Nobody moved. The sound of the slap was so loud to them, so harsh and unexpected, everything had to stop for that moment. People looked around. It seemed that everybody wanted to know what was happening, to understand why the most illustrious member of the house of Elrond (besides their lord) had just been slapped in the face.

Maerdess blushed, fury in her face, her hands clenched ready to deal another blow. “How dare you, sir?” she demanded, shaking with rage.

“I do not understand,” said Glorfindel. He lifted a hand to his face as if he expected to find blood on it. “I thought you were in love with me.”

“I am not!” she snarled, and glared at him.

People gathered around. The spectacle of the slapped lord and the furious lady drew them like moths to a bright flame.

“But everyone is in love with me!” he declared. He looked like a lost little boy, albeit a tall one.

“Including yourself!” Maerdess shot back.

“What?” cried Glorfindel, thoroughly confused.

“I am weary of your appalling conceit, my lord, and have no desire for you to make free with my person, as you did just now. It is most improper!” shouted Maerdess.

“But I took your cold conduct for maidenly reserve!” spluttered Glorfindel. He backed away, blushing with humiliation. “I thought you wanted me to kiss you, to show all of the people I loved you, and that this would be... never mind. I shall go now. But tell me, lady, is this a game, a test of my love for you, or have you been making a fool of me all of this time?”

“You do not need me to make a fool of you, my lord,” said Maerdess in a cold, low voice, “you can manage that feat by yourself!”

Glorfindel thrust the doors aside in his haste to get away from the hall.

Maerdess stood where she was, her hands on her hips, breathing heavily for a while, as if she had engaged in fisticuffs with her former lover. The gall of Glorfindel! The sheer effrontery! Did he really believe that all the ladies of Rivendell thought only of him at night, wishing that he was their own? Apparently, the answer was 'yes!' Well, she had shown him that there was one at least who had looked into the depths of his heart and seen conceit, arrogance and pride. It was time someone put him in his place!

She gathered her wits, knowing she would be made to explain herself over and over again, Maerdess sighed as Losgael, poor, sweet, naïve Losgael wandered over to her, drifting as if lost in a dream.

“You slapped him!” cried Losgael, as if the act represented some horrible betrayal.

“He manhandled me and kissed me in a most improper fashion,” Maerdess explained, as if to a small child. Losgael seemed to inhabit a world in which there was a happy ever after, and all romantic dreams came true. She had a lot to learn.

“I can understand that, but you called him conceited!” Losgael wailed, as if Rivendell was about to be engulfed by the sea like Beleriand was, long ago, because of this.

“But Losgael,” Maerdess said calmly, “he is conceited. I did not wish to be rude to him when he first took an interest in me, and when he started courting me in earnest, I was flattered. I was also conscious of the fact that you liked him, and did not wish to hurt you. It was when I gave in to his desire for me to be his lady, and you seemed not to mind it as much as I feared, that I got to know him better. He is a great lord, with many talents, to be sure, but his attitude is unseemly for a lord, or for anyone. All the fond hopes I had of being his wife one day have gone forever now, and I no longer wish to consider him as a suitor.”

Losgael looked for a moment as if she was about to slap Maerdess, but she turned around and went away, out of the main doors,

Losgael found Celebrían in the sewing room, making an adjustment to a jacket of her husband's. “My lady,” she blurted out, “Maerdess slapped Glorfindel!”

Celebrían stood up. “Did she really?”

“Yes, and she called him conceited!” Losgael added for good measure.

Celebrían resumed her place. “And how do you feel about this?” she asked.

“Why do you ask me this, my lady?” Losgael enquired, confused. This was a day she was certain she would never forget, and she was overwhelmed. It pained her to hear bad things being said about someone she loved, and she needed reassurance that all was well with the world even though such things were happening.

“I ask you this because it seems to me that you are about to go and slap Maerdess in the face to avenge Glorfindel,” her lady replied. “I thought you would be pleased to see that a vacancy has opened in his affections, now that she has embarrassed him so.”

“I could see the calculating expressions on the faces of the other ladies in the room, my lady,” said Losgael, frowning with distaste.

“No doubt he did, too,” Celebrían said with a wry grin.

“Why do you find this so amusing, my lady?” asked Losgael.

“Because, my dear friend,” said Celebrían, the conspiratorial expression on her face becoming more evident, “I arranged it, and my plan appears to have worked much better than I intended.”

Shocked, Losgael looked away from her lady. “How?”

“I told her to be cool towards him, and very proper. I told him to tell her everything about himself, and that she would enjoy learning all about his adventures,” Celebrían explained gleefully.

“But my lady, is he not your friend?” asked Losgael, upset with her lady. What a horrible, conniving thing to do! What a gross act of betrayal! What did Celebrían hope to gain by trifling thus with people's affections?

“Yes, Losgael, he is my friend, and I do love him, but his courtly training has prepared him to interpret certain acts as being those of a lady in love, and to look for them only. He has been taught from his earliest youth to seek a high-born lady for his wife, and that only those with a courtly bearing are to be considered. While you are proper in your conduct, you have not learned the wiles of the courtly lady, and I hope you never do, for it is not in your nature to behave in such a way. Everything you do is honest and unforced, and that is why I love you, Losgael,” said Celebrían.

“You encouraged them to act as if they were dancers performing particular steps?” asked Losgael, seeking confirmation. If Glorfindel and Maerdess were not truly in love, but had merely followed conventions that made them think they were, then it was a different matter altogether, and Celebrían had done them all a great service.

“Yes I did,” said Celebrían, “but more than that, I encouraged each of them to do things I knew would annoy the other. Glorfindel enjoys a certain amount of ceremony, but he seeks truth and craves honesty above all. It is why he likes to go to war – there is no subterfuge on the battlefield when the enemy approaches you with fell intent. You know what he wants. Or so my lords tell me. Courtly behaviour is what he has been taught to accept, but he does not accept it gladly. Maerdess wishes to be loved sincerely, so being with someone who speaks only of himself cannot endear him to her.”

“Do you think he did sincerely love her at all, my lady?” asked Losgael, hoping that the answer was 'no.'

“If he did, and they were meant to be together, Losgael, do you think that my interference would have worked so well?” Celebrían asked her, with an arched eyebrow.

Losgael was disturbed to learn that her lady would contrive such a thing, but she realised that it had been done for her benefit. If Glorfindel and Maerdess were unsuited to each other, then it was all for the best, but should they not have been left alone to work all this out for themselves? Her natural loyalties warred with each other in her heart, and she was unsure which side she wanted to win.

“Losgael, he will come to me soon, to complain about this, and ask for my advice,” said Celebrían firmly. “I shall tell him Maerdess was temperamentally unsuited to him, and that is why his romance with her did not last. Give him time, and I shall suggest another plan for you to work together with him. I hope this will be the one that makes him think of you as a lover, not a friend.”

“I hope so too, my lady, but I think it would be better if you did not interfere again. If he likes me, it must be because of my own qualities and not because you have contrived it,” Losgael insisted. “It does not seem right to me otherwise.”

“I concur,” said Glorfindel. He strode into the room with a furious expression on his face.

TBC...