The next week had flown by. They had decided on the last day of March as their wedding day. The guest list however had been a bit harder. While Shobha had preferred a more intimate wedding, she had conceded that certain guests due to political connections would be necessary. So she had asked whether they could invite some of the elves along with Gandalf. This would give Kili more time with Tauriel also, whom she would invite to spend a few days at least.
Thorin had continued to test his resolve in the presence of the Arkenstone. Each time he touched the jewel had continued to see visions of her, more vivid than the time before. He was sure now this was some effect of the Arkenstone, but was not sure what significance it bore and didn't know how to explain it to Balin or Glóin, as these visions were all what he wished for.
As the snow had set in and work had slowed down, Shobha would also spend every evening with Thorin in their parlour. They often talked till the early hours of the morning, and had begun to fall asleep in each other's company. She would recall fond memories of her family, and he did the same. Or she would ask him about Dwarven customs and explain those of her own. He had found it fascinating that her family had moved to a land different to their ancestral one, and that they had taken on those new customs and traditions, much like Shobha had been adapting to living in Erebor. It struck him how similar she was in that sense also to Raena, his grandmother.
On several occasions, after she had fallen asleep, he had picked her up and carried her to her bed. But then more recently, he had seen her sleeping so soundly, and not wishing to wake her, had covered her with a blanket and slept on the other sofa. At times he had woken to see her shiver, so he had moved to lie behind her, and share his body heat. This certainly had resulted in arousing his desire, but seeing how vulnerable, small and cold she felt next to him, had calmed him somewhat. Some mornings Thorin had then been roused to find her snuggling closer to him in her sleep, and had built the fire to warm the room, so she hadn't suddenly found him sleeping against her.
Shobha had been quite oblivious to this, apart from realising that he had, covered her in blankets, kept her company without returning to his comfortable bed, and set the fire to warm her. It appeared that Dwarves did not feel the cold as much, and ran at a slightly higher temperature than humans. She had woken up a few times to find him carrying her to her bed, and on a few occasions she thought she had felt him sleep next to her, but having woken up alone, with a roaring fire he had built for her, she had written it off as more vivid dreams she had of him.
That morning had been particularly cold. They had spent the night talking, holding each other and passionately kissing. This had after some much restrained self control evolved into desperate writhing, as she found herself on top straddling him, tearing at his clothes, his hands firmly on her hips, and trying to ride the painful growing bulge in his trousers in search of any release. He too had unlaced some of her dress, desperate for more of her warm brown skin. Eventually realising dawn was close they had given in and settled in each other's arms.
They had both woken up to the sound of loud banging on the parlour door. Thorin stood first, and roused her fully. Then unsheathing his sword approached the door. He realised that he would need to teach her to use daggers and short swords so she could defend herself even within Erebor. There was further urgent banging on the door, so standing ready with his sword he suddenly pulled the door open.
"Thorin!" Dwalin burst in exclaiming a plethora of what could only be swear words in Khuzdul. He was followed by Zodar, Balin and Fili and Kili, who all appeared panicked. "Oh Mahal! Shobha is with you!"
And then after they calmed down and observed the two of them, all eyebrows shot up and Zodar excused himself from the room.
"What in Mahal's name were you doing?" Thorin said as he stood in front of Shobha, covering her, lacing up his trousers while she laced back up the top of her bodice and smoothed down her skirts.
"Well we would ask the same of the two of you?!" Dwalin spoke irritated, although he was rapidly finding the situation amusing. "Shobha was meant to meet me for training this morning an hour ago! And you were meant to be in court!"
"We searched all of Erebor, and then finally when we looked in your bedrooms, the beds looked un-slept in and we thought something had happened to you both!" Fili smirked, as Kili began to giggle.
"Aye but it turns out you were in here… trying to rut each other eh?" Dwalin gave a disappointed look at Shobha and Thorin, as though he were truly her big brother, and had caught her romping in the haystack with his best friend. "Like a pair of younglings seeing each other for the first time."
"We didn't do anything!" Shobha protested. But now she really did feel like a lust-fuelled teenager.
"Aye, but if you are caught like this by patrol guards or Nobles, then they will start talking about you." Balin was right in his comments. If she worried about gossip for wearing a courting braid with the King's warrior bead, then this would be many times worse.
"When my sister should be training to defend herself, and any future Durin heirs you have, because the threat against the line of Durin will always be there." While Dwalin was clearly unhappy, he appeared to direct most of this at Thorin, who knew these things, which he appeared to accept. "And you should be planning a coronation for your Queen, and protecting her reputation."
"I'm sorry my lady, Dwalin is right," Thorin kissed her hand gently. "Come Balin, I will set out the plan for the coronation right away." And with a few mutterings in Khuzdul under his breath, Thorin left for his room with Balin in tow.
"You, Namadith, change into breeches and come straight to training," Dwalin looked sternly at her, while Fili and Kili giggled silently. "I don't know what you two are laughing at. You are in court Fili! And Kili, don't think we haven't seen you sneaking off towards the woods once a week looking for a certain Elven captain!"
Kili turned bright red at this and Fili immediately turned and headed out, presumably towards the throne room to avoid any further revelations.
And so Shobha found herself in her light armour back in the training ring with Dwalin. She expected that he would be extra hard on her today, and she was tired after they had been up late, but Dwalin had been surprisingly kind.
They had gone from using the training sword to the real one. He had said she had progressed fast enough that they had planned to switch in a proper sword today.
"So lass, this is really important, you have to put everything else out of your mind now, because you could hurt me or worse yourself if your mind isn't right here." He put his hand on her shoulder trying to gauge whether she fully understood the gravity of what he was saying to her.
Looking at him, she took a deep breath and nodded.
He then walked over to the corner and rolled a chest over. It appeared to be heavy and made of oak. He brought it to a stop in front of her and lifted the lid, revealing at least a dozen swords or all different design and build. He picked one up and named the parts. Then he asked her to select three that she preferred, showing how to feel for the weight and the balance. To his delight, she seemed to select two dwarven crafted swords and one elvish made blade. While the elvish blade was lighter, it was also longer, while the two dwarven swords were heavier but felt easier to control.
While she had learnt to parry with one sword and use a shield for cover, she had never used two swords before. And training with the two dwarven blades turned out to be quite difficult. She had almost taken a few blows from Dwalin and had he not been very careful would have surely been injured by now.
"Loosen your wrists. You only have to stiffen when you take a blow, but you should be striking me, and let your shoulders and arms move freely," he pointed as she struck out.
He continued teaching her to strike repeatedly as he blocked, then showing her how to disarm. And finally teaching her to make a clean bodily strike against a dummy. After the twentieth strike, she was exhausted, arms aching and sweat dripping.
"Alright lass," Dwalin said handing her a water skein. "Take a rest. That was good. You will have to work on freeing your arms a bit more…"
"Um Dwalin, I want to ask you something." She began.
"If it's about taking precautions… I will have you run laps outside in the snow!" He grinned at her.
"Oh dear Lord! Please can we let it go…" she blushed. "Honestly, we were just talking till very late… mostly, and fell asleep. Most of that was dishevelled falling sleep on the couch."
"Aye, little sister, and we trust you, but you carry our name now too. You are a daughter of Fundin now." He smiled gently and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Actually it was about that…"
"Huh…?"
"Will you, um… please will you mind giving me away?" She finally got out. "I know it's an essential part of the custom."
To that he suddenly turned and gave her an enormous hug.
"Of course, namadith!" He grinned from ear to ear. "But wont Balin be upset?"
"Thorin should be asking him to carry out our ceremony as we speak…" she smiled. "We decided that last night. And in my customs we exchange rings, and in Indian custom a necklace is put on by the groom, which Thorin liked the idea of. So, he will ask you to carry those too if that's ok."
"Oh Aye, and I bet he wants you to wear your traditional dress eh?" He winked. "I thought he wouldn't be able to dance properly on Durin's Day, he was a giddy as a youngling!"
"Oh and what about Dis… I noticed you rather enjoyed your dances with her, big brother?" She ribbed back, and watched the ferocious warrior turn as red as a tomato.
"Come on let's get you out of that armour," he turned her to the side and began removing some clasps and ties. "It's complicated lass."
"Oh right… and how long had it been complicated for.." she looked down at the dwarf bent down helping to unbuckle more armour as a distraction.
"Ummmm.."
"Funny that's what Dis said to me," she felt less worried about prodding Dwalin compared with Dis. "So how long have you fancied each other then?"
"I wanted to court Dis, but she was much younger than me and not quite of age. And in the time I waited, he late husband made his proposal." He looked a bit downhearted. "When he fell in battle, I pledged that I would help to raise her boys and help Thorin. He never really asked me about it, or why, and I thought perhaps he understood, as he had never expressed that he wanted to court any lass… well until you."
"So her husband has passed, and it's been many years. The princes are grown, and they look to you just as much as Thorin in guardianship. And Dis is clearly very enamoured by you… as you know she always asks after you in her Ravens to me…" Shobha released the other leg armour plate and stood up. "Is it the One thing…?"
"Well aye, but I would have her even if I was not her One, but she would have me…"
"So when someone is widowed, who leads the courtship, you or her?" Shobha looked at him thoughtfully.
"I think it would still be me… I just don't want to take that risk, unless I knew for certain that she would have me. It would be a betrayal of trust. What with Thorin being my closest friend, and I, his. And my relationship with the lads." He took a swig of water.
"Hmmm.. so what you need is clear proof that she would have you?"
"Alright. Turn around," he shoved her around and began to undo the back straps of the breastplate. "I can see why you two are so close… you are both as meddlesome as each other. Now back to your quarters with you. Next time we will teach you to throw daggers. They may suit you best, because they can be hidden under skirts and coats and will stop attackers before they can engage you. And you'd better rest tomorrow though, or your betrothed will have my beard."
