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Thornden took his leave upon finishing his breakfast. Eodwine congratulated himself on not being overly curt with the lad. Lad!? He was a grown man, for all his earnestness.
Falco sauntered up with Lefun and Ritun in tow, and took a seat next to Eodwine. Lefun and Ritun sat across from them, their double torsos taking up twice the chair space.
"I bid you good morning," Eodwine said to both of them. He looked to Falco. "Have you stayed out of trouble so far today?"
"Now whatever do you mean by that? I'm no trouble maker!"
"I think others might disagree."
"What, about Garmund? Aye, they might, and if they do they make more of it than they ought to. Where is the boy?" Falco looked around the room as if expecting to see the boy pop up from beneath a table.
"He has been set to sheep sheering across the road, he and Cnebba."
"What ever for? They're just boys! They should be allowed to play! In the Shire-"
"Well I know how you hobbits treat your young ones. With the Eorlingas it is different."
"More's the pity," Falco murmured. Lefun and Ritun were looking at the two of them with an expression of mixed humor and mild astonishment. "What is the matter, Rilef?"
"Speak you much before you eat!" said Lefun. Both of them grinned.
"And you speak as little as ever!" Falco retorted. "I'll change that!"
Just then a man walked across the Hall and stopped at the head of the table. They looked up. He was staring at Lefun and Ritun, his fingers standing at attention on the edge of the table. Eodwine's eyes went wide and he rose.
"Randvér! 'Tis good to see you!" He pushed his chair away and went over to his friend and gave him a bear hug.
"Well met, my friend and lord!"
"Ah but do not you be calling me lord unless we're sitting acourt! I got your letter! Where is your daughter Ginna? Did you bring her?"
"Aye, she is out by the stables, having failed to follow me inside." The man was mildly put out apparently. An embarrassed silence loomed after the man's confession.
"Well! Allow me to introduce my friends!" Eodwine made introductions to the garrelous and tongue tripping Falco, and to the tongue-tied Lefun and Ritun, their nervousness showing profoundly, which did not help Randvér's nervousness at all. Eodwine distracted them. "I would meet your daughter. Let us go to her, and afterward you and she can eat with us."
Randvér agreed and the two went outside where they found Ginna and Léođern giggling and talking, walking hand in hand, about to round the corner toward the back.
"Ginna!" her father called.
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