Chapter 2. Tea with the Tooks

Regi was prompt the next day, arriving for tea exactly on time. As a matter of fact, he came a few minutes before time, but loitered as he walked past the last few dwellings, admiring the roses blooming profusely in the front gardens.

Mardibold greeted him without surprise. 'Come in, come in!' he said, standing aside to allow the steward passage. 'So you managed to be back today,' he commented.

'Aye,' Regi answered. 'The Thain wished to ride back last night under the stars, rather than staying over.'

Mardi shook his head. 'I thought slave-driving was something they only did in the Black Lands.'

'Ah, well,' Regi said philosophically. 'At least we stopped at the Crowing Cockerel for supper.'

Mardi nodded. 'Good beer there.'

They sat down on either side of the table in the study, where the board was already set up for a game. Mardibold picked up a game piece, put his hands behind his back, fiddled a moment, then held them out. Reginard tapped one of the hands, but came up empty. 'You've got first move,' he said.

The first game was fiercely contested, the older hobbit finally winning by a clever move.

'Wait, how did you do that?' Regi said.

Mardi smiled. 'Let's try it again, see if you can pick up on it the next time.' They played through the game again, and again Regi was beaten. 'You're not looking soon enough, Mardibold said, giving him a hint. 'Let's go at it again.'

Halfway through the third game, Regi looked up, quirking his eyebrow. Mardibold smiled. 'Aye, you see it now,' he said. 'Do you know how to counter?'

Regi put his hand on a piece, looked at the other's face, moved his hand to another piece, the other smiled and nodded. 'You have to remember to look ahead, not to the next move, but as many moves forward as you can imagine.'

'Rather like being Thain,' Regi murmured, making his move. At a voice from the doorway, both looked up.

'Are you going to play all day?' Rosamunda Took said, amused. 'Tea's going cold.'

'The kettle just whistled,' her father protested.

She laughed. 'That was quite awhile ago. The tea's made, steeped, and cosied. All it lacks is the pouring out. And the children are about to eat up all the teacakes.'

'We cannot have that,' Regi said in mock alarm, rising from his chair.

In the parlour, Rosamunda poured out the tea, saying, 'Help yourself to the cakes, they'll only go stale if you leave any.' Her hand brushed Regi's as she gave him his cup and she smiled into his eyes before turning away to serve her little brothers and sisters. He smiled back, thanking her, thinking how wonderfully green her eyes were, and absently put twice as much sweetening into his cup as usual.

'I hear you tried on the seal of the Thain, Hilly,' he said, to make conversation.

The lad looked up, speaking through a mouthful of cake.

'Don't talk with your mouth full,' Rosa chided him. 'Your stomach wants to see the food more than the rest of us do.'

The lad washed down his cake with a gulp of sweet, milky tea. 'I did,' he said. 'Is it really magic?'

'Magic?' Regi asked. What sort of nonsense had Pippin filled the lad with?

'Do people really have to do as you say if you're wearing it?'

Regi nodded. 'O aye,' he said.

Hilly sighed.

Rosamunda laughed, and Regi was reminded of the ripples in a pond when you cast a stone on a still day. 'And what would you order, had you such a magic ring?' she said fondly.

'I would order seedcake for tea,' the lad answered.

There was a general laugh, and Rosa tousled the lad's head, saying, 'You don't need a ring for that, love, all you have to do is ask. We'll have seedcake tomorrow, will that do?'

'That's the Thain's favourite, as well,' Regi said.

'Why don't you bring him along, then?' Mardibold said unexpectedly. 'About time I met our Thain, after all.'

'Perhaps he can find you a position as a healer in the Smials, Father,' Rosamunda said.

Mardi snorted. 'Now why ever would I want that?' he asked. 'I hear the Thain never listens to the healers who are already there. Why would he want another to pay no mind to?'

Even Regi chuckled at that, though he felt he might be a little disrespectful to do so, and he quickly wiped the smile from his face, mentally apologising to Pippin. He must keep the proper attitude of respect.

Mardibold saw the look and redirected the conversation. 'Besides,' he said, 'I have plenty of patients here in Tuckborough who won't heed me already. There was one old gaffer...' and he launched into a story that soon had them all laughing.

***

The next day the Thain came to tea at the Tooks. Mardibold greeted him with all the dignity befitting his station, escorting him to the parlour, showing him to the best chair. Rosamunda poured out his tea, inquiring how he liked it (black and strong), and cutting him a generous slice of seedcake.

He waited until all had been served, down to young Hilly, then took a bite. A grin spread over his face and he sighed happily. 'Ah, as good as my mother-in-love's,' he said. 'Diamond's mother makes the best seedcake I have ever tasted.'

'And what of Mistress Diamond?' Mardibold asked.

The Thain considered, nodding slowly, then said. 'Her seedcake is passable, I believe. A few more years of practice, perhaps. She just does not choose to make it often enough, you know.'

Little Hilly nodded. 'Rosa doesn't, either.'

'I shall have to issue an edict, I see,' the Thain said solemnly. 'Seedcake at least three times a week.'

'Four would be better,' Hilly said.

'I do believe you have the right of it, lad,' Pippin answered. 'Would you like to come and work for me?'

'I do not think my father would let me,' Hilly said. 'He has too much work for me to do here.'

'I cannot manage without the lad,' Mardi said with a fond smile.

'Ah, well,' Pippin sighed. 'I suppose we will just have to make do. But it is a sore disappointment.' Regi shared an amused look with Rosamunda. He was glad to see that her first impression of the Thain seemed to be a favourable one.

They chatted until the seedcake was gone, Rosa pressing a second helping on the Thain, though she noticed he was slow to eat it all, and then the Thain rose, bowing to Mardibold, taking Rosamunda's hand and bowing his head over it, thanking them all for their hospitality. 'You may stay if you wish, Regi,' he said. 'I've promised a story to Faramir and cannot tarry.'

'No, no, I'll come along,' Regi said, shocked at the thought of the Thain riding back to the Smials without an escort. It just would not be proper.

'Can I feed an apple to Socks?' Hilly asked at the door.

'Certainly,' Pippin said. 'He'll be your friend for life if you do... or at least for the rest of the day. I'm afraid he expects a new apple each day. Very spoilt, you know.'

'A moment, Regi,' Mardibold said, then turning to the Thain added, 'if you don't mind, Sir.'

'I have a moment,' Pippin answered easily. 'We'll cut Sock's treat into small pieces to make it last longer. He likes it when I do that.' He and Hilly went out together.

Mardibold waited until the two had gone out the gate and were greeting the pony. 'Regi,' Mardi said in an urgent undertone. 'The Thain's not well.'

Regi looked at him in surprise. 'What do you mean?'

'I've been a healer longer than you've been alive, lad. His breathing's not right, not even for one who's fought off the Old Gaffer's Friend*, and that cough...'

'It's just a cold,' Regi said, worry beginning to stir within.

'You take him back to the Smials, talk to Healer Woodruff. She's a good'un, I apprenticed under her. Tell her to take a listen to his chest and if she doesn't pop him into a bed and sit upon him to keep him there, then I'm an Elf.'

Regi looked at the short, fat, grizzled hobbit and shook his head. 'You're no Elf,' he said.

'You do as I say,' Mardi said. 'There'll be bad trouble if you don't.'

Regi nodded. 'You're the healer,' he said.

Mardi watched him walk to the gate, kept watching as the two mounted their ponies and turned back towards the Smials. 'There could be bad trouble, even if you do, I think,' he muttered to himself.

'What was that, Father?' Rosamunda said, passing with a stack of plates.

'Nothing, my love. Just talking to myself.'

'It's getting to be a habit,' she chided.

'Ah well, you don't have to start worrying unless I start answering back,' he said. 'Now come on. I'll help you with the dishes, if you'll sing me a song.'

'There's a fair bargain,' she said, and her smile looked so like her mother's that his heart ached all over again, but he put on a bright smile of his own, and when she began a song, he added his harmony to it as they tackled the washing up together.

***

Author's Note: *Old Gaffer's Friend, a Shire term for pneumonia, which carried off the elderly relatively painlessly and quickly