AUTHOR'S NOTE: After some of the comments I received on the first chapter, I think I should clear the issue about the names up. The elf's name, Gandelon, is Sindarin. The human names – with the exception of Jane, whose name I got from the song – are taken from Old English, which is also how Tolkien named his human characters. I am having to find the Old English names online, so I am always open to any suggestions as to sites where I could find human names. Thank you to all who have reviewed, and I hope you enjoy this next segment!

Of Marriageable Age:

"Where have you been?" The question hit Jane like a slap in the face as soon as she stepped through the door.

"You know well where I was," she replied, brushing off the question as she had learned to brush off the majority of what her sisters said. It was somewhat of a survival tactic after the years of verbal assaults from them.

"We know well where you should have been," Hilda corrected imperiously. "You came from the woods, not from the path as you should have." Jane would have been perfectly content to go on ignoring her had Blythe not moved her willowy form to block Jane's access to the stairs. Jane sighed in frustration.

"I took a shortcut through the woods, if you must know. Now please let me by, as I have better things to do than stand in the foyer all afternoon."

"Oh, she has 'better things to do'," Blythe snickered to Hilda over Jane's head. "Such as? Go to a gathering? Go for an afternoon ride with an interested male?"

"How easily you forget, Blythe!" Hilda scolded her younger sister mockingly. "Our dear eldest sibling has no male friends!" For a fleeting moment, before her ire was staunched, Jane was sorely tempted to tell them of her meeting with the handsome man in the woods, but some unknown force stayed her tongue.

"I have no need of them," she replied before brushing past Blythe.

Jane hurriedly retreated to her room and closed the door behind her, fixing the latch snugly to keep out any unwanted guests. She moved over to her mirror and frowned at her reflection as she began picking the bits of leaves and twigs out of her hair from her flight through the trees. Unlike her sisters, who had requested full-length mirrors, Jane's was only large enough to show her straight brown hair and plain brown eyes. She saw no need to remind herself of her lacking height and several extra pounds on a daily basis, so she had asked for the smaller mirror with the impossibly intricate silver patterns around the edge. It had been a gift from Wynn, though she had never told Jane where she got such fine craftsmanship.

As soon as she had combed the last of the debris out of her hair, there was a knock at her door. Jane sighed, knowing that it was likely one of her sisters, but propriety prompted to open the door anyway. Instead, it was one of her father's servants.

"Lady Jane, your father requests your presence immediately in the library." Jane nodded her understanding and followed the man to the designated meeting place.

As the servant opened the large double doors to the library, Jane could not help but smile at the smell of old leather-bound books and long-burning candles that wafted out at her. When she was younger, she thought that the unique smell of the library was the smell of knowledge.

Her father was seated at the desk he kept in the corner. He had his own office, but often preferred to work in the library, where he could take a break to read from one of the numerous volumes he had collected over the years.

"Father?" Jane said, stepping into the room. Duke Aldfrid, her father, had never shown Jane the hostility she had experienced from her sisters and even her mother before her death. He had always been a loving and supportive, if not somewhat idealistic, father to her. He looked up from his work with a warm smile as she arrived.

"Jane," he greeted her with a smile. "How are you today? Well I should hope?" Jane smiled.

"I am well, though still grieving Wynn's passing, as should be expected." Her father nodded in acceptance, though he had never quite approved of her closeness with the servant. He pursed his lips, glancing up at Jane in a moment of silence. He knew that she was quite plain, nowhere near as beautiful as her sisters, but she had the best nature and the fastest wit of any of his daughters, and he loved her dearly. When she was younger, and still small enough to do such things, he had always looked forward to the days when he could set aside his work for an hour or two so that Jane could curl up in his lap while they read together. She had always had the longing to read, while her sisters would doze off before completing a full page.

He glanced back up at Jane, who was looking at him curiously, wondering at his strange silence, and immediately blocked out those memories, as they would make what he was about to do more difficult than it already would be.

"Jane," he began, "I have been thinking of you of late; of your future." Jane paled and sank down in a nearby chair as he began, as she knew where this could very well lead, but she remained silent. "I know that you have not had as many suitors as your sisters-"

"I have had none, Father," Jane interjected quietly. He sighed and continued.

"Nonetheless, you are of marriageable age, and I do not wish for you to be alone all your life." He leaned forward earnestly. "Jane, I can only hope that you do not believe that I wish to rid myself of you by marrying you to any available man. I love you, and because of this I wish for you to have a full life, with a good husband and a family of your own."

"I would be content living here with you until the end of my days," Jane protested.

"You say so now, but what will happen when I am gone and you are left to run the household alone? I cannot live with the thought of you being here alone with no one to care for you, Jane." He sat up straight and took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he was about to declare. "Despite the fact that you have had no suitors as of yet, I know that you are an agreeable and intelligent girl that any man would be proud to have as his wife. I feel that perhaps the reason you have not had any suitors is that you have always remained in the shadows, while your younger sisters have been out in society and are quite well known among the people. Therefore, I will make it known that because you are my eldest daughter, and because you and your future husband will be my sole heirs, you must wed before either of your sisters may do so." Jane shot up form her chair before she could restrain herself.

"But Father! Hilda has many suitors, and one young man may ask for Blythe's hand at any moment! It may be a year or more before I can find a suitable husband-" she had to work to force the words out of her mouth, "-but they will wish to marry much sooner than that!"

Duke Aldfrid pursed his lips, as he was wont to do when standing firm in a judgment he had made, be it for his daughters or workers, and shook his head. "That does not matter. An announcement such as this will draw attention to you, and you will be happily wed before you know it." He smiled at the last statement as if it were something to look forward to before going back to his work, effectively dismissing his eldest daughter.

Jane turned and walked slowly from the room, managing to keep her calm façade until she had shut the doors behind her, at which point in time she hurried to a side door, not wishing to draw any more attention to herself than necessary. As soon as she was outside she broke into a run, heading for the second time that day for the tree which forever offered her comfort.

This time when she reached the tree, she did not cry over her fate, but sat staring down at her hands for several moments before she began singing, as she often did to calm her nerves.

A Bereth thar Ennui Aeair!
Calad ammen i reniar
Mi 'aladhremmin ennorath.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel
I chin a thûl lín míriel...

Jane had never been quite sure what the words to the song meant; it was one of the many songs of the same beautiful tongue that Wynn had taught her. The haunting melody was often all it took to calm her when she was troubled, but now even singing could not relieve her from the thoughts flying through her mind. She had always expected that she would someday marry, but it had always seemed something in the distant future; now it seemed incredibly close and out of her control.

What if she had to marry an older man? A younger one? What if he was cruel? What if he lived in the city, where she could never see the open sky or run under the trees again?

Despite the fact that it was near dusk and she knew that her father often chastised her for staying out in the dark, Jane could not bring herself to go home to face what she knew would be a terrible wrath from her sisters, so she wandered through the forest which she felt she knew as well as the back of her own hand.

(song verses)

The duke's second daughter was ravishing fair
Bright blue were her eyes and bright gold was her hair
The duke's youngest daughter, with eyes like the sky
And hair like night shadows made courtiers sigh
But the duke's eldest daughter, a maiden called Jane
Brown haired and brown eyed was decidedly plain

No suitor had she, not a soul sought her hand
Although she must wed first, by her father's command
And nobody knew nor would care if were told
That plain little Jane had a voice of pure gold
Since no one would miss her at night on her own
Through evening dark forest she'd wander alone

A/N: At the end of every chapter, if I cover any actual song verses I will place them at the end of the chapter, as I did with the first two verses above. The song Jane sang was one the elves sang of Elbereth, . The translation is:

O Queen beyond the Western Seas!
O light to us that wander
Amid the tree-woven lands of Middle-earth.
O Elbereth Star-kindler
Your eyes and breath are like shining jewels...

I hope you enjoyed this and will continue to read!