The Price of Pride

Elvish translations

Aniron lle – I want you
Gwedeir – brothers
Lle naa vanima – you are beautiful
Lirimaer – beautiful one
Meleth – love
Melethronamin – my lover
N’uma – no
Panto sina annon – open this door


Chapter 43


Nothing could have tempted me, but Elladan and Elrohir seemed determined to force me – force us to leave our room. Their pounding sounded at the door while we were still recovering from our lovemaking.

I suspected, from the timbre of the knocking, that it was the twins. The servants, even the innkeeper, would never have knocked as forcefully, but I called out in Westron nonetheless.

“Legolas, panto sina annon,” came Elladan’s shout.

I looked at Aragorn. “Should we let them in?” I asked.

“N’uma.”

“Then you tell them. If I answer, they will probably think I am holding you captive against your will.”

“You have captured me,” Aragorn replied, “but not against my will.”

I smiled. “Tell them, melethronamin.”

“Go away, gwedeir,” Aragorn shouted in reply.

“Estel…” The threat was clear in his voice as he pounded again.

“Unless you are planning on knocking down the door, I suggest you do whatever it is you have planned to do today. We are staying here.”

“Legolas, Estel… panto sina annon. Sii’!”

“They are not leaving, lirimaer. Do you want to let them in?”

“If we do, they will never leave.”

“They are worried about you. You cannot blame them for that.”

“As if they never had a lover…”

“But this is not about them. This is about you.”

Aragorn sighed. “Very well, but it will be your fault if they do not leave.” He rose from the bed and went to the door.

“Do you want to dress before you open the door?”

“N’uma. Perhaps they will take the hint and leave.” Somehow, I doubted that would work, but I was not going to protest having Aragorn walking across the room – or anywhere – naked. It gave me yet another opportunity to admire his golden skin and powerful physique. The twins did not count as sharing anyway.

In a concession to decency, I arranged the sheet around my waist so only my torso was visible. If Aragorn thought that we would have our privacy again more quickly by flaunting our intimacy, I could play along. I reclined against the pillows and let my face reflect the desire I felt whenever I looked at him. “Lle naa vanima,” I told him just as he reached for the knob. As I expected, the compliment brought a most becoming flush to his cheeks. “Aniron lle,” I added as he opened the door and the twins burst in. I would have been hard pressed to decide which was funnier: the lustful look on Aragorn’s face at my words or the look on the twins’ faces at the sight of Aragorn standing naked before them and me obviously naked in the bed.

The heat disappeared from Aragorn’s face when he turned to face his brothers, giving them the same stare that he used many years later on importuning advisors at the court in Minas Tirith. His brothers were more resistant than the advisors, but even they looked uncertain. “What do you want?” Aragorn ground out.

“To make sure you were…” Elrohir struggled to find the right word, diplomat as always.

“Unharmed,” Elladan supplied. It was not the word he had been searching for, if Elrohir’s face was any indication.

“Legolas would never harm me,” Aragorn exclaimed, jumping to my defense. I said nothing, merely raised my eyebrow in amused tolerance.

“That is not what I was going to saylrohlrohir insisted.

“Then what?” Aragorn inquired. “You have seen me. I am here willingly, which you already knew. Please stop meddling in my affairs.” He did not wait for an answer, turning his back on them and climbing back into bed beside me. “Shut the door as you leave.” And Elladan and Elrohir found themselves dismissed, as no one except their parents and perhaps Glorfindel and Erestor had ever dismissed them. Elladan sputtered indignantly, but Elrohir drew him out of the room, shutting the door as Aragorn had requested.

“Will they ever leave us alone?”

“They just did,” I baited him with a smile.

He chuckled. “Will they ever stop interfering?” he asked, rephrasing his question.

“Ah, that is an entirely different question, lirimaer. They would not meddle if they did not care about you.”

“Do they meddle in their sister’s life as well?” The question was a sudden reminder to me that while Aragorn considered the twins his brothers, he had never met Arwen.

If he only knew how much the twins had meddled in our lives for two thousand years! “Uma. They meddle in Arwen’s life, just as they do in yours. Just as they do in mine.”

“In yours?” He was clearly surprised.

“Of course. We have been friends for many years now. They want what is best for me, just as they do for you.”

“And what is best for you?” That was a leading question if I ever heard one.

“Lle,” I assured him. “No matter what your brothers think, you are what is best for me, Estel. Never doubt that.” He opened his mouth to answer, perhaps to make a declaration of his own. I saw love shining in his eyes as he looked at me. I could not return whatever declaration he was about to make beyond what I had already said so I stopped his words with a finger to his lips. “Do not say it, Estel,” I warned him. “Not yet.”

“Then when?” he asked.

“When I can answer you,” I replied. Before he could ask more questions, I replaced my finger with my lips. He might have protested if I had given him the chance, but he was quickly too caught up in our kiss to care. I could not tell him in words, but I would show him what I felt. Every chance I had. I wanted him again, but this moment was about more than just passion. I held him tenderly against me, trying to infuse my every touch, every caress, with the words I could not say. We lay there, side by side, for what seemed like minutes but must have been hours.

“What holds you back, meleth?” he asked finally.

Meleth. What a wonderful, beautiful word. A word I could not return. One I should not have let him say.

“A promise, lirimaer, made to one who crossed the sea. I promised her that I would watch over her daughter until she found her mate. I cannot make any other promises until I have talked to the daughter. I have to make sure she understands.” I was stretching the truth more than a little, but it was an explanation that Aragorn could understand and accept.

“I would never keep you from your responsibilities.”

“I know that, lirimaer, but I must make sure she knows it. Before I make any other commitments. Once she and I have talked, you and I can talk about other things.”

“I understand that you must talk with her, but why can we not talk of our future now?”

“Because words have power, lirimaer. You know that. If, the Valar forbid, my conversation with her does not go well, I will be in no position to make promise you you. If by our words we have made unspoken promises, I would be forced to break them. I do not want to be in that position, melethron. Nor do I want you bound to me if I am not free to return that bond.”

“I would stay even…”

“Do not say it, Estel. I said the same thing to her mother, and so you and I are having this conversation now. When I am free, we will speak of this again.”

“Until then, we can still be together, can we not?”

“Of course we can, melethron. I would never have taken you to my bed otherwise. Even so, perhaps I should have waited until I was free,” I mused.

“N’uma,” Aragorn replied emphatically. “You waited too long as it was.”

I had to laugh. “Not by choice, melethron. Not by choice.”