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Chapter 12 – Lords, Ladies and Lies

Arwen led Penny to a small glade nearby, shaded by the trees and with a brook running through it to one side. Flowers filled the grass and the bushes round about were laden with honeysuckle, making the night air heavy with scent. Elrond and Celeborn were seated on the ground, leaning back on cushions, awaiting them. Galadriel was standing, a honeysuckle blossom gently held in her hand as she bent to sniff it.

Penny was aware this was the first time she had been alone with or even anywhere near Arwen since that moment on Cerin Amroth.

'Well, I won't say anything if she doesn't,' she decided, only to have Arwen interrupt her thoughts.

"I made my choice long ago," Arwen said quietly.

Penny glanced up to find Arwen was looking at her. Her gaze was serious but gentle. Penny's throat went tight.

"I know," she whispered.

Arwen turned, feeling no more needed to be said.

"I found them, grandfather," she said as she stepped lightly into the glade. "Lady Pen-ii was attempting to explain her reaction to you to Erestor."

Penny flushed and looked at her feet. What could she say? She had made a prize arse of herself earlier that evening, and she knew it.

"Ah, was she indeed?" Elrond raised an eyebrow. "I was… surprised, shall we say, Pen-ii. I had thought you had got used to us by now."

"We are not offended, Pen-ii," Celeborn responded. "I think that was Lord Elrond's main concern, perhaps, but you need not worry in that regard." Penny tentatively returned his smile. "You are most welcome, Pen-ii. Forgive us for insisting on this meeting, but we felt… since you have now had a little time to find your bearings, you might be better able to bear it."

"Better also to get some of this over with now, do you not agree?" Galadriel added, walking over to her. "We will not force you to discuss anything, Pen-ii. If you feel you can not manage it just yet, we will leave it for another time. The choice is yours. I know this is something you are fearful of."

Penny struggled to find her voice. "Thank you, my lady." She hesitated. "I must apologise, first, though… about earlier…"

"No need." Celeborn raised a hand.

"No, I meant…" Penny looked at Galadriel. "Your question… That is not the case, Lady Galadriel. Far from it. I feel ashamed my reaction made you think that was a possibility."

"I did not expect an answer, nor indeed did I honestly think that to be the case, my child." Galadriel smiled gently. "If anything I was trying to reassure you that you had nothing to fear, either from myself or Lord Celeborn, or from anything while you are within our borders. You should feel free, perhaps freer than you have felt up till now."

Penny was not entirely sure what that last phrase meant.

"Come."

Celeborn beckoned her over to him. He did not get up and Elrond indicated for Penny to sit. The informal atmosphere was helping her to keep her nerves under control. Penny suspected it was all quite deliberate. She hesitated sitting, though – old human social mores kicked in and made her feel it might not be wholly appropriate.

"There is little, perhaps, that we can tell you," Celeborn was saying. "I know Elrond and Erestor were eager that we meet you, but perhaps the time for such necessity is past. Your knowledge is hazier of events from now on, is that not so?"

"There is still more that has not been spoken of," Galadriel said quietly before Penny could reply.

Penny turned back to her, her eyes wide.

Galadriel smiled, and glanced at Elrond. "You were right. It does not concern us, though."

Suddenly Queen were back and at full volume inside Penny's head.

Galadriel tilted her head to one side. "Strange music. And in a tongue I cannot understand. You need not fear, Pen-ii. I would not read your thoughts unless you allowed me to do so, and unless it was in a tongue I knew then it would still be vague to me." She smiled. "I am not Mithrandir, after all."

Of course. Stupid. Mithrandir had only ever had the gist of things and he was far more powerful than Galadriel could ever hope to be.

At the opposite edge of the glade, Lindir and Erestor had appeared, now accompanied by Glorfindel. The three stood quietly, watching and listening to the scene as it unfolded. Lindir and Erestor stood together and Glorfindel leant up against a tree, arms folded. Lindir had tried to ask something once or twice already but each time Erestor and Glorfindel gestured for him to be quiet. Lindir gave up, accepting that his presence was deemed necessary by Galadriel and Celeborn, even if he was not to get any explanation for it just now.

Galadriel moved over to Penny, taking her hand. The wisdom of Ages was in her eyes. Elrond had the same thing, as had Glorfindel and Celeborn, but Galadriel's gaze was like nothing Penny had experienced. She felt lost in those eyes, drawn into them, and it was as if she could hear a far away ocean's roar or the whisper of the wind in long-forgotten forests ringing inside her head.

The light... the light that flickered deep within them was beyond reason.

"Questions. So many questions." Galadriel was speaking quietly. "She is so very far from home. Lost and found. She has found some peace, some comfort, at least..." She glanced at Elrond. "You have done well."

Elrond smiled to himself as Galadriel focused back on Penny.

"It is deep… she hides it, but it is there: questions she would rather forget and yet yearns to ask. She fears the answers may not be what she wants to hear and yet longs to have resolution and certainty."

Penny was being told things she hardly dared admit to herself. She had never spoken of this, though it had been guessed at and speculated upon by those who knew her story. Only once had she quizzed Mithrandir about it many months before, but when it became clear he did not have answers for her, she had had to learn to try and forget it… though it would never leave her completely.

"Once she wanted answers, but now… Now it terrifies her. She does not want them now, nor will I give them to her even though I might guess at them." She paused, then suddenly spoke to Penny directly. "Home is already distant to you. Yet you still miss them, do you not?"

Penny nodded, her eyes filling suddenly. Galadriel lifted her other hand to gently cup Penny's cheek, smiling kindly at her, her voice softer than down. Penny could smell the faint, lingering trace of honeysuckle on her fingertips.

"And I am sure they miss you."

Penny felt a tear spill over and down her cheek.

"You feel more yourself here than you ever did there. I can feel it. Deep within you, you know it too."

Penny shook her head.

"Yes, you do."

Gazing into those silver-grey eyes, suddenly Penny felt as if she had a choice: that all she had to do was ask. She could return to her damp, boring, hellish life. She could go back to be insulted by her idiot brother every Christmas, Easter or simply whenever they actually met face to face. She could be driven to distraction by her mother passing on the phone numbers of the sons of cousins, neighbours or simply some woman she met in the laundrette since Penny apparently 'needed to find a nice young man.' She could go back to the clammy, desperate embrace of Brian or some other sod that lurched at her in a drunken frenzy. She could shuffle along the mortal coil till she fell off the end of it, living out her existence in the comparative squalor and darkness of modern life, and never see this beauty ever again. She could dismiss it all as a dream and let the memory of the friendship and companionship, the compassion and noble honour that she had seen slowly fade to 'civilised modernity' around her.

It was no choice at all.

But then she already knew that. She had worked that one out some time ago.

"You are home," Galadriel murmured.

There were puzzled looks and mutterings at this. All save from Celeborn. Lindir looked the most puzzled of all of them. He decided he needed a sit down.

Penny simply burst into tears. Galadriel put her arms around her and held her as she wept.

"I cannot explain it any more than you can understand it, my child," Galadriel said softly over her head. "But you know it to be true as much as I can sense it within you."

Penny pulled away, completely at a loss. She had not expected this, she had not prepared for this in any way.

"Do you not sense it also, Elrond?" Galadriel was looking at her son-in-law. "Arwen? Surely you must do so. You said she seemed so very far removed from you, but that is not the case now. Do you not feel it?"

Arwen nodded. "It started receding almost as soon as I noticed it. It has reduced gradually over time. It is still there, but not as it was."

Penny was looking more and more perplexed.

"Mithrandir may have answers for you," Celeborn said. "Then again he may not. If he cannot provide them, no one can. We can only tell you what we feel, what we sense from you. There are questions that you do not want the answers for, no matter how often you ask them of yourself. We might tell you, but you would not want to hear."

Penny nodded.

"Nor could you speak with any absolute certainty," she replied quietly.

They did not reply, and their silence was answer enough.

She would prefer not to know if she was going to get sucked back to her old life at any moment; and as much as she wanted to know if she would stay forever, she was indeed fearful of getting a very different answer, just as Galadriel had surmised. Even if they tried, they would not be able to say for sure, only guess or hope, or perhaps say what might come to pass. Living as if she was here for the rest of her life was the only way she could cope with it all, let alone deal with the homesickness, the sudden flashes of her mother in tears and filling in a 'Missing Persons' report down at the nick, or the cravings for chocolate or pizza.

The guilt of wanting to stay was something she really did not like to think about.

Somewhere in the distance, a jaunty tune had struck up and there was the faint sound of laughter: Glorfindel's handiwork, no doubt. As Penny listened to the melody, so different, so alien to any dance tune she had heard in any nightclub in London, a wave of all she missed hit her without warning.

"This is why I did not want to do this…" She was struggling to keep the tears from falling once more. "It is too much. I have managed to keep it in for months now, found a way of living my life, but… I try not to think about it. Forgive me. I realise I was rude before, and I did not mean to be. Truly, I am sorry to have behaved in such a way."

"I have already told you no apology is necessary," Celeborn smiled. "We understand better than you realise."

He gestured once more for her to sit, and Arwen, who had been standing next to her all this while, took Penny's hand and sat down a little apart from Elrond and Celeborn. Penny let her pull her to the ground beside her. Galadriel moved round to sit beside Celeborn, leaning in towards him slightly, as he continued to talk quietly to Penny.

"The gift of foresight is strong amongst the Firstborn, and not uncommon among the Secondborn though it is dwindling now and found only in those of the old bloodlines. Even amongst them it does not occur with any clarity. Not like it used to. Estel is perhaps the exception. It is far from easy to carry such knowledge, especially for those unused to the burden. We cannot tell you what to do, but you may find it easier to talk a little to those who know you now, whom you count as friends. You say you have managed by keeping it in, but this will not serve you well in the long run. Did Mithrandir not tell you to speak openly of all you knew to Elrond once the Nine Walkers had left?"

Lindir, listening intently and with his mind racing at what he was hearing, raised his head sharply at that.

"Did that not help you a little? I would advise you to do something similar again. Even if you do not tell them it all – your story is a little hard to accept, I will admit – then your foreknowledge will not be so strange to them. It may indeed provide a bond with some of them. Only you can decide how best to deal with this. There is no right or wrong path to choose. Know that Elrond here and the others will support you. They have thus far."

"I know." Her voice was very small and choked with emotion. "I can never repay them. They have shown me much kindness and patience."

"It is Halbarad you have to thank," Galadriel replied. "After all, he did not have to bring you to Lord Elrond."

Penny nodded. The swell of emotion that rose within her at the thought that she would never be able to thank him properly herself, never converse with him in his own tongue to truly tell him how much she thought of him, how grateful she was, was too much. Tears rolled down her face.

"Ah, yes," Celeborn said sadly. "Such things are never easy."

On the far side of the glade, Lindir spoke quietly.

"If I may speak? Why am I here, my lord?"

Only now did Penny realise he was there, glancing round to see the quiet trio of ellyn nearby. She wondered how much he had heard. Judging by the serious and bewildered expression on his face, 'quite a bit' she assumed.

"You were promised her story, Lindir, and Galadriel and I would like to hear some of it also, though we know it already from Elrond. I feel sure Lady Pen-ii would not wish to go through it all more than once. It may well be distressing for her. We thought it best you hear it at the same time as she spoke to us." Celeborn looked back at Penny. "Do not feel obliged, Pen-ii. If you wish to wait a while, then-"

"We simply felt it might be better to provide this opportunity for you to do this now, than have it hanging over you any longer. Once it is done, then you can rest and take time to repose here in Lothlorien before facing Rohan and Gondor and whatever they may bring."

Penny looked at Galadriel. Did she know something Penny didn't?

Galadriel's face was smiling, kind, but utterly unreadable.

'Damn inscrutable, these elves.'

"I-I trust your judgment," she said quietly, forcing herself to believe it but really not at all sure about this. Her head was spinning just from what had transpired so far. She had not planned to tell Lindir like this, in public…

Then again, she had not really thought too hard about exactly how to broach it with him, and to have others there who already knew would be helpful…

"Pen-ii?" Lindir's voice was quiet, but he was looking at her with intense curiosity now.

Penny glanced at him and nodded. She did not speak, just breathed shakily for a moment or two as if trying to gather her thoughts.

"Perhaps we should leave?" Arwen said quietly to her father.

"No, please… stay," Penny responded. "After all, Lindir may have trouble believing what I will say."

"If all here believe it, that is enough for me, Pen-ii. I would not dream of questioning the judgment of Elrond, let alone Lord Celeborn."

'Yeah, right, you say that NOW…' thought Penny.

"I had already guessed some, and what I have heard just now-"

Penny turned towards him. "Guessed? Guessed what? How?"

"You never lost your memory. That was, and I hope the company here will forgive me for saying so, a lie, though I know full well Lord Elrond would never have been involved in such a deception without good reason. The strong sense of strangeness that has been mentioned here I sensed also. From the first day I met you."

Penny looked horrified. She turned to Elrond, all propriety suddenly forgotten.

"You said few would have this, that few would sense it! First Legolas, now Lindir…! How many more are there, Elrond?"

"Pen-ii, you need not fear," Arwen interrupted, silencing her father's words of protest with a glance before he could even draw breath to speak. "Any who sensed it would have put it down to your being from far away as they were told. Legolas only surmised there was something more since he knew what amnesia felt like in a human. Even then he would not have spoken were it not for what he faced and what he was party to regarding the Ring. Only those who got to know you better might question that but would accept that Father here, Erestor, myself and others had accepted your presence and your story."

"Indeed," Lindir agreed. "I know you well, Pen-ii, do not forget. You have no knowledge of even human society, let alone the language, and yet you have heard of elves, heard of Lothlorien, heard of Galadriel, indeed. It seems now you even had some gift of foresight regarding the Nine Walkers and what they carried. You had never seen an orc or innards or a stuffed heart before. I have never seen anyone so terrified of getting on a horse in my life... and it has been many years, Pen-ii," he laughed. "Trust me, your behaviour in the stables was like nothing I have ever seen. Everyone knows horses… unless they have been brought up in a cave with trolls!"

"Not far off the truth, Lindir," Penny muttered.

Lindir was not sure if she was joking or not.

"Even then, Pen-ii, they would not fear approaching the animals," he said quietly. "They would consider them good eating."

The two looked at each other for a moment. Lindir was calmly waiting for her to speak and tell him whatever it was that was so strange and secret. Penny was struggling to find the words, let alone the courage, to do what she had promised.

"You are right," she said at last, her voice barely above a whisper. "It was a lie, if a necessary one. I always knew where I was from. I might not have always known where I was, but that is a different thing."

God, this was so hard talking about it openly for the first time in so long. She was aware that everyone else had gone very still. It occurred to her that this was the first time they would have heard her talk fluently about her experience. It had been Mithrandir's translation of vague thoughts, or fractured phrases and hand gestures before now: that, and then nothing more as she had tried to acclimatise and put it all behind her.

For the first time, then, they were hearing her side of it all in her own words.

Still she hesitated.

"Just start at the beginning," Arwen suggested.

Penny cast her mind back to that first morning when she had awoken in the rain and the grass, lost, alone and terrified. She could not look at Lindir. She knew what she was about to say was so outlandish, so ridiculous…

"I am not from far away, Lindir. I… I am from a different time."

Lindir furrowed his brows at her.

"My time… There are Ages between us. I had read about all of you… There is a book, several books… I knew about you all, about the War, about…" She smiled. "Even you, Lindir. You are mentioned." She risked looking at him and saw the incredulity stamped on his face.

Lindir glanced round at the others, disbelief on his face. He gave a half-laugh. "This is a joke, yes?" He looked back at Penny. "Are you serious?"

"Y-yes," she stammered. His response, as expected as it was, had upset her. She wondered if she should go on.

"Nonsense. It is another lie."

"Lindir-"

"No, Glorfindel, this is ridiculous."

"Indeed, Lindir, and yet it is as she says." Erestor, ever calm and quiet, spoke behind him.

"You believe this?" Lindir turned to him, then back to face the others. "Elrond? My lord Celeborn?"

Celeborn raised his hands in a non-committal gesture. "This is what we have been told, Lindir. It is clear Pen-ii believes it to be so. Amnesia can have strange effects, and if she had foresight also, it may be that-"

"No," Penny quickly intervened. The sharpness of her tone had been unintentional and she instantly saw the raised eyebrows. "Forgive me, Lord Celeborn, but this is no delusion." She could feel the tears coming. "It can not be. I wish it was…" She was staring at her lap, her gaze flicking sideways at Lindir as she spoke. "So many times I thought it was… I-I can not explain it, Lindir… I can only tell you the truth-"

"The truth? How is such a thing possible?"

"I am from a long time distant from this one-"

"Are you insane?"

Penny looked at him.

"I thought I was at first, Lindir, yes. I really did think I was insane. I know Halbarad was very worried about me. I knew this story so well, loved it so and now I was there, inside it… Have you any idea what that was like for me? Can you even begin to guess? I cannot expect you to understand. For you the old tales are alive still, no matter how long ago." She glanced at Galadriel. "You have those among you who saw it all, who can tell you firsthand what happened Ages ago." She turned back to Lindir. "Imagine, though, some ordinary mortal woman from this time, from now, suddenly waking up in Doriath or Nargothrond or Valinor… She would think herself crazy, would she not? That was how it was for me, Lindir!"

Lindir clearly looked sceptical.

"Her knowledge was too detailed," Elrond said quietly. "There was no way it could have been mere foresight."

"Pure detailed invention combined with foresight was a possibility," Erestor added.

Penny threw her head up sharply to stare at him in disbelief. How could he say something like that?

"I do not say I believe it, Pen-ii, merely that it was and remains a possibility. It was discussed at the time."

Penny could not believe this.

"What? What are you saying? 'Remains a possibilty'?"

"Time will tell," Galadriel murmured. "Once the details of all you knew have been confirmed with Estel and Maura and the rest…"

Oh, great! So she was 'under suspicion' till bloody Minas Tirith was she? Her fury and distress were palpable.

"We believe you," Arwen said quietly. "We have believed you from the first, however strange it was. That will confirm it, that is all. Estel and Mithrandir have already confirmed much in their brief reports sent back to Father. Do not be upset, Pen-ii."

Lindir was shaking his head trying to take this in. "Mithrandir believed this?"

"Mithrandir was the first to understand and explain it. The first to get some insight into why she felt so very strange and different to us all," Glorfindel replied.

Lindir rose and came over to Penny, crouching down beside her.

"Forgive me if I seem harsh. If all of these in all their wisdom believe you, then so must I. It just seems so… strange."

"I know." Penny choked back the tears. "I know it does, Lindir. I wanted to tell you long ago, and I hesitated because not many people were meant to know and I did not know if you would believe me or how you would react." She glanced up at him. "I lived through it. Every detail, every day of what they were going through. I could not speak or say anything to them about some of what may happen before they left, because I knew… I knew he would fall. I knew it had to be, that any one thing changed might mean Sauron would win. I could not risk that." Her cheeks were wet. "You are used to us mortals dying, perhaps. You live with that knowledge all the time, but I… I…"

"So the rumours about you and Boromir…?" Lindir said quietly.

She shook her head. "I knew he would fall at Amon Hen. I could not bear to get to know him, to possibly become his friend like I already had done with…"

She sobbed as she said Halbarad's name, bringing her hands to her face, her shoulders shaking. Arwen leaned closer to rub her back gently even as Lindir took one hand his eyes, his face filled with concern and sympathy.

"I really thought I was mad. At first I thought it was a trick. I went to sleep in my home and woke up… I was in the middle of nowhere. It was raining. I was in my bedclothes. I was cold and lost and… None of my friends would do something like that to me. I could not understand who had done it or how or why. I was very scared and very confused. I walked nearly all day, trying to find someone or a road or… And Halbarad scared and confused me also. He did not speak my language, and I could not understand how I could have got so far away from home that someone did not understand me. He was dressed in clothes-"

She hesitated.

"Go on," Celeborn said gently, a faint smile on his face as if vaguely amused at what she might be about to say.

"Well, no one wears clothes like this anymore. They have not for hundreds of years. No one wears swords on their belts or has arrows on their shoulders." She looked at Elrond. "I looked at his sword, you know. Touched the blade. He shouted at me so loudly I cut myself on it."

"I know. He told us. He really did wonder if you were mad at that point. You nearly lost a finger." He smiled and there was a faint chuckle from Glorfindel.

"I just… If someone has a sword in my time it is not sharpened. It is for ceremony or play. No one uses such a thing. No one needs such a thing. I wanted to see if… When I realised it was sharp… That scared me so much."

She went very quiet.

"I did not think I would survive the night."

"You did not think to run?" Lindir asked.

"Run where? I had no shoes. And he had a horse, Lindir, he could have caught me. At the same time he fed me and gave me a blanket and did not seem evil. But I…" The tears welled up once more at the memories of Halbarad. "He was so very kind to me and very patient."

There was silence as they waited for her to continue.

"At first I thought people were pretending to live as people did long ago. Perhaps for education or pleasure." Explaining the concept of role-playing in her still only marginally fluent Sindarin would have to wait for another day. "And then I started noticing things… little things… The hobbits were too… Their feet, their size… their pointed ears…"

There were smiles and slightly raised eyebrows at the 'pointed ears' remark.

"And then the scenery and it seemed so old, so… I realised it was no joke. I thought perhaps I was sick, ill… That this was all in my head, like a dream. Then after days and all the details, I realised it could not be a dream. But at the same time, how could it be true? How? How was this possible?" She looked at Lindir, a hint of desperation in her voice suddenly, as if reliving the whole thing once more. "Just as you asked me just now, Lindir: how? Why? I have no idea. Mithrandir had no idea. You just heard that Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel do not know. All I know is where I was, and I woke up, and now I am here. And I still half expect myself to wake up and sit up and find myself back home or in an infirmary somewhere with my brother and my m-m-mother…"

She broke down then. Sobbing once more, she turned into the arms of Arwen, who held her just as her grandmother had done previously.

"This is indeed strange," Lindir murmured to himself, still trying to get his head round it all.

"Yet true," Elrond added. "As I said just now, we were sceptical at first, but the detail… She could not have imagined or invented it. She was precisely right too many times. Foreknowledge is general, or specific only in one or two facts perhaps. Not like this. She knew. She knew just as if it had been written down blow by blow. As Galadriel says, once we have spoken to Estel then the rest will be confirmed, but I have no doubt it will do so."

"But-"

Elrond held up his hand. "I know, Lindir. Trust me, I was perhaps amongst the hardest to convince at first."

There were coughs and mutters from Erestor and Glorfindel. Elrond raised an eyebrow at them.

"Nothing. Do, please… carry on," murmured Erestor.

"I do not blame you, Lord Elrond. Nor you, Lindir," Penny said quietly. "I would not believe it if I were in your position, truth be told. I still find it hard to believe. I have… almost got used to elves." She attempted a smile and there was gentle laughter then.

"This explains much, then." Lindir tried to help her lighten the mood. "Your curiousity getting the better of you with orcs, for example."

Celeborn looked alarmed. "What was this?"

"Oh, nothing serious, grandfather. Pen-ii saw more than she might have wanted to, that was all."

"You know about that?"

"But of course, Pen-ii! It is not every day we have a mortal throwing up over dead orcs!" Arwen laughed.

"Well, it is some comfort, perhaps, to know their kind is no longer known in your time, Pen-ii," Celeborn smiled. "And that there are no Eldar is not unexpected."

Silence fell, if only for a moment. It was not exactly sad, either, more a resignation that what would come to pass was inevitable and long written.

"It is our loss," Penny said quietly. "But you will go West and you will be happier there. Better for you not to see what becomes of this place when you all go."

She looked up and caught Galadriel regarding her with a sad smile. She was suddenly struck by the words she had just used and could not stop the phrase 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel' flitting through her head. Galadriel's eyes widened slightly in astonishment, her gaze seemed suddenly sharper.

If anyone else noticed they did not react or comment on it.

"Is it really so bad?" Celeborn was serious. "You have no dark lord, no orcs…"

"We have something nearly as bad: humans. Morgoth's shadow will never leave Arda. You know that. Now I understand that that is what it is. I have never experienced war or battle firsthand, but that does not mean it does not occur. It does. And it is perhaps far more terrifying than anything experienced by you."

Celeborn raised a very sceptical eyebrow. "As one who knows nothing of war, you speak with certainty. I doubt it, Pen-ii, with all my respect to you."

"I do not expect you to believe me. And indeed humans fighting each other is perhaps not the same as facing great evil terrors like Balrogs or orcs or trolls or Sauron himself. But the damage done… the weapons… the number of dead..."

She trailed off. How she had got onto this she had no idea, but she felt she should stop now before the hole she was digging got any bigger.

"Mithrandir said something about this. Said you had suggested he would not want to know and he had agreed."

"Yes, Elrond. That is true."

Glances were exchanged, mainly by the ellyn. All were warriors, all had seen battle and knew what it was to know fear, see death and smell blood. If Mithrandir had hesitated asking more…

"We will have to take you at your word," Elrond said at last. "Perhaps you are right and it is best that we not remain to see such things."

Penny noticed his choice of words: 'remain'. Of course, one amongst them had made her choice already. She would not remain, it was true, but for an entirely different reason that that of her father.

"Come," Glorfindel said suddenly. "If Lindir is satisfied as much as he can be, and the Lord and Lady do not object, shall we go and join in the dancing and song we can hear in the distance? Otherwise we will arrive too late for Pen-ii to enjoy it before she needs to take her rest. I also intend to sample some of Rhimlath's plum brew which he says is rather fine this year."

"You may regret that decision," Celeborn laughed. "It has the kick of a mule."

"Excellent!" Glorfindel grinned.

As they stood and made to leave, Penny, having recovered herself a little, turned to Lindir.

"I realise this seems strange, and I am sorry I did not tell you before… Will you forgive me?"

"Of course. With knowledge such as yours, I understand why Lord Elrond and the rest were so cautious about who knew." He looked at her, as if reassessing her, taking her in for the first time. He nodded, as much to himself as to her. "It will take a little time for me to accept it, perhaps, but I believe you. For the first time in a while, I feel you are not lying or hiding anything from me. Whether it is true or not, you believe it. The others here say it is true, and that is enough for me. You are my friend, Pen-ii. You shall always remain so, I hope."

She smiled. "Thank you, Lindir. It means a lot to me that you can be so forgiving."

"Ah, well now, do not speak too soon. I demand at least one dance tonight. One dance or I will not forgive you at all!" He grinned.

"Not fair!"

"Perfectly fair. More than reasonable, in fact."

They bickered all the way back to the clearing.

I hasten to add, before anyone points it out, that I am not comparing the French to trolls, even though the French (and probably others) consider horsemeat perfectly acceptable eating. It merely occurred to me as I was writing that section that that would be the kind of thing trolls would do: kill and eat horses. Probably the least of their sins, I would have thought.