Sitting on one of the window seats speaking merrily with the other ladies, Celebrian was the first to spy the pair as they entered. “Excuse me, please,” she apologized amid a heated conversation on floral arranging. Gliding across the hall, she paused beside her husband, who leaned against one of the great pillars with a drink in his hand. Bending at the knee just slightly to kiss his cheek, Celebrian said to Elrond, “Be afeared; the great slayer has just entered with your chief book shelver.”
“Oh?” Elrond did not turn to look, trusting his wife completely. “Do they both seem in good spirits?”
Snuggling against his side as he put an arm around her, Celebrian peered quickly over his shoulder. “Remarkably so. Did you know, you are wrong. Erestor does smile at times.”
Nearly dropping his drink, Elrond spun around, forgetting he had his back to one of the columns. The corner of the wood connected with his nose and he winced.
“Ah, you missed it. Now he is looking rather concerned. Actually, everyone is looking rather concerned, even myself.” Celebrian looked over to Lindir and the other musicians, who had paused in their playing, and motioned for them to continue.
Holding the bridge of his nose, Elrond blinked and then looked in the direction that Celebrian had been watching. Indeed, walking in their direction were Glorfindel and Erestor, looking slightly mussed from their nap.
“You do not think they-“ began Elrond, with Celebrian finishing before he could.
“Nay. Erestor? Please. And Glorfindel is not that type of elf to take advantage of one such as Erestor. Even if they had, they would not have shown up here, they would have had better things to do.” Celebrian whispered all of this quietly to Elrond as Glorfindel and Erestor approached, but when the pair stopped, she received such an odd look from Erestor she almost thought he had heard her. “How pleasant to see you both here this evening!” she said sincerely, then jabbed her husband covertly while he was sipping his drink.
Sputtering for a moment, Elrond swallowed and added, “Yes, yes, quite, very good to see you both.” He saved the glare he wanted to give to his wife for later, and coughed as she patted his back.
“Erestor!”
All of them turned upon hearing the voice of the youth, Elrond’s younger son Elrohir. Glorfindel hid his look of surprise upon noting that Erestor turned his head in the direction of the shout. The young elf, three-quarters the height of the others and lanky in his awkward adolescence, slipped through the crowded room and took hold of Erestor’s hand. “Come with me,” he said. “I asked Lindir to play one of your favorite songs.”
Eagerly, Erestor followed, pulled along by the youngling. Glorfindel kept an eye on them until they stopped near to the benches that the musicians were occupying, stopping at a pole near to them.
“Elrohir is the only one here with the ability to really understand him,” Celebrian said sadly. “Some days, he is the only one that Erestor will respond to.”
“Ah.” Glorfindel continued to watch the pair. Erestor placed his arms around the wooden beam, almost hugging it, his ear pressed upon the wood, while Elrohir sat down at his feet and clapped along with the tune. “Elrohir and Elladan are very different from one another.”
“That they are,” agreed Elrond. “Night and day, not unlike my brother and I were. However, neither Elros nor I was so naughty as Elladan has turned out to be.”
“I did not know you have a brother,” said Glorfindel.
Smiling sadly, Elrond replied, “I had a brother. He is dead now.”
“I am sorry,” apologized Glorfindel immediately.
Elrond waved it off. “It was a long time past. He chose the race of men; I chose the race of elves. I know he was happy with his decision.”
Feeling uneasy now, Glorfindel folded his hands behind his back and looked back to the musicians as he worked on a way to excuse himself to move closer to the music without seeming too protective of Erestor.
“Did the two of you have a less stressful afternoon following the events of this morning?” asked Celebrian politely during an intermission.
“Actually, yes. We both took a nap – much needed, I believe – and then we played chess for a while before dinner.”
Again, Elrond sputtered and hacked as he tried unsuccessfully to drink from his glass. “Erestor played chess with you?”
“He beat me thrice,” admitted Glorfindel.
“You cannot spoil him by allowing him to win,” countered Elrond. Before Glorfindel could dispute him, Elrond said, “Erestor playing chess. I wonder what is next.”
Jabbing her husband in the side, this time not so discretely, Celebrian said, “It is good that the two of you are getting along so well. It usually takes Erestor quite some time to feel comfortable with anyone new.”
“I found out he hates beds. We ended up sleeping on the mattress on the floor,” Glorfindel explained.
Clicking her tongue, Celebrian turned to Elrond. “Did you not tell him about that?” Poking her finger into his ribs and making him squirm and spill what little was left in his glass onto the floor, she further scolded him with, “You should have told him about that. What if Erestor had thrown a fit?”
Elrond cleared his throat, administered the saved glare, then looked to Glorfindel and said, “It seems to have slipped my mind at the time, but Erestor hates beds for some reason.”
“Noted,” Glorfindel said dryly. “You do not happen to know what a bunny would have to do with anything, do you?”
“A real one?” questioned Elrond.
Glorfindel shook his head. “One of the tiles depicts a rabbit. He showed it to me this evening, then pointed to himself. I tried to figure it out, but I had to give up.”
“A rabbit... I have no clue, either,” said Elrond. Beside him, Celebrian was pondering the riddle herself.
“Did he do anything else, before or after?” she asked.
Thinking back, Glorfindel said, “No, not really. When I said ‘hare’, he looked hopeful, but then I messed up somehow.”
“Hare... hare...” Celebrian got an intense look on her face as she thought. “Hare... har, hari, heru, her, har, hir, hur—wait, he pointed at himself first, or the tile?”
“The tile,” said Glorfindel.
“Then I think I have it!” Celebrian grinned with excitement. “He pointed to the tile, then to himself. Hare, sounds like hîr, and then he points to himself, benn. Hîr – benn, herven, husband. He wants to know if they two of you are mates,” she said, almost in a cooing voice.
A mutual exchange of ‘I do not think so’ looks crossed between Elrond and Glorfindel. “Well, maybe,” Glorfindel then said. “I mean, I was completely wrong. Perhaps that is what he meant.”
“Erestor, telling riddles like that?” Elrond shook his head. “Celebrian, darling, how much wine have you had this evening?”
Giving her husband a sour look, she responded with, “Not enough – I need another glass. If you will excuse me.”
“If you will excuse us both, Glorfindel. And it is a pleasure to see you have finally joined us in the hall this evening,” added Elrond, following after his wife.
Glorfindel bowed his head to them as they left, considering Celebrian’s idea. There was only one way to find out whether or not it was correct, but a part of him feared being wrong. Things were going well with Erestor, and he did not want to alienate him in any way. His eyes drifted to the musicians, and he watched Erestor, still beside the pole, with Elrohir on the ground. Now and then, Elrohir would look up and call to Erestor, and then once Erestor looked down would speak to him.
“Erestor is not the only one being underestimated around here,” mumbled Glorfindel to himself.
