“I have a surprise for you.”
Glorfindel had a smile on his face and his hands were clasped behind his back.
“Is it fireworks?”
Shoulders slumping, Glorfindel’s jaw dropped open slightly and his eyes were disbelieving. “How did you know?”
“Well,” began the advisor as he flipped to the next page of the ledger, “I noted that Mithrandir arrived this morning, and also that last night you left dinner early and you were absent from the Hall of Fire. This morning I looked for you at breakfast, and later at lunch, and just now at supper, but you were missing the entire day. The day was clear, the sky blue, and you know how much I love a good show of Mithrandir’s rockets. Basic logic. Anyone could figure it out in time. Also, you’ve a smudge of soot from one of them on your left cheek.”
Removing his hands from his pockets, revealing the dirt on them of helping to set up the display, Glorfindel said sadly, “I suppose you are too busy to watch.”
“On the contrary.” Erestor closed the ledger and stood up, shooing the growing kitten from his lap. “Should we watch them outside, or here in the house?”
“Here it is less crowded and the noise not as loud,” decided Glorfindel as the pair walked to the large windows on the west side of the library. Erestor’s office was in the back, where it was quiet, and so he did not have to constantly run to the library to fetch books and scrolls. The advisor bent down and picked up the kitten, holding him and scratching behind his ears as the show began.
At some point, Glorfindel had managed to place his arm around Erestor’s shoulder as the dull but loud booms and excited pops of the fireworks made their way to their ears. In the darkened sky, they watched the brilliance of Mithrandir’s creativity. As the show ended, the kitten leaped away, seeing something in a corner that caught his eye.
Erestor sighed as the final explosion of blue and silver dazzled the crowd before the sparks fell like shooting stars out of the heavens. “Thank you,” he said softly, as if any noise might ruin the fireworks from coming back again next year.
“Were you at least a little surprised?” asked Glorfindel. “Just a teeny, weensy bit surprised?”
Erestor made an apologetic face and shook his head. “I could pretend to be.”
“No,” Glorfindel said firmly. “I have plans that one day, I will surprise you, and I intend to do just that.”
“I hope you do,” said Erestor as the blond left the library. A moment later, Erestor looked over his shoulder, and seeing that the seneschal was gone, smiled and went back to his desk.
