The Replacement

Chapter 2 - The Queens funeral

The next morning arrived and Arnarra awoke. Slipping her feat from under the covers, she righted herself and stretched before getting up, her crumpled nightgown slipped down to her ankles from being crumpled by a restless night in a new bed. She grabbed a dressing gown moving to prepare herself before she heard the cries of the young prince. Not bothering to prepare, she rushed out her room and down the corriodor and into the King's room, arriving in the prince's room before his cries could wake the entire kingdom. She lifted him as she had that first day and cooed to him. He gurgled and grabbed at her hair, which for the first time was not in its usual plait. She wrestled her hair out and continued to coo at the young elf.

In the doorway King Thranduil stood marveling at the efficency of the elleth he hired to be a mother. Even in another room she was more attentative to his son's needs than he was. He was broken from his thoughts when he heard his son gurgle louder and looked up to find Legolas pointing at him and struggling in Arnarra's arms. She chuckled mildly before handing the young prince to his father and excusing herself to quickly get ready. She arrived back not ten minutes later and removed the princeling from the kings arms and settled in a chair to eat breakfast. She was dressed in a black dress that hugged her figure to her waist and flowed out in folds to the floor. Her sleeves were form fitting and hidden on her hips were two knives, unnoticable to the untrained eye. She finished her breakfast and picked up the prince not bothering to wait for the king to finish and got the prince dressed in black clothes prepared for him by servants. She looked in the mirror after settling the prince in his crib and quickly braided her hair in a neater braid. She picked up the prince and walked out to meet the king, grabbing a rose on the way out, to throw on the queens casket.

They walked in silence and finally reached the cemetary. There stood the majority of the realm, many people turning to each other to mumble about the new carer for the princeling infant. Arnarra ignored all the grumblings, focusing instead on her charge sleeping soundly in her arms, a hand wrapped around a lose strand of hair. She smiled softly as she heard the kings footsteps stop and the stopped silently behind him, until he gestured for her to stand beside him. She stepped up next to the King and watched as some elves lowered the Queens casket down. The king stepped forwards and made a speech his voice turning colder as he spoke. He threw his rose in before backing away. Arnarra stepped forwards throwing a rose in for the prince and another for her as the Prince's carer. She stepped back allowing advisors to throw in a rose, followed by nobility, followed by the lesser elves. She stood there, feeling a tear fall down her cheek before Legolas started wailing. She hushed him quietly, bouncing him softly up and down glancing quickly to the king who stood staring at the filling grave in cold silence.

After standing for what seemed like hours she chose to leave, taking a now sleepign Legolas back and settling him in his bed. Hearing a crash she rushed out and followed the noise of destruction. The Kings study looked like it had been ransacked by wild boars and he was still finding objects to break to pieces. She ducked a heavy book and caught a goblet chucked in her direction silently picking things up and turning the desk the correct way, all the while the King rampaged on, ignorant of her presence. She was used to this sort of tirade as both her father and brother had gone into one after the death of her mother and later her father. She simply handled it with silence and picked up the pieces, much like she was doing now. Finally running out of things to destroy the king paused, his breath coming out in rasps as he turned to see his son's carer quietly picking up ink soaked papers and throwing them into the fire. She picked up the heavy book he had thrown at her earlier, ignoring the Kings eyes on her. Moving closer to him she continued to clean, leaning down to pick up a stack of important papers and placed them neatly on the desk, quickly glancing at the contents.

"The translation is worng on these, my liege, it would be good if you read over these before sending them." She said quietly as she continued to pick up pieces of his broken study. Finding nothing more to clean she finally looked at him, her green eyes the opposite of his, calm, collected, warm and with a hidden strength. His cold eyes looked back in hers as he quietly spoke.