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Since the messenger had come the previous day bringing word from Edoras that Eodwine was coming, everyone at Scarburg had been working hard to prepare the Hall for his homecoming. The news had caused a reaction much like a stick in an anthill.
Everything had calmed and settled since Athanar's arrival at Scarburg. Distrust and disagreement had died down or been smoothed over. The news of Eodwine's immediate return, however, brought hidden feelings back to the surface. New doubts and questions came into some people's minds. Would Eodwine take his old place as Eorl? If he did, would Athanar go back to Edoras? If he did not, what would Eodwine do? Would he and Saeryn go to Edoras, perhaps? They could not have two eorls at Scarburg, and the men who had served Eodwine and known him as lord still considered him their leader.
Saeryn was oblivious to these feelings in the men. Her thoughts were wholly on making the place as much like home as she could, and on how eager she was to see him again. She had recieved his letter nearly a month ago, telling her that he had woken and was mending and intended to return. Falco had gone to him in Minas Tirith, but since then, she had not heard from him and she had no idea that he was back in the Mark, much less in Edoras and on his way home.
And so when the day of his arrival dawned, Saeryn was already out of bed and at work. She could not be still. Most of the work had been done the previous day already, but she still found things to put her hand to. Kara and Fordides begged her to sit down and rest, but she put them off until there was absolutely nothing left to be done.
"I shall ride out to meet him," she announced.
"You cannot ride out to meet him!" Fordides objected. "A woman in your state does not ride out to meet anybody."
Kara looked at her and tried to convince her more gently. "Eodwine would not wish it, Saeryn. You should not go out in this weather on a horse."
Saeryn smiled a little at them, but did not answer either one of them. After a few moments, when the conversation had turned and Kara and Fordides were discussing something between themselves, Saeryn slipped out. She wrapped herself warmly before going out to the stables and finding her horse. She avoided Leof as she fetched the animal and took him out to saddle and bridle him.
With a little difficulty, but not much, she succeeded in hefting the saddle up onto the horse's back and then cinching him up herself. Mounting was another obstacle she had no considered with her swollen belly, but this, too, she overcame by finding a bucket to give her extra height to mount him from. She swung up into the saddle and breathed a sigh both of relief and excitement. It had been three months since she had last ridden, and she loved to be back on her horse again.
She only had a moment to reflect on this when she heard Leof entering the stables. Quickly, she gathered her reins and urged her horse into a walk, and then a trot, and she exited the place before Leof could protest or try to stop her.
They were out in the cold winter air. It stung her cheeks and her eyes, but it filled her with life and excitement. Her horse lifted his head and whinnied, his breath clouding before his nostrils, and then they went off at a brisk trot up the sloping hill away from Scarburg and towards the road, and towards Eodwine.
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