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Old 05-30-2008, 09:47 AM   #127
littlemanpoet
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The Edge of Faerie
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littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
"If you will have me, I can be your bellowsmaiden so long as you need one."

Harreld looked at her, surprised. She held his gaze. She looked so serious, as if more hung on her words than the need for someone to handle the bellows while he worked.

If you will have me, she had said. I can be your wife she had not said. But did she mean that? Harreld was not sure that he dared to allow himself to think that. He came back to his senses and closed his mouth, for his jaw had popped open a little bit. She was waiting for an answer.

"I would love you - er -" He flushed. "That is to say, I would like you to be my bellowswife-" His blush deepened. This was going badly. "I mean bellowsmaiden!" He pulled his eyes from hers and fumbled with his hammer and dropped it to the ground. He was glad for the distraction as he picked it up and wiped the grass off. His face began to feel not quite so hot.

"Except that when I have a real smithy it will be hot and close, and I would not have you mar your b-" His blush deepened again. Confound it! Why not say it? His flush deepened even more but he was determined. "I would not have you mar your beauty, dear one." He looked straight in her eyes, glad to have said his thought even while his face felt so hot it could catch fire and he'd have no need of a bellowsmaiden! Harreld, he said to himself, you are hopelessly smitten and you know it. No, worse. You love her. He watched her still to see how she would react, happy to have admitted it to himself, and feeling emboldened to maybe sue for her hand despite her higher place in Eorling society. A smith's wife was if not noble, certainly respectable.

Last edited by littlemanpoet; 05-30-2008 at 09:52 AM.
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