Once they're billeted again, and the horses have been cared for, Éomer turns her men out into the fields to lend a hand, and the rest of the harvest goes fairly quickly. Many of her riders are the sons of farmers, even if they themselves earn their living by the sword, and so they all know how to wield a scythe and how to collect the grass to dry it into hay.

Éomer likewise rolls up her sleeves and lends a hand, consciously putting herself in a field away from Eskel to keep the flirting and distractions to a minimum. She doesn't mind being known as a woman who goes after what she wants, but she is not the type to shirk her duties to do so.

By the time the day's work is done, she's sweaty and exhausted in a way she's grown unused to, and the offer of a bath is very welcome indeed. She's just redressed in a simple linen shift lent to her by the innkeeper's wife — all her clothing will need to be washed, covered in sweat and dirt and horsehair as it is, and it's been collected along with everyone else's to be taken down to the wash house to be dealt with there — with a pale blue kirtle belted overtop it, her hair is spread loose and damp across her shoulders, when Eskel comes to find her.

"Ah, just the man I was looking for," she says, despite the fact that she obviously wasn't doing any looking right at that moment. "Come with me. I have something to show you."