Technically it is already Saturday - who knows why I'm still up! Might as well post today's chapter really early in case I get busy later on. Enjoy!
Author's Notes are at bottom because they're too long to put them here!
The Heart of the Beholder
Chapter 6
Eomer was as good as his word. The rest of that day and the next, he made it a point to notice her even when they could not spend time together.
The day of their wedding dawned clear and beautiful. Lothiriel was awakened just after dawn by a loud knocking on her door, but when she went to see who was there, the hall was empty. As she closed the door, puzzled, her foot kicked a piece of parchment on the floor and she retrieved it.
Curiously she opened it to discover a note from Eomer, instructing her to meet him outside as soon as possible and to wear something she could ride in. She hesitated only a moment before beginning to quickly dress. She knew the ladies of the court, her family and most everyone else would be appalled at the couple seeing one another, and even slipping away together, on their wedding day, but she didn't really care.
When she arrived at the bottom of the steps up to Meduseld, she found Eomer seated on Firefoot, smiling down at her. He reached down to help her up behind him. Teasingly she asked, "Are there so few horses in Rohan that we must share one?"
He grinned at her over his shoulder. "At least for now, yes!"
She slipped her arms around his waist, and asked with concern, "Are you sure you are up to this so soon?"
"I think so. Besides, I am taking a healer with me in case I have any problems! Who could argue with that?"
"Who indeed! Where are we going?" He had already started down the hill toward the main gate.
"Not too far. I can justify not taking an escort if we stay fairly close to Edoras. If I were at full strength and felt I could properly defend you, it would not matter so much."
She squeezed him tighter and laid her head on his back. "This is a wonderful way to start our special day," she told him, and his eyes lit up with pleasure at her appreciation of his efforts.
He turned Firefoot toward a distant grove of trees that stood alone on the wide plain. Less than two miles from Edoras there was a small spring around which trees had sprung up and flourished over time. When they reached it, Eomer surveyed the area for any dangers before they dismounted and he began unpacking a blanket and food.
As they sat down to their breakfast, she raised an eyebrow at him. "I am amazed."
He narrowed his eyes. "How so?"
"I thought your soldierly instincts ran too deep for you to make such a cursory appraisal of our safety in this location!"
He let out a laugh. "You are right, but I need not be too careful in this instance. Be assured we are protected."
It was her turn to look puzzled and he explained, "Likely you did not notice, but I saw an addition to the guard tower and a lone rider trailed out behind us. No doubt Elfhelm and Eothain, keeping a sharp eye on us – probably at Gamling's request!"
She looked around. "Where is the one that followed us?"
He moved over beside her and turned her head to the left a bit, then pointed. "Follow my arm and sight off to that group of large rocks. He is hidden in there."
She watched, for a few moments, the place he had indicated, then gave up with a laugh. "I will take your word for it. I see nothing!"
He leaned close to her ear and whispered low, "Just do not do anything to embarrass us, my lady!"
As he began nibbling on her earlobe and kissing her neck, she giggled, "Who should be warning who about such things!" All the same, though, she turned and met his lips with her own, and for several minutes they were oblivious to the world around them.
Reluctantly Eomer released her and pulled back with a groan. "So close and yet so far."
"What is?" she asked curiously.
"You! Tonight cannot come soon enough, when I no longer have to force myself to turn away rather than compromise you!"
She just smiled and caught his hand up to her lips. As she watched, his expression sobered and he looked uncertain. "May I ask you something – without your mistaking my meaning?"
She looked at him with a startled countenance. "You may ask and I will try to understand your meaning..."
He thought for a moment, then observed, "When Amrothos suggested moving our wedding to an earlier date, you did not seem too eager. Did you not wish to marry so soon?" He turned away in embarrassment at the question.
Reaching over, she took his chin and turned him back to face her. "I was more than willing to marry you at any time, Eomer. What I did not want to do was make you feel guilty, and that is what I feared would happen if you thought I felt the need to marry sooner because I felt my aiding you had compromised me in some way. I wanted you to know that I was not agreeing to marrying earlier because I felt sullied by my involvement. But I did not want to resist it too much, because I also realized that being your wife would make it easier to care for you by being less embarrassing for you."
His hand came up and he took hers from his cheek, pressing his lips to her palm. "I should have guessed. I did not think about your uneager response at the time, but later I wondered about it."
After a moment of silence between them, she said softly, "Well, I am beginning to regret agreeing to it. You seem to now think you can do with me as you please – such as dragging me out into the middle of nowhere at the crack of dawn, without even giving me anything to eat!"
His expression had clouded at her words until she concluded. He let out a chuckle. "I can be a beast, can I not? By all means, woman, eat!"
He began to unpack the bread, cheese and fruit he had brought for them, and they sat eating, talking and watching the sun rise in the sky. At length, Eomer sighed. "We should be getting back. I am sure I will have many people upset with me for doing this."
"Let them be upset, my lord! I am the only one that matters, and tonight your wife will show you how very upset she was not made by this little outing!"
Eomer's eyes glowed with pleasure at her declaration, and he rose, reaching down to pull her to her feet. Slipping his arms around her waist, he murmured against her mouth, "I look forward to it, my love." And then he kissed her long and tenderly, one last time as his betrothed.
xxxxx
Not unexpectedly, the Golden Hall was in a bit of an uproar when they returned. Lothiriel gave Eomer a wink as each was dragged off in different directions, turning a deaf ear to the chiding they were both receiving.
For Eomer's part, there was little to do but bide his time until the ceremony that evening. Gamling kept him busy most of the day catching up on as much work as possible so that he could have time to spend with his bride later on. Eomer was grateful for the distraction.
Lothiriel was not so fortunate. The ladies of the court all wanted to be involved in preparing the bride for her wedding, and the queen for her crowning. In truth, Lothiriel would have much preferred to be left alone to sleep or read in solitude, but she knew that she must endure their attention.
Luckily for her, an hour before the ceremony was to begin, Eowyn and Arwen put in appearance and dismissed everyone from the room. Lothiriel gave them a grateful smile. "Ah, peace at last! Thank you!" She paused then glanced curiously at Eowyn. "By the way, when do I get to see my dress? How can we be sure it will fit if I have not tried it on in time to make any alterations?"
Eowyn had volunteered to come up with a suitable dress for Lothiriel as the wedding gift from her and Faramir. As Lothiriel did not feel particularly adept in selecting clothing, and she knew Eowyn would know what was appropriate for such an occasion in Rohan, she welcomed the offer. Arwen gave a secretive smile and excused herself, returning a moment later with a large package. She laid it on the bed before stepping over beside Eowyn, and the two women beamed at Lothiriel.
Lothiriel hesitated, not entirely certain what they were up to, but Eowyn was too impatient to wait for her to figure it out or ask questions. "It was my idea, and Faramir drew a sketch and took it to Arwen. She knew which dressmaker in Minas Tirith had made dresses for you, and knew your size and shape. She had it made up there and brought it with her. Open it!"
Though clothes normally didn't engender a great deal of interest on Lothiriel's part, she felt a sudden excitement about this. Quickly she reached for the package and pulled open the ties and wrapping. The dress was a beautiful midnight blue with white trim – the colors of Dol Amroth – but stitched around the skirt was a pattern of running horses, done in a light blue thread so that they stood out. The design was simple but elegant, and Lothiriel was speechless at the beauty of it. She lifted it slowly to her and stood back so the others could see. "What do you think?" she asked them.
Eowyn and Arwen smiled with satisfaction. "Perfect," Arwen told her. "And you will look lovely in it. Come, try it on."
They helped her into the gown and, oddly, Lothiriel found that it made her feel both beautiful and regal. She wasn't sure that she was truly either, but somehow the dress had that effect. "I do believe there is Elven magic woven into this dress!" she told them.
Arwen came forward and smiled gently at her before giving her a hug. "The only Elven magic in it would be to help you see yourself as Eomer sees you."
Eowyn gave a laugh. "Ha! Mark my words, my brother will be utterly speechless when he sees you in this!"
Lothiriel dabbed at the tears trickling from her eyes. "Thank you both so very much. It is a wonderful gift."
"Ah, but this is only Eowyn and Faramir's gift. I was merely the courier for it. My gift will be to fix your hair. Have a seat," Arwen instructed.
The three of them talked and laughed so much for the next half hour that Lothiriel took no real notice of what Arwen was doing with her hair. When she had finished, though, both she and Eowyn stood back to study the overall effect of their efforts. At last Eowyn nodded, "Yes, I think that will do nicely. I cannot wait to see the expression on Eomer's face! We may need to revive the poor man!"
Lothiriel was smiling a little uncertainly at them. She had grown comfortable with her looks and accepted that she was not a beautiful woman. She could not envision her appearance causing such an effect on anyone, no matter the dress she wore or hairstyle she had. Arwen looked closely into her eyes, and seemed to read her thoughts. "Beauty is more than what is seen on the surface. It emanates from within, and today none of your beauty will be concealed."
Lowering her eyes, Lothiriel responded simply, "Thank you."
There was only time for a brief hug among the three of them before a knock came at the door, and they were advised it was time to begin.
They hurried through the last minute tasks before beginning the journey to the Golden Hall. Meanwhile, Faramir had gone to get Eomer, and found him pacing in his study. He watched him quietly from the door a moment, then commented, "You are not nervous, are you?"
Eomer was so lost in thought that he looked up, startled at the question. Then he shrugged and cast Faramir a wry expression. "Perhaps a little. Is not every man on his wedding day?"
Faramir chuckled, and advanced into the room. "Yes, a little. You do not have any doubts, do you?"
Eomer quickly shook his head. "No, not doubts. I just...I just hope she will be happy here with me."
A voice from the doorway responded, "She would not be happy anywhere else, Eomer." Imrahil walked in to join them.
His soon-to-be son-in-law gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you – for that, and for so much more. You have raised your daughter well, my dear friend, and I am honored you would give me the best bloom of your garden. She is an incredible woman."
Imrahil shook his head. "I can only take partial credit for what Lothiriel is. I did my best to raise her well, and I think I was rather successful in that. But I grew only the bud, the potential for beauty. It was not until she met the sunshine of your love that she fully blossomed into the glorious flower she has, and is, become." He caught the younger man in a warm embrace and Eomer blinked rapidly to stay the tears that threatened.
Faramir cleared his throat, and told them, "Though this is truly touching, a lady awaits. Shall we go join her?"
Replies to reviewers:
Jazzcat - "And tell me, are you going to finish that Legomance you mentioned?" Hard to say. I've looked at it once or twice and not been inspired to do more with it, but there are some lovely bits with Eomer in it that I might try to use somewhere else if I don't finish it. (I kind of think they were written because I was starting to notice Eomer more than Legolas...)
At the moment, I've just suddenly started writing a teenage Elfwine story. (Wonder how many Elfwine stories I have to write before ffn puts him on the character list?) I'm not sure what will happen with that. So far it is 6 pages and not close to "done", so I think it will be too long to be one of the Elfwine Chronicles, though I suppose I could have a multichapter one. Will wait til I finish it to decide how I'll use it. (assuming I do finish it, that is)
shie1dmaidenofrohan - and we're very proud of you for forcing yourself to do schoolwork when you'd rather be reading fan fiction! Maybe I should just e-mail you the whole story so you can read it offline!
Thanks for taking the time to write so many reviews and let me know what did and did not work for you in the stories. I know about the switch from first person Lothiriel to third person Eomer was a bit of a problem in No Mistake, but it kind of wanted to be written that way. I revised some of it where it was the most confusing (it happened during dialogue), but decided to leave the rest of it. It only happens a few times, and was meant to pass on information that Lothiriel wouldn't "know" to tell you about.
I wonder if Faramir knows how wonderful he is (at least in my stories)? He is always doing something wonderful; well, except occasionally when he is being sneaky or devious or mischievous - but always in a good way! Take THAT Denethor! SOMEONE appreciates your boy even if you didn't!
Mad-Aniviel - I'm glad I made your day better. Hopefully this chapter helped even more! (though it is another day already...)
And thanks to everyone else who has been following along and taking time to let me know what you think.
