Death of a Love

            Paladin carried a basket of wool into the dying shed, looking on his eldest as she stirred the dye with a wooden paddle.  “So,” he said, “you’ve set aside your fascination for Frodo in favor of Isumbard?”

            She shrugged.  “What I felt for Frodo wasn’t true love, Da.  I was too young to appreciate what being married to him might mean.”

            “I’m sorry, lass,” he said, laying his hand on Pearl’s shoulder.  “It’s not easy to let such a love die.”

            She looked up, and he saw that she did feel pain, no matter how lightly she spoke of it.