"What is the meaning of the guard posted by Lord Estarfin’s door?"
Parnard startled, almost slopping wine on his robes, and turned to face the speaker. There was a black-eyed woman staring intensely up at him.
"Ah, yes, the guard - ahem! He is fully determined not to take his eyes off Lord Estarfin for one instant, you see. That is what guards do: they guard."
"Yes. I know that," Ruineth snapped. "I am not an idiot! Why does he need a guard at all?"
"Ah. Well, that is really not a matter I wish to discuss -"
"You will not get rid of me as easily as your clerk!"
Parnard blinked as he put two-and-two together. This must be the forge worker Talkale told him about, the one that he thought first to get rid of, and did his best to ignore her and send her away.
"A most rude fellow he was!" cried Ruineth, mistaking his momentary silence for stalling.
"Now, now," implored Parnard, not wishing to hear Talkale disparaged by a stranger (even if he did think he was impudent and a bit of a show-off). "Talkale did not understand. Circumstances were, ah, difficult. He did not comprehend the seriousness of the, er, situation. I have explained it to him."
"I am sure you have," retorted Ruineth. "You knew! You knew beforehand, even before Estarfin left!"
"What are you talking about! I do not know anything," cried Parnard, now thoroughly alarmed and on the defensive.
"We will not abide your viciousness and lies, Lord Ambassador!"
Parnard went pale as a sheet. "Really, lady! Be calm and compose yourself," he said in what he hoped was a soothing tone, and kept his features carefully composed in a dignified expression. Try as he might, he could not repress a slight trembling in his voice. Yet he tried to maintain a dignified countenance.
Quite possibly the worst thing anyone can tell a person when she is lividly angry is to 'be calm.' This always ensures the opposite effect, and causes the person to become even angrier. At that moment Lindir, Thanguron and Aewendir quickly got up from their seats and all but rushed out of the Hall. Only Sogadan stayed where he was, and that was because he had nowhere better to be at that moment. It was not often that the Hall of Fire was so entertaining.
"Do not tell me what to do!" shrieked Ruineth.
"Lady, why not sit down," stammered Parnard, hesitating whether to say anything more. "I would listen to your troubles and -" but he never finished his sentence. Her eyes flashed; Ruineth lunged forward and struck Parnard across the face as hard as she could. As she spent many hours beating red-hot steel into submission in the forges of Imladris, the skinny wood-elf was sent flying about five paces and fell over a chair. Then she swept out of the hall, the heavy double doors banging shut behind her with a loud clang.
"Who was that?" groaned Parnard as he picked himself off the floor, a long red weal across his cheek and a rising bruise already showing their stark evidence of the untempered anger of a woman in love.
