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Old 08-02-2008, 02:25 PM   #197
littlemanpoet
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The Edge of Faerie
Posts: 7,072
littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Rowenna

There was no scrubbing to do since there was no Hall with no floor. This meant that Rowenna found it hard to find someplace to go where she could be alone with her thoughts, and today was proving to be like most others at Scarburg. So she asked Frodides what needed doing. This time it was go to the curing shed and get venison to be used as strips of bacon as they had no pig.

So she walked toward the curing shed, her mind flitting to this and that, and, as it had over the last month, somehow hovering like a hungry bee over the new honey it had found in the person of Nydfara. They had barely talked at all, spoken mere pleasantries one might expect from an acquaintance, but she could not help thinking about him; and she could not help stealing glimpses of him when he was at table or elsewhere around Scarburg.

He had a good look to him, and was not weak of build. He was always very quiet, keeping to himself most of the time. And he kept his thoughts to himself; but Rowenna could tell that he was always thinking, always ruminating on something, some secret; for she had watched him enough to know that when he pursed his lips and seemed to chew on his right cheek right at the lips, something not good was on his mind, for this always accomanied a frown however slight.

This man had been spying on Scarburg, and been found by Dan and brought to Eodwine. She had asked Eodwine what he thought of Nydfara, and for answer had received first a frown, then a look of rumination, and finally noncommittal words: "Too early to tell. We shall have to see."

And this meant that Eodwine was holding back on trusting the man; she was sure of it. She wanted to find out what his secrets were, but did not know how to go about asking unless it were to make herself desirable to him; how else to interest such a man? One did not just walk up to such a private man and ask him, "so what are you thinking?"

She entered the shed and picked out a well salted stide of venison and started on her way back to the baker.

Just forget about him! she said to herself, for you have an eorl to win. Yes, she knew this was her goal, and when she focused her attention on Eodwine and doing and being those things he had said he sought in a wife, thoughts of Nydfara faded ... until the next time she saw him, which was all too often in this small camp. And then she would try not to stare, and she would wonder, and play with her hair, and she would go about her errands and duties with a little bit more of a saunter than she usually did; at least when Nydfara was within sight.
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