[Arien]

Carmalita gazed up at the tower, she was lost for words even though she had seen it before it had lost none of it beauty. For a few moments the company stood in awe of the tower and then began to move again. The dismounted and lead the horses a long in pairs through the bustling streets, she remembered the other night beside the fire with Bregand….

She slowly walked over to where Bregand was sitting, still awake even though his watch had finished. He was looking over his maps and charts. He saw her coming but continued to work.

“I am sorry..” she said her face to his, but he did not look up. “I did not mean to be so short tempered with you..”

He lifted his head and sighed, “That is ok, you are right I should not of just discarded my horse like that.”

“And thank you for the ribbon” she smiled and touched the red flowing ribbon which was tied her hair. “You wonder do you not why I don’t have a husband?”

Bregand did not answer, but instead wore a guilty look upon his face. As she stared at him he slowly nodded his head.

“It is not a crime to be curious!” she laughed.

“Yes it is, please forgive me you do not need to tell strangers about your life, it is yours not theirs.” he picked up a book again and started to read it. Carmalita was getting annoyed now. He wanted to know, why did he not just ask her? She would tell him, but only because she trusted him. And for some other reason she wanted him to know she was not fully to blame for Crystals birth.

She pulled the book away from his lap, “You are right, I wont tell strangers,” he looked a little dismayed and upset, “but I will tell friends….” she looked up into his eyes again and smiled. He was such a caring person, and Carmalita could not help that strange feeling she got .

“I was 14 and I went to live with my father for a while. He is a Ranger of Ithilien, a tall and proud man. He set down a lot of rules for me, a lot. For about a year and a half I got along fine, helping them, cooking. I learnt many healing and fighting skills. Then I met him…….HIM!” she said his name with disgust, “He swept me off my feet and even though he was nearly twice my age I did not care. He was loving, kind, handsome,” she looked up at Bregand who had slight tinge of envy in his eyes. “….well I thought he was. When I was 15 I fell pregnant with Crystal, his child. I told him and he left, he left!” she battled with the rebellious tears that started to form in her eyes, she tried to blink them, hold them back. “I told my father, and he sent me home in a rage, vowed to kill the man who had done this. I begged him not to….I do not know what happened. There you have it! I was foolish…” there was a silence and Bregand’s face was now the face of pity, “don’t pity me, “she scowled her face now flushed and sticky from the few tears that had drifted down her cheeks “ You must think I am stupid!”

“No, no I don’t …I..” he stopped and sighed, “well it was you decision ?”

Carmalita looked into the fire, she would tell him. “He made me…he took advantage of me, but I was too naïve to know that then.”

Bregand looked horrified, he did not say anything but simply embraced her in his arms. She withdrew away and looked at him, the blurry figure in front of her. She had told no one that, no one. What had made her tell him? She did not know. They sat by the fire a little longer, in silence, then Bregand returned to his things and left Carmalita alone.

He had said nothing of the former night during the journey and the troubled her, surely he thought her sick and twisted. She winced and stared up at the tower again, Gondor would give her no comfort.