Eomer thankfully was happily unaware of what was going on, he dismounted from Firefoot, and lifted the child off with him, she stayed hanging around him closely, as he took the horse to the stables, and began to remove his saddle and everything else. It took him around about an hour to do so, and then a little while longer to begin grooming Firefoot, of which he let the small girl help. Since her first outburst, she had not said a word, nobody had any idea of the child’s name, as the others too were too traumatized to talk, and they were but very young. She did however smile as the horse snorted and made it clear he’d had enough and wanted to be fed.
Of course this gave Wedia all the more time to stew, and time to listen to the ‘gossip’ that Sir Thomas had made clear to spread around the place.
“The king’s come ‘ome with some kids, so as I ‘eard,” said one young woman to another as they passed Wedia, “those lot from Dol Amroth been sayin’ they’re his kids, don’t know as when the young king would have had time to father them, ‘eard there’s five of them, even heard one of the kitchen girls saying that Deorwine’s brought one too.”
The other girl blushed and shook her head, “some people got nothing better to do but to say bad things, hope our poor young queen doesn’t hear none of this, my father was out with the mark last turn of duty and he said …” no more could be heard, for if it had been Wedia would have known exactly what the Mark were doing, it was not merely a case of patrolling borders, and even if it were, the people would still have been behind them, for that was their duty. Keep the lands safe, protect the people and always think of them above their own comfort and needs.
It was not long after Wedia had over heard this conversation, that Eomer came in, the small child on his back none too visible, but the clinging little girl was up in one of his arms, her head buried tightly into his chest and her eyes looking wide and scared as she took in the place. Deorwine was not far behind Eomer, with yet another child and then two other riders followed carrying the other two. The sleeping twins were identical, they both looked remarkably like what Eomer did as a small child. Obviously there were a lot smaller, but the matted blonde hair, the shape of their sleeping faces, they way they were dressed, it would not be too unbelievable for Wedia to notice the similarities. They weren’t actually his children, but they were very much like him in appearance, but in Rohan there were a lot of people that seemed so similar that one could swear they were related and probably if they traced their family lines there were somewhere along it.
Eomer’s face was subdued there was no huge smile or anything on his face to truly give what he may or may not be thinking or feeling away, he moved aside and spoke to Deorwine, and seemed to be cajoling the small girl, finally she removed herself and held firmly onto one of the other riders, now though Wedia would be able to see the baby strapped over his back. All that was actually going on, was that Eomer wanted the child to be fed, and wanted the healer to see her. He wanted to go find Lothiriel and inform her before ‘rumours’ were spread around, unfortunately he was too late to actually stop them. The babe, he kept with him, but was moving the sleeping infant so the sling he’d had over his shoulders brought the baby so it was laying over his chest instead of his back and he then carried on walking after playing with the little girl for a few moments to make her feel more at ease at leaving with the others, much as Deorwine was doing with the child he had in his care.
Then the pair of them carried on walking, Eomer dipped his head politely to Wedia, “is the Queen busy?” He asked his brows furrowing for he wondered why Wedia was not with her, and why Lothiriel was not there too greet him as he was sure someone would have came in and told her he had arrived.