Long time no write, I know, I know. I'm so sorry I've kept you all waiting a week for the next chapter and I'm very sorry. Life was a rollercoaster ride for awhile and now it's settled down. So, I've finally had time to write. I don't know if this chapter is any good, but let me know even though some of you may not like it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Lord of the Rings.

Chapter 7: Banished

Ellethwen pulled her lips away from his and looked up at him with wide eyes. "How can this be?" she asked softly. "There will be severe consequences if I am ever caught in your arms." Boromir sighed and rested his forehead against hers.

"Ellethwen, I know," he said softly and his warm breath danced across her face. "We shall be careful." She pulled her head back and met his eyes when she heard the slight quiver in his voice and she was surprised to see tears filling his soft grey eyes. "I refuse to let him take away another woman I love." He held her face gently and she gave him a small smile and wrapped her hands around his wrists and his thumbs caressed her skin.

"Then you court me in secret?" she asked and he laughed softly and nodded his head.

"I shall court you in secret and when the time is right, I will climb to the highest tower and shout for the entire world to hear that I will take you as my wife." Ellethwen's eyes widened.

"Your . . . your wife?" she asked in a whisper and Boromir smiled as he lowered his hands from her face when he felt the heat flood across her cheeks. "My lord," she said quietly and Boromir shook his head and put his fingers on her lips.

"I wish to hear my name come from your lips," he whispered and lowered his hand. "Please," he said softly.

"B-b-boromir," she stumbled a bit flustered at saying his name without his title before it and he smiled.

"Say it again, without stumbling," he added.

"Boromir," she said more confidently then she felt and his smile grew. "You wish to take me as your wife?" He nodded and she sighed. "It is too soon and it is forbidden," she said in a whisper and he shook his head. "I am not ready and you certainly are not ready."

"In time, Ellethwen, you will see. You will see," he said before he kissed her firmly. Ellethwen sighed and closed her eyes as he pulled her body close to his. She wrapped her arms around him. She forgot his proposal, the doubts she held in the back of her mind, and the worry that rested in the pit of her stomach that Lord Denethor would find out.

Two and a half months passed by slowly for Ellethwen and she had never been happier, until one day while she did Boromir's wash with Ilithya, her world was turned around. "There is talk around the Citadel," Ilithya said and Ellethwen looked at her. "The others are saying you are carrying on a relationship with Lord Boromir." Ellethwen froze in mid stir of the wash. She fought back her nervousness and raised an eyebrow.

"Me Ilithya?" she asked like it was the oddest thing in the world. "You honestly believe that that is true?" Ilithya studied Ellethwen and she had herself composed perfectly.

"No, but Matira has said she has seen you exit Lord Boromir's chamber flushed on several occasions." Ellethwen snorted and laughed quietly.

"I am a chambermaid! Do you not get winded and flushed when you clean Lord Faramir's chamber?" Ellethwen asked as she began stirring the wash once again. Ilithya nodded her head. "Really, Ilithya, you know the messes the Steward's sons can make, especially when they trample around the fields with their men or spend hours in the stables, which you know Lord Boromir does." She sighed dramatically hoping that her acting was as well as she had thought it was. "I know not how many times I must scrub the floors from the items he carries on his boots without a care." Ilithya laughed and nodded her head.

"I figured as much, I figured you would grow into a spinster," she said as she pulled Faramir's wash from the pot. Ellethwen smiled a small smile, her secret was safe for now but she would talk to Boromir later when she brought in his wash.

Boromir sighed as he brushed his horse. Things were progressing with Ellethwen, but he was growing frustrated by the day. His father listened to nothing he told him about wanting more freedom from the court and he insisted that Boromir attended the upcoming Summer festival with Lady Gwendowen. She was the daughter to one of Denethor's advisors and an intolerable woman.

"You brush your horse any more brother and he will be hairless," came Faramir's voice and Boromir stopped and looked to him.

"If I do not figure out what to do about the Summer Festival I will go mad," Boromir said as he sat down the brush on the table and patted his horse before he walked out of the stall. Faramir looked around and leaned close to Boromir.

"What do you plan to do?" Faramir asked and Boromir sighed.

"I have no plan, none, and I wish father would not make me go with Gwendowen and I fear that he wishes to . . . make an arrangement."

"An arrangement you do not want?" Faramir asked and Boromir nodded. Faramir sighed and shook his head. "The arrangement you want will never be and you know it." Boromir looked at Faramir and glared at his brother for the first time since they were small children.

"It will be!" he shouted causing several horses to shuffle in their stalls and some of the stable hands to look at him. Boromir sighed and walked from the stables. He needed to be alone and obviously the only place he would find the peace he sought was not within the Citadel's walls.

Ellethwen sighed as she put away Boromir's wash and put the basket away when she heard the chamber door slammed shut. She jumped and rushed from the bedchamber fearing that Boromir once again had a quarrel with his father. However, she stopped short and bowed her head and curtseyed.

"Where is my son?" Denethor's voice echoed throughout the room. Ellethwen stood and shook her head. She looked in the Steward's direction to see two guards with him and Matira standing behind them with a smirk on her face.

"I know not, my lord," she said quickly cursing the slightly tremble to her voice. "I just came by to bring his wash. He was not in the room when I arrived and nor have I seen him enter."

"So, you are his whore?" he asked as he stepped closer to her and Ellethwen frowned.

"I am no whore," she said defending herself. "I have done nothing wrong."

"Then explain this," he said as one of the guards held up a man's tunic. A tunic Ellethwen recognized as Boromir's.

"It is your son's tunic, my lord," she said her frown only deepening.

"That it is but tell me, why was it found in your chamber?" he asked and Ellethwen shrugged with a shake of her head.

"If it was torn, my lord, I mend them in my room." Denethor sneered and Ellethwen stepped back.

"It would make sense, yes, but it was not found among your sewing but it was found under your bed discarded as if it had been thrown carelessly." Ellethwen frowned. "How dare you force yourself upon my oldest son, and how dare you take him to your bed." Ellethwen shook her head as tears came to her eyes.

"It is a lie, I have never shared my bed with Lord Boromir," she said honestly for they had never done more then kiss. "And I have never shared my bed with any man." Her cheeks were flustered and her words came out stammered because the look that was in the Steward's face showed he believed not one of her words.

"You are banished forthwith from the Kingdom of Gondor," Denethor said slowly. Ellethwen felt her heart sink. "Ride her to the gates; give her a horse and nothing more. Send word that if she is seen that she is to be killed without question." Denethor turned and left the room. One guard nodded and the other grasped her arm firmly and pulled her harshly from the room. Ellethwen let the tears fall from her eyes but did not let one more word of protest fall from her lips for if she did they would only come out as sobs.

After his walk through the levels of the city, Boromir felt much more at peace and he knew he had to apologize to his brother for his burst of anger earlier in the day. He also wished to see Ellethwen for he had not seen her since the night before.

He walked along the corridors finding it eerily quiet, but thought nothing of it. He entered his chamber to wash before he went in search of Faramir and stopped short when he saw the woman from one of the first nights he had talked with Ellethwen, Matira, he believed her name to be.

"Good evening, my lord," she said sweetly as she continued to dust the mantle. He frowned.

"Good evening," he said slowly and moved into his bedchamber. He sighed when there was no water to wash and he walked into the sitting room. "Excuse me, where is Ellethwen?" he asked and the woman turned and looked at him.

"I'm afraid, my lord," she said with a smile, "that it is not my place to tell you." Boromir's frown only deepened and he moved from the room and down the corridor to his brother's chamber. He walked inside and Faramir stood quickly from one of his chairs and sighed.

"Where have you been?" Faramir asked and Boromir walked over to his brother.

"What has happened? Where is Ellethwen?" Boromir asked and Faramir sighed and looked behind Boromir.

"You're whore is banished," came Denethor's voice from behind him and Boromir turned with a frown. "How could you stoop so low as to bed a chambermaid?" Boromir felt his blood boil but he kept his temper in check.

"Ellethwen is no whore," Boromir defended but Denethor just held up his hand and Boromir stopped.

"She seduced you into her bed and you say she is not a whore?" Boromir stiffened and opened his mouth to defend her but Denethor shouted. "Don't! You have no cause to worry for her for she is out of your reach." Boromir wanted to yell and scream at his father, he wanted to run from the Citadel saddle his horse and charge after her, but he knew it was useless for his father would send every guard to stop him. Denethor took a calming breath and smiled at them both. "I will see you both at the evening meal, and I mean both of you." With that Denethor turned away and walked from the room. Boromir sighed and sank onto the sofa.

"She cannot be gone," Boromir whispered and Faramir sighed as he sat down next to his brother.

"You should be thankful he did not kill her," Faramir said and Boromir looked at his brother with tear filled eyes.

"It is just the same," he said quietly and sniffed before he stood. Faramir saw a change in his brother that day. Gone was the man who loved many things and there stood a man whose heart and soul now belonged to the battlefield because no matter his heart's true desire he could not chase it for if he did it would cause his brother a greater grief than the one he would suffer the rest of his life through.

Ellethwen sighed as she urged her horse to the Northwest, towards Edoras in Rohan. She knew it to be a three day ride by studying Boromir's maps. Boromir, more tears came to her eyes as she thought of him. His vision of their future together had been wrong, oh so wrong and now she would be parted from him forever and nothing would change that.

Ellethwen just hoped that the Halls of Theoden would welcome her and possibly have a position where a broken hearted woman could work to keep her mind busy while her heart slowly died.