Chapter 50. Truth Be Told

As the next few days passed, speculation grew and spread over the nature of the convocation. It did not escape the notice of the Tooks that the hobbits of the escort, the steward, the chief engineer and his assistants and apprentices, all the healers, in other words, an ever-increasing circle of hobbits who worked directly with or for the Thain, began to treat the hobbit with elaborate respect. This influence spread until Pippin could not turn around without being addressed as “Sir” and bowed to with utmost courtesy.

It was a sore trial, but he knew why Ferdi had put the whole process in motion. Ferdi feared, and rightly so, the turmoil that Pippin was about to throw the Tooks into, with his planned admission. The head of escort was fiercely loyal to his clan, and had nearly given his life to defend Tookland against the ruffians in the Troubles. Pippin had no illusions; if Ferdi thought Reginard the better choice to guide Tookland out of this miry ground, he’d throw his support to Regi instead and insist that Pippin step down.

And so Pippin tolerated the “Sirs” from a cousin who’d held him as a wee babe, who’d taken him for his first pony ride, who’d taught him to whistle so that he could astonish Merry on his next visit... He found himself answering in the same manner, a sober sort of formality in his tone. He thought before he spoke, these days, and none of his closest relations had to chide him for whimsical “nonsense”.

 ‘I rather miss the hobbit I married,’ Diamond murmured half-way through the week, sitting on the arm of Pippin’s chair with her arms about him. At a tap on the door she rose and moved to the tea table, to pour out a cup of tea, hot and strong as Pippin liked it.

 ‘Enter,’ Pippin said.

Hilly walked in, Ferdi behind him, both stopping before the grand carved desk.

 ‘Well?’ Pippin said. ‘What’s the Talk today?’

Ferdi looked at Hilly, who looked down in embarrassment. It was one thing to regale half a table of hobbits at the Spotted Duck with guess and gossip; it was quite another to gather the ridiculous threads of rumour and weave them into a report for the Thain. Since Pippin knew that he made it his business to know the Talk, Hilly had been called in daily to report the current gossip running rife in the Great Smials.

Each day a new rumour sprang up, it seemed, and each more ridiculous than the last. The Master and Mistress of Buckland had arrived the previous evening, in answer to the Thain’s summons, and a dozen new theories had taken on wings and flown about the Smials.

 ‘Come now,’ Pippin said. ‘What’s the worst?’

 ‘You’re said to be handfasting young Farry to Berilac’s little daughter,’ Hilly replied, ‘Sir.’

 ‘Handfasting Farry?’ Pippin said in astonishment. 'A four-year-old?'

 ‘Well, Sir, Berilac brought his wife and babe with him, and as Meriadoc has no children as yet, Berilac is heir to Buckland,’ Hilly said.

 ‘It makes an odd sort of sense,’ Diamond murmured, placing Pippin’s tea on the desk before him. ‘Perhaps we ought to consider it.’ Ferdi and Hilly looked to her, scandalised, only to see the corners of her mouth quirking with amusement.

 ‘Yes, joining the two most ancient and venerable families of the Shire,’ Pippin said. ‘Regi, write that down. We might want to refer back to it at a later date, if no heiresses to the Sackville-Baggins family are found.’

 ‘Yes, Sir,’ Reginard answered, unperturbed.

***

Next day, Ferdi escorted Garabard Took-Grubb into the Thain’s study and stationed himself by the door.

 ‘You sent for me, Sir?’ Renibard’s son said quietly, twisting his hat in his hands.

 ‘I did,’ Pippin said. ‘It seems I misspoke earlier, when I said I’d try to see to it that your family would be able to keep the land your father farmed.’

Garabard nodded, his eyes fixed on the Thain’s face. ‘Sir,’ he said. ‘You told us you'd resolve our situation by the time of the barley harvest, the middle of this month.’

 Ferdi stirred uneasily. Your family will not go homeless. You may pass on in peace, and they will not be thrown off the land. You have my promise. We will find a way to renew the lease. The words rang in his ears as if they’d been spoken a moment earlier, Pippin’s promise to the dying farmer.

 ‘I gave my word to your father,’ Pippin said, distracted for a moment by Ferdi’s movement, but then his gaze returned to the humble farmer before him. ‘It was precipitous of me, not well-thought-out, and now I must take back my promise. I am dreadfully sorry, for all the good it does.’

 ‘Yes, Sir,’ Garabard said.

 ‘The Steward has been visiting the farms around Tuckborough, finding places for you all. I know it’s a bitter thing to break up the family, to become hired hobbits when your family has held your own land, but perhaps someday...’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Garabard said, and looked away. ‘Will that be all, Sir?’ He looked back to the Thain, and Ferdi swallowed hard at the reproach in the farmer’s eyes. The Thain had given his word, and Renibard’s family had dared to hope... only to have their hopes cruelly dashed.

 ‘Thank you, Garabard,’ Pippin said, and then, ‘Ferdi, see to it that Master Took-Grubb has a bite to eat before he rides back to the farm.’

 ‘Thank you, Sir, but no thanks,’ the farmer said, stiff with pride. Likely he’d choke, trying to eat anything the Thain offered. He turned and marched out the door, Ferdi following.

Some time later, Hilly tapped at the door with a message to deliver. Hearing no hail from within, he eased the door open. If Pippin had stepped out, or fallen asleep—as had happened once or twice, after a long and arduous day, well, he could walk softly into the room, leave the message on the desk, and let himself out again.

Hilly peeked into the study, to see the Thain, head buried in his hands, a picture of anguish, even despair. Gossip though he was, he closed the door softly and never told a soul.

***

 ‘What’s the news today?’ Pippin asked, the day before the convocation. Hilly shuffled his feet, and Ferdi wouldn’t meet his gaze. ‘Well?’ Pippin pressed. ‘Surely the Talk has grown more outlandish this day?’

 ‘Come now, Hilly,’ Reginard remonstrated. ‘The Thain’s asked you a question. You’re supposed to be gathering and sifting the Talk, and bringing to his attention the mood of the Tooks and Tooklanders.’

 ‘You’re dying,’ Hilly blurted, and slapped his hand to his mouth.

Diamond gasped, and Regi’s quill snapped in his fingers.

 ‘Go on,’ Pippin said quietly.

 ‘The word is, you’ve called the convocation to name your successor, since Farry’s too young to follow you as Thain,’ Hilly faltered. ‘What with summoning the Mayor of Michel Delving and the Master of Buckland and the heads of all the great families in every Farthing...’

Pippin chuckled without humour. Diamond, on the other hand, turned away, but not before the others saw tears spill from her eyes.

 ‘Well, Regi,’ the Thain said. ‘Seems as if the Talk is not so wild as it might be. I’m to name my successor, am I? Are you ready to be Thain, yet?’

 ‘Never,’ Regi said fervently, and then added a phrase he hadn’t seen the need to employ in some days. ‘None of your nonsense, now, Pip. It’s no joking matter.’

 ‘Who’s joking?’ Pippin said, steepling his fingers together, a thoughtful frown on his face. ‘It’s the truth, after all. I am dying, and you know it.’

Diamond, her back still turned, gave a gasp, and her husband rose to encircle her with his arms.

 ‘We’re all dying,’ Regi said quietly. ‘I know of no hobbit who’s lived forever.’ He met Pippin’s eyes with a steady gaze of his own. ‘Some of us will last longer than the others. I could fall from my pony and depart this very day, and you could live to embrace your grandchildren.’

 ‘I could, perhaps,’ Pippin said. ‘We’ll have to look into that handfasting business for certain, marry Farry off as soon as possible, if that’s to be the case.’

 ‘Pippin, how can you...?’ Diamond sobbed into her husband’s shoulder.

 ‘I must be realistic, my dear,’ he said softly, his arms tightening about her. ‘Only by facing reality can I hope to deal with this whole mess. I cannot walk about pretending that all is well and nothing is amiss; that will not solve Tookland’s problems and it certainly will not make things better. In truth, it could do terrible harm.’

He took as deep a breath as he could manage and added, ‘In actuality, I’m looking forward to the morrow. It shall be a great weight off my shoulders, to have it all out in the open.’

A little of the old mischief stirred in his eyes as he looked to Hilly and added, ‘I must say, however, I will miss hearing how the Talk has grown. Once the Truth is out, there’ll be no need for gossip.’