Alyssae was aware of the hand that was laying on her hip. His vingers seemed to melt away the fabric of her dress and she did not know whether it bothered her or not. He did something with her that only one man had done before - but that gave her food for thought as well. Maybe she just wanted to feel something for him, so that her thoughts were no longer occupied by Thorin. 
At the same time Eldinòr was neither a suited partner. He was an outlaw, had abandoned his society and performed tasks for the highest bidder. He probably wouldn't be a good father either.
For the umpteenth time her thoughts wandered to Niamh. Where would she be? Was she all right? She caught herself looking for a silhouette on the shore or a shadow in the sky. 
"Stop worrying." Eldinòr stroke a tuft of hair behind her ear. "That won't get you anywhere."
Alyssae looked at him. He wasn't the type to worry, but he didn't sound arrogant. 
"My daughter is missing," she answered firmly. "How can I not worry?"
"Worrying solves nothing. You're just on your way to get your lover and then you'll look for her together."
"I wish it was that easy," Alyssae grumbled. "We are no lovers anymore, remember?"
"Let it go, Alys. For now."
She sighed frustrated. "What do  you know about this? You don't care about anything, except your ship perhaps."
"And you think there's no reason for my indifference?" he whispered so softly the others could not hear it. His breathing blew against her neck, made her shiver. "Maybe it's me of all people who knows how it feels to lose a family member."
Alyssae turned her face towards him, blinking in his bright green eyes. All those time she had found him a loafer, but there had to be a reason he had barely contact with Raphael. 
"But you knew where Raphael was, didn't you?"
He turned his head away. "Maybe Raphael isn't my only family." He took the cards that were handed out by Audalis. He had taken the place of the coxswain because the wind increased and he wanted to stand at the helm himself. 
"I still have no idea what you're doing," she sighed when Eldinòr threw two red cards at the middle of the tabel. 
"Of course not. You're not even trying to understand the game."
She glanced at the other side of the table, were Kíli was sitting. He seemed to feel home between all those elves, who let nobody else put the rules down. He comprehended the game much better, although he wasn't sitting on the knee of an elf who did strange things with her mind. 
"Shouldn't we go on shore?" Dwalin stepped under the roof where they were sitting. His beard was soaked and he was shivering. "Thunder is coming."
Eldinòr laughed. "Are you serious?"
Dwalin gave her an uneasy look, but Alyssae did not know what to say. Eldinòr and his men lived out in the open for such a long time that they surely knew what they were doing. 
Alyssae felt that Eldinòr placed his other hand on her upper leg. She observed his face, but he acted like he didn't notice, although his eyes were sparkling mischievously. 
The fact that he was flirting with her so openly confused her, especially since he kept saying that Thorin would come back to her. He hadn't said a single angry word about Thorin, but still he sometimes looked at her as if there was nothing in the world he wanted more than kissing her. Or was that only her own imagination? Was she desperately hoping that he looked at her that way?