Here we are again and once more I don't have sufficient apologies for how long it's been. The creative spark was just absolutely alluding me despite having ample time. I suppose that means it's more of a discipline problem on my end.
I am so sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy this short update!
Chapter Eleven (Eomer)
Around noon the day after I had told Mareke that she was to return to Harad, I went back to our chambers for the first time. I had stayed away all night and only returned when I had heard from the head guard of Meduseld that she and her small party had departed. I thanked the man for the news and asked him to share it with no one else.
I wished I had come back to see Theomund, but did not want to risk an encounter with my wife, though deep down I knew she would not have argued with me.
As she had done with most revelations in our marriage, she seemed to take it in stride and do as she was bid.
I walked around our bedchamber and found that Mareke had taken most of her things, but had left a few Rohirric dresses and some of the heavier garments she would not need in the desert.
A servant entered the room with fresh linens for the lavatory and bed.
"Please see that the Queen's things are packed away," I bid the woman.
"Your Majesty," she replied, with a quick curtsy.
When I returned later that evening, it was as though the Haradrim princess had never shared my space at all.
ooooOoooo
A few days later, I was seated in my private dining room perusing a document regarding the movement of certain of our herds across the Realm for the coming summer, a mug of ale in one hand.
There was a knock at the door and the guard stepped in. "Marshall Elfhelm and Lady Leofwyn," he said, announcing their entrance.
They both gave the appropriate obeisances and I gestured for them to be seated. I tucked the parchment away and asked the lingering servant to fill their mugs of golden ale.
"Will Her Majesty be joining us?" Elfhelm asked.
"If not, we shall not be offended," Leofwyn said quickly. "I noticed that she was not quite feeling like herself for the birthday celebration of the Crown Prince."
"She will not," I replied, saying no more than that.
Leofwyn watched me carefully for a long moment and then looked away as Elfhelm and I began discussing his plans for the Aldburg over the coming summer.
I desperately longed to return to the place of my childhood, but something in my schedule always came up.
"You should bring the Crown Prince," Leofwyn said as they were discussing a May Day celebration. "He should know about your life before Edoras. He should know life outside of the capital so he will understand all of his people as he grows."
I nodded, again trying to hedge away from the topic, knowing that Theomund might not be back in Rohan for years.
Thinking that it would be so long before I saw my son, sent a pang through my heart. I tried not to wonder if I had acted rashly; was sending Mareke away worth losing access to my son for the early years of his life?
As dinner wound to a close, Leofwyn placed her napkin on the table. "Please tell Her Majesty that I will stop to bid her farewell before we leave."
"That will not be necessary," I said quickly, too quickly as I heard it come out of my mouth.
Leofwyn arched a brow in my direction. "Will not be necessary or will not be possible?" She did not say more and instead let us linger in a very uncomfortable silence, or so I found it.
"Eomer?" she finally promptly.
"Leofwyn, it is none-" Elfhelm attempted to help me.
"Where is she, Eomer?"
Elfhelm, knowing there was no stopping his wife once she was on the warpath, looked away helplessly.
"Her Majesty is on her way back to Harad," I said quietly, also not meeting the older woman's fierce gaze.
I had practically grown up in her home before Elfhelm became Marshall of the East-Mark and they had moved to the Aldburg. I had been scolded and even punished many times in my life by Leofwyn and still I found myself afraid of her, though I carried a very powerful title and a much bigger physical frame as well.
"Back to Harad?" Leofwyn drew back. "What do you mean back to Harad?"
"I thought it would be for the best," I said defensively. "She was not happy here."
Leofwyn scoffed. "Unhappy indeed. And I wonder why that was." She looked at me pointedly.
"You forget to whom you speak." My temper rose as her accusations fell at my feet.
"Not at all," she replied swiftly. "You forget who you are."
Before I could speak, Leofwyn was already continuing. "Do you know what the advice I gave Her Majesty was before you were wed?"
She did not wait for me to answer.
"Not to be a burden to you. And from what I could see no one else could have done a better job of that. She did not reprimand you once, did not ask for more than the scraps of attention you gave her, weathered your neglect with a grace and stoicism I did not know it was possible to possess." Leofwyn was breathing heavily and her plump cheeks were growing red.
"Leofwyn," Elfhelm said a bit more sternly.
The older woman looked at me for a long moment. "I had to force you to be with her as your daughter died in her arms."
At that I had to look away, but I heard as Elfhelm pulled his wife to her feet and guided her to the door.
"Forgive her, Your Majesty," he said quietly over his shoulder before departing.
ooooOoooo
Over the course of the next several days, not even ale could silence Leofwyn's words that continued to ring in my ears and I had no interest in bringing a woman into my chambers to see if bedding someone new might help either.
Over and over again, the scene of Mareke lying in her childbed as I took our daughter from her arms came into my head and I could not shake it away. Nor could I stop seeing how awful she had looked, how depressed during her final days in Edoras.
I tried to justify my actions throughout those nearly two years of marriage, telling myself that there had been no mutual feelings of trust or respect, that there had been no attraction.
I did not need to hear from Leofwyn to know that I was a hypocrite, because of course there had been some sort of attraction. The pleasure I had taken in her physical body, and what she had seemed to receive from me, could not be considered a lack of attraction.
Attempting to bury myself in my work did not prove as helpful as I hoped. Without Artanis in Rohan, there were few distractions.
I made poor Firefoot run until we were both breathless and sweaty, flying across the plains, losing the guards who were charged with my protection. I went out every day despite the cold, wet weather of early spring.
One such morning, I walked back into Meduseld, shaking droplets of water from my hair, not paying attention to where I was going.
"Eomer," I looked up to see Eothain standing in the entrance hall.
"What are you doing here?" I asked as he fell into stride beside me.
"I was dispatched to see what is going on," he replied.
When I did not respond, he continued. "Word reached us that Mareke returned to Harad."
"And?"
"And is it true?"
Before answering, I stepped aside and let Eothain enter my study first.
"Are you merely here to do your wife's bidding, Eothain?" I asked.
My friend's cheeks flushed.
"No," he returned as evenly as he could muster. "Though she is distraught at the treatment of her closest friend, that is not why I am here. I wonder what the King of Harad will think about the treatment of his beloved sister. Oyna has said that they are very close; that he loves her dearly. You have insulted his family and the treaty you signed with him."
"Harad still needs Rohan, my friend, I can assure you of that."
"And Rohan needs Harad. Our economy has benefited greatly from that new trade route."
"Then what is the issue? If both Realms still need each other, I do not see what the problem is. She is also still my wife and the mother of the Heir Apparent of Rohan."
"Do not act as though she is being honored. It is sweeping our Realm that you have sent her away in disgrace. No matter how badly Harad needs Rohan, I cannot imagine that King Na'man will sit idly by."
"He does not have the might to do anything else at this point," I replied.
"I do not understand, Eomer. What did she do to warrant such treatment?" Eothain leaned against my heavy desk. "Was it because she lost the child? You seemed to have no trouble conceiving. It would have been easy to have another after an appropriate amount of time."
At the mention of my lost daughter, once again the image of Mareke in our blood soaked bed, holding the lifeless babe flashed through my mind.
"Of course it was not because of that. What kind of man do you take me for?"
"Honestly, Eomer? I am not sure the type of man you are anymore. You are almost entirely unrecognizable from who I've known you to be for nearly our entire lives." Eothain took a deep breath. "I do not wish to presume to tell you how to live your life, but what you have done is a mistake, not only diplomatically, but personally as well."
"You say do not wish to be presumptuous, yet you sit there and tell me what I should and should not do. Why do you not go back to the Westfold and take orders from your little wife?"
"Do not dare to impugn my marriage when yours is in shambles!" Eothain stood up and faced me. "Tell me truly, do you want everyone to be as miserable as you are? Is that your end game? Have you become so bitter and jaded and cynical that you could not see what was right in front of you?"
"And what was that?" I demanded.
"A woman who would have done anything to make you happy," Eothain replied, the fight going out of him.
ooooOoooo
That night, after the sun had set and I had taken a private dinner in my study, I finally returned to my chambers.
Without thinking, my feet took me to Theomund's empty nursery. In the rocking chair near the window, a blanket was still lying on the arm; overlooked when Mareke's things were packed. I picked it up and brought it to my nose, expecting to smell the familiar scent of my son, but instead it still smelled faintly of the sandalwood oil Mareke used.
Longing so intense coursed through my body that it nearly brought me to my knees. I remembered the first time I had smelled it on her; when I took her to bed after our pitiful wedding breakfast.
In quick succession to the yearning desire was regret, the likes of which I had never known. Thinking back to the first day of our marriage, I was ashamed. I had given Mareke so little esteem or honor in front of her new subjects when she would have needed all the help she could have gotten in that regard.
I tossed the blanket back onto the rocking chair and summoned a servant as I left the nursery.
I mumbled my request and then went into the bedchamber to wait.
ooooOoooo
Less than half an hour later, the door opened and closed and I turned to see exactly what I had requested.
"Your Majesty invited me?"
The girl was tall and strong, a typical shieldmaiden.
"Someone like you, yes," I replied.
The girl flushed, looking to her feet, golden hair falling over her shoulders.
"Do you know why I asked you here?"
"Yes, Sire," she replied, looking up at me, boldening a little bit.
"Very good. Let us not waste time then."
The girl, I had not bothered to ask her name and I did not care much to know it, unclasped her cloak and let it fall to the floor. Her heavy wool dress followed shortly thereafter.
I strode across the room to her and my hands were immediately traveling over her body. Her hands did the same, moving lower and lower, until she was holding my manhood beneath my breeches.
For the first time in my life, I did not respond as was natural.
Her grip tightened and she kissed my neck at the same time, guiding, with her free hand, mine to her full breast.
I remained limp, frustration rising.
After a few more humiliating moments, I pushed her away. "Get out."
"Your Majesty?"
"Get out!" I roared.
ooooOoooo
Two days later I was sitting at the head of my council table. Eothain was in attendance as he had not left Edoras, but we had not spoken again.
"Where shall we begin?" I asked.
"Your Majesty, it has come to our attention that the Queen is no longer in the Realm. It is being said that she has returned to Harad indefinitely."
"So it is said," I replied, not wanting to give more away than I had to.
"Have you considered having the marriage annulled?" The same man asked. "If you are going to live separately, there is no reason to not take another wife and have more children."
"The Crown Prince-" Eothain began.
"Could be taken care of, provided for," another man said, cutting him off. "But there is no reason to think that you could not have many more sons."
"Rohirric sons," another man interjected.
"There are many appropriate shieldmaiden daughters, nobly born," one man said, the entire room knowing full well that he had several such daughters that he would love to sit on the throne next to me.
"I will not be entertaining an annulment," I said firmly. "And I will not listen to the notion that the Crown Prince be replaced. He is half mine so that surely should be enough for you all."
"Of course it is," a councilor said quickly, sensing, correctly, that my temper was rising. "We merely want you to be happy. You have worked so hard for our Realm, you deserve a happy domestic life."
I knew that they wanted more than my happiness. They wanted one of their daughters to rule as Queen, to be in such high favor that lands and riches would be granted.
"You do not know of what you speak," I said through gritted teeth. "The Queen has been nothing but agreeable. She has born the son you all urged me to have without relenting. She has tried to be what this Realm needs." I got to my feet and looked at them all evenly. "I will hear no more of this."
I caught a glimpse of Eothain's stunned expression as I left the chambers.
ooooOoooo
A month later, I prepared for the most intimidating encounter of my life to date. Just after I had woken up that morning, a servant alerted me that Artanis' party had crossed the border into Rohan and she would be in Edoras by dinner.
I had no idea what I was going to tell her about Mareke and Theomund, most of all because I had begun to second guess my decision to send them away.
And so I spent an entirely unproductive day in my study, waiting for word of my daughter. Initially, I thought I would meet her in the stables, but thought better of it, knowing that she had inherited my temper and I did not want more people to be witness to such a spectacle than was necessary.
When she walked through the door of our shared chambers, I watched her face fall when she saw only me.
"Welcome home, daughter," I said, as cheerfully as I could muster.
In the few short months she had been gone, Artanis had celebrated her eighth birthday and grown quite a bit, seeming to be a completely new child when I saw her; inching closer and closer to adulthood.
"Thank you, Papa, but I must say, I had expected more of a greeting. Is Mareke nursing Theomund?"
"She is not," I replied.
"Then where is she? I would very much like to see them both," she peered around me to be sure that I was not hiding them.
"I am afraid that is not possible, Artanis."
"Not possible?"
"No." I gestured for her to sit on one of the sofas where refreshments were waiting for her. "Please eat. You have had long travels."
"I am not hungry. I would like to see my stepmother and brother. Where are they?"
"They are in Harad," I said quietly.
"Harad? What do you mean?"
"Mareke is visiting her family, introducing them to Theomund."
Artanis arched an eyebrow. "And when will she return?"
"That is yet to be seen."
Artanis seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Did you send her away? Did you send her away because she did not please you?"
I sighed. "Artanis, it is so much more complicated than you can imagine and I hope you never have to understand something like this."
"If I have a husband who sends me away, I will understand it perfectly."
I looked up at that, shocked at her intelligence and clarity.
"And me, Father?" she asked, not using the normally endearing 'Papa.' "If I displease you, will you banish me to Dol Amroth?"
"Of course not!" I reached across the table between our two sofas and tried to take her hands, though she yanked them away from me. "Trust me, Artanis, there is nothing you could do that would ever displease me."
"How can I trust that when I never saw Mareke do anything but be good to you and me and then Theomund? I could be the best girl in the whole world and still you might not be happy with me, just as you have never been with Mareke."
There you have it! As I said, this one was short, but it moved us where we needed to go. I will try my best to get back to regular updates. I miss these characters and those of you who have faithfully reviewed. I hope to hear from you again for this update! Don't forget to make sure that Email Opt-In is enabled in your account settings so that you're getting updates from your favorite authors!
Happy reading,
Avonmora