Announcement: I wrote this epilogue when I first wrote the story but forgot about it at the time. I only recently dug it back up as I was starting to work on a new story! It was nice to go back to this pair and see how they're doing as young parents. I hope you all enjoy it and I hope you will tune in and enjoy reading the new Éomer and Lothíriel as much as I've been enjoying writing them. The first chapter is up so please drop me a review to let me know if you like it! My life is pretty hectic but reviews are certainly motivation for more chapters sooner :) The new story is called Lothíriel Awakens. In it Lothíriel will tell us a story about unusual types of courage and the implacability of love at first sight. Photo credit for the cover photo : stealingthecrown (lauren 22 on tublr)

I woke in the semidarkness, disoriented. Pushing myself up I peered blearily out into the flickering light of a candle I had forgotten to snuff before going to bed. The noise of a spring thunderstorm was still cracking against the windows of my chambers. "Éomer? Are you there?"

The only response I received was the bed shifting slightly as a weight joined me on the mattress. Warm lips found mine and I was pushed firmly back into my pillows, one hand tangling in my loose hair. He had rung out his hair and shed his armor, cloak tunic and boots but he was still damp with frigid water from the storm raging outside. He pulled me hard against his chest—still somehow warm and broad under the freezing shirt—and my own thin cotton nightclothes soaked through almost immediately. No matter, they would be gone soon enough.

My hands slid down over his chest, his clavicles, arms, ribs, hands, face... He broke contact with my mouth for a brief moment. "I am not hurt Lothíriel you can stop checking."

His free hand captured my foot, sliding up the calf and thigh and pulling my legs open so he could settle between them and more directly on top of me. I could feel him already against my inner leg. I moaned into his mouth as his weight settled into a place of exquisite pressure. He had already taken off his belt, obliging man, so I pulled instead as his sodden shirt.

"I thought you would be back tomorrow." I gasped when our lips broke contact for the brief period needed to remove his shirt.

That same devilish hand slid again between my legs, beginning a slow, torturous caressing movement. "Change of plan." He murmured against my flesh as he kissed his way down my neck. The other hand pulled down the nightclothes, exposing my breasts, and he took one peak into his mouth. The dim light of the banked fire seemed to explode into a burst of brilliant luminescence.

I arched against him, fists clenching on the bedsheets. It had been a month since I had seen my husband and I was in no mood for a slow seduction. "Valar! Please! Oh please Éomer! Please!"

Normally he was a little harder to persuade than that. He liked to take his time with me. Many a languorous afternoon we had retired to our mutual studies only to find that when it was time to dress for supper we hadn't opened a single book. But he too must have been feeling the strain of our time apart.

My legs went around him and soon we were both panting and moaning and frantic with need. I went first, my crisis coming like a wave crashing down. I turned my head into the pillow and arched against him, a stream of nonsense words turning into nonsense sounds issuing from my mouth as sensation claimed me. That seemed to bring him over the edge as well. He collapsed against me, crushing my body down against the bed.

When we had both regained our senses he tried to roll off me but I locked my legs behind his back and put an arm around his neck, keeping him with me. "Please stay."

"Lothíriel I'll crush the life out of you."

"I don't mind. Please stay."

"At least let me roll the side slightly so I'm not directly on top of you like a great brute."

Reluctantly I let him and he slid out of me. I felt the loss but was consoled slightly when he pulled me on top of him so that I straddled one naked leg and our chests were flush against each other. I swept my hair out to one side and put my head as directly over his heart as I could, listening to its firm, reassuring rhythm. He pulled the blankets and fur over me and let one strong arm drape over my back, cradling me in place. "I should go fetch you some mead. You can't be properly welcomed home to your hearth without mead."

"I don't give a damn about a cup of mead. If you so much as try to move I shall pin you down and have my way with you again." He drew one hand lazily up on my arm, trailing his fingertips along and making me shuddering.

"It's bad luck."

"In a moment then, not now."

I let my own fingers rest gently on a yellowing bruise on his ribs before flitting to a thin but deep gash that went from just below his elbow to his shoulder. "You said you weren't hurt."

"Not badly."

"What happened?"

"Someone slipped passed my guard is all. You can't look everywhere in battle, try as you might. It is healing just fine. How is my son?"

I smiled propping my head up on my hands so that I could look at him. If I had expected Éomer to tire of referring to Elfwine as 'his son' with a special emphasis and pride, as he had done as often as possible after his birth, I had already endured four years of surprise. "Your son is fine. He has been helping me take account of the leftover stores. Well I say helping, he's mostly been exploring. Or he was rather, he has a cold right now."

Éomer sat up quickly, forcing me into a sitting position as well. "Elfwine is sick?"

I smiled. "Children catch colds Éomer. Particularly children who simply will touch anything and everything they see and don't have the good sense not to play with their friends whose humors our out of balance as well." I pushed him back down. "He is in no danger."

"He has been helping you with the accounts? I knew he would be good at sums."

"He is a bit young for that still. He may be someday."

"I think he will. Just like his mother."

"Based on my experience in the cellars I would say he may turn out more like his father. I would have expected him to be clutching my skirts in such a looming, dark place but I'm more likely to need a strong tether to keep him from wandering off."

With my head on his chest I couldn't see Éomer's face but after nearly five years of marriage I knew he was smiling in that proud, nearly smug, way he reserved for his son. There was no doubt in his mind that Elfwine was the finest boy that ever lived and his arrogance over this fact was unbridled. "He shouldn't give his mother such trouble."

I snorted at that. "And yet somehow I think he will continue to."

"Would you like me to talk to him about it?"

I laughed outright at that. After years of lecturing me for spoiling my horses, in parenthood it had finally been my turn to scold Éomer for his inability to discipline Elfwine. To be sure the boy was in awe of his father: worshiped him really. On the rare occasions my husband did find the need to have harsh words with his son they always landed with the seriousness of a bolt of lightening. But those occasions I could count on a single hand. I dreaded the day that Elfwine figured out how entirely wrapped around his little finger his father was. "No... it isn't a lack or respect; it is a lack of sense. I'll bring him around. Bodily if it comes to that."

"I am sure you will."

We were silent for a long moment, him stroking my arm, me listening to his heartbeat. "I am sorry to have woken you," he said finally.

"I am not. Though I wish you hadn't ridden all the way in this storm Éomer."

He laughed. "I may be none too popular with my men tonight. But once I saw the lights of Edoras there was no question of my stopping. I always feel that I can see your light in particular and then it always seems like such a sad waste to let you sleep alone."

I yawned. "Well tomorrow we shall have the welcome feast and I shall be sure you make it up to them in ale."

"To be sure." He hesitated. "I should like to talk to you about going to Aldburg for the summer tomorrow as well."

I frowned. "But you've just returned."

"I meant perhaps that we might move the family seat there for the summer. I have some business to attend to and I should like to show you and Elfwine where I was a boy. I know it's an imposition Lothíriel and on such short notice but..."

My frown melted. "No. I think I should quite like that." It would be quite a bit of work to get the hall ready for our departure but I hadn't seen Éomer's childhood home except for that brief, disastrous Yule trip and it would be nice to be out of Edoras. Nightwind at least would appreciate the chance to really stretch her legs.

He kissed the crown of my head. "I'm very pleased to hear you say so. Aldburg is beautiful in the summer. I can teach Elfwine to fish in the mountain springs and we can all go berry picking together. There are some very good horse-breeders there too, some of the best in the land. You might want to talk to them for your book." In the last year I had, finally, begun to gather information on Rohirric horse-breeding practices. I hoped to send a book outlining some of the most basic practices to King Elessar within the year. "The conflict on the Western border is dying down. I hope that I won't be called back to it for another few months."

"That sounds lovely."

"Elfwine I think is old enough to make the trip on his own horse as well. Or at least to make a start on it. And perhaps I could write to Éowyn and ask her if she might come down for a month or so with Elboron."

"It will be good for him to have a playmate."

He seemed finally to hear the sleepy tone of my voice. He shifted uncomfortably on the bed beneath me. "Come Lothíriel let's sleep in my chambers. Your bed always feels too small and the mattress is almost soaked through."

I laughed. "And whose fault is that? Besides, perhaps I don't want to share your bed tonight my lord. And aren't you meant to knock before you enter my chamber..."

I was teasing him. Even after five years of marriage Éomer was usually quite scrupulous about asking before entering my chambers. At my husband's encouragement I had long ago abandoned the pretext that our rooms were separate—indeed I spent more of my time in his than mine and he only found me in my own bed this night because Elfwine was sick and my rooms were closer to his. But no matter how many times I rolled my eyes or chastised him for making me answer his knock he only smiled.

"A woman must have her secret places Lothíriel, particularly a woman such as yourself," he had once insisted to me.

But that night he appeared to be in no mood to rise to my teasing. He was already extricating himself from underneath me. I made a little mock show of reluctance but he had as little tolerance for that as for my teasing. Quick as a snake he captured my feet and slid me to him on the bed, sliding one arm under my knees and the other under my shoulders to hoist me bodily. The night air was slightly chilly as the covers fell away but he strode quickly, opening with a foot the door that joined our chambers. On the floor there was a trail of discarded armor and clothes.

He tossed me into the bed and then pushed me over into the center so he could join me, rolling me to one side and then pulling me flush against him so that my naked back was flush against his chest from ankle to shoulder. He sighed contentedly into my ear. "That's better. Now be a good girl and tell me the news of the hall."

I started to told him about what I had found in the cellars, the most recent letter I had had from Éowyn, from Amrothos and Erchirion. I told him about Gænwyn's last visit and what she had said about all of the new commerce coming through the Dimholt but after that I knew he was asleep. With a contented sigh I shifted slightly until I was comfortable.

Even in his sleep Éomer pulled me instinctively closer.

Fin. As ever please please please let me know what you think! And check out my new story Lothíriel Awakens (double points if you leave a review for both!).