That evening Thengel made his way to the citadel and the Steward's house. In his haste he'd forgotten to inform Ecthelion of his decision to leave Minas Tirith. Even if the Marshal's presence in Gondor kept Thengel from actively serving in his post as Ecthelion's lieutenant, he felt he owed his captain an explanation. That and Oswin's obvious glee upon hearing of his plans made Thengel only too glad to get out of the house. Wynflaed was right. Their uncle nearly did hug himself. He wasn't in the mood to listen to another man congratulate himself.

Mallor let Thengel into Idhren's sitting room when he refused to join the family at supper. He didn't feel like small talk. A stack of books lay abandoned on a table, so he picked one up and thumbed through it until he heard the door open.

Idhren slipped inside the room instead of her husband. She shut the door and turned to face him. "Ecthelion went upstairs. I told him I wanted a word with you first," she said, lingering by the door. "So. Is it true that you're riding to Lossarnach tomorrow with Morwen?"

Thengel made a sour face. "News travels fast in the city."

They regarded one another for a small space before she broke into a chagrined smile.

"Are you very angry with me?"

"Why should I be angry with you, Idhren?" he asked stiffly.

She shrugged. "I can see that you are."

"Why, what have you done?" he asked, giving her the opportunity to admit to mischief.

She licked her lip. "Well…"

Thengel began counting off on his fingers. "Let's see. You carried tales to the Steward, for one. Then you had me barred from the Steward's chamber yesterday so that you could collaborate. Then I find out from Wynflaed that you're conspiring with Oswin, as well. After that, I discover you camping out at Prince Adrahil's home. All for some harebrained idea that I'm to marry Lady Morwen."

"So?" she said, nose in the air. "Why shouldn't I visit where I choose?"

"You have no right to interfere in my affairs."

Idhren's eyebrows arched with an air of challenge. "Your sister and your uncle both asked for my help when they arrived in Minas Tirith. If that doesn't give me a right, then consider that I am your oldest friend in Gondor. Does that not give me a right to act in your best interest? Right now what you need is a push in the right direction."

Thengel gestured widely with the book. "You're going to push me out of reckoning in a moment."

"Nonsense. Put that book down before you break the window."

"Do you know why Turgon decided to send Prince Adrahil back to Dol Amroth so urgently?"

Idhren looked vaguely curious. "Has he?"

"Yes."

"Perhaps the Steward declared open war on Umbar?"

"Idhren."

"What? Ecthelion wouldn't tell me if he had. I can't explain the Steward's decision to you," she told him. "I know I look important but I'm really just a glorified housewife with excellent comportment."

Thengel ignored her. "He's getting Adrahil out of the way. Why?"

Idhren dropped the vague posturing and stepped up to him. "Because you need to settle your future, Thengel, and quickly. I'm worried. Ecthelion would drive you into the ground without a second thought if you let him." She raised a hand when he began to protest. "I realize he doesn't require anything of you that he doesn't require of himself, but he has a son. What would Rohan do if you fell — if you had fallen this winter when those orcs were driven down from the north?"

Thengel leaned back on his heels. "Worry about me all you want, but why manipulate Morwen's family?"

"Don't be obtuse, please," she chided. "I need to know how to act for you if you're to marry her."

He looked askance. "We will not discuss that—"

"Darling, you must know that tone won't work with me. Besides, I don't see why we shouldn't discuss it. Everyone else is. Do you want her or not?"

"It's impossible."

She held up a finger. "Now that's an evasion. It's far from impossible as long as she's breathing and unmarried. Listen, darling, she's exactly what your uncle is seeking for you. Beautiful, of high lineage, youthful—"

"Yes, youthful," he groused. "If you know so much about her, then you know that she's about to be displaced from her home by her cousin. With help she can keep her lands and I've pledged myself to do it. She isn't likely to trade that for a man seventeen years her senior and bound for Rohan."

"But why would you make such a foolish pledge?" Idhren cried.

"Because it's the right thing to do."

Idhren pulled him down on the couch beside her, their knees nearly touching. She leaned toward him so he had to look her in the eyes. "Thengel, do you want her?"

Thengel lips formed a thin, hard line. He leaned away.

"Are you using stubborn silence on me?" she scoffed. "That might work with Oswin or Wynflaed, but I won't tolerate it for an instant. I know you're too stiff-necked to admit anything to them, but if we treated our friends the same way we treated our relations, we wouldn't have any. So don't you dare."

"I'm not being stubborn," he muttered.

"Good. Twenty years we've been friends. This is no time for secrets."

"There's nothing to tell you, Idhren."

Idhren's eyes sparked as she looked at him. "And now you're lying." She sank back against the couch and clapped her hands together. "I thought the Rohirrim were all completely honest."

"I've lived in Gondor for half my life," he pointed out.

Idhren shook her head, pressing her hand to her breast. "It has been the great shock of my life realizing my powers of observation have fallen off. As the consort of the future Steward it is an unwelcome revelation, let me tell you. And now this breach of friendship just might ruin me forever."

"Idhren," he sighed.

"I never even suspected that you left a love interest behind you in Lossarnach. Did you mention her? No. I had to drag the story out of Ecthelion after the feast." Her eyes upbraided him. "How is that supposed to make me feel?"

Thengel fell silent, staring at the floor. Then he said, "Morwen hasn't suspected either."

Idhren sat up, flashing a smile so fierce he almost scooted away from her. "Then you do want her. I knew I read you correctly."

Thengel rubbed his eyes, trying to unsee the triumph in Idhren's. "It doesn't matter what I want. She doesn't think of me that way at all."

Idhren shrugged at this small obstacle. "How do you know? Truly, I tried to ferret out Morwen's feelings this afternoon, but Aranel bent herself on obstructing me. In general I think very well of Aranel, but I can't abide artful women. Morwen, on the other hand, couldn't be more artless if she tried. Poor thing. How do you know she doesn't think of you that way? I don't agree with you at all. Why, at the feast—"

"Believe me, it's clear," he said gruffly, "especially at the feast. Morwen is single-mindedly married to her orchards."

Idhren drummed her fingers over her lips while she thought. "If she's so married to her orchards, why is she countenancing a move to Dol Amroth? Surely you don't want her to go so far."

"Leave it to a boy like Adrahil to put that foolish idea in her head," he grumbled.

Idhren smothered a grin. "So," she began, "am I to understand that your disheveled appearance after the dance had nothing to do with romance, despite the fact that you were alone on a dark, starry evening?"

"Of course not! We were watering the flowers."

She studied him beneath half-lidded eyes, looking for possible entendres. "What flowers?"

"Yours."

"Mine?" She turned toward the windows. "Do I have flowers?"

He looked at her oddly. "In the back garden."

"You were in my garden? Thengel, again I am shocked. If I'm to be a party to a tryst, I'll thank you to let me know beforehand." She tossed her hair in a way Thengel hadn't seen her do since they were young. "It would have given me something satisfying to think about while I frustrated Lady Rían."

Thengel exhaled as he tried to expel some of his exasperation. "It wasn't a tryst. We needed to talk in private about her situation. That's all. Morwen isn't used to being a source of gossip and everyone could overhear in Merethrond."

Idhren stared at him. "So, you disappeared with her for an extended period of time and then returned in an interesting state to Merethrond, when you could have left with a modicum of privacy through my house?"

Thengel cringed as her sarcasm hit home. "I wasn't thinking straight."

Idhren's expression softened. "No, you weren't. Now that poor child is being talked over in a vulgar way in every sitting room in the city. Poor innocent."

Thengel felt the hair rising on his arm and neck. He hadn't tried to make Morwen a target for gossipmongers. "You helped, shoving us out of Merethrond like that and carrying tales of your own."

"Yes, but my help was to the point." She mimicked his earlier counting. "One, to give you both a modicum of respectability by being noticed by me. Second, I know an opportunity when I see one. Recall, Thengel, my once informing you that if you didn't make a choice, it would be made for you. The gossip mill will do that now - quite conveniently for all your friends, I must say."

"Convenient!"

She gave him a knowing half smile. "Darling, you're practically honor-bound now. If you ride off to Lossarnach with her, then your fate is as good as sealed."

"Idhren, you wouldn't…"

"You lit the first match; I'll gladly light the second one if she's to be sacrificed on the alter of your uncle's wishes, as long as you want her. While the city slept that night, I was busy. I know all about this girl, her parentage, and her wealth, such as it is. You made it easy for me, choosing the daughter of the Steward's late friend. If you think you could be happy with her, I'll do whatever I can to help you get her."

Thengel sat in stubborn silence as the waves of information and Idhren's determination rolled over him. How had the situation run off without him? How could he stop it from going any further?

Idhren reached for his hand. "Regardless of her feelings, regardless of her situation, and the age difference, what is the truth?"

Idhren waited with cool patience while he thought of a hundred different things to say.

"I care about her wellbeing."

She rolled her eyes. "You care about my wellbeing. Do you love her?"

Thengel stared stubbornly at their hands. He heard Idhren sigh.

"All right. How long have you known you were in love with her?"

Thengel gritted his teeth. Looking away from her, he said, "Since Adan arrived in Minas Tirith."

Idhren's eyes rounded with disbelief. "A week! And you didn't tell me? Why?"

He gave her an exasperated look. "Because I wouldn't admit it to myself, even when I saw her at Merethrond. Idhren, there's no way I can pursue this. She's so young and too rooted here. If it wasn't for the crown, maybe…maybe."

"Poor dear." Idhren nudged his arm with hers. "However—"

"Idhren."

"However! If she can countenance moving to Dol Amroth…"

"It's not the same and you know it," he said angrily. "Consider the cultural differences. She can't speak Rohirric and so few of them speak Westron or Sindarin. I can't ask her to trade her home and everything she knows for that."

"You certainly can ask her. Let her decide what's she's willing to put up with. Say she loves you too - or could come to love you. Doesn't she deserve the choice?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

They fell silent again. The evening was passing and still he hadn't spoken to Ecthelion. Tomorrow would begin early for him and he needed to leave. But he felt unsettled by Idhren. Certainly he hadn't come to her home to make an admission.

"So," he croaked, "what are you going to do?"

"What do you want me to do?" she countered. "Besides what I've already done?"

"Nothing. I want you to leave it alone, Idhren. If I'm successful with Halmir it'll come to nothing anyway. This will pass."

"Pass? That is the last thing it will do!" Idhren gripped his arm. "Must you help her? I suggest you unpledge yourself."

He gave her a stern look. "You know very well I can't when I've given my word."

"Words are words are words," she sighed.

"Yes, and mine mean something to me."

"I know. You're so cursed noble."

He shook his head in frustration. "Idhren, how else do you expect me to behave?"

"Exactly as you are," she sighed, "though it's highly inconvenient to your cause."

Thengel didn't reply.

Finally Idhren rose. "Oh well. I'll think of something. Wynflaed refuses to speak to me so I'll have plenty of quiet to bend my mind to the matter. You know she accused me of singlehandedly destroying the House of Eorl?"

"Why?"

She grinned impishly. "Because she thinks I'm going to give you an ignorant child-bride with no experience and no backbone. I told her that was ridiculous. All Gondorian women have backbones. I can't help it if she doesn't believe me."

"Can't you?" he asked dryly.

"As if I have ever been untrustworthy in my life," she said, sounding bruised.

"You told Wynflaed that Lady Iaerwen was a potential match."

Idhren sniffed. "Lady Iaerwen has a gold hoard fit to make a dragon blush. She could buy you all the heirs you could ever want, even if she's too old to carry them herself. I stand by it."

"Idhren."

"Don't scold me, darling," she said, crossing the room to the door. "I'm not accustomed to it."

He followed her and opened the door for himself. "Wynflaed is coming to Lossarnach too, you know."

Idhren's eyes widened. "No. You mustn't let her. She'll spit Morwen and roast her for dinner."

"You want Wynflaed to stay here with you?" he asked.

"Don't look at me like that. You'll have a loose cannon on your hands now. Worry about yourself."

And so he was doing. A thought had come to him. Suppose he didn't shut down the gossip? If everyone expected him to betroth himself to Morwen, wouldn't it pull the rug out from under Halmir's feet? What mistakes would desperation persuade Halmir to make? Would it be better for Morwen to let the rumors stand? At least for a little while?

"Thengel, are you all right? You have such an odd look on your face."

He gave her a strangled smile. "Never better. Good night, Idhren."

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Ecthelion?"

"No time now. You tell him for me."

She looked skeptical, but only said, "Good night, Thengel. Good luck."

AN: Sorry, I don't know how much longer I can draw out one day. I went back and forth with deleting this chapter and skipping to the next, but ended up deciding to post it. Mea culpa?