“Here?” asked Eowyn. She held a small opalescent star, suspended from a length of white ribbon, against the rose bush. “Or here?”

“What do you think, Eldarion?” asked Legolas, giving the boy a little hug. “Which looks nicer?”

Eldarion—still quite shy—pointed to the first position.

“Good choice,” said Legolas.

Eowyn tied the ornament in place. “All done.”

She sat down with Legolas and the child and, munching gingerbread, they admired her handiwork—the bushes and shrubs all decked with delicate glass and pale silk.

“The garden is happy,” said Legolas.

He smiled, over the boy’s head, at Eowyn.