+++++++++++++++++++Interlude+++++++++++++++++++

Taking Place Between and During the Recovery of the Nameless Child

Delwyn & Grima

Delwyn watched from the corner of her eye as her mother cuddled her brother, Gleowine. That pest! Lord Grima was right when he said that the Lady Gwynaeth did cosset and coddle that sallow-faced infant. She narrowed her eyes when her chubby little brother peeked at her from over her mother's shoulder, his big, gold flecked blue eyes blinking at her curiously. She stayed at the window seat, her knees drawn up to her chest. Her dark brown dress wasn't very warm, but sitting in the sun helped very much to warm her.

She felt someone come up beside her, and she looked up into the face of Lord Grima. She smiled up at him, pushing back the stray wisps of her hair. He stared down at her for a moment, then looked at her brother's round face and her mother's back and made a hideously grotesque face at the toddler.

Gleowine screwed up his own little face and began to cry. Delwyn smothered her giggles and looked up at the Rohirric lord in glowing admiration. He winked at her and whispered, "Squalling little infant, isn't he? Someone ought to shut him up." And with that, he glided away down the hall, with Lady Gwynaeth none the wiser, as she was struggling to hold her squirming child.

Delwyn smiled, a thin lipped smile that made her eyes shine darkly. "I'll take him, Mama," she murmured.

"Thank you, Del. I'll be right back, King Theoden has asked to speak with me." Gwynaeth set her child on the window seat beside her other child, and hurried off. Gleowine began to babble in his lisping, strange baby talk. The cadences of his voice made Del think of her grandfather, the King's Minstrel, and she almost wanted to listen. Then Lord Grima's words came back: someone ought to shut him up.

Del stared coldly at her baby brother until he fell silent, his sunny smile oozing off of his face slowly, until he just looked at her apprehensively, sucking on his fist, his blue eyes wide.

"Don't talk to me, you dumb little baby," she snapped, and roughly shoved him off the seat. He fell and cracked his head on the flagstones of the floor, and began to wail.

"Dumb little baby," she hissed, and hopped off the window seat and walked away.

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