::disclaimer:: insert standard disclaimer here (i can't think of anything else right now).
Chapter XVI
Éomer did not see Lothíriel again until the next evening at the beginning of the festival. She was indeed escorted by Amrothos, who led his sister as she daintily walked among the crowd of people. She wore a dark red dress with a golden underdress and a green shawl and gold jewelry to accent it (the colors of Rohan, Éomer thought). She was absolutely resplendent as they made their way slowly down the aisle, nodding to the people and greeting those they knew by name. When they arrived at Éomer, he nodded gravely to Amrothos (who wore a cloak and tunic similar to Lothíriel's dress) and took Lothíriel's free hand, kissing it gently. "You look beautiful, my lady," he murmured.
She smiled. "You look beautiful, too." Éomer ducked his head, and she laughed lightly as they continued on their way behind their older siblings and father.
Faramir came behind them. "Master Éomer," he said, nodding, "I hope you will send a few of your fine horses to my own city; I am always in the market for a good war stallion."
Éomer smiled. "But the geldings make better war-horses, milord."
"They do?" Faramir asked, drawing Éomer out of the crowd so they could talk as they walked along.
"Aye," replied Éomer. "At least when we fight the Dunlendings, they are. You see, the Dunlendings ride mares that they steal from our herds and use them to distract the stallions. The soldiers in my éored each have two horses: one a gelding and the other a stallion. It also comes in handy when we are on the move; one horse for riding and the other for carrying our packs."
Faramir nodded and then whispered hurriedly, "The fountain garden after the fourth dance." Éomer gave a slight nod as Faramir spoke loudly again, "Well then, you shall just have to sell me a gelding." They chatted idly as they continued down the aisle until at last they reached the garden set aside for the night's feasting.
And what a sight it was! Tables along the edges of the great space were laden with food and drinks, and blankets and pillows were laid out on the ground for seating. "The blankets are much easier to clear away for the dancing," explained Faramir as they sat.
The last of the royal train entered and seated themselves near the nobility, and then the rest of the crowd came pouring into the expanse. It seemed that nearly everyone from the city had come to the night of feasting, though Amrothos, who sat on the opposite side of Éomer, told him it was not so. "This is only a fraction of the people celebrating," he said. "The others are down in the city, at the docks especially. Because there are so many people that come for the festival, Adar has developed a way to divide the sections of the city so that one portion comes for each banquet during the festival. These are all the people from the northern district, mostly the wine-makers. And what wonderful wines they do make!" He held up his goblet in a toast to all around him.
The meal went by slowly, until everyone had eaten their fill. At last, they all stood, and servants began to clear away the dishes and blankets, though they left the goblets and moved all the pillows to the outskirts of the garden. Musicians around the circle brought out their instruments and began to play a slow tune to open the dancing. "Wintersong," whispered Lothíriel from behind Éomer. "It is about the ending of winter and the beginning of Ethuil, spring, new life," she said as she was led toward the dancefloor by Amrothos. It was a haunting song, obviously sung in Elvish, and it brought chills to Éomer. Had he not known better, he would have sworn that just the singing could bring winter's cold.
As the harpist drew the song to a close, another musician, with a fiddle, began a lively tune. Soon, everyone was on the dancefloor, each doing their own sort of dance. Lothíriel and Amrothos drew Éomer into their circle along with Faramir and two girls from the city, both of which displayed obvious interest in the young prince of Dol Amroth. "This one is simple," said Lothíriel, who was breathless with excitement. "Just follow my lead." She moved into the center of the circle, which quickly grew to include (surprise surprise) more of the village girls as well as Erchirion and Elphir. Lothíriel spun in one direction and the rest followed. Grinning, she changed direction quickly. Then she did a complex motion with her feet that everyone else failed to mimic correctly. This resulted in several people tripping (one of the girls conviently fell upon Amrothos), Éomer included. Lothíriel laughed and quickly moved out of the center of the circle saying, "It's someone else's turn. I need a drink." Her eyes lingered on Éomer as she spoke.
The village girl that had fallen on Amrothos took her place, spinning the group in a wild circle of intricate steps and motions. Several people fell out, and at last Éomer felt it had been long enough that Elphir would not notice if he snuck off to speak to Lothíriel for a moment.
"I was wondering if you'd noticed my request," Lothíriel commented as Éomer poured himself a drink.
"I had to wait for an opportunity to escape without your brothers realizing what I was doing."
"Are you that frightened of them?" Éomer looked up to see humor in her eyes.
"Of them? No. Of what they could do to me? Undoubtedly."
Lothíriel laughed. "They would not kill you. Adar would not let them. You are, after all, an emissary from Rohan."
"I do not fear death at their hands, my lady." Lothíriel looked at him for a moment, as if trying to read the true meaning behind his words, and burst into fresh peals of laughter.
"I must admit," she said, "I would probably worry about that as well if I were in your place."
"There, you see? It is not an inane fear of your brothers that keeps me from...." He trailed off.
"From what?" she asked.
"Nothing," he replied, reddening slightly.
"From what?" she repeated.
"Nothing at all."
"Come now, you must tell us, Éomer." Amrothos clapped a hand on his shoulder. "If it was really nothing, you wouldn't make such a fuss."
"Lady Lothíriel," Éomer spoke across Amrothos, "would you care to dance?"
"I would love to, Marshal Éomer," she answered, taking his hand and allowing him to draw her onto the dancefloor. As they joined the throng of couples for the third dance of the evening, Lothíriel said, "Now what is it that my brothers keep you from? I will not let you leave this evening without telling me."
"Very well, then. They keep me from admitting that you are a most flirtatious young woman who has done nothing but cause me trouble since the day I met her."
"So you do love me!" she exclaimed.
"I never said that."
"Yes you did. You just admitted it. You love me, Éomer darling, and you can't take your hands off me. But you will have to wait for another two songs at least. That is when we agreed to meet, is it not?" Her eyes danced with delight.
"That is when you decided we would meet," corrected Éomer.
"Well, I know that you wanted to meet earlier, but it just wasn't possible. Elphir would have guessed what we were up to. So I will retire after the fifth song, and Amrothos and Faramir are going to take you into the city to Dockside." She smiled up at him. "We have it all worked out. Saeriel is even going to keep Elphir busy, so we only have to worry about Erchirion. And he will probably dance all night with Aranel, so that won't be too much of a problem."
"What about your father?" Despite his resignations, Éomer was being drawn into Lothíriel's extravagant plans as well.
"Adar always leaves after the third or fourth song. He says he's getting too old to stay up all night." She grinned. "You won't have to worry about a thing."
As Lothíriel promised, Imrahil left the evening's festivities after the next song. She left soon after, claiming that she was tired from the dancing. Amrothos and Faramir came over to where Éomer sat near Elphir and Saeriel, saying that he must join them for the Dockside parties. Elphir was invited as well, but Saeriel told him he was not allowed; Alphros was getting cranky, and she wanted to get some sleep. He started to protest that Alphros hadn't made a noise all night, but he suddenly stopped speaking and decided to stay to help with the baby. Éomer reluctantly stood and was quickly ushered away by Faramir and Amrothos.
They led him out of the gardens toward the north gate. Once they were out of sight of the festivities, Amrothos cut across several courtyards until they reached the fountain garden. He glanced around and waved for them to come in. "Lothíriel should be here in a few minutes. Mind that you don't spend too long together; we don't want Erchirion slipping away to check on Lothíriel and discover she is not in her room. We're going to Dockside. We'll be back before sundown to make sure Lothíriel has returned to her room, so if that's where you're going, be out by morning." He grinned. "I'd hate to have to be the one to sound the alarm."
"You don't have to worry about anything like that," Éomer protested.
Faramir raised his eyebrows. "Really? Because Lothíriel looks like she would be willing to do anything." He nodded toward his cousin, who had just wandered into the garden. She had removed her overdress and only wore the gold underdress and green shawl. The dress clung to her every curve, sending a thrill through Éomer.
Amrothos put a hand on Éomer's shoulder. "You behave yourselves, now," he laughed, and the prince and his cousin disappeared into the night.
Éomer watched them and then turned to Lothíriel. She smiled as his gaze landed on her. "You see?" she said, "I told you they would take care of it." She came toward him and wrapped her arms around him. "Kiss me," she whispered.
Éomer was more than happy to comply. He took her head in his hands and slanted it upward, tilting his own down to meet her lips. "You are beautiful," he said.
"You told me that once already," she said, pulling away. Éomer tried to close the space between them, but she resisted, shaking her head. "Not tonight."
"Then why did you ask me here?" he asked huskily.
"To tell you my plans for the rest of the week," she explained. "We can meet here every night if you want, but if we pull the same trick, Elphir will get suspicious. Tomorrow night, everyone in the Quarter, the artisans and musicians, is invited. It is the only night that Adar stays for the entire feast because many of the artisans bring gifts and it takes a long while for them to be presented. He requires that all four of his children attend the entire evening as well, so we will not be able to meet for very long if at all. The night after that is Dockside's turn at the palace. It is the most fun. Adar always retires early; he complains of the noise, though I don't see how his rooms are any quieter. That is the only night that Elphir will not care what you and I do; he will be too preoccuppied with the festivities. The rest of the week, I will be free to go anywhere—those are the nights I usually spend in Dockside or at Saberman's. We can meet here or at Saberman's. I'm sure Aela and Erulehton won't mind." She grinned. "What do you say to that?"
"It sounds like a plan," he answered.
"Good." She looked at the moon, which was beginning to set. "It's getting late, I should really leave." She turned to go, but Éomer grabbed her arm.
"Not without a good-night kiss," he whispered.
Her smile widened. "I could not refuse that request." She leaned forward, planting her lips firmly on Éomer's. He deepened the kiss, and she melted against him, pressing her body against him. His breath caught, but she pulled away. "I must go," she said, and she was gone, leaving Éomer standing alone in the garden.
A/N: well, i'm not going to tell you what's coming up, because lothiriel summarized it best. what i will tell you is that eomer is starting to lose his innocence. and i'm enjoying every minute of it (i hope you all are, too). and, since i got several reviews for chapter 14 after i posted 15, i'm going to put replies for both up.
Replies:
blue eyes at night: somehow, i skipped over you when i was writing my replies last chapter. sorry...but yeah, lothiriel's far from innocent. and never fear, a nice, lemony speech will come eventually.
lometari: thankies for the review! i'm glad you're liking it!
lirima tindomiel: glad you liked the confession! thanks for the review!
lady hades: i threw it a hundred miles? all right! i didn't know i was that good. yeah, erulehton adds to the over-protectiveness, but they'd be over-protective anyways (except amrothos—he likes erulehton as well as eomer). hope you like these chappies as much as chapter 14!
lady anck-su-namun: the only reason these chapters have been so quick is because of an extended weekend. we had thursday and friday off and get tomorrow (tuesday) off as well. erulehton and eomer could probably start up lovers of lothiriel anonymous (lla) as a support group for men who have loved/been loved by lothiriel (and beaten up by her brothers). and foreshadowing? ::looks innocent:: whatever gave you that idea?
soccer-bitch: thankies, as always!
pretty-foot: i'm glad you appreciated faramir's inclusion. lothiriel is strong, how could she not be? after all, she survived the war without knowing what would happen to eomer.
eokat: thankies muchly!
hotdogfish: yes, it is important not to get caught (hinthint).
c'est magnifique: lol..hope you get to review this one. thanks for the review!
everyone who reads but doesn't review: thanks for reading, even if you don't get a chance to review!