I woke up to the sound of the birds singing and slowly sat up. Lit by the first rays of bright morning light the clearing didn’t look as magical as it had the night before. Tree bark that had looked silvery was now an ordinary brown, deep navy blue shadows had disappeared, bright stars had faded and the peaceful quiet had gone. Looking around, I could not believe last night had happened. It seemed like a dream. A beautiful dream.

It had happened though. I was naked and Eowyn was lying naked beside me. In the morning light she no longer looked so alluring. Her beauty had a more wholesome look to it.

She stirred, slowly waking.

“We should get dressed,” I told her. I wasn’t feeling cold, but I guessed she would be. She was shivering slightly.

We dressed in silence. I wondered what would happen now. Would we just go back to our normal lives, and forget this had happened? I didn’t want to. But what if she did? What did last night mean? Or was it meaningless for her? It wasn’t for me.

Fully dressed I turned to leave the clearing, still deep in thought. I was startled when Eowyn grabbed my arm, stopping me from leaving. Her clear blue-grey eyes searched my face.

“Arwen, we need to talk. But not now. We need to get back before people start to wake up and notice we’re missing.”

After last nights party I thought it would be a while before anyone woke up, but I didn’t say anything. I just nodded, silently agreeing.
“This afternoon. Meet in the rose garden.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Good.” She released my arm. I turned, and left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The rose garden was one of my favourite places in the gardens, but not my favourite. After last night, the clearing in the woods was my favourite place.

The rose garden was rectangular, and surrounded by high stone walls. Tree branches with dark green leaves hung over the walls. In a week or so roses of all colours would bloom there, but now they were just starting to come out. The rose beds were rectangular with stone paths in between them.

At the end of the garden was an old grey stone shelter with a long wooden bench inside it. I could see Eowyn sitting on the bench. I walked down the centre path and sat beside her. She nodded a greeting.

“Hello.”

I didn’t know what to say. I had hoped she would know. But she didn’t seem to. So I decided to start.

“Look, I don’t know about you but I enjoyed last night. And I want to do it again.”

“What about Aragorn?”

“Didn’t you enjoy last night?”

“Of course I did. It was one of the best nights of my life. But you are going to marry Aragorn, and I am going to marry Faramir. They aren’t going to go away.”

“They don’t have to know. We’ll be careful. And they won’t think there’s anything suspicious about us being together. They’ll just think we’re doing ‘woman things’. They won’t realise.”

“Won’t you feel guilty?”

“Why should I? Aragorn sleeps with Legolas. He thinks I don’t know. And Faramir probably sleeps with others too.”

“Yes. I do want to be with you, Arwen. I’m just scared of what Faramir would say if he found out.”

“We’ll hide our love. We’ll be seeing each other every day. We can devise a way of letting each other know if we can sneak down to the clearing that night, to be together. Please Eowyn. I want to be with you.” I leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. She kissed me back, but then pulled away

“Okay. You’ve persuaded me. We’ll meet at night, when everyone’s asleep, as often as we can.” She smiled at me. “I’m free tonight.”

“Me too.”

“Good. See you tonight, elf.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That night was even better than the night before.

A/N: Sorry, no smut. I'm not very happy with the rose garden scene. It doesn't flow like I wanted it too. If I ever finish the series, I might go back and try to redo it. Comments? Suggestions? Ideas? Please send them my way!

Part 4 Part 2