The White Horse Inn, Act III

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Saeryn glanced uncaringly at her clothing. Surprisingly, her breeches and blouse had entirely avoided the mess. She wiped a splash of something unidentifiable off of her hand and grinned.

"M'lady Giedd, I think I have some dry clothing that would fit you, at least until your own are no longer playing host to breakfast." She smiled the question.

"My apoligies, young miss, but I'm afraid I missed your name. Who might you be?" Saeryn froze, thinking quickly. Though her recollection was nearly what it had been before the fall, she most certainly preferred that her identity remain safely inconspicuous. Where was Degas when she needed his quick wits? He was the morning person, not her, and yet she'd seen him not even when she infiltrated his room in the early hours to borrow a shirt.

"My name is Saeryn." she replied with a friendly smile. "I have been travelling and this seemed as good a place as any to stop for a time."

"As good a place as any," Falco repeated. "Why you said that you'd been here with--" Saeryn glared with a look that could cut glass.

"I said that my brother had been, and that I'd had word of the Inn's quality through him. In my travels, I came across The White Horse, and decided to stay for awhile. Might I find you something dry, m'lady?"

[VanimaEdhel]

“I daresay you might,” Giedd said, a note of relief in her voice. On a normal day, Giedd would most likely have enjoyed the predicament of such a lady from afar. She probably would have laughed at the poor young woman, but been the one to offer the clothing, as this new girl – Saeryn, she said her name was – did. She looked down at her clothing again as she followed Saeryn back to her accommodations. Giedd had noticed the brief exchange between Saeryn and Falco, but decided not to press anything – it seemed as though all of these people had their secrets, and Giedd was not about to be the one to try to force them to relive their histories, as they did not seem to contain entirely pleasant recollections.

Giedd followed the girl into her room. The rooms in the White Horse were always pleasant, Giedd thought. Bêthberry certainly did a good job seeing that even those who had the least to contribute to secure a room had a comfortable experience. Giedd smiled again as she looked around. Saeryn soon handed Giedd some clean attire, then excusing herself to allow Giedd some privacy to change.

After she donned the dry clothing, Giedd paused, mildly wondering whether she dared request that Bêthberry take charge of cleaning the old frock. Giedd was perfectly capable of doing such things on her own, but it had been such an…odd day thus far. Nothing was normal – the least of which involved meeting this man Eodwine, and becoming so immersed in the conversations and arguments of complete strangers. Giedd had never found herself to be an interesting person – her most recent occupation before she took up that of a seamstress had been the care of her parents.

Giedd paused before surrendering Saeryn’s room back to the rightful occupant. She looked around once again at the room. Never had she stayed in a hotel, for she had never traveled outside of the walls of her own city. To be quite honest with herself, Giedd had never seen a reason to do so. Her brother Rynan came to visit her if he wished, and his company, along with that of his wife, was plenty.

Meanwhile, it seems that the people she had now taken up conversation with traveled regularly. Giedd wondered idly if now was not the time to venture out into the world? She was not young and had no knowledge of what lay outside Rohan, but these people seemed to have more adventure in their lives than she did. Certainly, adventure was not everything: look at how so many of them responded to personal questions with silence and sorrow! They all seemed to have dark pasts – darker than Giedd’s certainly. Did she really want to introduce such things into her life right now?

Giedd forced herself out of her reverie without answering the last question she posed for herself. After gathering her soiled clothing in her arms, she turned and left the room, where she found Saeryn awaiting her.

“Everything fits sufficiently?” Saeryn verified, smiling at Giedd.

“Yes. And thank you ever so much,” Giedd said, smiling back warmly. “I think I am also fully prepared to venture back out into the rowdiness, if it has not subsided.”

“I doubt it has,” Saeryn said, shrugging slightly, although she led the way back. “Unless Bêthberry has put her foot down.”

Giedd followed Saeryn back out to the waiting group. Though there seemed to now be a semblance of order, Giedd was not prepared to bet any of her earnings that it would last for long. She had a feeling that trouble followed many of the men involved in the soiling of her clothing – an innocent sort of trouble, more along the lines of mischief, but nonetheless, a trouble she would have to ready herself for if she planned on spending too much more time with them.

Bêthberry intercepted Giedd almost immediately, a rather grim look on her face, though she still demonstrated the greatest civility.

“I do apologize, Giedd,” she said. “I hope that, as the intrusion occurred here, you will allow me to see to it that these,” she indicated to Giedd’s folded clothes, “are sufficiently cleaned for you?”

“Thank you!” Giedd exclaimed, surprised despite her inner hope that this would be Bêthberry’s offer. “I mean, yes, that – that would be lovely, in fact.” She handed over the clothing to Bêthberry, who in turn handed them to a girl and gave her brief instructions.

Second to greet her was Eodwine. Initially, he greeted her with the deepest concern, but, upon finding her once again in good spirits, he smiled.

Giedd looked at this smile as she rejoined the table, where all of the ruffians simultaneously apologized and accused one another of causing the disturbance. Looking at Eodwine, Giedd decided that it would be worth the danger of reliving such a disaster to converse with such a smile. She found herself, in fact, smiling back at Eodwine while she contemplated this notion.

[Nerindel]

As the delicious smells of breakfast wafted through the open kitchen window of the white horse inn, a young girl who had stopped only to rest her wary cracked, bare feet, sat on the low wall to rear of the inn hungrily breathing in the mouth-watering smells. A decision she regretted instantly as her stomach tightened in pain, protesting at it’s long emptiness. It had been several days now since she had last managed to salvage something half edible and it was beginning to tell on her, the rags she wore now practically hung off her skinny malnourished frame that only the tatty brown shawl that she wrapped so tightly around herself seemed to keep them in place.

Fat wet tears streaked her dusty face as she looked longingly at the inn she was so tired and hungry but what little money she had once owned had long gone, but she could not go back not after … she swallowed hard not wishing to relive that night , the night she had been forced to leave her home and her country. Hugging tight the long heavy object hidden beneath her shawl she sobbed quietly wondering what her father if he where still alive would think of what she had done and what she had become.

The sound of a door opening and voices floating on the morning air startled her out of her shame and self pity she quickly hid behind the wall not wishing to be noticed and watch as someone she thought must be the inns cook carry a large pot of scrap food across the yard . ‘oh no a compost heap!’ she sighed disappointedly, watching as the woman heaped the contents of the pot onto the already rotting vegetation. She did not relishing the thought of raking through decomposed vegetables searching for something half edible. But as she watched and as luck would have it the woman returned across the yard with something tucked under her arm, bread by the looks of it and sure enough putting down the pot the woman from the inn began to tear off strips and throw them to the waiting birds, but before she could finish a call from within the inn disturbed her and putting down the bread she turned and re-entered the inn.

Seeing her chance the young girl scrambled over the wall, snatched up the bread and ran hoping to find somewhere quiet to enjoy this chance meal. But weakened with hunger and lack of sleep she only made it as far as the inn’s stables, However finding it quiet she carefully snuck inside and finding an empty stall at the far end of the row she collapsed on the straw and began eating hungrily at the day old bread.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Saeryn smiled to see the happy faces on Eodwine and Giedd. She excused herself politely and, taking a pair of apples, headed to the stables.

Surely my dearest is well cared for, but there's no thing better than to cosset her every so often. And after she guarded me after the fall...

Saeryn entered the stables silently to the calming sounds of horses. Though it was still quite early, these were mounts of Rohan, and as such, had the love of cantering through the tall grasses as a born trait. She wanted to take out her mare for a brisk morning run, but after the head injury... she fingered the bruise, all but disappeared, yet still tender. T'was not such a good idea. She entered the stall and ran her fingers along her horse's jaw line, caressing her silky fur. The mare butted her playfully, smelling the apples that Saeryn held hidden behind her back. She gave in easily and handed the mare one, finger combing imaginary snarls in her mane.

A quiet sound interrupted her.

"Hello?" she called. "Is there anybody in here?"

[littlemanpoet]

"I am glad to see that my offensive cup has done you no more damage than a stain soon gone," Eodwine greeted the lady Giedd with a smile as she returned from Saeryn's room in a new dress. The dress was such that a young woman might wear. Eodwine took note that though Giedd was doubtless ten, maybe even twenty years Saeryn's senior, the dress became her. An enchantment, after a fashion, for dress and wearer seemed one, so well it fit her. In fact, Eodwine saw that she was fair to look upon, which her own day-clothes had hidden.

Eodwine held out her chair for her and she sat, giving him another smile of thanks.

"What a pretty dress!" Gudryn exclaimed. Giedd thanked the girl.

Eodwine sat down and still smiling, looked at the lady Giedd. It was not as if he had been dead to the world, but he suddenly felt as if he had woken up, for here sitting near him was a woman who was the wife of no man, was not too young nor too old, and she was not ugly - far from it - and he had just been talking earlier of how he needed a mother for his foster-daughter, a wife for himself. And here was this woman. She looked his way and flushed at the attention, and looked at the table before her. Eodwine did not look away.

"Tell me, lady Giedd, where do you live in Edoras? May I hear of your family?"

"Aye, Lady," said Garreth loudly, "tell us somewhat about yourself!"

Eodwine glanced at Garreth briefly, then looked back at Giedd. Gudryn's eyes were wide, darting back and forth between the woman and her foster-father. Yes, she had woken to the same thought as had see, it seemed. He winked at her and was rewarded with a big grin. Gudryn then turned to the lady Giedd.

"Yes, Lady, please do tell us all about yourself!"

[VanimaEdhel]

Giedd felt all eyes fall upon her as Gudryn too insisted that she relate her history.

“Well,” she faltered at first, “There is not much to tell about myself. But I will tell what little there is.”

When she started speaking, Giedd found herself halting every few moments, as though afraid she would spoil the tale. A few minutes into her tale, however, she found her voice growing stronger – the rest of the table seemed to melt away. She found that her voice came louder if she looked at Gudryn and, to her surprise, at Eodwine during the fairly unexciting recount of her life until this point.

“I’ve lived my entire life here,” Giedd started, “I do have an older brother – Rynan. He is five years older than I. He has a wife and two children. I do not see him as much as I did years ago – he is busy with his new life. He lives in a town not too far from Edoras, but far enough that it is a hassle to visit regularly. The two of us were raised within the walls of this city. My father worked at odd jobs all his life. We weren’t rich, but I guess you could say we were comfortable enough – we certainly were never in want of food or shelter. My mother took good enough care of us, and we played with the other children in the town.

“Fifteen years ago, when I was only twenty-three, Rynan met his wife. She was the daughter of a neighbor of ours. After her parents died, she and Rynan decided to move out of the city. That left me alone with my parents. They started growing older, and they looked to me to take care of them. My father had a little put away, so I did not have to struggle to find serious work while I cared for them.

“I spent most of my time caring for my parents – up until five years ago. Hyldo, my mother, died then – it was of old age, and she went gracefully. However, that killed what was left of the spark in Frécne, my father. He lived for his wife. Three years ago, he too passed away. It was not particularly traumatizing,” she paused and scratched her nose absently, then resumed her story, “I had been expecting their deaths for a while. To me, they were, in fact, rather like corpses to care for. Though they avoided illness in old age, it did not treat them well.

“We buried Frécne next to Hyldo – Rynan came back into town with his wife and children. He stayed with me for a bit, but then he had to return to his own business. That was when I realized I would have to start caring for myself. I was able to stay in my parents’ house, so I did not have to look for an abode of my own.

“I suppose I kind of fell into sewing. I know I am no master at it, but it supplements what little I make caring for children while their mothers are away.”

“You care for children?” Garreth interrupted. He received a sharp look from Eodwine, and he quickly fell quiet.

“Yes – mothers pay me to watch their children while they go to market and the like,” Giedd smiled at Gudryn. The girl returned the smile brightly. “I guess I just spent so much of my life caring for others, that it’s kind of what I know how to do. It is nice, though, caring for children rather than the aged and dying. Watching people in the spring of their lives is far preferable to watching autumn move to winter. Both ages have their glory, but death still always has a melancholy ring to it.”

Giedd paused for a moment, frowning now. Her life really did seem like a pattern, caring for others.

“But you never married?” Giedd found herself shaken out of her reverie.

“No, I did not,” she said, still frowning slightly.

“Was it by choice?” Garreth obviously did not intend any rudeness in his curiosity – rather like a child in his frankness, Giedd thought. This led her to smile at him as well.

“Well, I always intended on marrying when I was younger. When my brother got married, I figured it would soon be my turn. I problem was that – I don’t know. I suppose I assumed that a husband would find me. Now I know it does not work that way. Not only because of my own experience, but because I have seen young ladies that have offered their services, helping care for children with me to make an extra bit of money for their families. They never really just ‘fell into marriage,’ the way I always assumed it would be. They actually went out looking – searching for a husband, and trying until they found one. I was just never that aggressive. Now, I suppose, it’s too late.

“The thought of being alone does not depress me, necessarily,” Giedd found herself continuing, “It would be nice to have someone, but, if that is not what is to be, then there are worse things in life. Though I may come home to an empty house at night, I am not strictly alone during the day. I enjoy caring for children, and I have friends in the mothers that leave their young ones with me. Many of the women,” she mused, “Were playmates of mine when we were younger.”

Giedd trailed off again, thinking about the women she knew that had families – sometimes children preparing to be married themselves – and the times they had when they were children. The table fell silent. Garreth looked like he might want to say something again, but seemed to be wary in pushing his luck with Eodwine.

“Well,” Giedd said, smiling. The silence had become unbearable to her. “That is my story. There is far less mystery to it than many – there are no portions of my life I am ashamed of, I regret to say, so I have no need to hide any part of it. Does that sate your curiosity, Gudryn, or is there more you desire to know? And I do not mean that as any sort of reprimand: I suppose, now that I am finished with my tale, I leave myself open to further questioning from anyone.” Giedd looked around the table at the men and especially Garreth, who still looked as though he was struggling with himself – wondering whether it was safe to comment.

[Nerindel]

The young girl ate hungrily ripping great chunks off with her teeth and barely chewing before swallowing the stale bread, which rasped at the back of her dry throat as it went down. But she did not care, she was just so grateful to be at last filling at least a little of the gapping hole that sat painfully in her stomach. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a fair sized wooden watering bucket nestled amongst the straw next to the stall door, barely able to contain herself she scrambled forwards on her hands and knees and peered over the rim. Unable to believe her luck she stared for a moment at her grimy reflection in the still clear water, then plunging her hands in the cold water she eagerly brought some up to her dry, cracked lips. The water had barely passed her lips when an enquiring voice startled her.

“Hello? Is there anybody in here?”

Æòelhild froze like a frightened deer wide eyed with fear. So eager had she been to stave her hunger and quench her thirst that she had not heard anyone enter the stable. what if it was the owner of the bread she had just eaten come to find what had become of if …..what if someone had seen her enter the stable…..or the stable mistress…or… or ? As these thoughts and more filled her mind she panicked, her dark frightened eyes desperately searching for a means of escape. However without moving and giving herself away she could not see anything passed the walls of the stall she had chosen to hide in.

Silently wishing she had had sense to chose a better hiding place, she simply closed her eyes and held her breath shrinking as small as she could hoping beyond hope that whoever it was would simply think they had imagined her rustlings or even better attribute it to one of the horses currently inhabiting the stables.