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“Pappa! Pappa! I heard the Eorl of the Mid Emnet spreading word that he wanted an innkeeper for the White Horse Inn!” The young blond headed girl burst into the small house full of excitement. She ran forward and grabbed her father’s hand. “And he wants one quickly and for people to come and talk to him!”
Her father turned towards her, smiling kindly at his daughter. “What makes you suppose the eorl would want to hire an old man like your father – half blind that I am?”
“You are wise, for all your blindness,” the girl said, smiling in return. “And if the eorl knew what he was about, he would hire you, for he would find no better man.”
The elderly man laughed and turned back to his work with chisel and wood. “You over estimate me, daughter, and under estimate other men.”
“Please, Pappa!” the girl said, eagerly hopping up and down beside him. “Please go to him and at least ask if you might take the position! The worst he can say to you is no.”
The father put down his carpentry tools again and turned to his girl. “Fleide,” he said gently. “I am a man who works with his hands. A carpenter…I shape wood. I am not fit for the task of an innkeeper.”
“But you used to be more…when Mamma was alive, you know that. You can do it, if he will have you.”
He smiled again at her. “Fetch me my stick then, and we will go out, since you seem so bent on it. As you said, the worst he can say is no, and we will be no worse off than before.” Fleide smiled again and hurried away to the corner to fetch the smooth, carved cane her father used when he went out. Then together, the young girl and her grey haired father, started out into the streets of Edoras and towards the mead hall.
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