This Secret Scene goes along with events from Chapter 63 "Curious" of Kingsfoil.

Secret Scene #7: In which Dorwil Says Very Little But More Than Usual

"I'm not asking you to meet anyone," Alassien told Melui as they came down the path toward the fire circle. "I'm asking you to come with me so I can meet someone."

Melui tugged on the neckline of her gown for the fifteenth time. "I just feel self-conscious, that's all."

"Nonsense, you look perfect," Alassien proclaimed. "You are guard and companion to our new queen, and you are going to help introduce me to that darling new guard working the western rim." He deposited her at the edge of one of the nearest tables. "Wait here, and I'll go get us some plates and drinks. I could really use a drink."

He left so quickly that Melui did not have time to protest. Now she sat all alone at the Fire Circle. Great, just perfect. She looked around apprehensively. Anyone who saw her would probably think she came because she was lonely...because she wanted to find a companion for the evening. She lowered her eyes and tried her best to appear fascinated with an uneven edge to her cuticle on her right hand. Knife work really ruined one's manicure, but Melui kept up her training anyway. As guard to the royal family, she had to stay sharp.

Sharp. Knife work. Melui smiled at her own pun and was reminding herself to tell Alassien later when a shadow fell across her table.

"It's about time you showed up," she chided him. "I'm more nervous here than a pack of goblins in a spider nest."

"Don't be," a quiet voice kindly told her. Melui's wide brown eyes snapped up to meet Dorwil's steady grey ones. "Well met, Melui. You look very pretty this evening."

Melui stared at him a moment. She had all sorts of words in her head that needed to come out, but all she could manage was to stare open-mouthed at the way Dorwil's hair gleamed red-gold in the fire light and the perfect cut of his dark blue tunic, open at the neck.

She cleared her throat. "Do you really think an open collar is the best look for you?"

Dorwil absently moved his hand down the scar running across the corner of his neck to his collarbone. "Ladies love a scar, or so I've been told."

She looked away and shook her head. Dorwil sat down across from her.

"What are you doing?" Melui's eyes darted toward the refreshments table. Alassien was nowhere to be seen.

Dorwil pushed a cup toward her. "I brought you a drink."

"No, that's quite all right, Dorwil," Melui said hastily. "Alassien is bringing—"

"Alassien was the one who told me to bring it to you," he said. "Are you—" Dorwil hesitated and twisted his own cup between his fingers. "Are you here with him tonight?"

"Alassien? Valar, no. I mean sort of, but only because he wanted me to introduce him to someone." She picked up the drink from the table and took a hard swallow.

"I see," Dorwil said softly. His voice was so quiet Melui could scarcely hear him over the music starting up from across the tables. Dorwil had always been soft spoken, but after being wounded, he spoke even less, at least as far as Melui could tell. "You look very pretty tonight, Melui," he said again after a beat, and he stood too quickly, almost knocking over the bench behind him.

Melui stood too, her breath caught in her throat. "Are you here with someone?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.

Dorwil looked down, shook his head. His eyes found hers. "I came because I overheard Alassien tell Elfir you were going too."

Melui felt her heart stutter in her chest. "That no good weasel," she said of Alassien, although her tone was more amused than anything else.

The corners of Dorwil's mouth turned up in a half-smile. "I think he meant for me to overhear."

"I can't imagine why..." Melui tried to sound casual, but her voice trailed off as he closed the distance between them.

His hand brushed against hers. "Yes, you do." His words were little more than a whisper as his fingers tangled in hers. "You know exactly why I would come here to see you, Melui. Will you dance with me?"

"Dorwil, I—" Melui glanced behind her in a desperate last bid to find Alassien, to escape the intensity in the gaze of the elf standing before her.

"It's just a dance, Melui," Dorwil told her, his eyes burning straight through hers. "I'm not here to tell you that I've loved you ever since I saw you dancing with the dwarves at Yule, or to try to sweep you into the woods and kiss you until neither of us can draw breath, and I'm not here to get down on one knee and ask you to be mine forever, not yet anyway."

"I think," Melui said, reminding herself to breathe, "that was the most words I've ever heard you say at one time."

He smiled then. "I've been saving up," he told her as she let him take her hand in his and lead her toward the bonfire where other couples swayed under the stars. The moon was full and bright, and when Melui leaned her head against Dorwil's shoulder toward the end of the second dance, he did not object. Later when the music picked up and both elves could feel the heat of the bonfire on their skin, Melui pressed her lips to the corner of Dorwil's neck where his scar was a thin white line in the moonlight, and he answered her with a kiss of his own.

Neither of them noticed the Elvenking and queen looking curiously on, and neither Melui nor Dorwil paid any attention to the fact that the royal couple left the table to come down to the bonfire to greet them. When Dorwil and Melui decided to slip into the cool shadows of the trees, their reasons were their own.

Author's note: I know some of you were hoping for a Melui & Dorwil scene, and I hope this did not disappoint!

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Are there any other little moments that you are hoping to see in a secret scene?

There IS A secret scene involving Thranduil, Narylfiel, and a Dwarven tapestry...but alas, I can only share that scene via PM so if you would like to read it, just let me know in a review.

hugs,

Raider