[Nurumaiel]

"I would be delighted to show you about," said Mae, curtsying again. "I hope you will pardon me if I show you only briefly, for I have work in the kitchen. However I consider this also a task of the Inn, to show a new guest where everything is." Before she took leave of Osric she leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "Hearpwine is still in Edoras. Perhaps you will see him this evening." And then she moved off, with Sigurd following her. She showed him the kitchen, the hallway, and other places inside the Inn, and then led him out the door to show him the garden and the stable. Within the stable Leofan and his son Gomen were working, and both stopped and bowed politely to Sigurd when they saw him.

"This," said Mae, "is Sigurd, nephew of Master Osric." Gomen's face lit up considerably. He remembered Osric from the spring when they had briefly met, and he had felt very kindly towards him. As Maercwen told the names of her father and brother, Gomen noticed the way Sigurd stared at his sister. He raised an eyebrow in surprise but said nothing until Mae had moved on to continue the tour with Sigurd. Then he turned to his father and said, "Did you see the way Sigurd stared at Maercwen?"

"I did," said Leofan, with more than a little bit of regret.

"Did he think her very beautiful?"

"Undoubtedly."

"Is she very beautiful?" Gomen persisted. "I know I believe she is beautiful because she is my sister, but I want to know what others think. Do young men think her lovely?"

"A young man will think any girl beautiful, even if she be ugly, so long as the look in her face and eyes portray sweetness, kindness, and modesty," said Leofan. "I realized that your mother was beautiful in face long before I married her, but I was attracted to her from the first when I saw her eyes. They were filled with warmth and compassion, and that was what made her sweet. Her beauty merely added to that, but her beauty would have been nothing without it. Maercwen will always be beautiful so long as she keeps that."

"But surely there must be other girls just as beautiful, if not more so, than Maercwen? Then why do all the young men at the Inn pay such special attention to her and no one else?"

"Well, son, if there were many girls of that age at the Inn the young men would be going to and fro, choosing which ones they liked best. But Maercwen is the only girl of that age at the Inn, so doesn't it sound reasonable if I say she's the most beautiful and charming girl of that age at the Inn?"

Gomen smiled. It sounded reasonable, but he couldn't imagine any girl being more beautiful than Maercwen, even if the Inn were full of girls. And his mother was certainly the most beautiful older woman in the Inn and there were many older woman. No doubt, however, that every other young boy in Rohan thought that of his mother and sister.

Maercwen led Sigurd back to Osric and said a few words of farewell before departing for the kitchen. Breakfast, she said, needed to be prepared, and if they wanted anything they would only need to ask her and she would convince Aylwen some way or another. Maercwen also pointed out to Sigurd which of the many people in the Inn were Aylwen and Bethberry. Passing by Giefu and the twins, she kissed each one of them on the head and made faces at them when they glared at her indiginantly, and then disappeared into the kitchen.

Motan and Mereflod had wandered back from the kitchen where they had given one of the handfuls of flowers to their mother, and then went to Bethberry to give the next group to her, and then to Aylwen. Pausing they realized they had one set of flowers left. It had come about easily. Combined they had four hands and they had picked enough flowers to fill each hand. Now they had some flowers left and no one to give them to. Motan glanced shyly up at the new woman who had entered the Inn, the one with the boy standing beside her, the one who she had heard called Durelin, and approached her slowly. Blushing and making a very sweet little picture, she extended the flower-filled hand out, murmuring softly, "Please, ma'am, these flowers are for you."