I woke in the cool gray of dawn the next morning and to my surprise Éomer's eyes were still closed. He lay on his side with one large arm thrown over my waist. For a long while I was content just to look at him, his handsome face relaxed in repose. My new husband. Even the thought felt strange. The impulse to touch him—to take some proof that he was real—came and passed. It was, I realized, my first opportunity to scrutinize him without reserve. His face in repose seemed younger, the lines of care softened and vanished in sleep. It was so easy to forget that, though almost ten years older than I, Éomer was still quite young. Awake he was every inch a king and leader, but asleep I could almost see the rider and boy he had been. The sound of his breath and the feel of his naked flesh on mine was at once stimulating and reassuring.

"I thought you would be gone when I opened my eyes. I have dreamed enough of waking with you in my bed these last months it does not seem possible that it is finally true." Éomer's voice was slightly lower, rougher with sleep.

His eyes opened slowly. I smiled at him, tucking one hand between my cheek and the pillow and reaching out to cup his jaw with the other. "Shall I prove to you that I am made of flesh?"

The hand on my waist tightened and he suddenly looked much more awake. With a single smooth motion he pulled me towards him, rolled me half beneath him and brought his lips down upon mine. With both of us already naked it took little enough time before we were both panting and spent again. I pulled back the thick bedclothes to escape from the sudden heat and stretched my arms over my head, arching my back to bring some relief to the unexpected soreness from the previous night's activities.

My husband regarded me with an unreadable expression. "What is it?" I asked.

He passed a hand over his face and looked away from me. "It is nothing."

I rolled toward him and fixed him with a quizzical look. "Tell me."

"I was only wondering how I will ever manage to give you a moment's peace now that I know what your naked form is like. Particularly if you continue to be so agreeably shameless." I blushed and tried to pull the bedclothes back over me but he snatched them back quickly. "Oh no, no, I shall dispose of all the covers out the window, and your robe as well, if you ever start to become shy!"

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "You would deny me the right even to cover myself?"

"In my chambers? Without a moment's hesitation."

"Tyrant!"

"Call it what you will."

We did finally get dressed when a morning meal was brought for us. As I buttered my scone I noticed that the maid quietly stripping the bed of its top sheet. I had not bled much the night before but it would be proof enough. "Are you not pressed for time? When I was told there was to be a hunt today I assumed you would leave before I was even awake."

He laughed at that. "You thought I would get up before dawn on the day after my own wedding? Even a harder man with a plainer wife would never dream of such a thing."

"Well it might have been a tradition. Since you made me jump into that horrid icy water at Yule I can believe that nothing is beyond the bounds of reason."

"It would have ended this morning if it had been. I can't think of anything that would have induced me to leave you before you woke up. No, the hunt will begin quite late. It gives the revelers time to recover from the effects of their merriment and the bride and groom another opportunity to do their duty."

"How considerate."

"I am glad you are pleased."

I was glad it was Éomer and not I who was riding out that morning, sorry as I was to see him go. When he was gone I asked for a bath to be drawn for me and slipped in gratefully.

I pondered some on the loss of my maidenhead as I soaked. I had been told that some girls felt a sense of loss the morning after they became women but found that this was not true for me. I was more interested in the new sensations that had opened up than some intellectual connection to virtue and youth. I felt no more distant from my father or brothers than I had before and remarkably closer to Éomer. Nor did I feel any less virtuous.

A knock on the door brought me out of my reverie. I went and put on a robe and let in Gænwyn. "Come, come! We are going to gather flowers for garlands down by the moat." She was already dressed with two large baskets under one arm.

"I won't be required to jump in this time will I?" I was thinking of the first time I had gone when we had swum after berry picking. I wasn't sure I would be up for it, tired as I was.

"Not unless you want to my Queen."

I frowned at that. "Oh, Gænwyn please don't call me that."

"And why shouldn't I? You're a Queen and a woman now. You should be addressed by everyone in this Hall by your title."

I considered her as she set down her two baskets and went to my closet to begin selecting a gown for me to wear. "I understand the point you are trying to make."

"And what point would that be?"

"You're trying to remind me that though I am young and foreign I am now of a higher station than anyone else in the court and cannot allow them to forget it. But honestly I don't want us to have titles between us. It will make me feel wretchedly lonely. I won't allow anyone to goad me into jumping in the moat." But I suppose I shall allow people to barge into my room, demand that I accompany them flower gathering and select my clothes at their discretion, I added only silently.

She did not meet my eye as she spread out the dress on the bed but I could tell she was pleased from the way she said, "As you wish, Lothíriel."

As she smoothed out the wrinkles I came to give her a hug from behind, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and clasping them over her breast and laying my head against her back affectionately. "I am very pleased to be your Queen, Gænwyn but I will always be your friend first."

Her eyes had a high sheen in them when she turned around but she only said brusquely, "Come put this on and I will find you some shoes."

I slipped off the robe and into the light, gray cotton dress she had selected and then turned my attention to braiding up my hair. "Those deerskin boots at the back will do just right for today I think."

As I slid them on she seemed to hesitate for a moment. "You aren't too tired to come are you, Lothíriel? If you would prefer to rest I am sure that the other ladies will understand."

Having never heard Gænwyn attempt to be so discrete, I almost laughed at that. "I find myself quite refreshed this morning and in high good spirits."

She pressed her lips together, struggling not to grin. "I'm pleased to hear it... you don't have any questions about anything that happened last night?"

"No, I found Éomer to be a very apt teacher."

She grinned impishly. "I thought he might be. And were you a good pupil?"

I blushed furiously but tossed my hair over my shoulder defiantly. Perhaps yesterday she could have made me blush and keep silent but I wasn't a maid any longer. "I'm not sure. The results seemed satisfactory but the lesson was repeated several times."

She roared with laughter at that. "Ah I am sure you will catch on quick." She touched my stomach once for luck.

For a moment I was taken aback, no woman in Gondor would have mentioned a pregnancy before the baby was safely born and at least a week old. The implications of living in Rohan arrivedhit me at the strangest times: realization of the full force of what I had chosen arriving all at once as it had when I considered my coronation only as my hair was being fixed to hold a crown. It had not occurred to me that I would have a Rohirric pregnancy. Women would touch my stomach and ask me if I felt it was a boy or girl. I had even heard it remarked that a woman might be carrying twins, so full was her stomach. Éomer might try to hold off, in deference to my native customs, but I didn't think he would last the full term without asking me what I had considered as a name (in Rohan it was the woman who chose what the child was to be called). Such remarks were unthinkable in Gondor but here they were a certainty.

To my surprise I found myself looking forward to it. I thought about Gænwyn asking me a thousand impertinent questions and almost surely terrifying me with the details of the birthing bed. Perhaps I would tell Éomer that I meant to give our first son the snobbiest, Gondorian name I could think of just to watch him squirm. Unlike a Gondorian husband he might share my bed until the day my water came. I imagined how difficult it would be to be closed off from him for nine months and found my own fingers tracing over my stomach, wondering. I had always considered that I would find pregnancy a tiresome burden, a duty that I would perform for my husband. But perhaps in my new circumstances it would suit me better.

The afternoon was one of the first truly warm days of spring but even if it had been unseasonably cold the banks would still have been packed with maidens searching for flowers. The second night of our wedding would include a ceremony to welcome spring and all the women of the city were looking to make the best garland they could with the wildflowers to be found. We made slow progress as so many people stopped us to wish me joy of my new husband or offer their hopes of a long, prosperous and fertile marriage. I might have worried that I would never have time to pick flowers for my own garlands but the women, seeing that my basket was empty, were quick to fill it with gifts. I tried to insist that they didn't need to give me the very best flowers they had gathered but Gænwyn was quick to shush me on that point. "Giving a gift to a bride is good luck. And they will be proud to think that a bloom they picked might grace the head of their King or Queen." Without ever picking a single one myself my basket was quickly filled with a riot of colorful blooms.

When we found our party finally and sat down to weave our garlands Lithoer laughed outright at how my basket overflowed. "Well you shall certainly live up to your name tonight, Lothíriel."

"What do you mean by that, Lithoer?" Éowyn asked.

"Erchirion told me that Lothíriel's name means 'flower garlanded maiden.' She shall certainly be that tonight."

I wished that Feleas had been there to help me but in the end I was quite pleased with the crowns I managed for Éomer and myself. There was no rush to return to the hall after our garlands were woven. The men wouldn't return from the hunt for hours and the feast wouldn't begin until dark. There was some dancing already starting in the square but we elected instead to enjoy the sun and the bank. Elboron was just beginning to try to stand up and spent nearly an hour pulling himself to his feet and then steadying himself before he tired and crawled over to sleep on his mother's skirts.

"He is a fine lad, Éowyn." Gænwyn said, stroking his head fondly. "A true gift."

We returned to the hall as the shadows began to grow long. I had to be shown to my new rooms by a maid—not knowing precisely where they were. When she showed me in however, I almost let my mouth drop open. I had not been surprised at how well Éomer's chambers suited him but how well my own suited me left me speechless. The room was a wide elegant space with eastern facing windows. They would get good light the whole year round and not be too cold in the winter. Some of my furniture I had brought with me—my beloved wardrobe and excessively large mirror—but even that which I had not was carved of a lighter wood (though still with the ubiquitous horse motif I was pleased to note) giving the room a feeling of brightness. Someone had gone to the trouble of unpacking my tapestries and hanging them as well as arranging as many of my clothes as would fit into the single wardrobe. It was strange to feel as though I had come into a place that I had never seen but felt already was my home. A steaming bath was drawn and a pale lavender dress hung out to air.

I bathed and changed and was just sitting beginning to consider how to plait my hair when a knock sounded. "Come in."

Éomer pushed open a door that connected our chambers. He was freshly bathed as well and looking tired but happy. He crossed the room and gave me a long kiss. "Damn if that isn't the sweetest end to a hunt."

I smiled. "Did you catch anything to merit it?"

"Patience, Lothíriel. You'll see soon enough."

I scoffed. He looked almost as pleased with himself as he had the night he caught the favor from my hair. "As if I couldn't see by your good humor that you have. I say 'good humor' of course to avoid a nasty word like smug self-satisfaction."

"Those would be harsh words indeed on such tender lips." He said, kissing me again fondly. "Your brother rode well today."

"Oh don't bother me with that. I am sure that Erchirion is perfectly capable of his own bragging and will thank you to let him bore me with it himself."

"And so I shall. I actually meant your youngest brother."

That got my attention. "Amrothos rode out with you on the hunt?"

"He did himself credit as I said. He brought down two or three nice birds which is very respectable."

I nodded and went back to plaiting my hair. "Well if you're inclined to you might take it as a compliment that he went at all. He hasn't been hunting in years, I'm sure of it. He did it to please you, Éomer, I hope you realize that."

"I'm not sure it's me he is trying to please."

"Your respect would mean a lot to him." I said quietly.

"Perhaps it would. And he shall have it. But it isn't my affection that he wants, Lothíriel, not truly."

I swallowed down a sudden lump in my throat. "I think he is worried that I won't write to him now that I am your wife. I am not sure what he fears: that you will forbid it or that I will not have the time. But he and I have been close for years. I think it might be hard for him to lose even my correspondence."

"You're a better correspondent than I am, try though I might."

I had just opened my mouth to agree with him when a sudden thought struck me. I stood from the vanity and went to the closet. "I'm going to have to meet you in the dining hall," I said slipping on my shoes.

"Oh? Where are you going?"

"I'll tell you when I get back."

"Lothi is everything alrig..."

"Everything is fine."

I was already out of the door and walking quickly down the darkening hallway. I had to ask for directions but I soon was given a proper heading and led down to a room on the lower floor. I knocked once and was answered by a soft, "Come in."

I was pleased to see that my cousin was nowhere to be seen. Elboron was asleep on the bed as well. Only Éowyn greeted me with alert, wary eyes when I came in. "Hello, Lothíriel."

"Hello, Éowyn."

She was seated on the bed but she gestured for me to take a chair by the fire and took the one opposite. I arranged my skirts and looked into the fire for a long moment. She didn't ask why I had come but neither did she look away from me or try to make small talk.

Finally I forced myself to meet her gaze. "It occurs to me that I never told you that I wish very much to be your friend. I keep trying to suggest it, as I would with a Gondorian woman. But now that I am the Queen of Rohan I find that I must learn to speak more plainly. I want to be your friend, Éowyn.

"For months I have been trying to find some token of affection I could bestow on you that might convince you that I was sincere. I considered going to Lady Harra and trying to get your brother's bracelet back. That was the only thing that felt like enough. But in the end I couldn't. I couldn't risk getting involved with the court again. The only thing I can offer is a correspondence. I will write you faithfully every week. I will tell you everything about the Rohan, Edoras and Éomer that I think might interest you. I'll tell you if your brother is hurt and how the crops are but I also hope that I can speak to you about my own feelings and experiences. I will write to you even if I go unanswered, though I hope that you will write back. I do consider you a sister now and I wish to be your friend."

Without a word she stood and went to her desk. When she came back she held something in her hands but didn't hold it out for me to take.

"I went back and forth on whether I was going to give you this as a wedding present. One of the things I love most about Faramir is his ability to forgive but I think that is because it is something I don't see in myself. I am more of a vengeful creature." She considered me for a long moment. "But I do not think I value vengeance above all things."

She held out the item and dropped it into my hand. I knew somehow even before I looked down what it was: the bracelet Éomer had given me. The one I had given to Harra. "How did you..."

"I bought it. A few weeks after I first saw her wearing it I sold some of the jewelry I'd been given as a wedding present and I went to offer her money for it. Honestly I think she enjoyed selling it to me. I think she thought that you would see that I had gotten it back and that somehow it would drive us further apart."

"I can't accept this, Éowyn, not after what I did. It belongs in your family."

"You are part of that family now, Lothíriel. Or did you not just finish saying you thought of us as sisters? I will write back to you, Lothíriel. I think that someday we will be good friends. But for now even if we are just sisters that is enough for me to value and cherish you."

I rolled the bracelet in my hand uncomfortably. "I am not just resigned to love you, Éowyn. If you were only Éomer's sister that would of course be enough for me to want to be your friend. But I respect you on your own merits as well. What you did during the war and the kindness I see in you. I want to be more than just your sister by marriage. I want to be close to you."

She opened her mouth, looking uncomfortable. I cut in. "I know that we don't yet know each other. We will though."

She considered me for a long moment. "It has always been so easy to see why Éomer chose you: smart and beautiful and funny as you are. But love my brother as much as I do I think I only just now saw why you love him. He has changed you, Lothíriel. You are not the girl you were at my wedding, or even the one I met during Beltane."

"No. I am not."

"You are too smart not to see how this new openness makes you vulnerable. You said you thought about going to Harra to get the bracelet back to Éomer even though you knew that was the fool's path. Think of how much worse it will be when you have his child to worry about."

A year ago her challenge would have stopped me in my tracks. Now the words came almost too easily. "Opening the gates of a keep is always a risk. But they cannot stay closed indefinitely. I shall have to rely on Éomer to help me protect myself. Just as I think he will need me to protect him from time to time as well. The court will never hurt him, or my children. I swear it."

She smiled, glancing at Elboron on the bed. "I think I know how you feel."

We sat together after that as the light dimmed outside until it was time for the feast and then we walked together to the dining hall. In a fit of boldness I offered her my arm, which was my right in my home, and she accepted without comment.

The feast had not yet started but the hall was full of people who had come down early from their rooms to enjoy a little conversation before dinner. The boar that was the centerpiece for the feast was so enormous the table seemed to almost sag beneath it. I almost grinned at that. No doubt Éomer had been the one to skewer it himself given how pleased he'd been. I saw Éomer standing towards the front with Erchirion and Gænwyn. Faramir and Lithoer were standing a little way away, chatting with Amrothos and my father. As we entered Éowyn turned without hesitation towards a table to one side that was laden with cups of mead. It took me only a moment to realize that I too needed to greet my husband with a cup for luck after the hunt.

Éomer took the cup from me and drank deeply, finishing it at once. I had spoken the traditional words a thousand times to my brothers and father but tonight they felt different. "Welcome back to your hearth, my lord. A blessing for this hunt and many other safe hunts after."

"A gift for your bountiful table, my lady. Honor and love respectfully given and received."

Gænwyn laughed. "Yes, yes, the two of your are very handsome indeed but surely you have enough time to stare longingly at each other privately now that you're married. In public I expect a little more usefulness. Lothíriel come lend a hand and we shall join with your father's group. Now that you're here and I have a reliable translator I think I might just dare talk to him."

That was the first night I presided in my own hall. The mead was plentiful and the company gay. Dinner was a noisy and long affair. When the boar was served Éomer gave me a roguish smile. "Is he enough to satisfy you, Lothíriel?" He asked.

I took his hand under the table. "He is more than enough, Éomer."

Fin

Oh it makes me so sad to type that.

Well that's all she wrote folks! Thanks for sticking around for the end. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please drop me a line to let me know if you liked it, what you thought of the ending and if you want another story! Reviews make me so unbelievably happy! Big thank you to all of you readers and to Lady Bluejay for being the best editor a girl could want (seriously, if only you knew how much she improved this story!) in addition to being a wonderful writer in her own right.