Marawendi peeked through the door to see who was making so much noise. The stranger's face was golden-tan and framed by a fringe of black and silver hair that hung down in loose waves over his shoulders. He wore a close-fitting red doublet embroidered with gold flowers at its edges, worn open because of the heat from the fire, and his loud peals of laughter filled the kitchen and echoed off its walls. Perhaps it was the few drops of Sindarin blood flowing through his veins that cast him in a princely light (for it is said that noble blood always shows itself, no matter how much of it is commingled with common stock), or perhaps it was his rich clothing and easy manner and bearing, but whatever the cause for it, she believed that one of the lords of the court had deigned to visit the kitchens underneath the King’s Feast Hall.
"I must say that you look very fine! You have done well for yourself - I am more than a little surprised," her great-uncle was saying.
Parnard laughed again, then retorted in mock outrage, "O great pestilence, how I have missed you! I have done well enough, and so have you, Pantrykeeper.”
“King’s Larderer,” corrected Ailanthas.
“King’s Larderer, begging your pardon! But if you want to gaze at something fine, my friend, you must tear your eyes away from me, for I do not care for that sort of special affection; instead feast your eyes upon this,” and Parnard pulled a necklace out from beneath his shirt and casually dangled it between his fingers.
“Wendi would love to see this,” said Ailanthas, marveling at the luminous leaf-shaped pendant of pearl and beryl swinging from its silver chain, and at Parnard's questioning look explained that 'Wendi' or Marawendi, daughter of Celewen, his sister's daughter, was recently come to Felegoth to work in the kitchen. "She is asleep. If she hears about this, which she will, as you have undoubtedly been showing this bauble off to everyone you meet, she will be unhappy that she missed it."
"That is understandable. It is not everyday that these halls are graced with my delightful presence."
"Let me go wake her."
Marawendi's heart leapt in her chest, and swift as a deer she ran down the passage back to the pantry and waited for her great-uncle to call to her from the doorway. Then she jumped up from her bed roll all in a flutter, and as he explained that he wished her to meet a longtime friend, she hastily brushed and pinned up her hair before following him to the kitchen.
“Lord Parnard,” she said, and curtsied low.
“‘Lord Parnard?'" laughed Ailanthas.
“My title in Imladris," Parnard said, smiling to keep himself from laughing too, "although I no longer hold that office, folk still call me by that title. 'Once a lord, always a lord,' and ‘the wolf may lose its teeth, but remains a wolf,’ and while it may be driven out of the woods, it will always come galloping back.” After sharing these pithy observations he looked Marawendi up and down, then gestured for her to sit in the chair opposite him so that he could see her features in the light. Her hair was fine and dark, and her shining eyes were as dark as her hair, with long thick black lashes, and her little mouth was pink and plump like a ripe raspberry.
It has not been long since the bud opened to flower; not as sturdy as some to help with the rougher tasks will she be, but she has a bright eye and a rigorous color; her hands are long and slender, good for playing the lute; she is pretty enough to be a maidservant for a queen, and her feet are mighty small, thought Parnard, and approved when she hid her blushing face behind her hand. Ailanthas nodded knowingly at the favorable glances directed at his nubile great-niece and excused himself to take stock of a delivery of vegetables. Not all young elf-maidens are as shy and demure as they ought to be, especially ones so pleasing to the eye as Marawendi, Parnard remarked aloud, and the compliment made her cheeks burn hot, but she did not smirk or giggle, and as he was not fond of the company of smirking, giggling elf-maidens, he decided that she would do quite nicely.
Having made up his mind to take her with him, he bent his will towards this aim, and turned the conversation from light pleasantries and small talk to speak of his travels, of many a distant scene, of foreign lands and of the elves that lived there. He began to extol the Noldor, lamenting how they had amassed great knowledge of craft over the long years that surpassed any jewel-craft or metalworks of the Wood-elves to date, but now they had no one to teach because their people dwindled, and soon their wisdom would pass away and be lost forever, unless they found suitable apprentices to take up the craft. Once more did he get to show off his glimmering pearl and beryl necklace while he waxed lyrical about the noble and learned elves who craft such treasures, describing Danel and Estarfin in the rosiest terms imaginable, telling Marawendi all about the many things they would teach her, if she worked hard and obeyed her elders.
“All of that, in addition to the pleasures of riding, hunting, dancing, singing, and drinking wine under moonshine and starlight. How does it seem to you, Marawendi? Will you come away with me to be educated by Danel of Thargelion, and tutored by that loving lady, the best mistress anyone could ever wish for?"
And before she could recover from her astonishment he said, "Silk gowns with matching slippers, jewels for your hair, soft furs and perfumed oils, every needful thing for your daily comfort will be given to you in abundance. Or is it preferable to remain here, labouring in a smoke-filled kitchen?” After many long years, you might become head dishwasher, Parnard thought, but out of respect for his friend, who was now pretending to count onions in the corner, he did not say it. Then he spoke of fortune, and how it is good and bad, and like unto a ship with a faulty rudder, but it did not steer wrong when he met a mighty lord of the Golodhrim,* and ever since that fateful day his life changed for the better, and now he lived most splendidly, always enjoying, among the other good things he possessed, the best red wine that could be found in all the land.
Though Marawendi was not foolish, she was naïve and impressionable, and the unexpected attentions of a handsome lordly elf inflated her young vanity and made her head spin. She saw herself as a great lady in a velvet gown sewn with pearls, even as she sat barefooted at the kitchen table wearing her old nightgown.
It is unnecessary to relate her answer here, nor explain why she readily chose a new life for herself among a band of strange elves when she was so bedazzled by Parnard from the moment she first laid eyes on him, that she would have willingly gone away with him anywhere, and he would not have even needed to ask.
*: Lord Anglachelm, see https://laurelinarchives.org/node/11319
