Part 23

When Legolas returned, Eowyn was waiting for him, sitting in the bay window of their bedchamber, wrapped in a blanket.

The couple seldom argued, but both were aware that Legolas’ putting his responsibilities to Aragorn above his friendship for Arador, and refusing to intervene on the latter’s behalf, was threatening to come between them.

As Legolas entered the room their eyes met and, for a long moment, they looked at one another. Then Eowyn rose to her feet and took a step towards him, and Legolas pulled her into his arms and held her close.

“I am sorry, Melmenya,” he whispered.

“I wish we had never come here, Lassui,” said Eowyn. “I shall be so glad to go home. I would rather have spent Yuletide with Ma Everill and her ‘boys’—or, better still, fighting orcs at Minas Athrad.”

“Have you been drinking spirits?” he asked, with a sudden smile in his voice.

“One glass!”

Legolas backed to the chair, and sat down, pulling Eowyn onto his lap; she settled with her head on his shoulder. “I could not sleep,” she explained, and described her trip to the kitchen and her conversation with Arador.

“What do you think he meant?” asked Legolas.

“I am not sure, Lassui. But I keep remembering something Ma Everill said about the Reeve—that he had run her out of Newhome because she knew him too well. At the time I just assumed that they had been lovers—”

“So did I.”

“But Ma has some very disreputable friends— ”

“Like Jemmy the Key.”

“Exactly! So, suppose she was actually accusing him of something criminal? A man who uses his position to extract money from one person is probably doing it to others, and may be involved in other rackets—”

Legolas laughed, fondly. “Where did you hear that word, Melmenya?”

“And, I was going to add,” she said, swatting his arm, “that you were right to refuse to make a deal with him, and hide his dishonesty from Aragorn, but I will not give you that satisfaction now.”

Legolas kissed the top of her head. “So,” he said, more seriously, “are you thinking that Arador knows of these other ‘rackets’?”

“And intends to use them to put pressure on his father—yes, perhaps. And, as far as any fatherly love for him is concerned, that could surely be described as final, could it not?” said Eowyn.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Legolas said, “Was I right to allow Ma Everill to continue making her blue, Melmenya?”

“Hmm,” said Eowyn, thoughtfully. “I do not doubt that Ma and Jemmy stole the recipe from its inventor, and I do not doubt that she uses Jemmy—or her boys—to, er, encourage people to do what she wants. But she is giving the people of Eryn Hollen hope, and they seem content. And it is better to have the workings there, where we can have some control, than to drive her away and have her destroy somewhere else.”

“My thoughts, exactly,” said Legolas.

...

The following morning, at breakfast, the Reeve made an interesting announcement: “My son and I have come to an agreement,” he said. “I will permit him to return to the Colony, and you may employ him as you see fit.”

Eowyn glanced at Legolas, and they both looked to Arador, but the young man’s expression gave nothing away.