The next morning, Eowyn had awoken alone. She had guessed that Faramir was down in the stables with his men, making the final preparations for their departure at midday. She made her way down the corridors, looking out of the windows as she did so, towards the dining hall. From the look of the sun's position, she guessed it was not long past dawn, extremely early for Faramir to be up, she mused.
To no surprise, the hall was empty, and she called a servant over to bring her some food. She was starving, as she had not eaten much the night before, all food had been forgotten in their continuous laughter and by the time they remembered it, the remainder of their meals had been stone cold. She sat for a few moments in the silence of the hall, not even footsteps could be heard from servants attending to duties. How she would miss these halls. Of course, she would not be away from them long before she saw them again, but she would miss not walking down the halls every day. She knew that Faramir would never keep her away from Rohan, and that if she wished, he would easily stay with her in Edoras; but his work in Gondor as Steward was important, and she was no longer needed in Rohan. Eomer was a brilliant King, just as courageous and leadenly as Theoden had been.
"Good morning, Lady Eowyn" Came a small voice from the doorway.
Eowyn glanced over her shoulder at Merry, who was walking towards the table. He sat down opposite her, and she noticed that he was already dressed in his riding attire. "Good morning, Esquire of Rohan," He smiled at his former title from the times of war. "I trust you slept well?"
He nodded. "That I did, it is always easy to sleep here. It is such a peaceful place." Silence fell upon the room once again, and after a minute, Merry broke it by raising his head to look at the rafters of the ceiling above them, and then back at Eowyn. "You have many memories here."
"Yes." Eowyn said. "But they are simply that: memories." She sighed, but smiled. "I need to create some new memories, happier ones."
"With Faramir." Merry finished, and Eowyn nodded. "Me and Pippin spoke of you two often on our travels." He told her.
"Oh, really?" Eowyn asked.
"Yes. We are glad that you have found one another." He spoke softly, and Eowyn smiled. "You had both seen so much hurt, felt so much pain, but you healed each other more than the healers could. Even the old healer was amazed at what the pair of you had done for the other." He said with a smirk.
"I must admit," She agreed, "Faramir helped me in ways I never though possible."
Merry glanced over her shoulder at the doorway when the servant set down her breakfast and he smiled, raising his eyebrows seeing Pippin standing there with Faramir, listening to every word. Pippin put a finger to his lips in signal and Merry gave a small nod, unseen by Eowyn.
She did not begin her breakfast yet, but instead carried on her conversation with Merry. "He brings up emotions I have never imagined I could feel, some are such strangers to me that I do not know what they are, but I love them all the same. I have not been this happy since my parents were still here." She said, getting lost in her memories once again.
"Well, it is a good thing that you managed to get together on your own, else me and Pippin would have to step in." Merry threatened, causing Eowyn to laugh out loud.
"I would have liked to see you try and play matchmaker." She said.
"I'll have you know that I've done it before," He said proudly, "And the relationship is still running smoothly."
"Pippin and Diamond?" She asked. Merry nodded. "I would like to meet her, she sounds wonderful, and she must have an extremely good temper to be able to put up with our Pippin longer than we can."
She did not see the look of disbelief on Pippin's face as the pair approached, nor did she see Faramir hold him back. When Pippin looked up at the Steward with the same look on his face, Faramir smiled as if to say 'well, she has a point.' Faramir looked up at Merry and nodded, Merry did not act as though he saw this gesture, and looked around the room, focusing his gaze on a vase of tulips from the gardens.
"I like those tulips." Merry said. "But I prefer the daffodils that Sam grows in the Shire myself."
"We get them occasionally here, if the Gardner decides on them, but I have not seen them for years in these parts." Eowyn said as she followed her friends' gaze.
Faramir pushed his hands forward a little as if to urge Merry on. "What are your favorites lady Eowyn?" He asked her.
"Roses, definitely." Behind her, Faramir grinned and gave Merry a small nod of recognition and thanks. "But to choose between the red and the white would be rather difficult." Faramir thought for a moment, but Pippin elbowed him in the side and raised his eyebrows, assuring him he had a plan.
They stood there silently for a while longer, before Faramir moved forwards and placed his arms around Eowyn's waist. As she jumped to his touch, he kissed her on the cheek from behind. She smiled as she felt his arms tightly around her, settling on her stomach. His hands felt warm; she could feel the heat spreading from his palms through her dress. "Good morning." She said gently.
"Good morning, my love." He answered, giving her another kiss on the cheek.
She sniffed the air and then sighed. "Faramir, my love, my darling husband, I love you very much, but you smell incredibly of horse droppings."
Merry and Pippin burst into laughter and Faramir straightened up, sitting beside Eowyn at the table. "I cannot wonder why..." Pippin said innocently, seating himself next to Pippin. Faramir shot Pippin a disapproving look. Merry, who had been with them before being roped into their plan to find out Eowyn's favorite flower, had seen this also.
"No, Pippin." He said seriously, but Eowyn could see that he was only teasing. "We shouldn't say."
"I guess you're right." Pippin said after much thought. Faramir let out a sigh of relief, however was not prepared for Pippin continuing. "After all, a lady as fair as Eowyn who lives in a land where horses are worshipped would not like to hear how a Steward as distracted as Faramir ended up with the object of the smell on his..." He trailed off, and Faramir had turned a shade of deep pink with a murderous look on his face. "...You know what, I cannot remember what it was?"
Merry took a sharp, exaggerated breath, "Surely you could not have forgotten."
"It has gone from my mind completely."
"But Pip, how can one forget when Faramir starts thinking and sits down on a bundle of hay behind a defecating horse?" Merry asked.
At that moment, both hobbits sprung from their seats and practically flew from the room. Eowyn laughed, never having seen either of them move so quickly in all the time she had known the pair. She turned to Faramir. "Did you-"
"Well, my love, whilst I would like nothing better than to sit here with you and enjoy breakfast, I have two very important things to do before we leave, and one is to hunt down and destroy some hobbits." Faramir countered, avoiding her gave and cutting off her question.
As he left the room Eowyn laughed at the image of what Merry and Pippin had told her. Her thoughts then drifted to Faramir's words. Two very important things...one was the hobbits...the other, well she did not know. She wondered what is was.
After finishing her breakfast, she walked into the courtyard, where she saw Eomer talking with Pippin and Merry. After listening to a few moments of their conversation, she realized that they were simply talking to Eomer to stay away from Faramir. She came and stood beside her brother.
"Good morning, brother." She greeted. "And hello, again," She said to the hobbits, who smiled nervously and looked out of the corner of their eyes over to a pile of crates piled with vegetables.
"Good morning, sister."
Out of curiosity, she followed their gaze, and saw a child standing between the boxes with his eyes and forehead visible over the top one. The boxes and the boy were about fifteen feet away, and Eowyn frowned, wondering what was going on. Eomer saw what she was looking at and smiled before leaning to whisper into her ear: "Look closer, Eowyn."
She looked again, and saw that the boy was older than she first thought, with pale brown hair and piercing blue eyes that were filled with concentration, staring intensely at the hobbits. She looked back to Eomer and frowned, he pointed at the person, and so she turned back. Her eyes widened with laughter as she realized that this waiting hunter was in fact Faramir.
No sooner had she laughed had Merry and Pippin made a bid for freedom and scrambled in the opposite direction. In the ensuing confusion, Faramir pushing himself from the ground and leapt over the boxes, landing only a meter away from the hobbits. With the differences in size, it took him only a few seconds to catch them, and he tackled them down to the ground. The hobbits landed on their fronts on the dust-covered ground, and Faramir sat on their legs, pinning them down to the ground with his weight. All the while, Eowyn and Eomer watched, both of them wondering what they had been married into.
"Well." Faramir said simply. "Now that you are comfortable, how about we have a talk?"
"Faramir, really, don't you think you are overreacting?" Merry reasoned.
"I completely agree with you, Merry. Though it was very funny though!" Pippin piped up.
Eowyn laughed, following Eomer as he sat down on a bucket to the side of the group to watch them. Merry and Pippin reminded the King of Rohan of himself and his cousin Theodred when they were younger; always getting in trouble, and then getting caught, only usually it was Eowyn on the sidelines watching, or her in the position that Faramir was now in.
"It wasn't like we told the horse to do it!" Merry tried to reason. Faramir laughed. "Did we Pippin?"
No answer came from the younger hobbit, who was looking innocently at the ground and no longer squirming.
"Pippin?"
Still no answer, and finally Merry realized. "Pippin!"
"I didn't know that it was going to do its business on his head!" Pippin said defensively. "I just thought that it might…you know…just whip him round the head with his tail."
Merry turned his head as best he could to look at the silent Faramir, "I think that I should be let go." He pleaded.
"Master Merry," Faramir began, "Why do I believe that although Pippin gave the order, the idea in itself was what you two would call 'a team effort'?"
Eowyn couldn't help but wonder how the authoritative Steward had transformed from being the man overcome with paperwork in his study to suddenly wanting to catch up on his missed childhood. There was an added spark in his eyes that she had not seen before, and she knew that she liked it, seeing him enjoy himself.
Merry couldn't find a quick enough defense for this accusation, mainly because he hadn't planned on being caught, nor had he even thought that he might need one seeing as he was unknowing to Pippin's mistake at first. Faramir lowered his head and gulping, the two hobbit's followed his gaze. Their eyes met a large pile of horse droppings and Eowyn, if possible, laughed harder than she had the previous evening during the next ten minutes.
A few hours later, she returned to her room to gather the last of her bags; her saddlebag. As she opened the door, she was met with a sun-filled room, and she saw her bag lying on the table beside her window, beside a large vase of…roses! She rushed over to the vase, and observed the intricate petals of the flowers, all perfect in size and in full bloom. She counted them, eleven white, one red, and could not conceal a tiny laugh. She picked up the parchment lying beside it and instantly recognized Faramir's cursive writing, she read it aloud to herself.
"Eleven white, one red, for the woman who always stands out in the crowds, and the one who always catches my eye. I shall never cease loving you, forever yours, your loving husband."
She leaned down and smelt the precious aroma of the roses, the invisible tendrils of sweet flavor were inhaled and she could not stop her smile. Once again, she found a pair of strong arms weaving around her waist. Closing her eyes, she leaned back against his chest, knowing who it was. "Faramir, my love, we have a slight problem." She told him.
"Whatever is that?" He asked her, relaxing against her.
"Someone seems to have sneaked into my room and left me an embarrassing display of flowers in attempt to woo me, whatever shall I do?" She jested.
"There is only one thing for it, my Lady," He teased, turning her in his arms. "I think that you should turn around and give him the kiss he has wanted to give you all day."
She kissed him passionately, placing her arms around his neck and drawing herself closer to him, no longer atuned to the disgarded smell of horse droppings, which he had apparently washed away. His arms remained at her waist, and as they parted, he leaned their foreheads together. "I love you."
"I love you too."
They smiled and embraced tightly. No more words were said between them for some time, and they remained in the arms of their love for the longest while until a knock on the door interrupted them. They wove apart and Eowyn opened the door. She was not the least bit surprised to see her brother standing there.
"Eowyn, it is nearly midday, the riders from Gondor are ready." Eomer stated, and Faramir joined Eowyn before the King. There was a pain in his eyes, knowing that he was finally letting his sister go, and that many miles would be between them from now on. Faramir recognized this withheld pain, as it mirrored his own eyes when Boromir had first left with the armies and Faramir was left alone with his father.
"I will go and see to the final preparations," Faramir told them, sensing that this was a sibling moment and that he should let them say their goodbyes in private. He took his leave, carrying his saddlebag with him.
Eowyn and Eomer settled in Eowyn's bedroom, sitting side by side on the bed. Eomer looked down at their clasped hands. "I remember when you were but five years old," Eomer began, "And Father asked you what you were going to do when you were a woman, and you told him that you wanted to fight, and to ride, but when all that was through, you wanted to find a man who would let you do that." He laughed quietly. "So young, and you foresaw your future."
Eowyn smiled. "I have not yet fulfilled my future." She whispered. "There is much more to come. More that is to be done."
"Eowyn, if this is what it takes to make you happy, then I shall let you go with a light heart." Eomer said, though there was an uncertainty in his voice. "I hate to feel you are doing this simply to get away from me." He added with a small smile.
She lifted his hands up and held them up between them both. "Brother, you have cared for me for my whole life, even before we lost our mother and father. You should not be burdened with this for your whole life. You need to do this as well, you will take a wife, and you will have a family of your own. Who knows, the next time I visit, we may be celebrating the addition of another to our family." Eomer looked slightly startled and she laughed. "Eomer, I will always be your sister, no matter what, but I am a wife now, and Faramir needs me as much as I need him."
They embraced and then Eomer stood up, offering his hand to Eowyn, who accepted it and walked down the corridors arm in arm with him. When they finally reached the stables where Faramir awaited them, both of them had tears in their eyes, and Faramir watched with a heavy heart as Eomer pulled Eowyn into a tight hug.
"Farewell, sister, may peace surround you." He whispered. "Remember me,"
"How could I forget thee?" She asked in disbelief. "Farewell brother."
He watched as she climbed, unaided, as usual, onto her mare, the mare that was a descendant of their late mother's own mare, this one named Vicana, with all the inner spirit of her new rider. She gave him a teary smile, and Eomer then turned to Faramir, who had mounted his horse and brought it alongside Eowyn's.
"Faramir, look after my sister." He said strongly, "Else I will be forced to hurt you," He joked.
"Do not worry, Eomer, King." Faramir replied smiling. "I assure you that it will be quite the other way around, I am sure that she shall be the one looking after me, seeing as she is faster on horseback and stronger with a blade than I."
They all laughed, and Eowyn found her tears deserting her. She smiled at Eomer. "Goodbye brother."
They called out, and the horses started out of the city. Eomer watched them leave, remaining at his place until the riders appeared nothing more than small patches on the horizon. Instead of shedding tears, like he thought he might do, he smiled for the knowledge that his sister was going where her heart desired her to be, with a man she loved, and loved her in return.
