Chapter 20. Shadow and Sunshine

The wild boar turned with a snort, digging a wickedly sharp hoof into the ground, its tiny tail wagging furiously, its small, ferocious eyes sweeping over its adversaries. The Thain’s bright cloak drew its eye and it charged.

Bowstrings twanged as the hobbits of escort shot more arrows into the beast, for all the good they did. Almost without thinking, Ferdi and Tolly threw themselves between Pippin and onrushing death, while Hilly pushed the Thain out of the line of charge, falling atop him as they sprawled upon the ground. As they fell blood fountained over them, Tolly’s voice choked off mid-scream, Ferdi gave a keening wail, then Hilly cried out as the boar reached them, and Pippin felt a tusk score along the length of his exposed calf, though Hilly took the brunt of the boar’s head-tossing slash.

There was a thunder of hoofs and a pony goaded to full gallop smashed into the boar’s side, throwing the beast off its feet. A Took who would later stand firm against the ruffians in the Battle of Bywater, thrust his lance to the heart of the beast, and the battle was over.

Hands were helping the Thain to his feet, anxious voices asking after him. Hilly, heedless of his own wounds, threw himself down by his brother’s side. ‘Tolly,’ he whispered, but the staring eyes saw him not, nor aught else for that matter. Pippin shook off the helping hands, to sink to his knees at Ferdi’s side. Old Verilard turned Ferdi over gently, wringing a moan from the injured hobbit.

 ‘So much blood,’ another hunter whispered.

 ‘Don’t just stand there gaping! Press down! Harder! We’ve got to stop the bleeding or he’ll die here and now!’ Verilard snapped.

 ‘No,’ Ferdi moaned. ‘Leave me be. Hurts...’

 ‘Steady, lad,’ Verilard said, his voice as gentle now as it had been harsh a moment ago.

 ‘We’ve got to get you back to the Smials, Ferdi,’ Pippin said, his own leg throbbing dully. Verilard tied the bandages tight; the hunters wrapped the head of escort in their cloaks.

 ‘No, please,’ Ferdi said again. ‘Do not lift me; please, let me lie.’ Pippin saw the ominous crimson soaking through the butter-yellow cloak they’d slipped under him, to lift him by.

 ‘I’m sorry, Ferdi,’ he said brokenly. ‘I’m sorry.’

 ‘No, please,’ Ferdi moaned.

 ‘Pippin!’ Pain and blood and drizzly rain gave way to warm and dark and softness of wife and bedcovers. ‘Pippin, you’re dreaming! It’s just a dream, my love.’

 ‘Diamond,’ he gasped, rolling to seize her. He buried his head in her voluminous gown, fear and sorrow remaining even as the dream leaked away.

She stroked his curls with soothing fingers and wondered what it was this time... Moria? Boromir’s death? The Uruk-hai? The mad Steward of Gondor? The Black Gate? Orcs in the Old Forest? ‘You’re safe, my love,’ she said.

 ‘Safe,’ he whispered.

There was a tap at the door, and Sandy stuck his head in. ‘Is there aught you be needing?’ he said softly, looking from Farry, curled small in his little bed, to the Mistress holding the Thain in her arms.

 ‘Warm milk, if you please,’ Diamond said softly. ‘A bit of honey in it, and a touch of nutmeg would not go amiss.’

 ‘Very good, Mistress,’ Sandy breathed, and in the next moment he was gone.

 ‘This is better than Buckland,’ Diamond said, her fingers moving gently over Pippin’s head and neck, trying to soothe away the tension. She felt his shaking ease, his breathing become steadier.

 ‘Eh?’ he whispered. ‘What do you mean?’

 ‘I always had to get up and go down to the kitchens to heat the milk myself,’ she said. ‘Here we have Sandy listening at the door for our least whim.’

 ‘Does the hobbit never sleep?’ Pippin said, rising at last, turning over and settling back against the pillows. His eyes were haunted, his face still showing signs of strain in the soft light of the watch lamp.

 ‘Sleep is not one of his duties,’ Diamond said. ‘At least, I don’t think it is.’

***

Mid-morning Mayor Samwise arrived with his burgeoning brood of young Gamgees, for it was Diamond’s birthday and he was to preside over the celebration.

The youngsters greeted the Thain and Mistress very properly indeed, Elanor, Rosie-lass, and Goldilocks making pretty courtesies, after which Goldi presented Diamond with a wilting bouquet, gathered while her father was hitching ponies to waggon and clutched tight in the tiny hand for the entire journey from Hobbiton to Tuckborough. Frodo-lad, Merry-lad, Pip-lad and even tiny Hamfast bowed while Farry frowned from his stance between his parents. He was used to being the centre of attention, after all.

 ‘But come in,’ Diamond said at last. ‘We can share a pot of tea and talk before elevenses is served.’

 ‘And when is the celebration?’ Samwise said as they turned towards the entrance.

Diamond laughed. ‘Pippin wanted to make it an all-day affair,’ she said gaily, ‘from breakfast through midnight supper, but I convinced him it would be too tiring for you to preside over so long an event.’

 ‘So it will be tea with all the Tooks on the party field,’ Pippin said, ‘sitting on the meadow amidst the wildflowers while the Sun smiles down upon us all.’

 ‘A large gathering,’ Sam said, glancing back into the yard. Pippin saw him smile and followed the glance, to see the Gamgee children, their social obligations fulfilled, mobbing Ferdibrand.

The taciturn head of escort did not seem at all bothered by the attentions. He had sat himself down on the stones of the yard, the better for Goldi and Ham to climb into his lap while the others hung on him, all chattering at once. Taciturn? Pippin saw his cousin throw his head back to laugh at something Frodo-lad said, and then gather the pressing children closer, hugging them to himself.

***

 ‘May Ferdi join us for noontide?’ Elanor said shyly, taking her father’s hand as she came up to his side.

 ‘He is our uncle now, after all,’ Frodo-lad put in. ‘The Thain invited our entire family to help celebrate Mistress Diamond’s birthday, and he is a part of our family!’

Samwise glanced over at Pippin, wondering what he’d make of this request.

 ‘Why not?’ Pippin said with a laugh as he rose from his chair. He walked to the door to the Thain’s private apartments and jerked it open. ‘Tolly,’ he said.

The escort came to attention. ‘Sir,’ he replied smartly.

 ‘Send Ferdi to me. I have a little commission for him,’ Pippin said.

Tolly nodded and turned away, his face falling into glum lines as he trotted to the second parlour. Noontide was upon them, and here the Thain was sending Ferdi out again. Did he intend to starve the head of escort, sending him out during mealtimes as had happened all too often these days?

 ‘What is it?’ Ferdi said. ‘A message to be run?’ He sighed. ‘And I was that hungered...’

 ‘I’ll save you a plate,’ Hilly said sympathetically.

 ‘Better cold than not at all,’ Ferdi said philosophically, though the other two knew how he hated cold food. ‘Well then, enjoy your meal,’ he added, and made his way to the Thain’s quarters.

To his surprise he was directed to a place at table between Frodo-lad and Elanor, though several rearrangements were made after he sat, so that he ended between Pip-lad and little Goldi.

 ‘You don’t mind, do you, Ferdi?’ Diamond said, jiggling two-year-old Hamfast on her lap while Farry looked on resentfully. ‘It’s not that we’re making you a child minder, but...’

 ‘We asked for you,’ Rosie-lass said earnestly, reaching over Pip-lad to take Ferdi’s hand.

 ‘Want Ferdi!’ Goldi confirmed with an emphatic nod.

By tacit agreement the adults avoided looking at the head of escort, apparently busy in their own conversations, and so Ferdi was able to make a merry meal with his new-found nephews and nieces, not afraid of a blunder. Blunders there were, for Goldi spilled her milk, and Pip-lad upset his pudding in Ferdi’s lap, but somehow it didn’t matter. In his efforts to console the shame-faced lad, Ferdi forgot his own troubles and soon had all the children laughing at the old story of the chickens that outwitted the fox.

Rose covertly exchanged a satisfied look with Diamond, but Samwise surprised a solemn look on Pippin’s face before Pippin turned to take another helping from the tray held by a hovering servant.

After the noontide meal, Ferdi went to change his clothes. He had to put on his old hunter’s clothes, as it turned out, but he arranged for Hilly and Tolly to dance attendance upon the Thain for the rest of the afternoon. He took his bundle down to the launderers and was reassured that with the bright sunshine and stiff breeze his clothing ought to be dry by sunset; they’d see to the washing immediately and hang the clothes out with the rest of that day’s laundry that was already flapping on the lines.

The children were playing in the sunny yard, games of catch-as-catch-can, and fox-and-goose. Small lasses sat in a circle with their doll-children, gossiping away in mimicry of their elders whilst lads blew about the yard like thistledown on the breeze.

Goldi was bored, and while her older sisters were involved in the intricacies of stitching an apron for Rosie’s doll, she wandered the yard.

 ‘Want to see the new kittens?’ Farry said behind her.

 ‘New kitties?’ Goldi said. ‘Where?’

 ‘In the stables,’ Farry said. ‘Come.’

In the dark and quiet of the stables, the bright hair that held him fascinated dimmed slightly, but still it drew his eye as Goldi exclaimed over the tiny, staggering, furry mites with their protruding bellies and trembling legs. The children laughed together as one kitten pounced upon another, sending both tumbling.

 ‘Want to play?’ Farry said when the kittens tired of their antics and began to fall asleep.

 ‘Hidey seeky?’ Goldi said, her eyes brightening. It was her favourite game, to hide behind a door in Bag End, giggling while her brothers and sisters all pretended to try to find her.

 ‘Hide and seek,’ Farry said. He looked about the stables and shook his head. ‘They won’t let us play ‘mongst the ponies,’ he said. ‘Old Tom scolds.’ Taking Goldi’s hand in his own, he pulled her down the length of stalls to the side door, which opened on the meadow to one side of the great stone yard of the Smials. ‘We could play on the meadow,’ he said.

 ‘Can’t hide,’ Goldi pouted.

 ‘Yes we can!’ Farry said brightly, pointing to the hill that rose beyond the meadow. ‘The grass is head-high there! We can hide and seek and make tunnels and secret places!’

 ‘Yes, let’s!’ Goldi sang, and hand-in-hand the two tots wandered across the meadow, stopping to admire this wildflower or that buzzing bumblebee.

No one noticed them as they climbed the hill on the far side and disappeared into the long grass.