B2MeM Challenge:Image Prompt: Blue bowl decorated with yellow flowers
http://starbrow.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/1107/14256
Format: Short
story
Genre: gen
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Characters: Finduilas,
Faramir, Ioreth
Pairings: Finduilas/Denethor,
Faramir/Éowyn
Summary: Ioreth has a gift for Faramir.
“Pretty
dish!” said Faramir. He reached out a small finger towards the bowl
on the table and touched it gently then scrambled on to his mother’s
lap and snuggled against her.
“It’s just an old bowl,”
Boromir said scornfully.
“Pretty,” Faramir
insisted.
Finduilas smiled at her youngest son. “That bowl
is very precious to me. A potter in Dol Amroth made it for me as a
wedding gift. He captured the colours of the sea and sky in it and my
favourite little star flowers, or celandines as they are sometimes
called.”
“Want to see star flowers!” said Faramir.
“I
am certain that you will one day,” said Finduilas. “They only
grow in the countryside, though, not here in this city of stone. When
I am better, I will try to persuade your father to take us to visit
Dol Amroth.” She turned her head and looked wistfully out of the
window.
000
Many years later
“Fancy
bumping into you here in the marketplace, Lord Faramir,” said
Ioreth, placing herself squarely in front of the Steward. “I hope
you’re taking good care of yourself. You shouldn’t be doing too
much after suffering the Black Breath, my lord, you shouldn’t.
There’s a chill in the air today too. You need to wrap up well
against the draughts or you’ll be catching a chill.”
“Good
day,Dame Ioreth,” said Faramir. “I promise I will take care of
myself. I am just taking a stroll to help me regain my strength.”
He made to move on.
Ioreth continued to block his path.“As
I was saying, Lord Faramir,” she continued. “Fancy bumping into
you here. I was on my way to see you. Seeing you here has saved me
walking all the way up to the Citadel. I heard you were meaning to
get married to Lady Éowyn, poor sorrowful lady.”
“I hope
I can ease her sorrows once we are wed,” said Faramir earnestly.
“Now I really must be on my way. I have a meeting with the King
within the hour.“
Ioreth did not move. “I’m sure the
Lord Elfstone can wait a little while. Now, as I was saying, Lord
Faramir, I heard you mean to be wed, so I’ve something here for
you, I thought you’d like to have.” She looked in the large
basket she carried and rummaged in its depths, reaching for a cloth
wrapped object.
“Why thank you, Dame Ioreth, that is most
kind of you,” said Faramir, his heart sinking. He had already
received a selection of wedding gifts from well-wishers and was
certain he now owned more dishes than the potter, and enough spoons
to supply Gondor’s entire army, not to mention a selection of truly
hideous ornaments.
“You should sit down to open it, my
lord,” said Ioreth, shepherding him towards a nearby bench. “You
don’t want it to get broken, you don’t.”
Faramir’s
spirits sank even lower. He had hoped to open it in private and
express his thanks in a vague and tactful missive. He hated to tell a
falsehood, yet he did not want to hurt the old woman’s feelings.
She had been so kind to him while he was in the Houses of Healing.
However hideous her gift was, he would have to find something good to
say about it. He obediently sat down beside Ioreth and carefully
unwrapped the concealing cloth to reveal a blue bowl. He stared at
it in amazement. It was not just any blue bowl, but one that
reawakened treasured childhood memories. He was grateful that Ioreth
had one hand upon it, or he might have dropped the lovely object in
his surprise. He was silent for a moment gazing into the bowl’s
blue depths. Ioreth smiled at him benignly. “My mother had one just
like this,” he said at last.
“I know that full well and it
is the very bowl you’re holding, Lord Faramir.”
“I
thought it had been lost years ago when my dear mother died,” said
Faramir. His fingers traced the delicate pattern of celandines
adorning the bottom of the bowl.
“Your poor, sweet mother
was taken from us too soon,” said Ioreth. “Such a lovely lady she
was and she had such pretty things. I was sent for one day soon after
Lady Finduilas died to tend your brother. He’d sprained his ankle a
few days before. Always getting into some scrape or other was Lord
Boromir, now you were a careful child, my lord, you caused the
healers much less work: not that it wasn’t a pleasure to tend Lord
Boromir. Now as I was saying, I was sent by the Warden to see how
Lord Boromir’s ankle was healing and came across a great heap of
things in the yard that had belonged to dear Lady Finduilas that Lord
Denethor was throwing away. I imagine he couldn’t bear be reminded
of your poor sweet mother, but it was a crying shame to throw such
lovely things away. I’d seen the bowl in the sweet lady’s room
when I’d tended her and thought it was so pretty, so I took it and
put it inside my healer’s satchel, as it was going to be thrown
away with the rubbish. A marvel it wasn't broken, it was! Maybe I
shouldn’t have taken it, but I’ve cherished it in Lady Finduilas’
memory all these years, but now it’s time for you and your bride to
cherish it instead.”
Faramir’s eyes prickled with tears.
He remembered how pretty he’d thought this bowl as a child. He had
forgotten about it for years, assuming his father had destroyed it
with so many of Finduilas’ possessions. It was still most fair in
his eyes. It were as if some small portion of his mother had been
returned to him. Beside him, Ioreth coughed, reminding Faramir of her
presence. She regarded him somewhat anxiously. The Steward collected
himself and smiled at her.
“Thank you, Dame Ioreth I am so
glad that you kept this. I shall treasure your gift always.”
Ioreth
beamed. “I’m glad to hear it, my lord, but I must be on my way. I
can’t stay here all day talking. I’m due at the Houses in an hour
and I’ve still not bought any eggs, and if I don’t hurry, the
fresh ones will all be gone. You’d never believe what some of the
farmers try to sell you, last week one sold me a dozen eggs that
floated, but I wasn’t born yesterday, I wasn’t. I demanded my
money back!” Still chattering, she rose from the bench and made her
way towards one of the stalls.
Faramir made his way home
carefully clutching the bowl. Soon he would dwell in fair Ithilien
where the celandines grew in profusion. He would gather some with his
lady and remember his mother. They would fill the bowl with water and
let the celandines gleam like stars against the night sky.