He turned the conversation back to his own expense as a distraction, and the goal is accomplished when she smiles and the tension between them eases further. Faramir would willingly fall into ever fishpond in the city in truth to have her smile thus. As she speaks of the Warden confining him to his rooms, he snorts agreement, for the Warden threatened exactly that. "Valar, no. Confined to these grounds is hard enough."

He glances at her at that addition, and sees an echo of her unspoken words in her eyes, and that eases him further. He smiles, though again it is rueful. "I know. I have letters from many of them in my room, but the Warden has forbidden me to tend to any such work save for an hour later this afternoon." He rubs his forehead, which still aches, though the dreadful tea is helping. "So perhaps I am safe and he cannot send me back to my room, for fear of my disobeying him in that manner instead!"