Eowyn's heart lightens considerably when they leave for Alburg. It is not merely the fewer responsibilities pressing on her, or the fewer eyes watching them (and interrupting), or even the fact that Eomer has clearly given up on any attempt to guard her virtue.
("Don't be foolish, and in Bema's name don't tell me, I don't want to know," was about the run of it, and she'd merely laughed and pointed out the hypocrisy of it all given his own experience, and he'd covered his ears. A most satisfactory discussion between brother and sister.)
No, it is more being away from the Meduseld. It grieves her to acknowledge the fact, but there is no question that she has felt a certain constraint from being there...less present duties, and more dark memories. Already they fade, are rewritten by new and more joyous days, but still they linger. Still she feels herself torn between the past life that has not quite let her go, and the new life she has not quite begun.
There are fewer shadows to chase her heels in Alburg, and what griefs happened here were long ago, and easier to accept. She tells Faramir more of her father on the journey there: how angry she was at him for being so foolish as to get himself killed with his tendency to run headlong into battle (a tendency she does at least admit she and Eomer both share, though they at least try to keep it in check; their father never did).
She does not speak much of her mother.
But for all that lack, she is more at ease on the ride across the plains, and that remains once they reach the house. The staff there all knew her as a child, and have more than a few stories to tell. If most of them are at her expense, they are at least all told with affection. A few of the staff, most notably the cook, are at first inclined to treat this lord of Gondor coldly, but gradually they begin to thaw as they watch how he treats Eowyn. As they see how much she smiles when she is near him.
They have been here but two days, much of which has been spent in putting things to rights and ensuring that all in the area have what they need in supplies. But today, wonder of wonders! She and Faramir ride out so she may show him the lands around the house. Unaccompanied. They should not go too far, for all that it is unlikely any bands of orcs remain in this area, and they are armed (Eowyn with a bow, rather than a sword). But unaccompanied.
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timeasmymeasure
Perfect except dammit now I have to BS Alburg! ;)
Date: 2018-09-02 10:51 pm (UTC)("Don't be foolish, and in Bema's name don't tell me, I don't want to know," was about the run of it, and she'd merely laughed and pointed out the hypocrisy of it all given his own experience, and he'd covered his ears. A most satisfactory discussion between brother and sister.)
No, it is more being away from the Meduseld. It grieves her to acknowledge the fact, but there is no question that she has felt a certain constraint from being there...less present duties, and more dark memories. Already they fade, are rewritten by new and more joyous days, but still they linger. Still she feels herself torn between the past life that has not quite let her go, and the new life she has not quite begun.
There are fewer shadows to chase her heels in Alburg, and what griefs happened here were long ago, and easier to accept. She tells Faramir more of her father on the journey there: how angry she was at him for being so foolish as to get himself killed with his tendency to run headlong into battle (a tendency she does at least admit she and Eomer both share, though they at least try to keep it in check; their father never did).
She does not speak much of her mother.
But for all that lack, she is more at ease on the ride across the plains, and that remains once they reach the house. The staff there all knew her as a child, and have more than a few stories to tell. If most of them are at her expense, they are at least all told with affection. A few of the staff, most notably the cook, are at first inclined to treat this lord of Gondor coldly, but gradually they begin to thaw as they watch how he treats Eowyn. As they see how much she smiles when she is near him.
They have been here but two days, much of which has been spent in putting things to rights and ensuring that all in the area have what they need in supplies. But today, wonder of wonders! She and Faramir ride out so she may show him the lands around the house. Unaccompanied. They should not go too far, for all that it is unlikely any bands of orcs remain in this area, and they are armed (Eowyn with a bow, rather than a sword). But unaccompanied.
Small wonder that Eowyn is radiant.