An Unexpected Love

FOURTEEN

Edited
Thank you @ballardkaylee for the comment on chapter 13  ♥

    The Lord was helping the seamstress pack all of her clothing into rucksacks, bags, and trunks. They had already discussed what would be brought with them, and what would be left behind or given to different elven families in Greenwood.

Navaheya knew that eventually, Thranduil would come looking for her. She knew he would spend hours searching through her home trying to find a trace as to where she was fleeing to, even though it wasn't as difficult to determine as Thranduil would make it. There was only one place Navaheya would go that she would risk bringing her mother given her health.

Navaheya's mood was somber, how was she going to be able to just leave her life behind her? She didn't have a choice, her life in Greenwood was over. Lord Elrond was packing up a large pile of Navaheya's gowns, doing his best not to damage the beautiful garments. He was thinking hard about how unfortunate the circumstances were. When the elven ord had offered her sanctuary in Rivendell, offered her residence, she had declined. Now she was forced to accept and she no longer had any say in the matter.

As the dark-haired elf carefully placed a gem-filled royal blue gown into a large bag, he turned to look at the seamstress opposite the main room of her house. She was so focused on organizing her sewing needles, ribbons, buttons, clasps, gems, and an obnoxious amount of colored threads. She did not look over to glance at the elven lord across the room, she was so absorbed in her organization and packing of her sewing supplies. Each type of material was sorted into different containers in her own little system. Needles, buttons, and clasps were sorted into small metal tins, and ribbons were tried into small bundles and then placed between the wooden spools of colorful threads that were packed into a wooden box covered in carvings of leaves and a stunning oak tree.
Navaheya's gems that she had collected over her entire life and sewn onto garments were simply placed in a pile in the center of her wooden table in the middle of the room. Later, once all of her clothing was packed, she would individually wrap each gem in scrap fabric to protect them from any damage.

Elrond's dark eyes watched the woman organize and pack her materials as he packed her clothes. Most elven men would have felt slightly awkward and embarrassed packing a she-elf's clothing. Elrond however, had known the woman for a long time, the first time he had truly met her, he had actually conducted a full check to test her health and inspect her due to the Pandora Decay living inside her genetics and bloodstream. He had seen the woman bare but for the only reason of medical concern. Since that first meeting with her, he had felt as though she was his younger sister. His thoughts shifted to the blonde prince as he placed the next garment into the quickly filling bag. Thranduil would be raging with jealousy and envy if he knew the Rivendell Lord was touching every single one of the seamstress's clothing garments, including her undergarments.

The prince was highly temperamental and impulsive, Lord Elrond did not consider himself a perfect Lord, but he truly felt as though Thranduil had a very long way to go to become the king he would need to be. Something about the seamstress being so close to another elven lord irked the prince. Thranduil knew better than anyone how easy it was to fall in love with Navaheya. He wasn't concerned about commoners falling from her, maybe it was his status as a prince or his arrogance and slight entitlement because he had always been raised to be a future king. Commoners couldn't arrange a marriage without explicit approval from lords ruling an area. Commoners couldn't order a marriage to happen for the gain of allies or resources. A commoner would always be more hesitant to make any romantic advances toward a palace employee who was so close to the royals of the kingdom. A Lord, especially of another kingdom wouldn't have that hesitancy. It would have been easy for Lord Elrond to steal Navaheya away from Thranduil, especially with the kindness and charming personality that the lord had.