Chapter 3. Nearly elevenses

 ‘One more day to the wedding!’ Goldi caroled, an unlikely bird high in one of the apple trees of the old orchard.

 ‘Goldi! Come down at once! What do you think you’re about?’ Primrose scolded her older sister.

 ‘Come up, Prim!’ Goldi said. ‘The sky is so blue and the breeze so fresh, and...’

 ‘And Rosie-lass will be arriving this evening, and the sheets aren’t even on the line yet!’ Primrose said. ‘Mum sent me to find you to tell you she needs help with the washing.’

 ‘The washing should have been done hours ago,’ Goldi said, reluctantly climbing down, ‘and besides, it’s not my day to wash.’

 ‘No, but you’re fastest,’ Primrose said, stepping out of the way for Goldi’s jump to the ground. ‘Mum got stuck in the linen press this morning, seeking out blankets, and no one heard her rapping and calling for an hour or more!’

 ‘Dad will have to fix that sticky latch for certain now!’ Goldi said. She’d been trapped a time or two herself, as had a couple of the others. It had become a family joke, but with the Mayor’s busy schedule and all the demands of the upcoming wedding, neither Sam nor any of the boys had found time to see to the latch yet. Indeed, the family had grown so used to propping the door when entering the storage room to fetch linens that the faulty latch hardly ever came to mind.

***

 ‘Whatever are we going to do?’ Pip said, frustration creeping into his tone. ‘There must be something!’

 ‘I don’t know why it is I have to be the one to think of everything,’ Merry-lad grumbled. He flopped back on the soft grass at the top of the Hill, resting his head on his hands, looking down at the colourful pavilions rising on the Party Field.

 ‘I wish Faramir were here; he’d think of something, I’m sure,’ Pip said.

 ‘Well why don’t you take yourself off to the Great Smials and ask him?’ Merry-lad said in exasperation. ‘Honestly, Pip, I’m at my wits’ end. There’s no waggon to decorate, for they’re coming back here to live, no ponies with hoofs to paint or manes and tails to braid with bright ribbons, for the same reason...’

 ‘And our sisters won’t let us near the new rooms,’ Pip said glumly. ‘As if we’d pull a mean trick! We just want to give the newlyweds a surprise is all.’

 ‘Well, we’ll think of something,’ Merry said, though he did not feel as confident as he sounded. ‘Fas is due to ride in sometime today; perhaps he’ll have an idea. He’s standing up with Frodo at the wedding after all.’

 ‘Are you sure he’s coming?’ Pip asked. ‘What with Ellie so close to her time and all?’

 ‘Fastred is always as good as his word, you know that,’ Merry said sternly. ‘He said he’d come, months ago, when Day and Frodo set the wedding date, and he’ll come.’

 ‘I don’t know,’ Pip said slowly. ‘He’d be in awful trouble with Ellie if she had the babe while he was here and she was there.’

***

Miri did not fight for a seat by the window this day; as a matter of fact, she was unusually subdued all the morning. Estella watched her sensitive daughter with concern. At length she said, ‘What is it, dearest?’

Miri sighed but did not look up. ‘Papa’s going to miss the wedding,’ she said low, ‘and Mayor Sam will be so dreadfully disappointed. And he shouldn’t be disappointed on such an important day. Everything should be perfect!’

 ‘O child,’ Estella smiled. ‘No wedding is ever perfect! Didn’t you know it’s bad luck if something doesn’t go amiss on your wedding day?’

 ‘That’s why brothers or cousins arrange “surprises”,' Perry said, turning from the window. He winked at his little sister. ‘Just you wait and see what I’ve thought up for your wedding!’

 ‘You wouldn’t dare! Mother!’ Miri wailed.

 ‘You wouldn’t want to have bad luck, now, would you?’ Perry said reasonably.

 ‘Periadoc Brandybuck, you leave off teasing your sister this instant!’ Estella said.

The lad gave a shrug and turned back to the window. ‘I was only trying to help,’ he said.

***

 ‘And they’ve lined the nest box, built a regular nest there,’ Merigrim Took said.

 ‘Well that is good news!’ Ferdibrand said, steepling his fingers together. ‘Any eggs yet?’

 ‘No,’ Merry said. ‘No sign of the parents. D’you suppose they built the nest and then abandoned it?’

 ‘They’ve been known to do that,’ Ferdi said slowly. ‘Still,’ he said, ‘let’s not borrow trouble. Keep a watch on the box; if there’s to be eggs laid it’ll happen soon, I warrant. Might be the parents went out for a bite and came back after you left.’

 ‘Have you really had a blue tit perch on your finger?’ the lad said eagerly.

 ‘Ah, they are bold little birds, indeed,’ Ferdi said. ‘Quite tame if they have the chance to get used to you. Have you been keeping the netting full of nuts for them?’

 ‘Aye,’ Merry said. ‘They’re so amusing to watch! They’ll even hang upside down from the netting to get at the nuts!’

 ‘Little acrobats,’ Ferdi said, a far-away look on his face. Though he’d lost his sight some years before, he remembered being as fascinated by the antics of the little blue-and-yellow birds as the young son of the Thain. ‘Fearless, as well. Why, if a squirrel comes after the food they’ll hold tight until the last minute, even though the squirrel would as likely eat one of them.’

 ‘I’ve seen that!’ Merry said excitedly. ‘A squirrel came after the food and looked to be sizing up the birds there. I threw a stone at him and scared him off.’

 ‘What’s this? Talking about birds when you’re supposed to be studying?’ Pippin’s voice was heard from the doorway. Merigrin jerked upright, but Ferdibrand only laughed.

 ‘Corrupting the lad, I am,’ the chancellor said. ‘Wheedling him away from his work by talk of birds and such.’

 ‘Ferdi, you’re welcome to share all your knowledge of hunting and woodcraft, but not when Merry’s tutor has been looking for him all of half an hour.’

 ‘Telly didn’t look very hard then; we’ve been here the whole time, haven’t we Merry?’ Ferdi drawled. ‘And if you’d been at your desk, working away as you ought, you’d have known your son was here in the Thain’s study!’

 ‘I...’ Pippin said.

 ‘Shameful example you set for your sons, neglecting your work this way. Where have you been?’ Ferdi scolded.

 ‘Ferdi, I...’ Pippin said.

 ‘Merry-lad, you go on now and take yourself off. I do believe your tutor is looking for you, lad,’ Ferdi said.

 ‘Yessir,’ Merry said, and was off like a shot from the bow.

 ‘Ferdi!’ Pippin said.

Ferdi leaned back in his chair, put his hands flat on the desk, and stretched. ‘Yes, cousin?’ he said helpfully. ‘Was there something you wanted?’

***

Merry Brandybuck leaned forward to pat his pony on the neck. ‘You’re doing a fine job, lad,’ he said. ‘Keep it up and we’ll get to that wedding yet.’

He’d elected to take the western fork of the Great North-South Road. There was no way he’d arrive at Buckland before Estella set out for Hobbiton, and it would just add miles to the journey to take the eastern fork up to Bree and across to the Shire. No, though Estella would fret at his absence from Buckland when it was time for the Brandybucks to start out, she’d forgive him when he arrived in good time for the wedding, even if he had to ride up through Southfarthing to do so.

 ‘Not far now,’ he added, though of course it really was too far. He wasn’t going to tell the pony that, however. They’d had a good rest after dinner with the peddler, rising some time between middle night and dawn to continue their journey. Now the Sun was high in the sky, and he’d crossed Sarn Ford. If he rode on through day and night, with just short rests for the sake of the pony, he ought to arrive in good time.