Title: Fire and Ice
Rating: PG
Theme: Hearts and Flowers, January Potluck
Elements: old love, heart of stone, hollyhock (ambition)
Beta: Raksha
Author's Notes:
Summary: Denethor is haunted by memories.
Word Count: 200
These characters all belong to the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. This story was written for pleasure and not for financial gain.

She had been his old love and his new; his lady, the mother of his children, his beloved. If Denethor closed his eyes, he could see her still, walking amongst the hollyhocks, wearing the cloak he had bought her in the same vivid blue.

Then his ambition had been to make her happy, to delight in their sons and to make her forget her yearning for the sea in the joy of their life together.

It was not to be. Finduilas had withered and died like a flower too long in the sun.

His heart turned then to stone.

All that was left now was to defend Gondor, to use every means that he had to discern the Enemy's purposes, and to raise his sons to become mighty warriors worthy of their House.

Sometimes Faramir looks at him with her eyes. He looks away, determined that the frozen love and pain shall not be rekindled. Boromir has Ecthelion's eyes; he can look his firstborn in the face.

Often when Denethor stares into the seeing stone, he fancies she is there, hidden amidst the tall hollyhocks, just out of sight. Then the vision changes and he sees only fire and destruction.