In Aragorn's Safekeeping Epilogue: Life in the King's House

Author's Note: This is just to let you know that I have posted an epilogue to 'In Aragorn's Safekeeping' as a separate story. I did not want to attach it to this story as I really liked the way this one ended, but there were some people that asked for and wanted to read about Rebecca and Thomas's wedding, etc. The epilogue will cover some of the events between where the story left off and their wedding and is more a sequel than a true epilogue, but hopefully no one will mind. :) Because the rules of this site say that you cannot just post a chapter of author notes, that there has to be some story with it, I am posting the first part of the chapter here to comply with that rule. But this whole chapter will be taken down in a week or so.

Chapter 1 – Questions & Concerns

Thomas poked his head into the library and found Rebecca curled up in a chair next to the crackling fire reading and sipping tea. She looked up and smiled as he crossed the room and she set her drink down on the small table beside her as he perched on the arm of her chair and leaned down and kissed her. "Good afternoon, my lady Rebecca," he said with a smile.

"Hello, Thomas," she replied, stretching slightly in the chair. "How are things in the Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor?"

He shrugged, "About the same, food is coming in from the South and heading to Rohan on a regular basis, orcs have been seen here and there in some of the more distant parts of Ithilien, but the Rangers are dealing with them. Elessar is still talking with some of the trade Guilds about how we might start doing some business with the people in the North. Anything happen in the Houses of Healing today?"

"I'm learning about how to take care of burns," she replied, "and a woman brought in a little girl that had fallen and cut herself and they finally let me do stitches." Rebecca gave him a rueful smile, "It seems that they finally trust me to do that."

Thomas stared at her in disbelief, "They just now think you can do that? After all you did during the war?"

"I'm very young for a healer, Thomas, and they don't really know what I've done, I've never really talked about it with any of them. I don't know what Adar told the Warden when he arranged for me to go there so he might know. It's obvious I've had some training as a healer, but remember I was trained by elves and I'm not sure they totally trust what I've been taught."

"So they've been teaching you from the beginning again?" Thomas asked, not understanding how the healers could be so foolish.

"No, not really, once they see I already know and understand something they move on," she explained. "It's actually gotten better since we returned from Edoras a couple of months ago, though I don't know why. I'm only there three days a week and there haven't been too many times when stitches were needed anyway," she shrugged. "It's all right, Thomas, its good for me to learn how they do things here."

"I suppose so," he dropped the subject since Rebecca didn't seem particularly upset about it, though it still bothered him that she was treated that way. "What are you reading?" he asked, taking the book from her hand and flipping through the pages.

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If you want to read the rest of the chapter, go to the new story where this chapter is posted in its entirety.