Diamond didn’t see it coming, not at all.

She arrived with her family at the Great Smials in the sharp frost of a dim Yule afternoon, and all she caught of Pippin was a brief gaze on his face, astonishingly serious and tense. But his eyes lit up and he gave her a faint smile before he greeted her parents with perfect courtesy and vanished again in one of the countless corridors.

The home of the Tooks was overcrowded with guests, and to the disappointment of her mother the quarters of her parents were in a completely different part of the Great Smials. Diamond listened patiently to her lectures and warnings, and gave a sigh of relief when Opal of Long Cleeve finally left to take care of her festive dress (which had been made by a very skilled tailor in Oatbarton, especially for this occasion). Diamond’s dress was also brand new, but she didn’t care very much; she would spend as much time with Pippin as possible, and nothing could be more thrilling than that. Still she stood in front of the mirror when it was time to prepare for the big festive dinner, and she found her appearance rather enjoyable. She had pinned her brown hair to a gracious crown of braids, her eyes were shining with anticipation, the neckline of her lace blouse offered a very satisfying frame for the soft swelling of her breasts, and the long, mossy green skirt caressed her ankles with its soft fabric.

Half an hour later she sat at the great table, together with nearly two hundred guests. The cooks had produced enough delicacies to feed an army of hungry hobbits for at least a month; five fatted geese had ended their lives to sizzle in the huge ovens, stuffed with apples, chestnuts and dried prunes. A roasted suckling pig was enthroned on a silver plate, glazed with honey and decorated with parsley and candied walnuts. There were half a dozen sorts of winter vegetables in delicious sauces, deep bowls with meat balls and chicken legs, huge baskets with sweet Yule cookies and big Yule cakes, decorated with preserved fruits and colored icing. Paladin had been generous enough to plunder his wine cellar (though he was normally rather careful with alcohol), and the women in the brew house of the Great Smials had been busy for weeks delivering the delicious mild beer that made Paladin’s guests always remember all the glorious drinking songs of their youth – at least as soon as the goodwives and young maidens had left the Meeting Hall and went to bed.

Diamond ate a crisp goose wing, carrots and leek with butter, and a piece of a Yule tart with evergreen leaves made of mint sugar. She gave the meal all the attention it deserved, but after her first hearty appetite was sated, she had time to observe her surroundings with a keen interest, grazing familiar faces and finally resting her eyes on the face she had been looking forward to watching the whole evening.

He sat together with his closest family, framed by his father and his cousin Merry. A lively conversation was going on up there, and Diamond could see him laugh, but only briefly. He turned his head, and for a long moment their eyes met. He straightened his back, and all at once his face changed to an expression she had seen only once before – in the endless second before he bowed down to kiss her, on that hot autumn afternoon nearly three months ago. His cousin saw it, too; his eyebrows rose and he slowly laid his fork down, as if waiting for something spectacular and bracing to meet it.

And then Pippin got up and raised his glass. The wine caught the light of the flames behind him and shone like red fire.

“Father… mother…” His voice carried though the room, and the general chattering and clinging of cutlery and plates slowly died down to a deep silence.

“I would like to announce one of the most important decisions I have ever made: I will marry soon, and I have chosen my bride.”

A united gasp went around the table like a sudden breeze. Paladin half rose from his chair, his face a picture of perplexity and confusion. Eglantine Took opened her mouth, but she didn’t speak and instead placed one hand on the arm of her husband to make him sit down again.

“We have known each other since our childhood,” Pippin continued, “but now she is more to me than just a cherished cousin. I want her to be my wife, to share my life and to bear my children.” He bowed before his father, then turned in Diamond’s direction and bowed before her and her parents.

“Opal and Odo… may I ask for the hand of your daughter Diamond?”

The silence seemed to deepen even more, and every pair of eyes focused on Diamond’s end of the table. She could feel the body of her mother on her left side grow tense, and she heard a sharp gasp. Then the warm hand of her father touched her cold fingers, and she blinked and let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She turned to him and saw the question in his gaze… and the understanding. A wave of sheer, indefinite relief washed over her. She had an ally… and the best one she could wish for.

“Do you want him?” Odo asked in a low voice. She nodded indiscernibly, but the answer in her flushed, determined face was more than obvious. Odo gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and cleared his throat. He rose, and she rose with him.

”Do you want him, child?” he asked again, this time loud and clear. Her eyes met Pippin’s, and any remaining trace of insecurity and embarrassment vanished.

You are many, many more things than I ever imagined.

The echo of her own voice came back to her like a familiar, soothing melody, and never before in her entire life she had done something that was so inevitable, so absolutely right.

“I feel very honored, Peregrin Took,” she replied, her blazing smile mirroring that of the Thain’s son. “And yes, father… yes, I want him.”

*****

“I don’t understand! How could that happen… and how could you hide that whole… affair… from me?”

Diamond sat in the chair beside the fireplace in the guest quarter of her parents. Her father had vanished – together with Paladin Took – behind the massive door of the Thain’s study, and she had stayed behind, warmed by his embrace and waiting for her mother. ”You know her,” Odo said softly before he went away to have a long conversation with her future father-in-law, “she means no harm. Your mother simply doesn’t like surprises… and as soon as she has recovered from the shock, she will be immensely proud and embrace the whole idea as if it had been her who contrived the whole matter.”

As far as Diamond could tell, Opal of Long Cleeve was far from being proud. Right now she was fuming – and the fact that after the sudden proposal she had dropped a mug of cider on the velvet skirt of her brand new maroon skirt didn’t help to appease her.

“How could you do that to me?”

Her voice was a dramatic wail, and Diamond thought it was time to calm the troubled waters.

“Don’t fret, Mama,” she said as gently as possible. “There has never been any affair. I have known Peregrin Took almost since I made my first steps. Pippin has rescued me from the wine cellar of the Great Smials where his cousin Merry had locked me in when I was ten and he put a bullfrog under my pillow when I was fifteen. He vanished into thin air together with Merry Brandybock and Frodo Baggins when I was twenty-seven, and I’d never thought that there would be more between us than a slightly… erh… distrustful friendship.”

Her mother took a deep breath.

“I still don’t understand how this could happen,” she said, unconsciously responding to her daughter’s composure. “If you only are distant relatives and some sort of… friends… how on earth did you fall in love all of a sudden?”

And so Diamond told her about their meeting during the hay harvest in September. She confined herself to the mere facts; that she had walked around bringing fresh water to the harvesters, that Peregrin Took had asked for a kiss and that she had given him what he wanted. There was much more she couldn’t explain… the unearthly enchantment taking hold of her when she felt his lips on her mouth, the flash of joy and jubilation running through her body from head to toe, and the deep feeling of blissful completeness when he took her into his arms.

Opal stared at her daughter.

”Are you telling me there has never been anything more than a kiss?”

Diamond eyed her with mild confusion, then it dawned to her what her mother was thinking -- and she felt the first swell of anger rising in her stomach.

“Honestly, Mama,” she said, just a tiny hint of sharpness in her voice, “do you really believe I have been secretly rolling in the hay with the son of the Thain for months? And that he finally made up his mind and decided to take up responsibility for the nefarious seduction of an innocent maiden?”

“N… no.” Diamond had the silent satisfaction to see her mother blush. ”But… but what makes you so sure that he will actually marry you and not run away again like he did nine years ago when he left for that… that quest? For more than a year his parents didn’t know where he’d got to… and I’m sure you remember the bad rumors poisoning the air for such a long time!”

“Oh, I do,” Diamond retorted coolly, remembering that some of the worst gossip had been cooked up in Opal’s kitchen. ”But I don’t think that you see thing from the right point of view. Aside from the fact that Pippin made his proposal in public, witnessed by nearly two hundred guests – not to mention his parents – he wasn’t running away when he followed his cousins to those strange lands. He went with them to guard and to help them, and he returned as a hero, cherished by elves and kings.”

She looked at her mother steadily and with quiet self-confidence, and it was Opal who lowered her gaze first.

“So you will marry him no matter what I think?” her mother finally said with a very soft voice.

Suddenly Diamond felt a fountain of laughter well up inside her heart.

“Oh, come on, Mama!” Impulsively she leaned in and kissed Opal’s cheek. “You know, I would marry Pippin tomorrow if he asked me, and if he had only a small farm, a sow and half a dozen hens, I would still joyfully agree to be his wife. But as this is not the case… well, I am sure you will get used rather fast to the thought of being the mother-in-law of the future Thain!”

She gave her mother a warm smile, left the room and closed the door behind her.

*****

It was far past midnight when the biggest kerfuffle finally died down. Diamond had spent the rest of the evening in her guest room, trying to concentrate on one of the books she had borrowed in the library of the Great Smials. She wisely avoided offering herself as a visible target for the flood of juicy gossip that had risen after Pippin’s spectacular performance. The hobbits in all the four quarters would discuss the events of this particular evening for months, she knew it, and the thought of being stared at and of excited, murmured conversations behind her back made her feel very uncomfortable.

Otherwise she didn’t feel half as agitated as she had expected in all those girlish dreams of the brave hobbit that would once come to marry her; her wedding wow had already been spoken without a single word, three months ago. And so she was actually able to sleep… at least two or three hours before she woke up to a dull, barely identifiable sound.

Thump.

She slipped out from under the covers; the room was still warm from the last dying embers in the fireplace, but the window glass was frozen up and white with ice flowers.

Thump.

There it was again, and it came definitely from outside. She fumbled with the latch and finally the window opened with a shrill, protestant creak that made her wince. Cold winter air streamed in and under her nightgown like a sudden splash of glacier water. And then a big, solid snowball shot past her like an unexpected projectile and hit the last glowing logs behind the fireguard. It started to melt with a loud hiss, producing plenty of smoke. Diamond turned back to the window, desperately rubbing her eyes, and through a veil of involuntary tears she discovered her bridegroom, climbing over the windowsill, his face shining with mischievous joy and embarrassment.

“I know I shouldn’t be here,” Pippin said with a sheepish grin.

“Indeed,” Diamond agreed, “and you shouldn’t shoot your bride with snowballs, let alone in the middle of the night. My mother would have a terrible fit if she knew this.” She spoiled the effect of her stern little speech immediately by bursting into laughter.

“Close the window,” she said, still giggling. “We would make a remarkable pair of lovebirds tomorrow, with red eyes, raw throats and running noses!”

While it was Pippin’s turn to struggle with the fractious latch, she cleaned the damp grate, took an armful of apple wood logs from a huge wicker basket and kindled a new fire. Then she turned back to him and saw him standing in the middle of the room. He had a strange air of unease around him, and at her questioning gaze he lowered his head, chewing at his upper lip.

“Perhaps I should go before I get you in trouble,” he murmured.

“Perhaps you should,” she said, stepping close enough to smell his scent of mulled wine, herbs and winter. “But I don’t want you to go.”

He looked down at her, the ghost of a smile in his bright eyes.

“Love, do you invite me into your bed before we’re even married?” he asked. His tone was serious, and for the length of the question his eyes were, too.

“Of course I do,” she replied, her voice matching his. “And you know that pretty well, or you wouldn’t be here… I can’t imagine that you’d make all that fuss in the middle of the night for nothing more than a good night-kiss.”

Pippin shook his head, laughing softly.

“I guess I deserve that,” he said; his hands sank down on her shoulders, gently stroking, and she felt the warmth of his palms through the fabric of her nightgown. But it was she who kissed him first. She stood on her tiptoes, her fingers entangled in his snow-damp hair. His mouth was soft and spicy under her lips, and when her tongue boldly slid deeper, dancing a slow, seeking dance around his, he gave a muffled, throaty sound, half surprise, half desire.

“Diamond…” he whispered. “Diamond, you…”

“Yes…” She guided his hand to the thin cord holding the neckline of her long nightgown together. ”Yes, Pippin, yes …”

The fabric rustled softly and fell to a pool of folds at her feet. Diamond stood naked before him, vulnerable under his gaze and for a short moment scared by her own boldness. But in his eyes she could only find love, deep admiration and a growing hunger… a hunger for her.

“Sweet Eru,” he whispered, “you are so beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Her eyes shone with a brand new pride and confidence. “And now… please…”

He got rid of his clothes as fast as possible, strewing shirt and breeches all over the room, the waistcoat sailing through the air like a strange, colorful bird and finally dangling from the back of the chair. Diamond opened her arms and drew him into a close embrace, stepping backwards until she felt the bed against the hollow of her knees. All she had to do now was to let herself fall, wondrously covered and protected by his vivid warmth and the arousing weight of his body.

Everything was so easy… it had absolutely nothing to do with the giggling whispers she remembered, nothing at all with the wild presumptions of her girlfriends… it was much less spectacular and at the same time much more overwhelming and oh so wonderful. His fingertips roamed her skin, tender like the wings of butterflies, and she gasped under his kisses and arched her body under his hands, sighing and laughing and suddenly holding her breath when he broke through the tiny barrier of her maidenhood. And again everything was completely different and new, and she clung to him in utter surprise and disbelieving delight. From now on the rhythm of her life would forever be dictated by the wild hammering of his heartbeat and the sweet, breathless sound of his voice.

He used every fiber of his body to please her, guiding her over the edge of pleasure on an endless, wounded path of endearments, and she stifled the high-pitched scream of her very first climax against his neck. Her eyes brimmed over in jubilant gratefulness while he shuddered and moaned into her hair and finally reached his own, patiently withheld peak, crying her name.

Mine, she thought triumphantly, stroking his back. Mine forever.

*****

His hands gently caressed her back to wakefulness.

“My jewel, I must go… within the next hour it will be dawn.”

Diamond gave a tiny sound of protest, not willing to let go of his newfound warmth. But she opened her eyes, and he was very close… steeply swung brows over green eyes in this beloved young face with the long nose and the boyish mouth. She sighed deeply.

“I know,” she whispered, suppressing a yawn and the fierce urge to forget family, duty and decency altogether and to make him stay. But instead she sat up, lit the candles in the holder on the nightstand and watched him going on the hunt for his clothes. He found his undergarments, his breeches and his shirt, and finally his fingers (and oh how nimble they had been when they touched her here and there and especially there…) closed the last button of the long abandoned waistcoat.

Pippin returned to the bed, this time really for a good night-kiss. She smiled under his lips and thought that he tasted of sweet promises and a wonderful future.

And this had to be true, for when he stood in front of the window, ready to climb out, he turned back to her once more.

“Give me two months,” he said. “Two months, and you will be my wife.”

She laughed, her head spinning with joy.

“I hope my mother will survive your enormous speed!”

He chuckled.

“I hope my mother will, too. Good night, my jewel.”

Then he was gone, and she hurried out of her bed to defeat the latch for the last time this night. Outside the sky slowly brightened from a deep black to a dim gray, and she could see the trace of his footsteps in the thin layer of snow on the frozen ground. It was very cold, but nothing could banish the core of vivid fire, warming her from inside. She went back to the bed and slipped under the covers, wrapping herself into his scent.

You are many, many more things than I ever imagined.

“Pippin,” she whispered. “My Pippin.”

Two months, and you will be my wife.

She closed her eyes, smiling.

Two months.

FIN