Chapter 4. Just in Time for Tea

 ‘Nearly teatime and still nothing!’ Pippin Gamgee said in disgust, kicking hard at a stone. He yelped as the stone proved harder than his toes; larger than it looked, it was firmly lodged in the ground. With his next step he yelped again, grabbing at his knee and pulling it high, hopping about on one foot, an unlikely stork.

 ‘Whatever have you done with yourself now?’ Merry-lad snapped.

 ‘I think I broke my toes!’ Pip moaned.

 ‘Now that’s just lovely!’ Merry said in irritation. ‘Here we are without a surprise for Frodo and Day and you have to break your toes!’ He grabbed at Pip’s arm, steadying him. ‘Don’t go falling down and breaking something else!’

 ‘Seriously, Merry, I think I may have broken one or two of them,’ Pip said hoarsely.

 ‘Come, sit down,’ Merry said, steering Pip over to a large rock by the side of the road to Overhill. Pip hobbled to the rock, wincing and putting all his weight on the heel of the affected foot, keeping the toes from touching the ground.

The older brother sat the younger one down, saying, ‘Let me take a look.’ He knelt before Pip and took the heel of the injured foot in his hand. As he looked the toes over, Pip sucked in his breath.

 ‘I haven’t even touched them yet!’ Merry said.

 ‘It hurts!’ Pip said miserably.

 ‘Which one?’ Merry asked.

 ‘The three in the middle,’ Pip said, ‘and the big one hurts a bit as well.’

 ‘Ah,’ Merry said. He gently touched the affected toes while Pip hobbitfully suppressed another yelp. ‘Mmmm,’ he added.

 ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Pip demanded.

 ‘I think you’ve broken at least two of them,’ Merry said. ‘They’re rather... crooked, and beginning to look larger... and it looks as if they’ll be turning a glorious shade of purple.’

 ‘How am I to dance at the wedding?’ Pip said in dismay.

 ‘I’d say, you aren’t,’ Merry said matter-of-factly, but at Pip’s crestfallen expression he patted his brother’s knee sympathetically. ‘It’s too bad, Pip, but you really ought to give up kicking at stones.’ Casting about for something encouraging to say, he added, ‘Mum will tuck you up and bring you good things to eat...’

 ‘Mum will put me on water rations for breaking my toes when everyone’s needed to get everything ready for the wedding.’ He groaned again. ‘On the morrow! O Merry, how could I have broken my toes the day before the wedding?’

 ‘Better than breaking them the morning of,’ Merry said philosophically, ‘Or worse, during the wedding—wouldn’t that spoil Frodo and Day’s celebration! As it is, we still have to plan the surprise, and now I’ll have to carry it off by myself somehow.’ He stood and helped Pip up, pulling his brother’s arm around his shoulders. ‘Come on, let’s get you back to Bag End.’ They hobbled slowly down the Hill to the lane leading to Bagshot Row. By the time they got to Bag End, Pip was white-faced and sweating and in no mood to properly appreciate his mother’s attention and concern.

***

Who’d have thought the wheel could come loose like that?’ the driver said, scratching his woolly pate. ‘You’re certain you’re all right, Mistress? None the worse for the shaking?’

 ‘We are well,’ Estella said as smoothly as she could. The children were none the worse, at any event. They’d thought it a great adventure, riding along smoothly and suddenly shaking and shimmying and canting dangerously to one side before sliding to a stop. They’d nearly overturned, Estella thought, and if the children had realised how near a thing it was... ah, but they wouldn’t. She’d see to that. ‘Quite the adventure, wasn’t it children?’

 ‘Can we do it again?’ Perry asked excitedly. ‘I’ve never had a coach ride like that before!’

And I hope I never will again, his mother thought, but she forced herself to smile brightly and say, ‘A once-in-a-lifetime experience, lad, so cherish it well.’

 ‘Are we going to miss the wedding?’ Miri said with a tragic face. Estella knew just what she was thinking. Poor Mayor Sam! For some reason the little girl had attached herself to Samwise on one of the Gamgees’ annual visits to Buckland and had been Sam’s special pet ever since. To his bemusement, Samwise had been elected “honorary uncle” with all the rights and privileges thereto, but also the responsibilities.

 ‘Of course we are not going to miss the wedding, dove!’ Estella said, bending down to her little daughter’s level. ‘Not if we have to walk the rest of the way!’

 ‘It won’t come to that, Mistress,’ the driver said hastily. ‘I’ll just walk to the next inn and come back with the cartwright and a few sturdy hobbits to lift the coach while we set the wheel back into place.’

 ‘You do that,’ Estella said firmly. ‘Don’t delay! We’ll just have a little picnic in the meadow there while we’re waiting.’

 ‘Yes Mistress,’ the driver said, and with a hasty bow he took himself off.

***

 ‘They’re here! They’re here!’ Tolman was shouting as he pelted down Bagshot Row ahead of the coach.

 ‘Fastred, and Leot and Rosie-lass!’ Mother Rose said, hurriedly wiping her hands on her apron and pushing a few stray curls behind her ears. ‘Girls, see to setting the table and the rest...’

 ‘We’ll take care of everything, Mum, you go greet Rosie,’ Goldilocks said cheerily. Since Rosie-lass and Elanor had moved to the new territory their mother had grieved in subtle ways. Goldi knew how eagerly Mother Rose looked forward to seeing Rosie-lass, at least. Elanor was near her time and was not expected for the wedding.

Through the open windows of the smial came Sam’s voice raised in greeting and Rose’s welcoming cries. ‘Rosie! O Rosie how good it is to see you! And this is little Ham! Ah, the darling!’

 ‘Leotred,’ Sam was heard to say. ‘I hope you had a smooth journey. Fas, good to see you!’

There was a great gasp from Rose, loud enough to be heard in the kitchen, and then she cried, ‘Ellie! O Ellie whatever are you doing here?’ Goldi and Prim put down the dishes they were carrying to the dining room and raced for the front door.

 ‘Ellie!’ they cried as they burst from the smial. Elanor was there, larger than life, looking like a ripe tomato on the vine ready to burst. Goldi and Prim joined their mother in hugging their eldest sister.

 ‘Ellie!’ Mother Rose scolded, stepping back. ‘You know you oughtn’t be travelling so close to your time...’

 ‘I am well, Mum, really I am!’ Elanor laughed. ‘Never felt better, as a matter of fact.’ She smiled up at Fastred as he slipped an arm around her.

 ‘There’s fever at Undertowers,’ Fastred said, ‘and I thought to leave her at Greenholm, but...’

 ‘There’s fever at Greenholm as well,’ Leotred put in. ‘The healer there said she’d be better off travelling to Hobbiton even if she had to pass her confinement here.’ As the head healer of Greenholm was Fastred and Leotred’s mother, it would have been hard to gainsay her. In point of fact, Leotred, a healer himself, had agreed.

 ‘So long as the fever isn’t going around Hobbiton, all is well,’ Ellie said. ‘It isn’t, I’m sure, or you would have postponed the wedding.’

 ‘The wedding is still on,’ Samwise said placidly, holding a wiggly little Elfstan.

 ‘Good!’ Elanor said. ‘I’m glad. If you postponed it, I might just be a bit busy...’

 ‘Ellie?’ her mother said in alarm.

Elanor laughed again. ‘Not to worry,’ she said. ‘I still have a good week or two of waiting.’ She twinkled up at her husband. ‘Of course,’ she added, ‘if I could only persuade my husband to haul me around the dance floor half the night I might be put out of my misery a bit sooner.’

 ‘We’ll see what we can do,’ Fastred said with a grin.

***

Merry Brandybuck was making good time, he thought as he walked along a green stretch, allowing his pony to snatch mouthfuls of grass. As a matter of fact, he was making such good time, and the grass was so green and fresh, the sun so bright and warm, he decided to sit down for a little rest. He slipped the bit out of the pony’s mouth so the beast could graze properly, hobbled the pony’s feet so he wouldn’t stray too far, and lay down by a chuckling stream. He’d rest a few moments, and then climb into the saddle again for a last push. From the angle of the Sun it was nearly teatime. He ought to reach Bywater sometime in the middle night, he thought. The sound of the water was so soothing, so restful after so many nights cut short... Before long his snores mingled with the comfortable tear-and-chomp of the grazing pony.