[piosenniel]

Pio lathered up the soft scrub brush and ran it in lazy circles on Mithadan’s back. Cook had asked Ruby and Buttercup to fill the large cauldron with water and she had heated it over the large cooking fire to a pleasantly warm temperature for his bath. Prim had provided the refreshing bath salts from the supply Gammer Nutmeg brought round once a month for the benefit of the guests at the Inn. And Hob and his assistant had drug in one of the unused horse watering tubs big enough for a tall Man to comfortably bathe in.

This was the third round of bathwater, and it appeared from the relative clarity of it, that the main layers of grime and dirt had already been scrubbed and rinsed off with the first two fillings. This last one was for sheer enjoyment and relaxation. And Pio was hoping that he was very relaxed as she approached him with her concerns.

They had been talking about the small details of daily life – little things that had happened that each had missed out on with the other in their long absence from one another. Mithadan filled her in on his refit of the Lonely Star and his success in selling the dagger they had brought from Númenor. He talked about his visits to his brothers’ houses in Lond Lefnui, and some offers made to him to commission the Star for trading voyages.

Pio had prattled on about daily life in Bywater, and especially at the Inn. She had to repeat herself several times when she told him of the dinner party that she and Cami had given last night for Bilbo and Frodo. Mithadan allowed for the fact that Bird had arrived last evening, but he was still skeptical that it was indeed the Cami that they knew who was now staying at the Inn. And Pio had spent the better part of an hour explaining exactly how the reunion had come about, and promising that as soon as Cami returned to the Inn, Pio would bring her in to see Mithadan.

‘Your meeting with Cami is only a minor concern for me, Mithadan. I know, for a fact, she does exist here, in this time. And it will only be a matter of getting you two together to show you that I have not somehow gone over the edge into strange fantasies. ’ She poured a small quantity of mint shampoo into her hands, and working up a good lather, scrubbed the layers of grease and dirt from his hair. Two pots full of rinse water for his silvered mop and she deemed him squeaky clean from stem to stern.

He stretched out in the tub, leaning his back and head against the high side. Pio had obliged him with the addition of several steaming pots of water and he could feel the tight knots in his muscles begin to loosen. Pio sat on a stool behind him, working the tension from his head and neck with her long, strong fingers. Little curls of steam moved upward from the surface of the water, and Mithadan, eyes closed, was just on the verge of drifting off to sleep, when a sentence or two she had just uttered drifted beneath the layers of his exhaustion and prompted his attention.

His eyes popped open, and sitting up in the tub, he turned to look at her. ‘What did you just say?’ He shook the water from his ears, hoping he had somehow misheard her. ‘The Vala,’ he prompted, ‘what did you say about him?’

‘No use dissembling,’ she thought to herself. She sighed, and the whole story of Lorien and Cami and his message to her about Maura came tumbling out, interspersed with descriptions of the Vala’s fondness for mead and ale and his subsequent state of drunkenness. ‘You know that for the most part, I do not have a high opinion of the Valar and their dealings with the creatures of Arda. The brusque manner in which he delivered his message to Cami, and her tears pushed me to the edge. And a little beyond, to be honest. I have to admit I was not very politic in the handling of the situation.’ She explained, in a very brief manner, the incident with the knife, how Bird had stayed her hand, and how she had, in the end, thrown him out of the Inn.

Mithadan blanched beneath his tan, his eyes widening at her words. ‘Oh, Piosenniel,’ he said in a quiet tone, ‘what have you done?’

‘To be truthful, I am not quite sure what I have done. The possibilities, though, all unclear to me, weigh heavy on my mind. I do know I would not have my dislike for this Vala cause any pain for Cami - she has enough pain to deal with already. Nor would I have it cause problems for any others of those I love.’ At this her arms went protectiveley around her belly.

She took his water wrinkled hand and nestled her cheek against it. ‘But I was hoping, now that you are here, that you might see your way to somehow smooth this over for me . . .’