Lady B

Prologue

Author's Note: I say this now that although a romance featuring an original character, this fic will NOT be a Mary Sue. More of a Bridget Jones meets Jane Eyre. This fic is romance/angst/action/adventure/parody and just about anything else.

Disclaimer: The almighty Tolkien owns everything. I suppose Errin is mine, but she owes a lot to her godmothers Helen Fielding and Jane Austen.

The air was heavy, and the clouds grey. It had rained most of the day, yet had also been inexplicably warm. Nobody in the magnificent white city of Gondor was comfortable. But most were asleep, dreaming of other lands and other times. Yet a solitary figure wound her way slowly through the dark streets. This was not an uncommon occurrence, most of the time these women were poor beautiful elf maidens, searching for their beloved Legolas or even worse their Mary Sue name badges. However this woman was not, she was merely a plot device in my poor tale.

 The dark velvet cloak she was wearing was long and trailed along the ground. The elegantly embroidered hem was covered in dust, slime and muck. But the woman didn't care. She had a mission to complete, and she would complete it.

      She was a serving woman from the court of Rohan, who had been sent by King Theoden himself to take an embarrassment to Gondor. The embarrassment being his illegitimate daughter, who could not remain with either of her parents. As both were married with legitimate children of their own. Theoden had picked Gondor because there she could grow up in relative obscurity, with a poor family.

 As far away from him and his young family as it was possible to be. Yet the serving woman herself had other ideas about this girl's future. She didn't think Theoden was doing right by leaving the child to grow up in poor obscurity. So she left the child on the steps of the citadel of Gondor. Home of Denethor steward of Gondor, his young wife Finduilas and their two sons.  Seven-year-old Faramir and twelve year old Boromir.

   The child was discovered by Finduilas, who having a kind and pure heart insisted on having the girl raised with young Faramir. Boromir by now was in training to follow his father's example and had left the nursery behind. Despite this however, he loathed the young girl and was shocked that she was not raised to be a servant, as fitted the abandoned daughter of some heartless peasant. Denethor himself did not bother with the girl at all, his only wish was that the child was "kept in her place" and "stopped from forming any sort of silly romantic attachment with either of the boys." They named her Errin.

However the tranquillity was short lived. Less than a year later, when Faramir was only eight years old, Finduilas passed away. She had always been weak and the illness that took her life had been far too strong for her to imagine fighting.

  Her death turned Denethor, into a purely military based man, but he still loved his sons dearly. Faramir was placed under the tutorage of a brilliant tutor, and Errin in the care of a not quite so brilliant nurse.

So fifteen years passed, Boromir was often from home, as his father was introducing him to "the world of his expectations." Faramir was trained to fight, but also to read and think. Errin was given the type of education as befitted a "poor relation" of the steward of Gondor. She was taught to sew, cook clean and dance (which she did with indifference and failure) and Denethor's hopes that Errin would blossom into a beautiful young marriageable off woman had been dashed. Errin was tallish, with red hair and blue eyes. But she had been cursed with the horror, of teenage acne. In Denethor's opinion this damned the poor girl to eternal spinsterhood.

Okay, the next chapter picks up from Errin's POV. Sorry if that was weird, it gets normal soon Lol.