Someone to Watch Over Me

Chapter Fifteen

The man's name was Bard and he lived in Laketown and after a bit of a back and forth between him, Thorin, and Balin, with some grumblings compliments of Dwalin, the Lake-man agreed to smuggle them into Laketown.

Seren sat at the stern of his flat-bottomed barge, trying to ignore how cold she was, but it wasn't easy. Frost layered her hair, made her cuffs crunchy, and no matter how tightly she wrapped her arms about herself, she shivered. She, who'd slept out in the rain and on the ground in winter, had never before felt such cold.

Thorin and Dwalin spoke quietly amongst themselves. Kili sat against his brother, pale and shivering as well. The others were quiet altogether.

The lake that gave Laketown its name might as well have been an ocean, as land seemed to be little more than a line on the horizon in any direction. In the distance, the town itself rose from the center of the lake, with canals instead of streets and the houses stretching skyward instead of outward.

"Everyone, we need more coins," Balin said softly. "We are fifteen short."

Seren winced, her entire body aching as she reached for the oilskin sack holding her money. It was the only personal possession she had left. Her sword and knives were in Mirkwood. Her original clothes had been left in Rivendell. Her sack vanished when the ponies bolted after their first battle with the orcs. In the matter of a few weeks, she'd managed to lose just about everything.

She unwound the leather thong cinching it and spilled the coins into her palm. Too tired to count any of it, she pushed up to her feet and walked over to dump the lot of it into Balin's small palm. "Take it. I've no need for any of it."

Balin looked up at her. "I cannot take all of this, Seren." He glanced at the others. "Don't be stingy, lads. Pay up."

Seren tossed the oilskin into the lake. "I have no way to carry any of it now, so you might as well keep it."

Thorin came over to her. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

He pressed his hand to her forehead and she smacked it away as he said, "You feel warm."

"Impossible. I'm freezing." She turned to go back to where she had been sitting.

He crossed the deck to crouch before her. "Seren."

"I'm fine, Thorin. Just tired and banged up. Again. I just—" She stopped, shaking her head as she stared off toward Laketown. Her thoughts were such tangled knots, she didn't know which end was up or which loose end to pull. Now she could lean into him and no one would think anything of it. Now, she could let him comfort her if he so desired, and no one would bat an eye.

Except now, he didn't try to angle in alongside her or behind her.

"You just what?"

"I just rather wish I'd stayed in Bree. Or the Shire. Or anywhere else." She glanced over at Bilbo, who seemed to be studying them, but then sharply turned away. "And I think he is jealous."

Thorin glanced over toward the hobbit, then back at her. "I think you see something that isn't there."

She knew better, but didn't feel much like arguing about it. "I feel as if everything has grown far more complicated."

"Because they know you aren't a lad?"

"That." She met his gaze. "And us, I suppose."

A hint of mischief came into his blue eyes. "I thought you said there was no us?"

A heavy sigh rose to her lips and she let her head all forward into her hands. "Maybe there is... I don't know. Nothing is the way I thought it would be. No one was supposed to ever know I was a woman. It is so much easier when the world thinks me a boy."