Sorry I've been so slow to write this chapter. Here's more of chapter 41. @from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras there's mention of your favorite of my characters in here for you.
Fréaláf shakes his head, “No, my mother would not hold that against you even if she had. I’ve spoken well of you to her. She will adore you like a daughter…a daughter she actually likes.”
“Aren’t all mothers resentful of the woman who steals their son away?”
“I can hardly count as stolen away when she left me at court all those years ago. She will be glad someone wanted me enough to marry.”
Halloth scoffs and moves a step closer, “I’m certain there are plenty of women who have wanted you. Men too from what you’ve told me.”
“To bed perhaps, but not to marry. I do not think that many like the idea of me siring dark haired children who look as though they belong in Dunland.”
“Not even Ethelwine? There would have been no worry of children from that coupling.”
“In another life perhaps, where I could give myself to him fully and not pull him away from all that he loves in Harrowdale. He stayed with me in Edoras for a time, before the coronation, and he was miserable there.” Fréaláf admits, wondering if he should have told her sooner.
“He sounds like a good man,” Halloth says. There is a question there, but Fréaláf isn’t quite sure what it is.
“He stood by me and held me against the darkness of that winter when no one else could. I owe him a debt I can never hope to repay.” Fréaláf tells her as he reaches for her hand.
“Why me and not him?”
“Because you love the king, he loved the man I was before I was any of this. I can make you happy in Meduseld and keep you at my side in public and in private. I could not offer him that.” He explains gently. “You can love someone and know in your heart you are not meant to belong to one another forever.”
She nods, “I am afraid to give myself to you fully. I still worry that there are parts of me that are too ugly for you to truly love.”
His hand settles on the small of her back, “I do not think that will be the case. Most people would have found a way to at least hint at their worst qualities by now.”
“And since you are so wise, what are mine?” Halloth asks.
He pauses, for that question seems dangerous. Still he will not back down from a challenge so easily, “You’re reckless, stubborn and you refuse to let anyone see what you’re thinking. Which I could argue are some of your best qualities as well.”
“How so?”
“You were reckless enough to climb into bed with the king of Rohan on only your second night in Edoras.”
That draws a smile from Halloth, “Well, I was invited and he happened to be the prettiest man I’d ever met. How could I refuse? Besides, he was infuriatingly chaste.”
“You were stubborn enough to pursue me all winter, even when I was too thick headed to see your interest was sincere.”
“As I said, the prettiest man I’d ever met. I couldn’t let you slip away that easily now could I?”
“I only take issue with the last one, I wish you would let me see more of what you think and feel. Sometimes I worry you hide even more from me than I think.”
She leans into him, “I don’t mean to do it, not to you at least. You’ve met my family now, I’m certain you can see why I learned to be so guarded.”
