Your reviews to the last chapter have been numerous and I was so very happy for the feedback! I know that most of you (me also) hate Dara, but life can't always be perfect, even Thorins and Branns life :) I will try to make their life as wonderful as it can be!

'What do you mean, you lost your sister?' Thorin asked his daughters dangerously quiet. The twins were stepping from one foot to the other.

'We were watching her all the time...but...she is really fast!' Gwen tried to defend herself, but her fathers glare shut her up immediately.

'Your sister is alone in this mountain and she is one year and a half!' Thorins voice grew louder with every word he spoke. A knock at the door made him growl furiously. 'What?'

'My king, your daughter has been found.' one of the royal guards entered and bowed.

Thorin rushed to the door immediately and froze. Dara stood there, with Belladonna in her arms. The little princess was happily chewing on Blackys ear and held on to Dara.

'Let go of my daughter this instant.' Thorin growled and looked at Dara menacingly.

The former lady sighed and put the princess down. Belladonna babbled happily and walked towards Thorin with her arms reaching out for him. The king took his youngest into his arms and glared at Dara.

'Don't you ever dare to come near my children again!' he growled.

'Thorin, please...' Dara started to speak, but Thorin interrupted her.

'You will adress me correctly!' Thorin snarled and Dara winced.

'Your majesty.' she bowed and looked at the floor. 'Your daughter was wandering around in the lower corridors near the servants quarters. She looked lost and I only wanted to bring her back to you.'

'Which you have.' Thorin would not even want to listen to her. 'Leave.'

Dara nodded sadly and walked away. On her way back to the servants wing she ran into the queen. This day could impossibly get any more worse.

'What in Durins name are you doing here?' Brann sneered as she saw Dara. The dwarf was coming from the royal wing and Brann could not help but feel every hair on her body twitch in alarm.

'I apologise, my queen.' Dara did not know what to say, but yaers ago she had sworn to be honest. 'I found your daughter in the lower corridors and I brought her back. She seemed lost and I did not want her to get hurt.'

Dara saw the fury flash up in the queens face and prepared herself for what was to come. She knew that nobody trusted her and that people thought that she would even hurt a dwarfling to get what she wanted. But she already had all she wanted. She had a husband whom she loved and a son who was the light of her life. And even after all she had done in the past, she would never hurt a dwarfling.

'Thank you.'

Dara looked up in surprise and saw the queen grind her teeth. Brann had needed all her willpower to not jump at Daras throat. But she saw the honesty in Daras eyes and she had heard about the princesses journey through the Blue Mountains from Nori. The spy had been near Belladonna as she into Dara. He had been ready to stab his dagger into the dwarf womans heart if she had threatened the princess, but she had not. On the contrary.

Brann clenched her fists at her side. She would never trust Dara, but she would thank her if she earned it. And Dara had helped her little daughter. But more than the grateful words did not pass the queens lips. She was afraid that she would choke on more. Brann rushed pat Dara and into the royal chambers, finding Thorin with their daughter. Dara watched through the open door as the queen embraced her husband and daughter and smiled sadly. She hoped that they would be able to forgive her one day, but she did not get her hopes up.

Thorin Stonehelm had not slept for weeks. His parents had returned to the Iron Hills three weeks after Nain was born. Thank goodness they would get some sleep on the road, Mya had whispered to her husband. Nain was now three months old, but he had not slept one moment, or at least it felt that way. Thorin and Dwana were feeling bad about the fact that they could not be at the king and queens side during this time. The refugees of the Red Mountains had to be accomodated and especially the situation with Dara was nerve wracking. Alone her presence made the royal family tense. It continued until Brann could not take it anymore.

'I will not let this dwarf control my life that way!' she snarled and looked down at sleeping Nain. Interestingly, Thorin Oakenshield and Brann always got him to sleep, but only in their arms.

'I am sorry that I cannot be there for you now, but I am of no use at the moment. I am sleep deprived and moody.' Dwana sighed.

'That brings me to something I wanted to discuss with you.' Brann bit her lip. 'But promise me that you will not yell.'

Dwana cocked her eyebrows at her queen. 'The little orc just fell asleep, the last thing I will do now is wake him up!'

Brann smiled at her courtladies choice of words and took a deep breath. 'I will ask Dara to take your place for as long as you need to be with your family. Afterwards I will go with you both as my courtladies.'

The queen waited for Dwanas reaction and held her breath. Dwana looked as if she was about to burst, the big vein at the side of her neck began to pulsate and her face reddened.

'Excuse me.' Dwana stood up and walked out of the room. After a while a wave of khuzdul curses sounded through the closed door and Brann covered the dwarflings ears. After a particularly loud and furious roar, Dwana came back into her room. 'Alright. So the floozy will take my place.'

'She will never be able to take your place, Dwana!' Brann exclaimed. 'You are my loyal and most trusted courtlady and I could never wish for a better one. But I need to be sure that Dara won´t intrigue against us ever again. I can only be sure if I am around her. That way I can look over her activities. Levek is working in the mines now, he made it to a supervisor in the Red Mountains and his knowledge is of high importance.'

Dwana bit her tongue. The queens words made sense, although she hated it.

'In addition, her new status might make her sons life under this mountain more easy. I hate to see Thror suffer because of his mother´s past deeds.' Brann mused. Zial and Thror had become close friends and Gwen had accepted Thror as well. Only Fili and Kili were giving him a hard time. Thror had won Branns respect as he showed up at Zials side again, after being snubbed and played games with all the days before. He seemed to value his friendship to the princess highly. At first Brann had thought that Thror tried to get access to the royal household over her daughter, but after a while she realised that all the torture he had to go through because of Gwen, Fili and Kili would not have been worth it. Gwen and Fili had already beaten him to pulp on the training ground and Kili had hidden frogs and lizards in Thrors clothes to freak him out. Thror had stayed calm and reserved through the whole time and he had even set the frogs and lizards free outside of the mountain instead of crushing them in fear and irritation. He was a nice young dwarfling and Brann did not want to punish him for his mother.

'Thror is a good dwarf, like his father.' Dwana agreed. 'I understand your concern.'

'Thank goodness.' Brann took her friend and courtlady into her arms. 'I could not do it if you had issues with it.'

'How did Thorin react?' Dwana asked the queen, who got silent.

'I have not asked him yet.' Brann murmured.

'You WHAT?!' the walls of the royal chambers were shaking as Thorin heard the news. 'Are you INSANE?'

Brann winced and mentally thanked Dis for taking their daughters to dinner this evening. As she explained it to her husband he did not calm down.

'I do not care if this is necessary, I do not want this dwarf anywhere near you!' Thorin snarled. 'Do you still have your dagger?'

Brann smiled at her husband warmly and opened a layer of her dress near her side. There, covered by a pleat of dress was the dagger Thorin had made for his wife in Bree. 'I carry everything you gave me.' Brann chuckled. She also wore the glass pendant with the dried forget me nots every day, regardless of her outift. 'And I carry you in my heart.'

Thorin smiled and pulled his wife close. 'Nice try, but Dara will not be your courtlady. There is no way you can trick me into giving into your demands.'

'If I had wanted to trick you I would have waited for the moment after we had made love to ask you.' Brann smirked. 'You grant me everything then.'

Thorin growled quietly, but kissed his wife tenderly. After some time to calm down, he realised that it was indeed important to keep an eye on Dara. He had asked Nori to do so, but the spy also had other things to do. With a deep sigh, he gave in. But he would try to find out wether it was true what his wife had said, that he would grant her everything when she lay in his arms after their lovemaking. The moments when they were enjoying their closeness were always blurry to him. With a dreamy smile, the king of the Blue Mountains ignored his grumbling stomach and skipped dinner with his wife for a little private moment.

Brann took Nori with her as she walked down to the rooms of Dara and her family. All the way down the queen thought about what to say to her former enemy. She decided to be honest. She did not care about Dara, so she did not care wether she would hurt any of her feelings. Nori knocked for her and stepped back behind the queen. Dara herself opened the door and froze as she saw the queen. She bowed quickly, but it took a while for her to speak to the visitor.

'P...please, come in.' Dara gestured the queen to enter and quickly fluffed some pillows in one of the two spartanic armchairs by the fire. Levek was sitting in the other and paled as he saw the queen. Thror was away with Zial as usual. 'I am sorry, our home is...simple. I am not complaining, please do not think me ungrateful!'

Brann held up a hand to make Dara stop babbling. She sat down in one of the armchairs and took a deep breath. Nori stepped back to give them some privacy. He waited in the shadows and eyed Dara darkly. Levek stood up and let his wife sit down immediately. He walked around the armchair and patted his wife´s shoulder for comfort. Branns expression darkened as she thought that Dara had not deserved a loving husband like him.

'The reason why I am here is that I do not trust you.' Brann said right away. 'I do not trust you near my family and I do not trust you under this mountain. The refugee situation has made it impossible for me to banish you from this mountain, again. And, I will not punish your family, especially not your son, for what you have done to us.'

Dara nodded sadly, but Levek barely contained his anger. 'With all due respect, your majesty, have you come here to remind my wife of the fact that she is a castaway in the Blue Mountains and Ered Luin? Because I assure you that we know, your people show us that we are not welcome every single day!'

'Sweetheart, please!' Dara whispered, but Levek was angry and did not listen to his wife.

'I know what Dara did to you and I know that you suffered greatly, but what you do to us is making us pay for that for the rest of our lives! I would rather live on the streets than see my wife exposed to hatred and distrust all her life!' Levek was pale with anger and Brann had to admit that he impressed her. He loved his wife and he stood up for her. And he was right.

'Master Levek, your supervisor in the mines, master Bofur, told us that you are a very skilled and talented worker. He proposed you for the post of the supervisor for the lower silver mines. Master Bofur speaks highly of you and appreciates your honest and pleasant character.' Brann smiled faintly. 'I admire your courage and you loyalty towards your wife, even though I think that it may be misplaced.' Brann expression turned stony as she looked at Dara again. 'For some reason, my daughter and your son got unseperable. My daughter values her friendship to Thror and I will not do anything to stand in her way. But, I will never turn my back on you, regardless on how much your family has managed to settle in.'

Dara lowered her gaze and Levek was about to say something anew, but Brann stopped him with an icy glare. 'And that is why I have come here. To propose a position to you under this mountain. As my courtlady.'

If the situation would not be as unbearable as it was, Brann would have chuckled at the two faces looking back at her. Dara was opening and closing her mouth various times in disbelief and Levek was pale as the sheets. Even more pale than before. The queen actually worried for the miners health.

'Your...your courtlady?' Dara whispered. 'But...this is an honor I do not deserve.'

'It is necessary.' Brann stated firmly. 'I need to have an eye on you. There is no way that I will learn to trust you, but that way I will have you near me and I am sure that your husband will agree that this might improve your family´s reputation under this mountain. In addition, as a former lady you have knowledge of the court.'

Brann folded her hands in her lap and looked at Dara questioningly. 'What do you say?'

As it seemed Dara was not able to say anything. She was still staring at Brann as if she was Durin himself. Even Levek was unable to utter a word.

'Alright.' Brann stood up with a small smirk. 'I will be awaiting your answer this evening. Have a pleasant day.'

The queen strode out of the rooms with Nori on her heels. The spy shook his head in amusement. 'Tell me, Nori. Won´t this provoke bad blood with the other female dwarves in the Blue Mountains? I hope they will not feel insulted that I picked Dara over anyone of them.'

Nori nodded. 'I understand your concern your majesty. But I also think that every female will understand your motives. Taking in the husbands former mistress to have an eye on her is a brilliant step.'

Brann winced at the word mistress, but accepted the spy´s opinion. On her way back, Brann decided to visit Dwana again. Nori disappeared between the pillars of the Blue Mountains as quietly as ever as Brann entered her friends rooms. Mindblowing shrieking welcomed her and made her jump back. Belladonna was running around a playfully shrieking Nain in the middle of the room in circles and both dwarflings were laughing and having a good time. Thorin Stonehelm was about to write a diplomatical letter to Ered Luin and had difficulties concentrating. Not aware of the queen in his rooms, he stood up and took a deep breath.

'BE QUIET!' he yelled and both dwarfling stopped running and shrieking instantly. Belladonna and Nain both looked at him with big eyes and grinned. 'Shouldn´t you two take a nap?'

'No tired.' Belladonna smiled sweetly at him.

'Well, maybe thats because you ate all the sweets I told you not to eat!' Thorin grumbled.

Belladonna shook her head and pointed at the herbal tea left in one of the cups. 'Green tea.'

Brann shook her head in amusement. Belladonna had probably drunk so much green tea that she would be awake for days. In this moment Thorin saw her and was about to apologise, but Brann chuckled and stopped him. 'How are you faring? Was that your green tea?'

'Its the only thing that keeps me awake.' Thorin nodded and pulled over a chair for the queen. 'I apologise, I should have taken care of the princess. I should not have let her drink that.'

'It happens.' Brann shrugged her shoulders. 'As the twins were in this age, I diverted my attention for a few moments and they had eaten all of Dwalins cookies. I think Dwalin is so harsh with them on the training ground because he still has not forgiven them.'

'I can take Nain for a day.' Brann proposed. 'You and Dwana helped us out as the twins were little, now we can do the same for you?'

'We can hardly ask that from you!' Thorin shook his head. 'I cannot ask the king and queen of this mountain to dwarflingsit my Nain.'

'Why not?' Brann smiled. 'You and Dwana need some sleep. And Thorin will get his mind of producing yet another dwarfling too soon with four of them around.'

Thorin Stonehelm smiled at the queens plan. Sometimes females and their plots scared him. But the thought of some sleep in the arms of his wife was too good to refuse.

Brann walked to her rooms with Belladonna and Nain a few moments later. On her way she ran into Dara, who had been on her way to the royal chambers. Out of instinct, Brann pressed Nain closer to her chest and tightened her grip on Belladonnas little hand. Dara noticed the queens gestures and winced in pain and regret. She would never be aböe to make the queen trust her, but she would try.

'My queen. I have considered your offer and I accept.' with a sad smile she looked the queen in the eye. 'And maybe one day, you will be able to tolerate me around your dwarflings.'