A month later, on the anniversary of the day Faramir stood next to Éowyn on a wall high above Minas Tirith and asked if she did not live him, finds Faramir having kept his promise: a precious few days' holiday on their own. There is another month yet before they travel to Edoras, and Faramir has had to work all the harder to earn this respite, but for this moment they may enjoy themselves to the hilt.

Éowyn is over three months pregnant by now, and it has not been easy. The nausea is finally easing a little, but she has lost some weight because of it, and been much fatigued and irritable--not least because of the frustration at her body being so out of her own control. But things are easing, and the healers claim the next few months will continue to be easier, so she has tried to take heart.

And at this moment she is standing in a lake, clad only in a shift, waiting for Faramir to join her. The white shift clings to her form, and very clearly shows the new swell of her belly where the babe grows. "Are you not joining me?" she calls, teasing. "For this water is cold, and I had thought I had a husband to keep me warm."