Lisswyn woke, confused, and it took her a moment to remember where she was. A bed. How long had it been since she had slept in a real bed? A comfortable real bed?

The room was dark, but there was a hint of lesser darkness coming through the window. Morning was not far off. Outside the chamber, in the main hall, she could hear signs of life. Meduseld was waking up.

She was on her side, facing out, and recognized the form of her sister curled up against her back, a comforting feeling. Light snoring told her she also shared the bed with Hilde, sleeping on the other side of Brynwyn.

And as her eyes grew accustomed to the shadows, she saw other forms on the floor, on piles of sleeping skins. She had nearly been too tired to process it, but that had been one of the surprises of Meduseld. She'd always heard the house was large, it had just seemed logical that would mean many rooms. But such was not the case – although the structure seemed huge, most of it was the main hall. Betta had told them that that was to provide plenty of room for meetings, celebrations, emergency shelter, and the requirements of daily life in Edoras. At any given time, there was likely to be a combination of people from all walks of life in the hall, doing business, running errands, or simply passing time. In short, Meduseld was very much more than simply the home of the King's household – it was the very heart of the Riddermark, of the Eorlingas.

But that meant that very little of the building was given over to private chambers. Her memory was hazy, but she gathered the King, as appropriate, had a suite of three rooms, including a study, a sitting room, and a bedchamber. His sister was in the next room, which was the queen's room, when there was a queen, and served as either a private sitting room or a bedchamber, presumably depending on the nature of the relationship between the King and Queen. Best not to think of that.

The other side of the hall held three guest chambers and the kitchen, the latter with a small room off it for the cook. She and the other women were currently occupying the guest chambers.

There had also been something about guesthouses – apparently, a number of the buildings around the hall were considered part of Meduseld and served as additional rooms for guests and the household staff. Remembering what the King had said, she suspected they would end up in some of those buildings.

Brynwyn turned, digging an elbow into her back. With a grimace, Lisswyn eased up. There was no point staying in bed any longer. She had slept for hours longer than any of the other women, had collapsed as soon as Betta had shown them their rooms, and would most likely be unable to return to sleep.

She slipped out from under the furs and reached for her dress. She'd slept in her shift, rolled up in the King's cloak. It was silly, and would no doubt seem so should others realize she did it, but the women from the caves would never tell.

Slipping into the dress, she grimaced. Her first task, after finding some breakfast – her stomach was reminding her she'd had no evening meal the night before – would be to see what she could do about a loom and wheel, or bolts of cloth to begin making some new garments for them all. In the caves, it had simply been accepted that none of them had more than one dress, two at the most. It would be humiliating in Edoras.

She frowned, uncertain. How did such things work in Meduseld? Would they just give her the material she needed? She had nothing to trade except her own skills. Uneasily she remembered that the King had not mentioned needing another weaver when he listed the skills he was hoping her people could contribute. What would she do if they didn't need her?

She pushed the thought away, reminded herself that she could farm. She could also possibly serve as an apprentice healer – providing the King never told about her methods of coping with a patient's pain. With a wry smile at the thought, she slipped out of the room and into the main hall.

There was a fire in the central fireplace, and she wandered past it, took a moment to warm herself while trying to figure out where she should go. There were a few people around, but none of them was known to her. Eventually, she remembered Betta pointing out that the kitchen was off to the right of the King's throne.

The throne was currently empty, and she looked away from it as she walked in that direction. She never lost sight of the fact that he was King, of course. But somehow, seeing that chair emphasized, more than anything else ever had, the differences between them.

When she reached the door to what she assumed was the kitchen, she found it locked. Puzzled, she stared at it. Were meals limited to certain times of the day? Maybe, but then how did you know when it was time for food to be served?

Suppressing a sigh, she walked over and sat at one of the tables closest to the door, looked away from the throne.

Suddenly Betta was in front of her. "Oh, it's good to see you up and about. How are you?" The woman settled down on the other side of the table.

Fighting off an unexpected bout of shyness, Lisswyn smiled at her. "I'm fine. I'm sorry I slept the evening away."

Betta shook her head. "Don't apologize, please. One of the riders told us you were recovering from injuries sustained while defending the King. You needed to rest."

Embarrassment rushed into Lisswyn's cheeks, and she shook her head. "It wasn't like that."

The woman cocked her head. "Wasn't it now? There was a fight, was there not?"

"Well, yes, but we weren't defending him. We were just all sort of …fighting together."

Betta shrugged. "The King himself is saying that all of you were responsible for saving him, and that you were gravely injured in the battle."

Lisswyn opened her mouth to explain, then closed it. The look on Betta's face made it clear that Lisswyn could say whatever she wanted, but it wouldn't matter. The King's interpretation was accepted as truth. She could understand that, but it did little to reduce her embarrassment.

Before she could come up with a new direction for the conversation, her stomach grumbled, and she placed her hand over it, gave the other woman a weak smile.

"Oh, my. You must be hungry, and I'm here nagging at you." Betta stood.

"I tried to go into the kitchen, but the door was locked."

A dark scowl passed over the other woman's face. "The cook is good at preparing meals, but is an unreasonable man. He refuses to have anyone he doesn't know in the kitchen. She looked around, frowned. "Tille should be around. Her job is to serve breakfast."

"Ay, Tille!" she called, and then looked back at Lisswyn. "Unless the King or the lady has indicated otherwise, breakfast is usually a simple meal since there tends to be fewer people around. Will that do?"

Lisswyn nodded, thought of the times in the caves when there had been no breakfast. "I do not require much," she said softly.

An alarmed young woman – presumably Tille – rushed up to the table. "I'm sorry, ma'am. Cook had me starting to prep vegetables for tonight's celebration."

Lisswyn looked at her, confused. A celebration? She frowned. She and the other women would be in the way if there were to be a celebration. Perhaps they could relocate to the cottages.

Betta looked at her, must have guessed at the cause of her confusion. "The King has called for a celebration this night, to thank the riders, both from Gondor and the Mark who came to his aid – and your people as well."

Lisswyn stared at her, then looked down at her dress. Oh, dear. Her cheeks heated again. It was starting to feel as if she were going to be permanently embarrassed while at Meduseld.

Betta was speaking to Tille again. "Bring food to break her fast. And hurry – she's had nothing to eat since she arrived!"

The young woman scurried off, and Lisswyn smiled at the housekeeper. "Thank you."

"Most mornings, all you have to do is come to the hall, and Tille will make sure a meal is brought to you. The midday meal is served in a similar fashion, but at the noon hour. The evening meal is more formal, and tends to depend on the King. But anytime you want something, just call for Tille, and she'll be able to help you."

Lisswyn nodded, grateful for the explanation, though it seemed like it would be challenging for the kitchen staff. How did the cook know how many to prepare for if there was never any indication of how many people would be in the hall?

When she looked back up, she was startled to see that Betta was gone. The woman was fast on her feet, and quiet. But perhaps she had to be, to manage the tasks necessary to keep the hall functioning.

Tille suddenly reappeared in front of her and set a tray on the table. Lisswyn looked at it, then looked up at the young woman in astonishment. In addition to a large mug of tea, there were two different kinds of bread, several types of dried meat, three cheeses, a bowl of some sort of porridge, and three apples. It was easily more food than she was used to eating over a three-day period, probably more.

"Is there a problem? Should I fetch something else?" Tille sounded anxious, and Lisswyn had to choke back laughter that she was afraid would come out tinged with hysteria. If the King was used to eating all of this, their offerings of flat bread and chicken stock must have seemed inadequate indeed. "No, no. It's fine. There's just …so much of it."

"Oh." The other woman smiled. "Don't worry. Just leave what you don't want, and someone else will probably wander by and finish it off. Or I'll return in a while and remove it. And call me if you'd like more tea." With that, she darted away, and Lisswyn now realized there was an alcove to the right of the King's dais, apparently to another entrance to the kitchen.

She helped herself to a large slice of bread with some soft cheese spread on it, had to hold back a soft moan of pleasure at the taste. She sipped at the tea, felt the last of the early morning chill leave her body. And all the while, she eyed the apples greedily. She'd eat one of those last. How long had it been since she'd had an apple? The wildmen had burnt their orchards several years earlier, and it had not even occurred to her that there were other places in the Mark where that had not happened.

She closed her eyes, chewed a piece of the dried meat slowly as she sighed in contentment at the thought of Brynwyn and the other children being able to sleep at night – every night – with full stomachs.

Her eyes snapped open as she sensed someone joining her and she had to wipe the dismay off her face at the sight of Eowyn. She had been trying hard not to think of the other woman, or her apparent dislike for her. "My lady." With regret for the loss of the peaceful meal – not to mention the chance to finish it – she got to her feet. There was no point in staying, though, as the King's sister made her so nervous she wouldn't enjoy the rest of the meal anyway. "I was just going to check on Liffild."

"Please don't leave. I'm sure she's fine; there are others with her." Eowyn's voice was soft, and there was a pleading look in her eyes Lisswyn did not understand.

Slowly, she nodded, resumed her seat. Nervously took another drink of tea.

"I would like to apologize to you for what I said yesterday."

At that, Lisswyn's head jerked up in confusion. "You already did."

Eowyn shook her head. "Not really, and you knew it. I apologized for upsetting you, for upsetting all of you. There's a difference." She paused, stared off across the hall. "Eomer asked me last night how I would have felt if King Elessar had tried to reward me after the war."

Lisswyn stifled a sigh of disappointment that this apology, too, was apparently prompted by the King.

"You're wrong."

She looked up in confusion at the words, and flushed at the knowing look in Eowyn's eyes.

"I'm not apologizing because he told me to do so," she said softly. "But because his words helped me to see how wrong I was."

Lisswyn nodded slowly. "Thank you for that."

Eowyn looked away again, then back. "I wish for you to understand what I meant by it. It is true that I said it without thinking of how insulting it would be, but I really meant it only as an expression of gratitude." Shadows came into her eyes, and to her consternation, Lisswyn realized the other woman was near tears.

"We believed he was dead." Eowyn said simply. "A few of his guard arrived back, injured, looking for more riders to go back and help in the hunt, but some had seen him hit by the arrow, even as the orcs separated them from him." Her voice thickened, and Lisswyn's own eyes teared up in response. "We thought it was to be a hunt for his body." Her voice had dropped to a whisper, and she looked away for a long moment, then looked back at Lisswyn.

"Even after Aragorn came through, we had little hope he'd find Eomer alive, only that he would enact revenge on the orcs who'd killed him." Her tone was stronger now. "So when some of the riders arrived with news that he'd been saved by a group of women – women who'd been attacked and suffered in the process – it was an unlooked for miracle, and all I wanted was to find some way to express that to you, to all of you, when we met."

She gave a wry smile. "It is usually my brother who has trouble finding the right words; in this instance, I failed utterly and offended those I was most grateful to."

Lisswyn nodded, tried to find an appropriate response. The comment made sense now, somewhat. "I understand. But we looked for no other reward than knowing that we helped him, helped the Riddermark."

"I should still have understood that." Her eyes were distant, focused on something Eowyn couldn't see. Memories, perhaps.

After a long moment, she looked back, and her voice was sincere as she asked, "Will you forgive me?"

Lisswyn was a little startled that it had even been necessary for the question to be asked. She nodded. "Of course."

Eowyn shook her head. "Given my own reaction to Eomer asking how I would have felt if Aragorn had tried to reward me after the war, there's no 'of course' about it. But I thank you for your graciousness."

They sat in silence for a moment, and Lisswyn wondered what else the King had said to his sister, and then sharply turned away from the line of thought. Again, that was something best left unpondered.

"Now." She looked up at Eowyn's voice. "How are you?"

"Fine." Lisswyn looked at the tray, felt herself blush. "I've just eaten a rather alarming amount of food."

Eowyn laughed. "You are entitled since you missed the meal last night." Then she sobered. "But there are no aftereffects from the walk yesterday?"

The blush deepened. "No. I'm fine."

"I understand that, too, you know." The other woman's voice was quiet again.

Lisswyn looked at her in confusion.

"Why you insisted on walking further than was probably wise, given your recent injury."

Lisswyn shrugged, still embarrassed. "You were right. It was probably foolish of me. But—"

"I would have done the same thing," Eowyn said. "And I did not mean it when I called you a fool – you must know that, or is that something else for which I must apologize?"

Lisswyn actually laughed at the tone of despair in Eowyn's voice. "No, I understood what you meant. At the moment, I was very afraid you were right."

They smiled at each other, and Lisswyn realized how much she was enjoying the other woman. Wistfully, she thought she might have enjoyed being able to call Eowyn a friend…if she herself was not just a weaver, and the other woman of the royal family. But those differences were there, and would no doubt be much more obvious once she and the other women were settled into their new roles in Edoras.

"Now. Tell me of your peoples' needs." Eowyn broke into her thoughts, startling Lisswyn with the command – which was very obviously what it was.

It took a moment for her to organize her thoughts. She glanced down at the tray of uneaten food before looking back up with a half smile. "The main ones are taken care of, just by being here. I had been struggling to figure out how we were going to survive the winter even before the orcs."

"But surely you have other needs as well?"

"Is there a healer or midwife available? I would like someone to check on Liffild and her babe." Lisswyn looked up. "Liffild insists all is fine, but this is her first child, and the past days can not have been easy for her."

Eowyn nodded. "I have already sent word to one of the midwives."

Lisswyn smiled. "Thank you."

"And what else?" Eowyn persisted.

Lisswyn looked down at her dress, knew she was blushing when she looked back up. "Garments. Most of us have only one dress."

"Why do you blush?" Eowyn's voice was gentle. "You lost your homes, did you not? It is not your fault that you need clothing."

Ruefully, Lisswyn shook her head. "I know that. I do. But in the caves, where we were all in the same situation, it did not seem as noticeable. I worried about it more in terms of staying warm. But here…"

"Are you finished with your meal?"

Startled by the abrupt change of topic, Lisswyn nodded.

Eowyn stood. "Then let us see what we can do for you, at least, now."

Lisswyn frowned as she slowly stood as well. "I thought perhaps if there was a loom available, or even bolts of cloth I could begin dressmaking out of…"

"Well, yes. We certainly have both of those. But wouldn't you like something sooner than that, as well?"

If she only knew. Lisswyn nodded, still confused, but followed the other woman as she headed down the hall, away from the dais, and into one of the side rooms. Lisswyn recognized it from Betta's comments the night before as Eowyn's chamber, and her puzzlement grew.

Eowyn turned, closely examined Lisswyn. "You are shorter than I am, but your build isn't far off apart from that." She turned, opened a cabinet, and after a moment of hunting, pulled out a wool dress. "Here. Try this one."

Only then did Lisswyn understand that she was trying to give her one of her own dresses. Placing her hands behind her back, she edged away. "No. I can't do that." Her? Wear a dress belonging to the King's sister?

Eowyn looked at her, an indignant look on her face. "Why not? I have several dresses I never wear. Why should you not wear them?"

"I—I—"

"Please. I do not offer it to embarrass or offend you." Her earnest expression turned to a slightly crafty smile. "If you are skilled as a weaver, perhaps you can repay me by helping me with the dresses I'll need before the wedding."

Lisswyn smiled at the thought. "Oh, yes! I would enjoy that, a great deal."

Eowyn looked dubious at the thought of it being enjoyable, but said, "Good. But you have to take several of mine in exchange."

Without giving Lisswyn a chance to try to refuse, she brought the dress over and held it up in front of her. "This shade of brown doesn't really work on me. The last time I wore it, both Faramir and Eomer asked me if I felt ill. But unless I miss my guess, the color will look good on you. Go on, try it on."

Still flustered, but not knowing how to refuse, Lisswyn took the dress, marveled at its softness. Pulling her own dress off, she slid into the new one. As predicted, it was too long, but that would be an easy matter to correct.

Eowyn had stepped back, was looking at her with a critical eye. "Yes. It looks much better on you." She smiled at Lisswyn. "You look quite lovely. I can see why my br–" She broke off, an alarmed look on her face, and turned back to the wardrobe. "I also have two other more informal dresses that I no longer wear." She looked back at Lisswyn. "Will you take them both? Please?"

Lisswyn nodded, a bit absent-mindedly. What had Eowyn started to say, and why had she seemed so flustered by it?

A/N: A fairly short chapter, but the next one is rather long, and this was the best place to break things up.

As to reviews from the last chapter...wow! A lot of rather intense comments. Rika, I'm glad you're enjoying the story, particularly given your feelings about Eomer. (I confess to struggling to understand that, LOL. Eomer was always one of my favorite characters from the books, and since I'm a fan of Karl Urban's, the film version worked well for me, too.) I hope you continue to like it.

As to Eowyn...she's a very complex character, with both strengths and flaws, which was what I was trying to convey. Based on the reviews, I succeeded, possibly more than I intended. As Elwen notes, she has gone through a lot. But she loves her brother, and hopefully this chapter has continued to show that there's more to her than initially appeared to be the case.

Solemido: Thanks for your comments. You've highlighted some of the main issues of the story, of course. Now it remains to be seen whether I can resolve them in a credible fashion. As to the quote from Speed, yes, that's a valid comment as well, and part of what needs to happen now that they're in Edoras is to see if there is anything to the relationship beyond what grew out of a crisis.

Phia: I'm glad you liked the way things progressed. I've always been interested in the relationship between Eomer and Eowyn, and enjoy exploring it.

Nienor Niniel, Eirwen, ChrissieV82, dferveiro, and SmaryK: I'm pleased beyond words that you liked the chapter as much as you did, and that I managed to surprise you. Hopefully, both will continue to be true. :)

wondereye, Istarriel (LOL on the whip!), Zombiegurl, and ElvenRyder...I'm so glad you're still reading and enjoying the story. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

plzkthx101: Very astute comments, though Lisswyn has never really accepted his love in the sense of expecting anything from him, in part because she does know who he is, and in part because there's been too much trauma and confusion for her to really spend much time thinking about it.

More complications coming, of course...