Chapter 26. Arrival

The ride to the Great Smials was somewhat familiar to Pippin; his family took this track at least once a year, to visit Pearl and her family after planting was done and before the first crop was ready to be harvested, and before the Brandybucks arrived at the farm for their annual visit.

They rode several abreast on the road to Tookbank, Isum and Baragrim flanking Thain Ferumbras, Pippin and Pearl to either side of the pony bearing the three little ones. Isum raised his voice in pleasant melody, and Baragrim joined in. Pearl, though she was looking rather pale to Pippin's eye, added her voice, and the three little Tooks chimed in, humming where they did not know the words, two of them tunefully and the third wandering through the music at will, sometimes hitting the right note but more often sounding his own tone.

Pippin did not feel at all like singing. Ferumbras did not sing, either, but the ponies pricked their ears and seemed to move to the rhythm of the singing of the others.

They stopped off at the little inn in Tookbank for a bite to eat and were on their way again, to the end of the road, which turned into a farm lane, and then a track, so narrow in most parts that they must ride single file, meandering through the great Green Hills, winding round one hill and then another, splashing across small streams that ran through the valleys, passing neat little smials, sheep and cows in the fields, laundry snapping on the lines in the breeze, little hobbits chasing one another through the meadows, or lying amidst the wildflowers, making stories out of cloud-pictures. These would jump to their feet, on seeing the travellers, and wave wild greetings as the riders passed by.

At last, after several hours' ride, they came into Tuckborough, tucked up around the skirts of the large Hill that contained the Great Smials. Several lads ran out from the stables to take charge of the ponies. Baragrim motioned to Pippin, and so instead of helping Isum from his saddle, the youth found himself attending the Thain as Ferumbras descended heavily, with a grunt that bespoke his age and weariness.

Pippin would have turned away, to help Isum and accompany his sister's family to their quarters, but the Thain's hand on his shoulder stayed him, reminding him where his duty now lay. At a nod from the Thain, Baragrim went to help Isum instead.

'I will require nothing more of you for the time being,' Ferumbras said. 'Settle in, take stock of your surroundings, take tea with your sister's family, and join me at late supper in the great room. I expect you to be punctual.'

'Yes, Sir,' Pippin said. Ferumbras waited, as if expecting more, then nodded and turned away.

Baragrim hailed the tween, and Pippin hastened to take Isum's other side, to help Pearl's husband hobble into the Great Smials.

'Why don't you use a wheeled chair?' Pippin said, '...the likes of the one that Mistress Lal...'

'Hush,' Isum said urgently, looking behind them. His face relaxed as he saw Pearl busy with the three lads. Trying to guide them all in one direction was rather like trying to herd a flock of butterflies. 'Mind your tongue, Pip, now more than ever! You know better...!'

Pippin ducked his head, feeling half his age for his momentary thoughtlessness. Of course Isum would not use a wheeled chair, even if the smiths and leathercrafters formed another like Lalia's, not when Pearl had the blame for Lalia's death, whether or not the fault was hers.

Isum had the right of it, of course. Now that he was at the Great Smials for more than a visit he must mind his tongue and not speak whatever came to the top of his head, the way he was used to doing back home.

Baragrim began speaking now, to cover Pippin's gaffe, talking "shop talk" with Isum, about stray dogs, and trail maintenance, Men seen in the Shire for good or ill, and the possibility of wild swine in the neighbourhood, all matters of concern for the hobbits responsible for the safety of the Thain. Isum had been head of the Thain's escort at one time, after all, and his advice was valued by his former follower.

'And then of course there's the matter of arranging the lad's escort...' he said.

'The lad's escort?' Pippin echoed. 'Do you mean myself?'

'Aye,' Baragrim said, pulling a corner of his mouth in a semblance of a smile. 'Who else would I mean?'

'Gently, Barry, go gently,' Isum said. 'Lest he break the jesses before they're even tied.'

'That's not funny,' Pippin said, turning back to his brother-in-love.

'I wasn't joking,' Isum said mildly, and then he gave a sigh of relief, for they'd reached the door of his apartments. Baragrim pushed the door open, and they soon had Isum settled in a comfortable chair with his twisted legs elevated on soft cushions. 'If you'd be so kind as to do the same for my wife...' he said to Pippin.

'I am well, really,' Pearl scolded lightly. 'You'd think I never was expecting, before...'

'All the same,' Baragrim said, 'you're to sit yourself down, Pearlie, and suffer having your feet up whilst these fine lads of yours serve you. You've been in the saddle too much of this day, to my way of thinking...'

'Go fuss at your own wife,' Pearl said, but Baragrim only laughed as he set a low stool at Pearl's feet.

'Come, lads,' he said. 'Perry,' -- this to the eldest of the children -- 'you're old enough to pour out, now, are you not?'

'I am!' the youngster said stoutly.

'Good,' Baragrim said. 'You run down to the kitchens, then, and tell them the Thain's ordered tea for the Headmaster's family, and when it's brought you serve out, and have them fetch the dishes back to the kitchens, mind! Your sweet mama is not to be serving or washing up or anything else this eve, by order of the Thain!'

'Aye, Captain Baragrim!' young Peribold said, standing stiff and straight at attention, copied by his younger brothers. Baragrim saw the three of them out into the corridor and pushed the door nearly to behind them, turning back as if there were some unfinished business yet to address.

'I can help Pearl...' Pippin began, but the head of escort fixed him with a stern eye and shook his head.

'It's not your place,' he said. 'You're not to be fetching and carrying and running messages as if you were any common lad.'

'But...' Pippin said.

'And I'm to see you settled in,' Baragrim continued.

Pearl looked helplessly at Isum. 'The guest room, I suppose,' she said. It was the only spare room they had.

'No, missus,' Baragrim said with a short bow. 'I'm to make other arrangements.'

'Not the dormitory,' Isum said. 'You're not going to throw young Pip in with the other pups, his first day here, are you?'

'Not the dormitory, no,' Baragrim said, 'though that would have been my first inclination... a few nights with you, his family, until he starts to get used to the place, not just being a visitor but actually a part, and then to bunk in with a group of other lads. Surely, there might be a bloody nose or two until they established a pecking order, but...'

'But...?' Pearl said, rising from her chair.

Baragrim waved her back down. 'But the Thain wishes to make the lad's position absolutely clear to all and sundry,' he said.

Pippin found his mouth open; he closed it and asked a question of his own. 'My position?' he said, feeling stupid.

Baragrim turned to him, that ironic twist returning to his mouth. 'Heir to the Thain,' he said. 'Unless and until Paladin decides to remove to the Great Smials, you are his representative, and are to be so treated.'

'I'm not even one-and-twenty!' Pippin protested. 'Why, I couldn't be Thain even if...'

'If old Thain Ferumbras were to pass this very night,' Baragrim said, lowering his voice, 'then Paladin would have no choice but to take up residence here, and you'd still be "Heir". Ferumbras is just giving you some time to try it on for size, get used to it, that you might be less of a grief to your father when the day comes...'

'Less of a grief...' Pippin echoed, stunned.

Baragrim nodded, his face grim. 'They make allowances for visitors, you know,' he said. Pippin did not know, but he saw Isum nod, and Pearl gulp back tears. 'Well, laddie-my-own, you're not a visitor any more, it seems. You belong here.'

It was not the sort of belonging Pippin had ever coveted. It was enough to make him wish to be a wanderer once more. 'Make allowances,' he prompted.

Baragrim nodded again. 'Aye,' he said heavily. 'But no more. Every word you say will be picked apart, every move you make will be recounted, every thought you think will be speculated upon...'

'Lovely,' Pippin said, his own mouth twisting in unconscious imitation.

***

There were some compensations, Pippin discovered, after Baragrim escorted him to his new quarters. He had an entire suite of apartments to himself! Imagine that, a tween, with his own apartments!

...not entirely to himself, as it turned out. He'd have to put up with the intrusions of his own staff: a holekeeper, stern, stout and grey-haired and undoubtedly efficient in her discharge of her duties; a hobbitservant who had the charge of Pippin's most private quarters and his wardrobe--imagine, an entire wardrobe of fine and fancy clothes for every occasion; a tutor, who'd fill his mornings with instruction; and a minder.

'A minder!' he protested to Baragrim, having been introduced to quarters and staff and on his way back to Pearl's for tea. 'What do I need a minder for? I'm not a child!'

'Custom,' Baragrim said, and seeing no one in the corridor they were traversing he dropped his voice and added, 'Lalia spoilt her son, and pampered him, and it was all part of her family's tradition, that a child remained a child until three-and-thirty years were safely passed. Ferumbras knows no differently, and has decreed that you will have a minder, as is proper and well.'

'It is not well,' Pippin said. 'Not at all!'

'He will only be your shadow at night,' Baragrim said, 'in case of bad dreams, or if you waken hungry in the middle night and wanting something to eat.' He saw the tween brighten at the thought, and smiled to himself before delivering the rest of the news. 'During the day, you merely have to keep him apprised of your whereabouts, so that he may fetch you whenever the Thain sends for you.'

Pippin swallowed hard, as if feeling a chain being fastened to his ankle. 'I merely have to keep him apprised...' he said, 'but what about all that "escort" nonsense?'

'You will have an escort assigned to you,' Baragrim said. 'It will be his... or their... duty to go with you when you leave the Great Smials, to ensure that you are not harried by stray dogs, or rogue Men, or the like.'

'I don't need child-minders watching my every move!' Pippin said, indignant.

Baragrim sighed. 'If you wouldn't mind going along with it all,' he said, 'you'll certainly make my life easier, and the lives of my hobbits. If you slip your escort, it'll cost them a day of water rations at the very least.'

Pippin suppressed a grin, scarcely hearing the last words. It hadn't occurred to him that he might "slip the escort" until Baragrim had mentioned the fact, actually. It should be no more difficult than giving one of his older sisters the slip, in earlier years, when they'd been set to watch him.

'And of course, if you're out with one of your older cousins...' Baragrim was saying.

'I shouldn't need an escort if I'm with Frodo or Freddy, or Merry or Folco,' Pippin agreed.

'I'd beg to differ,' Baragrim said wryly, 'knowing the mischief you've been able to make with some of them... but the Thain has said it, and so I must make it so.'

'I'll have to issue a steady stream of invitations, then,' Pippin said thoughtfully.

Baragrim actually smiled. 'You do that, lad,' he said. 'The Great Smials will be all the livelier for all the new blood and fresh ideas.'