Over the last several days I had found myself sleeping in later and later as I adjusted to my new work schedule, to the point where I was now waking with the rising winter sun sometime late in the morning. I had already been quite accustomed to getting up whenever I liked back at the mountain, and so this new schedule suited me just fine. My body was mostly adjusted to the less comfortable and much smaller bed, and each night I went to sleep well fed and cocooned in enough blankets to allow me to become rather blissfully warm sometime during the night.
Suffice to say, I was quite comfortable in my mornings.
As a result, I was downright unhappy to be woken by a series of loud thumps on my door, much earlier in the morning than I was used to, and only hours after my first report of any substance. I sat bolt upright, my mind racing with possibilities. While I was almost wholly convinced that it was a dwarf from Erebor, here to interrogate me for more details regarding my message, I began to have my doubts as I quickly pulled on the original male garb I was assigned to wear and the pounding shook the door a second time. Maybe someone had seen me using the dead drop. Maybe, it was the two men from last night!
I slipped Nori's dagger up one sleeve - fortunately there was lots of room to conceal it underneath the baggy fabric, and then inched over to the door. I took a steadying breath, preparing myself the way Ganin had taught me, and then waited.
The third time the stranger knocked, I flung the door open on the first thud, grabbed the arm doing the knocking and hauled the owner of that arm across my room into the far wall with all of my weight. The figure, dressed in heavy winter clothing, was still struggling out of my wood pile as I drew the dagger and pointed it threateningly.
Struggling up to full height and sending pieces of firewood toppling across my floor, the man then winced and lifted a hand up to rub his neck.
"Ow... Honestly, ow."
"Hall?" I blurted out, my bravado being overcome by dumb shock.
"Dressing up again, I see," he noted, lowering his hood, "I'll tell you the truth, Eleanor, if I was having trouble deciding if I liked you more as a poor boy or a barmaid, this settled it. Your manly disguise has a bit of a mean streak, not unlike the uncle I told you about, funny enough. You can go back to being a woman any time now if it will keep me from further injury."
I bit my lip and regarded him with a good deal of scrutiny, trying to figure out what in the blazes he was doing here on my doorstop an hour before sun-up, and then another thought struck me.
"Were you following me last night?" I demanded, taking a threatening step towards him.
Hall held up his hands. "Well, following is a strong word." he replied with a nervous grin. "I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't be, you know, bothered by anyone as you walked home."
"And you think sneaking about, invading my privacy, and turning up at my door uninvited doesn't count as behaviour that would bother me?" I challenged, placing my unneeded weapon upon the table.
Hall gulped rather dramatically as his eyes flickered to the dagger I had just set down. "I did knock at least." he conceded, offering up an apologetic smile. "Also, I had news, I wasn't sure if anyone else would be around to tell you, but the city wells, they're closed off."
I snapped to attention at his statement. "Why? What's happened?" I demanded, feeling a sudden sense of urgency.
Hall shrugged most unhelpfully and I fought the urge to shake him. He elaborated upon seeing my burning interest.
"They've just gone bad," he offered, moving to go and sit in my chair even though I didn't invite him to. "Some folks are ill after using the water pulled up from this morning, so they've roped them off. There are already crews out working to break up ice from the river for now, and there's some drinking water stored at the great hall."
I began pacing, formulating my next strategy as I knew, beyond reasonable doubt, that the men I had seen at the bar last night were responsible for poisoning Dale's water supply - or at least in league with those that had planned it. I stood still a moment and closed my eyes, trying to bring up their image in my mind, striving to remember, and then memorize, every detail about them so that I would recognize them again when I found them.
"Eleanor?" Hall ventured. I had nearly forgotten he was still in my presence.
"I have to go out." I told him, swinging around and fixing him with a curt look, hoping he would take it as an invitation to leave. I grabbed my bodice and shrugged it on over my tunic, quickly pulling tight the laces.
"Where?" Hall questioned, making no move to leave.
"Out, just out." I quipped, grabbing my skirt and pulling it on over my trousers, shooting Hall another glare for his blatant invasion of my privacy, and hoping he was feeling slightly uncomfortable that I had to resort to dressing in front of him. He, however, did not seem bothered by it.
"I'll come with you!" he offered gallantly, getting up and hurrying past me to open the door. He continued to stand there, holding it in wait, while I puzzled over the fact that he could be so uncouth as to barge in on me, and then think he could just invite himself along without even knowing where I was going. A part of me had been looking forward to kicking him out in the wake of my leaving, but his helpful and oblivious countenance had deflated my self-satisfaction in doing so. I sighed to myself, grabbed my coat and hat, and then stomped past him into the street, muttering an offhand 'thank you' as I passed.
"How do you know I'm not on my way to attend to some personal business?" I asked while twisting the key in my lock. I turned to look at him pointedly as I tucked the key safely away. "Business of a womanly nature, for example?" I continued, raising a brow and then turning to offer him an arm. If he was going to force his company upon me, at least I expected to be treated like a lady. Besides, I couldn't deny that having him along would give me some small degree of anonymity - the dwarves had been right in that fact at least; a woman wandering around alone was more likely to be remembered than one accompanied by a man.
"Oh please." He chided gently, linking his arm around mine and reaching across with his other hand to pat mine reproachfully. "I grew up in a house with three sisters, my mother, an aunt and my grandmother. I would know if you were in the middle of anything womanly. And even if you were, I'm rather immune to it now."
We walked in silence for a while, leaving my street and passing through a few more quiet alleys before we entered a main thoroughfare, joining the crowd of people that were wandering and gossiping, and all of them meandering in the general direction towards the nearest well. Hall seemed more than comfortable to guide me forward through the masses when I offered no resistance to going in that direction.
As we entered the square at the heart of the district, I could tell by the commotion that Hall had been telling the truth. The well was no longer safe. Small groups of people hung about in clusters about the edge of the square, and the new arrivals, only just now being made aware of the reason for the commotion, were fretting about where they were going to get their water from now on.
Hall led me right through the throng to the well itself, where a man harnessed to the well's winch hung just below the lip of the brick well-lining. He was talking in a hushed tone to a guard-captain who was peering over into the depths below.
"...poor sod must have been drunk off his rocker, stinks of alcohol and all manner of foulness down there. Can't very well bring him up now though with all these peop-" The sound of Hall approaching caused the well worker to break off, but once he recognized my escort the man relaxed. The guard-captain, having heard enough for the moment, left to set his men to work.
"Ah, Hall, it's only you. Awful business, it is. Some chap tumbled down the well and set the water foul. He was submerged 'neath the water when the first folks came to draw this mornin'..." I took a step further, my curiosity overcoming what should have been a natural feminine aversion to death, but when the well worker noticed me his account of this morning's events fell silent and he squirmed uncomfortably where he dangled.
"Oh dear me, beggin' your pardon miss! I didn't see yeh there. I'll spare you any more of the wretched details. Hall, keep her back - this isn't a sight for the fairer sex."
I was about to object, and I got the feeling that even Hall would have spoken up in my defence, given his combined experience with members of the 'fairer sex' in his own family, and my outburst earlier in the day. Neither of us were to be given the chance, though, as the guard-captain began to address the people who were being ushered back by his men.
"Please, return to your homes. Town criers will be sent out when the wells are running clear and clean once more. Until that time, I urge you all to ration what drinkable water you have, and to use river water only for washing and cooking unless it is of the utmost urgency! I repeat..."
The captain went on to repeat his message, but by that time Hall had already bid his farewells to the well worker and was guiding me back out of the square. My mind was racing. From what I had just gathered, it sounded as if the well spoilage was caused by mere accident; the clumsiness of a drunkard perhaps trying to stumble home. Yet, hearing those suspicious men at the tavern, whispering of something set to happen this morning, was just too great a coincidence for me to ignore. Perhaps it hadn't been an accident at all, but cleverly made to look like one.
"I know you had your own business to attend to, but maybe you would be willing to come for breakfast first?" Hall asked, turning to address me and breaking my line of thought. Before I could turn him down, he went on to explain. "Look, I know you can't have much water stored in that tiny little room of yours, but my family has more than enough set aside for a rainy... erm... dry day. Granny grew up in darker times, you know, civil unrest, foreign invasions and the like, so she's a bit of a hoarder."
"Why, Hall, bringing me to meet your family, so soon? What will the neighbours think?" I teased dryly, but if I was honest with myself, I had no water saved at all. It wasn't that I didn't bring some home at the end of each night, but I did have a terrible habit of drinking it all before going to bed. The cold winter air was also very dry, and when wood heat was added to the equation it made my throat feel terribly parched. It was a dreadful inconvenience, causing me to drink water like I had been lost in the desert for some time, and consequently forcing me to get up several times before falling asleep to use the chamber pot.
Hall took my remark as consent, and again when I made no move to resist he led me further out of the square. "Trust me," He assured me as we walked arm in arm. "Once you've met my family, the neighbours will be the least of your worries."
As much as I hated to admit it, I was faced with a simple, pleasing fact: If I continued running into Hall, and given my current luck I likely would, my stay in Dale might not be so isolated after all, and that perhaps might keep me sane at the very least - if the man didn't drive me crazy that is.
I bumped shoulders with a man as we turned down an avenue branching off to the East. It snapped me from my good mood momentarily, and when I turned to see why the man wasn't moving with the rest of the crowd, I recognized him, and it sent a chill down my spine.
It was one of the men from the night before.
I allowed Hall to lead once more, as currently my mind was leaping to all sorts of wild and unlikely conclusions. The man had looked suspicious, there was no denying that, but there was nothing to prove that the man had in some way been responsible for this morning's events.
But what if he was?
It wasn't as though I could do anything about it. My orders were to observe and report, nothing else. I didn't even get a very good chance to observe though, as I suspected changing my plans with Hall would have drawn all sorts of unwanted attention my way. And even if Hall had left quietly, lingering back while the square was evacuated, I would have stood out worse than an elf in Erebor. Besides, it was probably just coincidence.
But what if it wasn't?
All my days spent wiping down beer stained tables and floors, serving men and women too drunk to treat themselves with respect let alone the bar wench - in short, doing everything I had swore never to do again - could finally have paid off. If I uncovered some plot, some dissention in Dale, I could return to Erebor, and my doubting fiancée, with my head held high.
But what if it-
"You know, your lack of any explanation whatsoever means I'll just have to chalk up you dragging me into your house and pointing a dagger at me to pure, unbridled manic behaviour." Hall mused cheerily and rather loudly, perhaps he had been trying to catch my attention again for a while. "Don't worry, though" he continued, "most of the women in my family have had their crazy spells. Dad used to say we were the only sane ones of the bunch." He then nodded towards a familiar crumbling brick wall that we were passing before shooting a sly glance in my direction. Clearly, he wasn't going to let the memory of our first encounter fade away so easily.
I smiled sheepishly despite myself. We were near to the old palace district, an area I had only briefly explored once while still dressed as a male - incidentally where I had met Hall while examining the stonework, and shortly thereafter had decided to do away with that silly disguise.
We turned one more corner and Hall then came to a stop. "We're here!" he announced, and I looked up to see that we had stopped in front of a rather large and complete looking house with a polished cedar door.
Hall was staring at me expectedly.
"Oh." I blurted dumbly.
"Let me guess..." He stated before I could say anything further, having clearly taken my response as less than wholly positive. "You were expecting a house made of shiny white stone. I know, I know, the tan colour they use up north here isn't nearly as impressive as the masonry back in Minas Tirith."
I opened my mouth to say only that it was much larger than I had expected, but he continued as he opened the large, wooden door.
"Yes, I'll admit, it was an adjustment. But really, you can't fault the craftsmanship. We didn't even need dwarven labour to help get the place back in full working order, not that their work is any better than our architects mind you."
Again, any attempt to get a word in edgewise was flouted, this time by a woman who had dashed up to Hall the moment we had stepped inside the warm entranceway.
"Hall, good, you're back!" She beamed, before looking at me and smiling curtly. "Hello." She stated, and then went right back to addressing Hall. "You're just in time. The cook plans to serve a dry breakfast, but granny has put us all on such a dreadful ration of water that we can all scarcely share a pot of tea between us!" She pouted, taking Hall's hand and tugging him towards the house.
"Come talk some sense into her, won't you?"
Hall looked wildly between the two of us as he was pulled with a woman on each arm, holding his ground next to me for a moment.
"I think it's too late to save me, but it's not too late for you!" He urged, and then began to relent to his sister's pull while mouthing 'run!' dramatically.
I was torn between the awkwardness of leaving Hall and the awkwardness of being dragged (literally) into private family drama. Still, I felt like I was overdue for some socialization. Not to mention overdue for breakfast, as my stomach reminded me. Besides, having lived with obstinate, quarrelsome, frustrating dwarves for the past year, I doubted very much that any human family could be quite as difficult. The moment I entered what appeared to be a sitting room, however, I quickly got the sense that Hall's family might be what I would call a handful, to say the least.
A very elderly woman, finely dressed, was perched on a chair and seemed to be simply rolling her eyes at the rather loud arguments of a young blonde woman, who looked to be close to my age.
A middle-aged woman, whom I assumed was Hall's mother, was tending to another girl who was in tears.
The sister who was leading Hall, and, incidentally, myself, came to a stop in the middle of the room, released her brother, and turned to the eldest lady.
"Granny, Hall agrees that your conservative methods are both unreasonable and extreme. We have vessels of water enough to last the winter, yet I'm sure the wells will be clear within the week. Tell her, Hall."
Hall put his hands up, as if warding off any bitter feelings from his granny before he even began to oppose her views. "I have talked to the workmen, they believe they can flush it out before long." he told her apologetically.
"Well, I say there is no harm in being prepared." his granny countered, fixing him with a decisive look. "I did not survive through the rape and pillage of South Gondor by being frivolous, my dears."
The eldest daughter sighed, but simply turned and addressed a man that I had not noticed was standing adjacent to another doorway.
"We would like some tea brought out, a full kettle please, we have company." she told him with some tone of authority. The man bobbed his head and left the room at once.
"Hall has brought a girl home?" the youngest girl questioned, her tear streaked face instantly becoming one of bright curiosity and excitement.
Her enquiry suddenly focused the room's entire attention on me and I smiled nervously.
Hall spoke up before anyone had a chance to say anything else.
"Everyone, this is Eleanor. She's a friend. I know it's too much to ask of you lot, but try not to pester her."
The granny let out a little hoot of a laugh. "That's like asking wolves to not enjoy their kill." she commented just loudly enough for me to hear. I tried not to frown too openly.
"This is my mother, Flora." Hall continued, leading me forward. Flora stepped up to us and smiled warmly. She had kind, yet somewhat piercing, blue eyes and dark shining hair, and though her face displayed her years in the presence of the lines that manifested around her eyes and mouth, her beauty was not yet so diminished - in fact I found her to be rather striking.
"You are very welcome here." she announced in a calm voice. "This is Mabel, my youngest." she directed, looking fondly towards the brunette girl who had been crying when I arrived.
Mabel, now a vision of happiness, grabbed both my hands and beamed at me. She seemed similar in age to Sigrid, Bard's eldest. "It is so nice to meet you. Hall never brings around women... we were beginning to worry."
Hall began to object but his words were cut short by his other sister, the blonde one who had been arguing with her grandmother, as she got to her feet and interjected.
"I'm Adelaide," she said with a smile, "and that's Rosalin."
Rosalin, who had first met us at the door, turned and gave me another curt smile. She seemed to be the first born, though it was her air of dignity that betrayed her age more than her appearance. Clearly she had inherited some of her mother's more eye-catching features. She had sharp eyes and a clever mouth, along with shining dark hair that was immaculately arranged.
"And this is Granny." Adelaide continued.
The grandmother tilted her head and looked at me with an eye of inspection. I realized that, compared to the other women in the room, I was somewhat shabbily dressed. Luckily for me, I was rather used to feeling inferior due to my rather unpleasant beginnings in Erebor, and so I did not feel as embarrassed as I normally might have.
Hall had never given off the impression that he was from a more well-to-do family, but that was clearly the case. I had simply assumed he was like the grand majority of Dale's residents; impoverished from Smaug's destruction of their past livelihood. Then again, I should have noticed that, though he always dressed practically, his winter outerwear was of rather fine quality. That, plus the fact that he always appeared clean and in good health, he was well-spoken, and he didn't seem to have a demanding work schedule. I was now very curious as to what exactly Hall and his family did in order to maintain a lifestyle that seemed quite a league beyond what most in Dale could currently strive for.
I lost the opportunity to ask when the man, I now guessed him to be a servant of some sort, re-entered the room with a tray set for tea.
"Where's Aunt Edna today?" Rosalin enquired as she swept forward to receive her teacup.
"She got off to an early start this morning." Flora explained. "The king has proposed renovating several buildings down near the river, and so Edna has gone to see if any would be fit to store our wares. It would open up new opportunities to us as well, once spring returns and trade on the river opens."
Hall's grandmother let out a haughty laugh in disapproval. "King Bard. I don't recall the bargeman ever accepting that heading."
"But Bard is descended from Girion, Granny." Mabel said kindly as she brought her grandmother a cup of steaming tea. "I think he deserves the title."
"Girion was only ever a Lord to begin with." Granny instructed tartly. "Lord of a city state, no less, the very existence of which depended on dwarves of all creatures."
"Oh, so you are traders?" I questioned, backtracking to hide my discomfort at her somewhat insensitive comment. I smiled at Mabel as she brought me a cup of tea as well.
"Hall, it sounds as if you've told her nothing about our family." Rosalin admonished. "Surely you're not embarrassed of us?"
"Oh Rosalin, leave poor Hall alone." Adelaide countered, speaking out in defense of their brother.
Flora saved us from any further arguing on the part of the two sisters, and then turned to explain to me. "Yes, my dear, we are merchants." She emphasized the last word, looking pointedly at granny, who seemed to have been eagerly awaiting a chance to make that correction for herself. 'Traders' was obviously too uncouth a word to be applied to this family. Flora continued.
"We come from Gondor, where we have quite a profitable enterprise. Naturally, when we got word of the demise of that dreadful creature in the mountain, we couldn't pass up the opportunity of playing a role in the reformation of one of the ancient kingdoms of men."
"Oh, let's be truthful mother. It also just happens to be next to the largest flow of wealth back into the world since the dawning of the Third Age." Rosalin added. "And so while refugees were fleeing South in the wake of the battles fought here, we were travelling North with all the goods and supplies that might be wanting here in Dale."
The rest of the morning passed me by, with most of my time spent listening to Hall's family talk amongst themselves. Shortly after they finished their tea, they broke their fast with freshly baked scones and fruit preserves, which gave me something to occupy myself with while they continued on talking about this and that, business, gossip, and talk of the world abroad. The sisters quarrelled, the grandmother voiced opinions, the mother contradicted those opinions, and Hall was primarily occupied with keeping the peace, but even though I was left alone and only asked questions in passing, it was more welcoming and comfortable company than a night at the tavern could ever present, and so I accepted my situation graciously.
By the time I made excuses for myself and was waiting for their butler to bring me my coat, the conversation had turned to a festival to be held in late winter, spearheaded by Adelaide and her friends. The middle sister had made it her recent life's work to arrange the festival, 'to lift the spirits of the people of Dale' as she put it, and had thus been spending much of her time away from home engaged in that endeavour. She practically begged me to advertise at the tavern.
"...and mother said we can provide food for the event, and your employers, Avis and Cuthbert, will provide drinks, and our next caravan may even bring musicians with it. If we're lucky, there may even be fireworks from the dwarves!" She exclaimed enthusiastically.
She had seemed the most sensible of Hall's sisters, more like him in both looks (the blonde hair) and in mentality, so seeing her so passionate made me relent to her will. I promised I would do what I could to promote the event, and with that Hall escorted me from the sitting room and out into the entryway. Once there, he looked down at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck.
"They can get a little... intense." He apologized after a moment of welcome silence.
"I thought they were lovely." I assured him, but then smiled and added "Although, at one point I was sure your grandmother looked about ready to leap out of her chair to throttle Rosalin."
Hall laughed, but the butler, who had also accompanied us out, looked uncomfortable at this sentiment, and I wondered if maybe all my time spent among dwarves had made me too uncivilized for his liking.
"I should be going." I added, smoothing out my coat. "Thank you for a wonderful morning."
Hall showed me to the door and I bade him farewell
"Oh, and next time you stop by, I promise not to hold a dagger to your throat." I added, and he paused to smile at me before closing the door.
In the background, I could see the butler squirm, and a part of me revelled in it. The dwarves, and their disregard for being prim and proper, had rubbed off on me after all.
The worst part about a high is the inevitable fall that comes afterwards - the crash when too much drink, or caffeine, or sugar wears off. The same is true with good emotions, and I found that after my shift at the tavern that night, I crashed hard.
Loneliness is a corpulent and unforgiving beast. I could feel it ever present, weighing down against my chest, heavy on my mind as the days slowly dredged by. I could feel it waiting for me, waiting for me to return to my barren, isolated shelter so it could fully indulge itself. After visiting Hall's rather animated household, my own quiet shelter seemed positively hermitic by comparison.
It had only been a fortnight since I entered Dale, but I missed Bofur terribly. I was even beginning to remember Erebor through such a nostalgic haze that I could hardly remember what I had ever disliked about it, for my longing to return to its comfort and familiarity had nearly erased my bad experiences within the mountain and had augmented the good ones.
My days had been growing longer, even though I had taken to trying to sleep in as late as possible. Upon waking, I would keep my eyes shut for while, forcing myself to remain within my dreams where I wasn't so alone.
Throughout the following week, I began actively seeking Hall's company, he being the only one I had dared to get to know while trying to be Eleanor. He was quickly becoming more of an actual friend, however, and it was becoming harder and harder to keep my own personality from showing too much through what I had been inventing for Eleanor.
I never mentioned him in any of my reports. It wasn't as if I had anything to hide - it was just that I didn't want to get him and his family caught up in something that had nothing to do with them. That, and a small part of me worried that if I got in too deep - and gathering informants was way beyond what was expected of me - the dwarves would come and get me by whatever means necessary. I had no doubt that if it looked like I was doing anything even mildly more risky than what I had been assigned, Bofur would decide to pull me out, even if it meant exposing me, exposing my lies, and thereby ruining every relationship I had in Dale...
Bard would never trust me again, and his children would doubtless follow suit. Avis and Cuthbert would perhaps treat me respectfully if I ever visited their tavern, but it would be with strained civility, and the regulars would all whisper about me behind my back. And Hall, I doubted Hall would ever have a bad thing to say about me, and that would make my deceit all the more wretched in my mind. He would feign friendship, but things would never be the same, and behind their closed doors his family would all finally agree on one thing: that I was not now, nor should I ever be again, welcome in the realms of men.