The Masters of Buckland Have Always Been Romantic

" O! The hay in the loft is soft and new!

Sweet and strong, the grass does smell

The clouds sail by in the sky that’s blue!

The... morning’s come the sun does tell,"

The sound of her husband’s husky voice lifted in song sailed into the chamber from the hall, and made Estella smile and roll her eyes, as she folded the linens by their bed.

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"Now watch! for the break of day!

Sing as the red-bird flutters by,

Stream bubbles down the way!

The lads will wake and smile wide,"

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"Creeps the light up yonder pasture,

Flocks bleat to the tune of sun!

Sunshine is the dark night’s fast-cure,

As all the shadows from it run!"

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She had to admit though, she did love to hear him sing, and she giggled as he progressively got louder and more enthusiastic as the song continued. At this rate he really would wake everyone in the Hall.

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"Can you see the home-fires burning,

Smell the smells of breakfast begun!

I can’t await the new-day, yearning,

But, my meal first I must have done!"

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It was not nearly mid-morning, but it was typical of him to be hungry already, and it was very like him to sing about food, anyhow.

The maids out in the hall that bustled by on their early-morn duties smiled as they passed the new Master of the Hall, he was lively and "half way down The River in the wrong direction" as Shire-folk liked to say ever since he had come back from his mysterious Travels, the River, being the Brandywine, of course. But he was level-headed and very much respected, and the Brandybucks trusted him, and there was no quarrel when it came time for him to supercede his father.

It was safe to say that Brandy Hall felt again a fresh breath of vigor, with the young Master and Mistress filling its aged and historic halls with the life and love of a young couple that had their whole lives before them. The traditional home of the Brandybucks seemed to stretch its aching walls and smile, and let sunlight fill in passages that were before dark and unused.

The two had recently made Brandy Hall their residence, coming from Crickhollow and settling down as was expected of them, and Merry was enjoying the thrill of the happy, childhood memories the place brought back to him, as Estella tried to become used to the responsibilities of managing such a gigantic abode, throwing in changes and things as she saw fit.

Their children, they had two, both lasses, ran to and fro, not even close to finishing their exploration of the gigantic Hall that was their new home, were riddled with delight and spent most of the days running in and out of different rooms and discovering places that they didn’t have time to find when they would visit for Yule celebrations or other invitations. The giggling of their happy voices rang through the corridors like a new voice to the old delving, and the cooks and maids and servants were no less than delighted to have some children to mind again.

The sound of the Master’s jolly voice broke the silence of their chamber as he rounded the corner and spotted her inside.

"Good mornin’, ‘Stella!" he seemed very happy, for some reason or another, and came up behind her, wrapping his arms about her waist and kissing her softly on the neck.

Smiling, Estella rolled her eyes again as she continued folding linens, wrapped in his warm embrace, "You know, you are going to wake all of Buckland with your songs this early in the morning. I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked us to renounce our titles."

"Alright, then," said Merry, letting go of her and hoping over their bed (making Estella laugh once more) and upon getting to the other side, picked up some of the laundry and began folding it as well. "What are titles anyways but something that makes your hand tired when you’re trying to sign an important document?" Estella snickered. "I’d gladly give it up, then we could gallop off to Rohan and live amongst the horses."

She snorted, "Oh, lovely."

"But it is, my darling," said Merry, putting the last of the things on the bed onto the pile Estella was making. Merry watched as Estella took the things and walked over to their large dresser and began putting them away. "You know, we have help to do that for us."

She frowned a bit, "I know, I know," she stuffed some vests into a drawer, "I’m just not used to it yet, is all."

"Alright, whatever suits you, my love, my heart, my world," said Merry, who was laying back on the bed, tracing the lines on the high, vaulted ceiling that matched the rest of the room with its dark, cherry wood stretching up above them. "So, what rigorous and exhausting tasks are set before you today?"

"I have to plan the meals for next week, instruct the head housekeeper as to what her chores should be... talk to the gardener and figure out what the flower arrangement outside is going to look like... decline, accept and," She thought of some of the people she’d rather not have visiting, " ... put off invitations," (and Merry said, "The Sackville-Bagginses already at us to have them over so they can make rude observations and catty remarks at what we’re doing with the place?", "You got it," Estella answered.) "...and also I have to pretend that I enjoy the company of your great great aunt Primrose today at tea, so basically, things I’d rather not be doing at all, really," She said.

"Well," said Merry, "The Mistress has to be occupied somehow, after all, it is the Master that does all the real work." He grinned from his place on the bed.

"Oh, and I forgot, keeping the Master in line is another one of the duties that I must tirelessly attended to," Merry heard her say in retort, and he snickered. "Which, since I mentioned it, reminds me, don’t you have some work to do, or did you make your Uncle Merimac get out his cane to hobble around Buckland and see to it for you?"

Merry sniggered, "Alright, alright," He stood up from the bed and walked over to her while she stood in front of the mirror of their dark-wooden dresser and put on a necklace that she had adored since she was a little lass. "That’s enough, now. Stop teasing me or I’ll have to have you banished."

Estella smiled, "You wouldn’t dare, you silly old Brandybuck."

"It seems you have forgotten, m’dear, that you are a silly old Brandybuck now, as well."

"Yes, and all the sillier for marrying one, too."

"You know, Estella," said Merry walking towards the fireplace, "I think we should change the family name again."

She smiled again and played along, "And why is that?"

"Well, Gorhendad did it, might as well start out with something big...how about Handsomebuck? Or Charmingbuck?"

Estella burst out laughing, "If you weren’t already mad I’d call you crazy!"

"What!" replied Merry smiling, "I thought it quite fitting!"

Estella still laughed, and Merry rolled his eyes at her, smiling still as well. When she didn’t stop her laughing for a good minute Merry strode over to her, with his long legs making quick time to swoop her up in his arms before she could dash away. "Put me down, you oaf!" she laughed, and tried to swat his button-like nose, but he dodged out of the way.

"Oaf!" he said in feigned indignation. "Why I ought to send you in a box to Sackville for that one!"

She let her head hang back, as in his strong embrace she was cradled, and laughed again. Her red dress and skirts swished as he walked, carrying her over to the fireplace. Her glossy black curls bounced and her brown eyes where full of the happiness that is love and warmth. Merry placed her down as he sat before the slow crackling fire, and turned to her, "You are very cruel, but very pretty, so I’ll put up with you," and he smiled, too, joy in his gray-blue eyes that to Estella had seemed so solemn and grim when he had returned back from his Travels some years before.

 And she was happy to see no trace of that look in his eyes for the moment, that look that meant he was slipping, falling back into the darkness that those Travels had scarred him with. So whenever he was subconsciously happy, like now, she relished it. Her love for him was too strong and too deep for her not to notice those subtle signs, those distant looks and whispered words that meant he would need a warm fire and a hand to hold onto in the coming night. And as she looked then at her husband’s face, she saw youth and sadness, vigor and solemness, love and loss all at the same time, and was amazed anew of him.

How could someone so happy hold such a great sadness too? How could there be such evil in this world as to make her husband scared and grim? How could there be a shadow so dark that it would dare touch the most innocent and light of hearts? And she tightened her grip on his hand, remembering his story and his pains, and how hard it had been for him to tell it all to her, although he loved her so.

But then she thought too, of how she had suffered during the months that he had been in strange and distant lands, and shuddered, a shiver raking her body as she recalled those terrible times, and she moved closer to his warmth as she thought of how they had helped to heal each other, covering their wounds with friendship and closing them with love. He turned to her, and smiled when he saw her looking at him.

"I love you, Merry," she said.

"I love you too, Estella," he replied and then responded as he always did, "More than the stars and the moon and the sun before them."

She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, as he was nearly a head taller than her, and closed her eyes. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her close, and stayed staring at the fire.

"You know," said Merry, after a few minutes, "We have to plan the traditional Welcoming of the Hall banquet soon," he said, speaking of the canonical dinner that the new Master and Mistress would always have in order to begin their service with blessings and happiness and promise of bountiful years to come of both friendships and love, to Buckland and the rest of the Shire. It was a night of toasting and well-wishes, and the simple things that hobbits loved, but most importantly it was a night to feast and celebrate and to appreciate the generosity of friends.

"You mean I have to," said Estella, still resting on him, "You only have to do the important things, remember?"

"Ah, yes," said Merry. "Of course." There was a long pause in their conversation, but then Merry spoke, "Do you think Appleberry and Wynnie like it? Living in the Hall, I mean," he questioned, speaking of their daughters.

"Like it? They’re having the time of their lives."

"I hope so."

"Of course they are," Estella assured him, "What isn’t to love?"

"I suppose you’re right," He said as he pulled her closer, and they both smiled, not knowing that right then another addition to their little family was on his way.

They sat there for a while, just taking comfort from one other and the quiet tenderness of the morning before their busy day would start. The docile sunlight slowly rose to fill their window and shine upon the floor, the shadows of early-morning retreating to their cubby holes and closets. The sounds of people getting up and about started to fill the hallways and corridors, and although their chamber was in a private part of the Hall, they could still hear the bustling of busy feet heralding the start of a new day. Merry sighed, and Estella knew what he was thinking of, and rubbed his leg comfortingly.

"I miss him too," she said and Merry blinked at her, surprised.

A moment later, he answered, "You know me too well, my love," and sighed gently.

"I’m sure he’ll be dropping by for an extended visit soon enough, do not worry, he cannot stand to be away from you any longer than you to him," she said as she traced the lines on the back on his hand, carefully avoiding the snaking scars that circled his wrist like briary rope.

"Pippin? Drop by without an invitation?" Merry looked to her, a playful sarcasm heavy in his tone, "Are you mad?"

Estella nodded her head, "I must be. For how else could I ever have thought such a thing? You’re rubbing off on me, I’m afraid."

"Well, Bucklanders will do that to you. We’re all quite queer if you haven’t heard."

There was a brief silence, then, "We really ought to be getting to our tasks now," said Estella in a sleepy voice, stretching out to lay in his lap, and closed her eyes once more.

"We should," agreed Merry softly, brushing the dark curls from her soft skin, and stroking her forehead.

"But I’d rather go back to bed," she confessed, snuggling up against the warmth of his body, "Planning and talking can be ever so dull, after all," she sighed contentedly, "I’d rather be with you."

"And I you, my love," said Merry, then he looked back to the fire, and they let some more time tick by. A good half hour passed, with Estella in his lap, and Merry watching the crackling embers die away as the morning sunlight continued to grow and brighten the room, but it was when the clock stroke the quarter-hour that Merry spoke again, "Berilac is going to be looking for me, and you know how terribly annoyed he gets with me when I’m not in time for breakfast, and he is left to make small talk with all the old gaffers by himself."

Estella giggled, eyes still closed, "Aye, that I do," and she took a moment to stretch again, and then opened her large brown eyes and looked up at him, and to him they were like pools of warm coffee in the morning and his blue ones melted into them, as he sighed happily. "Well, then, you should attend to your duties, and I to mine. I’m afraid we’re slaves to them, indeed."

"Alright, my love, you are always the sensible one, anyways," said Merry, leaning back as she got up from him, "But remember," and she turned, "I don’t work past tea time, and I shall rescue you from my great great aunt Primrose, as a true Knight would, then we can sit and talk nonsense all we want."

"Sounds lovely,"she said as he helped her up. She was brushing herself off and he pulled her close, looking into her eyes and he kissed her forehead slowly and softly, then gently raised her head so he could bestow another kiss upon her lips. After they broke apart, he turned to leave, and Estella went back to putting away their items, going into the closet.

But a moment later she suddenly gasped, "Merry!"

He stopped instantly, turning from the doorway he was about to exit and rushed to her, "Estella? What’s the matter?" he said walking quickly back into the room, "Where are you?" he asked, apprehension in his tone.

"I’m in the closet!" came her muffled reply, and he frowned and raised a brow.

"The closet?" he asked doubtfully.

"Yes, come here, quick!"

"Alright, alright," he said making his way over, convinced the situation was not as dire as her tone had merited. "This had better be good," he said, recalling that since this was relatively one of the first fortnights they had spent in the Hall as Master and Mistress, Estella had frequently been discovering all sorts of mundane things that had been lying around the Hall unused and unnoticed for ages, that she claimed to be "wonderful!": hidden hallways, deserted mathom rooms, kitchen drawers filled with silvered antique spoons, other kitchen drawers filled with knives, old scribbled in journals buried deep amidst the countless tomes in the Hall library, old portraits of hobbits no one knew anymore...that she had been delighted by and insisted on showing him. Although to him (and to her puzzlement) these things were hardly as fascinating.

"It is, hurry!"

He made his way over, entering the walk-in closet area and turned left, to where she was kneeling on the wooden ground, garments’ sleeves and legs dangling down on her as she faced away from him towards the wall.

"Estella?" Merry asked questioningly, "What are you doing? I think you really have gone mad."

"No, look," she said, pulling him down so he kneeled on the ground as well.

His brow knitted in befuddlement and he turned to her, "You really have gone mad. Pippin always said you would, but I never listened to him."

"Merry," she said, a smile in her voice, "Look." And she moved her hand up to gently grasp his chin and turn him towards what she had found.

At first he saw nothing in the cherry-dark wood inside the shadowy closet, and went to turn to her once more, but something caught his eyes, and he looked harder at the wall in front of him.

Soon enough he was seeing markings, chiseled in signs, then... letters, engraved by knife, some large, some small, scattered up and down the wall.

Estella’s eyes were alight with joy: there was no end to the surprises here in Brandy Hall.

Sure enough, just as Merry had seen, there were indeed letters, all different letters that were scratched in and carved, all into the wall in the back of the closet, were no eyes but those who knew of the markings would ever find them. And though each appeared slightly different, there was one thing similar about them all:

G+M was engraved with a strong, bold hand near the corner higher up, with a message below it reading: May our children be blessed as we before them, who live here, under this Hill, with love and happiness, then a little further below it was another G+M, this one in a spidery hand, that snaked in spiny letters, but the note below it betrayed the twisted demeanor the letters portrayed, and it read: Gentle words are dear to those who listen with a gentle heart. Then to the left of that was yet another G+M, but this one in a more elegant hand, its message reading: Love means to be there always, without needing to be asked, and beside it was cut in a beautiful flower, that suggested whoever had carved it was skilled with wood-workings.

Below them all was a small but pretty M+H, its message short and sweet: Laughter and love are great treasures, both, and beside that an M+L in large letters, with a message that made Estella giggle: A loving heart makes foolish actions, and looking to the other side of the wall there was yet another, R+M, in a hasty carving but made lovelier for the hearts scratched in beside it, the note reading: Love is rare and beautiful, a gift from haven, never to be taken for granted.

One that caught Estella’s eyes read like so: R+ ... she thought it looked like an ‘N’, no, no, an ‘M’ rather, yes, that fit better: R+M Love will stir courage, heal wounds, and open doors that before were bound by lock and bolt and fear. And there was another that warmed her heart to read: B+G Children, family, and memories of the two are treasures more than the greatest gold. And as she read it a lump grew in her throat, as she thought of their littlest lass, taken from them when she was a babe by the cold touch of the Winter’s Breath.

Merry stared in confusion, as his eyes traced the wall, looking up and down, finding more letters and inscriptions and some small pictures everyplace he looked. His eyes fixed suddenly on one engraving, below two letters he could not make out, for when he read the words, he instantly thought of Frodo, and his eyes misted with tears: It will save us all, this thing we call Love, it will save us all someday.

Other sayings ran across and around each other, "What... is this?" he said more in amazement than actual wonder.

"Merry," Estella whisper, still smiling, and she picked up his hand and he followed her actions closely as she reached across him and placed his fingers onto two letters carved gracefully by the left-hand corner of the wall. His felt the letters, then stopped suddenly, and pulled his hand away, looking at them. They read: S+E, in what Merry recognized to be his father’s fine flowing script.

Mouth slightly agape, he read the words that ran below it: True love is a bond that cannot ever be broken, by quarrel, by distance, by time or by death.

"This is... amazing!" Merry whispered and smiled through the gentle tears sprung to his eyes. "I can’t believe I never noticed this before..." he trailed off, looking at all the inscriptions.

"We won’t tell anybody of it," said Estella, "I think it is a message for us," she looked to Merry.

"It is... all of them, they all are, this is just..." he was stunned, and began tracing the lines with his fingers, getting close to the wall, trying to figure out which Master had carved which message by their initials and penmanship, as he had seen a few in the old record books in the Hall. "This must be Gorhendad..." he said pointing to the first one he looked at, "Blessing the family for generations to come... this one was Gormadoc and Malva...this one Gorbadoc....and this must be my grandda, R+M..." he spent a few minutes looking at them all and then sat back. "Well, the Masters of Buckland have always been romantic," and he looked to Estella grinning, a chuckle escaping his smiling lips.

"I must agree, Merry dearest, I’ll say I must agree," she said, still looking at all the notes and messages and little pictures. "They are all so lovely... and so true."

They sat for a moment, each of them reading the inscriptions their predecessors had left for each other, and consequently them as well. Merry wrapped his arm around Estella again, and she rested on his shoulder as she had done by the fire.

"But wait," Merry said suddenly, "It’s missing something," Estella looked to him questioningly, as he took his arm from her and began digging in his pocket until he pulled out his pocketknife, which he carried everywhere with him.

She sat back as she watched him open the shining, sharp blade and stand up, finding an empty space on the wall, and begin carefully scraping away at the wood.

A little while later, he brushed himself off, looking quite delighted with himself, and turned his gaze down to her, "It’s finished," he grinned like a little lad who had just gotten away with having four helpings of dessert, and helped her up eagerly. "Look," he instructed, positioning her in front of him after he put his knife away and wrapped his arms around her from the back. She began to slowly read out loud what he had written:

"M+E..." and she glanced back at him and smiled.

He kissed her neck, "Keep reading," he instructed.

She turned back, "M+E ... Wander not a path alone, be it night or day, grief or gladness, familiar or foreign... end or beginning, but walk ever hand-in-hand," She stood staring a moment, tears in her eyes, and then turned back to him. "I love you, Merry," and she snuggled close into his body, feeling the beat of his steady heart fill her with warmth and gladness. "Thank you, thank you, for loving me. I’d be lost without you." She said, thinking of again of how they had helped to heal one another of the things they had seen and been through, the things they had experienced during the terrible times that made them appreciate all the more the love they had.

"Oh, Estella," and his eyes were filled with tears too, "How could I not love you!" and he hugged her, "Thank you for loving me. Thank you for helping me... for showing me the light again."

And they stood like that, in each other’s embrace for a while, and when they broke apart, love shone anew in their eyes and hearts, and they took one last look at the wall before leaving.

"I wonder what our little laddie will think when he sees our message up there some day," said Estella, walking out of the closet.

"First we have to have a little laddie, ‘Stella," said Merry, and pulled her close once more, "We’ll work on that after tea," he said seductively, and grinned.

Estella laughed again, the sound to his ears like the voice of a lark singing high in the sky on a cloudless morning, "You cad! Get out of here, you have work to do if you’ve forgotten," and she pushed him away, then went to make their large bed neat again.

He walked towards the door, but turned around once more before he left, "Farewell, my lady, queen of my heart," and gestured towards her in a rather dramatic way.

"If you don’t stop fawning and get out of here I am going to have to drag you to your study."

"Oh, how cruel for her that I love to shun me so!"

"Get out!" she cried laughingly and threw a pillow at his head, but he ducked out of the doorway and was gone, and the pillow landed with a plunk! to the ground. She walked over to the entryway to get it, and picked it up. With the pillow in hand she leaned back against the doorway, and shook her head smiling, as she watched her husband make his way down the hall, already lifting his voice in song to fill the corridors with his happy voice once more.

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"Ho! hey! Let’s greet the day!

Though the future’s path is misty gray..."

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She spoke the next lines along with his voice, as it faded away into the Hall, "Love is here, and love’s away!...So fear not, my heart shall stay."