Chapter 17. A Dose of Truth 

Tolly was off the day after the wedding, of course, but he and Sweetie arrived as the Sun was seeking her bed, for Sweetie must be at her post at dawn, and Tolly at his not long after. Ferdi, and Hilly and Tolly’s large family from Tuckborough, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, had arranged a surprise for the newlyweds. Their new quarters in the Great Smials were completely furnished when they arrived, and all their possessions in place.

 ‘They’re here!’ Iris, a kitchen maid, stuck her head in at Ferdi’s room where he was winding thread carefully about the shaft of an arrow to secure the guiding feathers, paying no mind to the good smells wafting through the corridors from the kitchens. ‘Just rode in, and Tolly’s putting up their ponies. Old Tom will delay them as long as he can.’

 ‘Just long enough for us to gather,’ Ferdi said, putting his work upon a high shelf. He gave his arm to Iris, and she laughed up at him.

 ‘I’ve always wanted an escort of my own, you know,’ she said.

Ferdi smiled. ‘And here you are,’ he answered lightly. ‘And soon to be surrounded by hobbits of escort. It must be your lucky day.’

They reached the new quarters in good time to join the rest of the hobbits crowding the bedroom. Mardi was closest to the door, peering through the crack. ‘Hush now!’ he ordered, and all fell quiet, though they surged behind the door like stormwaters trying to find their way through an earthen dam.

A few moments later they heard the door to the suite of rooms open, and Tolly’s voice. ‘Here we are! Just a moment! I’ve got to carry you in, you know. Mustn’t bruise those delicate toes on the threshold!’

 ‘By rights you ought to have carried me in from the yard,’ Sweetie teased. ‘But then you’d be too weary to—o Tolly!’ The last words were gasped out as she saw the sitting room, table graced with flowers and laden for a welcoming feast.

 ‘Surprise! Surprise!’ the waiting hobbits all burst out at once, as the dam broke and a deluge of well wishers poured into the room.

Meadowsweet laughed and cried at the same time, Tolly beamed and shook every hand thrust at him, there was a jumble of bodies and gabble of voices.

 ‘I hope you like the colour—’

 ‘The carpet came all the way from the North Farthing—’

 ‘We made all your favourites, and even the assistant cook stirred up the cake with her own two hands—’

 ‘And we made up the other bedroom for guests, you know, so that you can have family, Sweetie—’

Tolly looked to Ferdi and Hilly. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

 ‘If you open your mouth and no words come out, that’s a sure sign that something ought to be going in,’ Ferdi said, shoving a mug of ale into his hand. ‘Welcome home!’

 ‘Home,’ Tolly echoed, looking about.

 ‘There’ll be a dozen little ones underfoot before you know it,’ Hilly said with a slap on his brother’s back... not hard enough to spill the ale upon the new carpet, of course.

Ferdi stayed long enough to offer felicitations to the new bride and then slipped out the door. Tolly caught him partway down the corridor.

  ‘Where d’you think you’re going?’ he panted, having run to catch Ferdi up.

 ‘Commission for the Thain,’ Ferdi said. ‘I’m to give his Socks a good workout, breeze him around the race course this evening for starters. He’s been working the pony all along, but now he’s dead serious about winning the pony races, and so he wants me to polish the beast.’

 ‘You wouldn’t be riding him in the races, now, would you? What will you do about your own Penny?’

Ferdi laughed. ‘Pip will be riding his own pony, of course, and I’ll be riding Penny,’ he said. ‘And if the luck is with me we’ll do our best to win, Thain or no.’

 ‘You might at that,’ Tolly said. ‘Penny’s younger, for all she’s a mare.’ He put a hand on Ferdi’s arm. ‘But can you not stay and celebrate? Get a good meal under your belt before you go?’

 ‘Thanks, Tolly,’ Ferdi said, ‘but no. My time is not my own.’

 ‘You’re off duty at teatime,’ Tolly said.

 ‘You know better than that,’ Ferdi responded. ‘Why, if the Thain took it into his head to travel to Tookbank this night, guess who’d be hauled out of the party and into the saddle?’ He smiled and shook his head. ‘I only hope Sweetie gets used to a husband who’s off at all hours of the day or night.’

 ‘That’s what I like about you, Ferdi, your outlook is invariably cheery,’ Tolly said with a punch for his arm. ‘Very well, then, enjoy the run, and don’t let that wild pony of the Thain’s kill you.’

 ‘Socks is impossible,’ Ferdi said, ‘but then, so am I.’ Laughing, the two parted.

***

Next morning Ferdi was up earlier than usual, for he had three ponies to work now, Socks and his own two mares. He was surprised to find himself a bit shaky when he finished the last workout. He’d gone on three days’ water rations before and managed, but then he’d never before forced himself to run any great distance while fasting, either. Ah, well. There was only one more day to this self-imposed discipline after all. Somehow the ache in his middle took away from the ache that went deeper.

With three hobbits of the escort on duty the day was easier, and more difficult. It was custom for the hobbits of the escort to share their meals, either in the great room or in the second parlour where they awaited the Thain’s summons. Ferdi did not want awkward questions from Tolly and Hilly, and so he managed to be busy during second breakfast, elevenses, and the noontide meal. This wasn’t difficult; whenever there was a message to be run to the tweens waiting at the stables to take messages on to their destination, he volunteered to take it.

 'To the Thain's sister,' Tolly said as he poked his head in at the second parlour. He held up a folded piece of paper and pointed to the direction on the outside. It was a message for Pearl at the family’s farm. Her husband had oversight of the hobbits who worked the land Pip had inherited from old Paladin. 

 'Important enough to take it myself,' Ferdi said, buttoning the missive safely inside a pocket. 'Take charge of the escort until I return.'

 'I'll stick to our illustrious cousin as close as cockleburrs in ponies' tails,' Tolly said, and added, ‘I hope you’re getting time to eat, what with all the running back and forth you've been doing!’

 ‘As much as I want,’ Ferdi answered truthfully, but Tolly gave him a long look before he turned away. Sweetie's father had told him about the neighbour's trouble with sheep-worrying, and how the Thain had ridden out without an escort when he went to see the damages. Farmer Banks had also been ordered by the Thain not to talk to outsiders which meant anyone not living within an hour's ride or so, about the trouble, to avoid starting a panic where hobbits would start indiscriminately shooting their neighbours' dogs. It disgruntled Tolly to keep back news from Ferdibrand, but what could he do?

As Ferdi was checking his girth once more, preparatory to swinging into the saddle, he was hailed.

 ‘Hi! Ferdi! Wait a bit and I’ll ride with you.’ It was Pippin.

He raised his hand in answer and called to a stable hobbit behind him, ‘Saddle Socks!’

It wasn’t long before the two cousins were riding along, just like old times, Pippin chatting about this and that and Ferdi listening. It was difficult to get a word in edgewise, which was just as well. Ferdi didn’t feel much like talking, though this was the best opportunity to come along since Tolly’s wedding to have it out with his cousin.

He cleared his throat, and Pippin stopped in the middle of a story and looked at him expectantly. ‘What was that, cousin?’ he said.

 ‘About the escort,’ Ferdi said.

 Pippin nodded. ‘Ah yes, that dratted tradition. Don’t you think it’s about outlived its usefulness by now?’

Ferdi gazed at him in astonishment. Pip was talking about his livelihood.

The younger cousin read the look accurately and laughed. ‘Why, Regi told me you were talking about going back to being a hunter, just the other day! You’d find it a relief, I think, not to always be at the Thain’s beck and call...’

 ‘I do my duty,’ Ferdi said. ‘If you’d like to make my life easier, you could start by doing yours.’ He was immediately aghast. What was he thinking?

Pip stared at him in astonishment for a moment, and then his eyes narrowed. ‘My duty...’ he said slowly.

 ‘I’m sorry, Sir, I spoke out of turn,’ Ferdi said stiffly, mentally kicking himself. Penny tossed her head as his unease communicated itself to her.

Pippin looked from Ferdi’s mare to the head of escort. ‘I’m not sure you did,’ he said. ‘I think, for the first time since I arrived and Regi assigned you as head of my escort, that you’ve spoken truth to me.’

Ferdi shook his head, but Pippin pressed. ‘You never wanted me to return in the first place, never wanted to serve under me in the second, not after what I did to you.’

 ‘What did you do to me?’ Ferdi said bleakly. ‘I’m only a hired hobbit, after all.’

 ‘Ferdi!’ Pippin said so sharply that Ferdi and Penny both jumped. More softly he added, ‘I slipped the escort, nine years ago, took myself off to Buckland and decided never to return.’

Ferdi rode along in silence, staring straight ahead of them. He’d meant to have it out with Pip about this escort business, but this was not what he’d had in mind.

 ‘You ought to have had three days on water rations at most. And if I’d been Thain at the time...’

Ferdi glanced over in spite of himself. ‘You’re not making sense,’ he said shortly.

 ‘Ha!’ Pippin said. ‘If it had been up to me, you’d not have been punished at all, for neglecting your duty. There was no neglect on your part. I tricked you into thinking we’d leave a day later, and then I left a day earlier, thinking I’d pulled a neat trick.’

 ‘Neat trick,’ Ferdi muttered bitterly.

 ‘I was well served for my deceit, Ferdi,’ Pippin said after a moment’s silence. ‘I rode into an ice storm and nearly died, and now...’ He shook his head. ‘I live with the consequences of my rashness, my selfishness, my thoughtlessness, every day, with every breath I take.’ He breathed as deeply as he could, as if in illustration, and coughed as his damaged lungs protested.

He looked over at his older cousin, riding still as a statue of stone, and said, ‘At least you have the chance to make your life new.’

 ‘Do I?’ Ferdi said after a long silence, adding as if to himself, ‘I hardly know how, any more.’

 ‘My father blamed you for my leaving,’ Pippin said. ‘He put you under the Ban. He’d have done better to send word to me that he was punishing you for my actions; I’d have come back to Tookland, for I could not have borne the injustice.’

 ‘Would you have?’ Ferdi said sceptically. ‘I heard you found everything you ever wanted: wife, freedom, a responsible position where you didn’t have Paladin questioning your every move...’

 ‘I would have,’ Pippin said. ‘And perhaps he did send word, in the early days, or my mother did. I do not know. I would not receive their letters.’

Ferdi nodded. The Talk had been that Pippin had sent Thain Paladin’s missives back to Tookland unopened.

 ‘Nine years, Ferdi, nine years!’ Pippin said, sounding as anguished as if he’d been the one living under the Ban. You may speak to no other, and none may speak to you. You must eat your meals in silence, and avoid gatherings, feasts, and festivals. You are under the sentence of shunning, until... But that was the heart of the matter. The longest period of shunning Ferdi had ever heard of before in all the history of Tookland had been three years. Those who’d trafficked with the ruffians during the Troubles received two years. Even a thief was shunned for a year at most. Ferdi’s sentence had lasted the rest of Paladin’s life, lifted on the old hobbit’s dying day, with Paladin’s apology and regrets.

Anger bubbled up then, and bitterness. ‘So?’ Ferdi said rudely. ‘You didn’t live it; you needn’t sound so pained. And here you are, pulling your old tricks again, slipping the escort...’

 ‘I didn’t want the wedding celebration to be spoilt,’ Pippin said reasonably. ‘And besides, the escort is an outdated notion. There have been few ruffians in the Shire for years, no wolves, no...’

 ‘I was there when the wild boar went after Thain Ferumbras, don’t you remember!’ Ferdi shouted, pulling Penny to a stop. She danced beneath him as he mixed his signals, his legs pressing her sides, his hands pulling at the reins. ‘I saw the hobbits of the escort shoot their arrows into the creature as it charged, for all the good it did. I saw Isumbold and Palabard throw themselves in front of Ferumbras whilst Baragrim pulled the Thain out of the line of charge... I watched Palabard give up his life right there, before my eyes!’

Pippin had halted Socks and sat his pony silently, waiting for the tirade to stop.

Ferdi didn’t seem able to stop himself. ‘I knelt beside Isum that day,’ he went on, ‘and I heard him beg us not to move him, not to lift him, to leave him there to lie, as his blood soaked through the cloaks we wrapped around him. I watched them carrying him back to the Smials, and I thought he’d not live to reach it...’ He ran out of words suddenly, as a clock that has wound down, ticking into silence.

 ‘I was there that day,’ he whispered at last.

 ‘Ferdi...’ Pippin said, extending a hand.

 ‘So don’t you go telling me that the escort is a silly notion that’s seen its time,’ Ferdi rounded on him fiercely, but the words he meant to follow died in his throat as he swayed, putting an uncertain hand to his head.

 ‘Ferdi!’ Pippin said, nudging Socks close to Penny to steady his cousin in the saddle.

 ‘I’m well,’ Ferdi lied.

Pippin looked at him narrowly. ‘Did Regi put you on water rations?’ he asked. Ferdi shook his head. ‘Did my mother, then...?’ He shook his own head. ‘No, she wouldn’t have; she took me to task for slipping the escort as it was.’

Sudden realisation struck him and he tightened his grip on Ferdi’s arm, support giving way to a shake. ‘Ferdi!’ he accused. ‘You put yourself on water rations! Are you thick-witted? That’s the stupidest...’

 ‘It’s been drilled into me ever since I came to work under the Thain,’ Ferdi said tonelessly. ‘Any hobbit found in neglect of his duties will take no food for the space of a day. Hobbits in charge of others found in neglect will suffer thrice the penalty. Those who will not work, shall not eat.’

 ‘You will eat,’ Pippin said forcefully, ‘by the order of the Thain, you will!’ He dug in his saddlebag, for Diamond always made sure food was packed for him, whether he’d eat it or not. ‘Here! Eat!’ He shoved a dried-apple tart into Ferdi’s hand, lifted it halfway to Ferdi’s mouth before his cousin shook him off. Pippin half-expected Ferdi to throw down the tart, but the head of escort ate. He was a creature of duty, after all, and Pip had ordered him.

***

The story of Ferdi's shunning and restoration is found in "Flames"; the story of Thain Ferumbras and the wild boar is found in "Pearl of Great Price", also at SoA.