arm where it touched him. She starts to read the book from where he last left off, the words easily coming to her tongue, giving it an almost musical quality the way she speaks it. That was because she had learned his language first as a child through song. Then as she learned more that musical quality to her words remained, a unique accent all in it's own.


He smiles and leans back, listening to her voice as she reads from the book. She had such a beautiful voice. And the way she read....ah he would have to ask her to read for him more often. He leans his head back against the side of the cart and closes his eyes, listening to her and picturing what she was saying in his mind. He opens his eyes when she stops reading. "What?" She was watching him.

She glances at him as he leans his head against the side of the cart, but she keeps reading. However, after awhile, she looks again at him and pauses, a smile still on her face. "I thought that maybe you had fallen asleep. You look so peaceful resting there." She reaches out and is about ready to caress his face when she realizes they are being watched and instead she drops her hand to her lap. "Would you like me to go on?"

Faramir smiles at her, wishing she had caressed his cheek as she had wanted to. Curse her brother. He would have to find some way to keep them apart. Even this close together. But he could not blame Eomer for his feelings. He would most likely have done the same for his sister. "Please. You have a beautiful voice, Eowyn. I would enjoy listening to it again." He gasps as he hears Eomer's voice beside the cart, telling Eowyn to ask Faramir to sing to her. He sends a confused look at Eomer, who just laughs and rides up ahead to Gandalf again. He sees Gandalf lean over and say something to the young king and then they both laugh. He sighs and shakes his head, smiling as he looks at Eowyn. "Seems Gandalf took the liberty to tell your brother about my past as well." It wasn't that he didn't want to sing for her, it was that he would rather sing for just her, and not everyone else around.

She raises a brow at that, looking to her brother and then Gandalf. She didn't like that he was laughing, nor the comment about having Faramir sing to her. She looks at him, confusion obvious on her face. "Faramir, what is he talking about? Do you sing?" She closes the book, but leaves her finger in it incase she was to start reading again. "Would you like to sing for me?" She notices his uncomfortable look around and opens the book, turning around again to lean back against his chest a little more then she had been before, trying to make it seem as if it were nothing. "I can read some more, if you would rather sing to me later." She says the last softly, because if he could sing, she did indeed want him to sing to her later.

"It's not that I do not wish to sing to you, Eowyn. It's just that what I would sing to you would be for you only. But yes, I can sing. I can also play many instruments, as well as draw, paint, and write poetry." He looks at her slowly. "And I can read and write almost every language. I am sorry. I am probably boring you. It was just my mother and father insisted when I was young and stuck in bed that I do something other than sleep." He smiles and leans back. "It was when I was sick that Father would sit with me and help me with my lessons." His father hadn't always been mean to him. But it was a very rare occurrence when his father would treat him with love. So those were his most dear memories.


She looks over her shoulder at him, smiling tenderly. "Do not worry about it, Faramir. You can sing to me later. When we are alone. So that it is a much more... private event. Not something so public that my brother can try to make a spectacle about. I would not put you in that position, you know that. It is not in my nature to publicly cause anyone to be embarrassed." She does caresses his cheek this time as she reaches up, but only for the briefest of touch before she pulls her hand away quickly as if burnt. "Let me read to you some more. We still have some time before we will stop for the evening. And your coloring is improving so much, I only want you to relax. I am a little hot, but I think it is only a minor cold. Now relax, all is well." She turns away again, settling back against him and starting to read again. While she reads she gets lost in the words, lost in the locations and events. But she doesn't forget that which he tells her. She files that information away for another time. Later, when they were alone, she would ask him about it. If she could get him alone that is.


He gets a concerned look on his face as he reaches up to touch her forehead. "You are hot. Would you rather I read to you? Then you can use me as a pillow and rest a little?" He glances at the handmaiden, watching her for a moment. She kept watching them, but she had yet to keep them away from each other. So he tries something. He casually puts his arm around Eowyn, not watching the handmaiden anymore, though he was listening to her.

She was getting tired and she really would just like to lean against him and close her eyes for awhile, but she was also worried about him. She had known that she was sick when she got up, she just hadn't really let anyone in on it until now. And she had tried to do it in such a way as to not worry him. However, it hadn't worked, so as she feels his arm go around her she relents. "Yes," she says softly, placing the piece of embroidery she had been using to mark the pages with in the book and handing it over to him. "If you are up to it. Only if you are up to it. If you are still not well, we can always just listen to the birds and the men." She glances at him, her eyes slightly glazed from the bug she had caught. She notices Monica glancing away as if to pointedly not notice his arm and she can't help but smile. She would have to thank her later.


He smiles and takes the book. "You rest then. I will read to you, then if I become tired we can then listen to the birds and men." He keeps his arm around her and then opens the book again and starts to read. It is a while later before he starts to yawn, feeling tired again. He looks down at Eowyn, who had thankfully fallen asleep. So he marks the page where he left off and then closes the book and sets it down beside him. He then puts his other arm around her and smiles, holding her close as he pulls a nearby blanket over the two of them. He then closes his eyes and starts to fall asleep.

She starts to fall asleep, his arm around her comforting, his voice soothing, she moves so that she is now leaning back against him, making sure that there aren't any covers on her to get her hot, and soon she is soothed into a deep sleep. She doesn't notice when he stops reading, nor when he pulls the blankets around her, but she does feel his arms both go around her and it half wakes her. She mumbles something that sounds like Eomer, a slightly worried tone to her voice, but she is too tired and too sick to go any further then that. They were bordering on impropriety merely from the fact that he was holding her like he was, the blanket around them both making it even worse. Their only saving grace was that Monica was right there across from them and the drapes were open on the cart so that anyone could see in. Had it not been for those two facts, she would have been risking soiling her family's honor since she was not married to him or even betrothed. Eomer could still make it hard, she knew that, but she didn't care, because the feeling of his arms around her like that was like heaven to her. She lays her cheek against his shoulder, facing away from him but laying back in his embrace. She starts going back to sleep, though now she was starting to get hot, sweating slightly from the heat of the blanket and the afternoon sun that was beating down on her.