Chapter 10. Diamonds

Diamond awakened with a start, opening her eyes to see Jack’s face, inches away, peering into her face. She drew her breath sharply and he put his hand on her mouth, whispering urgently. ‘Do not scream! I mean you no harm!’

He did no more than that, simply stared into her eyes intently. There was no menace in his expression, and no... she didn’t know quite what the word might be, but she’d heard of lasses accosted by ruffians during the Troubles. Not many, for most fathers or husbands kept their loved ones tight indoors and out of sight when ruffians had ruled and roamed the Shire.

When she forced herself to relax, he nodded and took his hand away, though he hovered it near her mouth. ‘Keep quiet,’ he ordered. ‘Do not waken the lads.’ Faramir, Rob, and Will were all asleep, their soft breathing blending with Hilly’s snores.

She swallowed hard and nodded, and he took his hand completely away. ‘That’s better,’ he whispered. ‘I mean you no harm.’ His gaze dropped and his lips tightened, before he looked up again. ‘No matter that I ought to.’

 ‘What do you mean?’ Diamond whispered, fear clutching her heart. He ought to mean them harm?

 ‘I ought to take you all back to the bog and drop you in,’ Jack said candidly. Diamond lay frozen in fear and shock, tightening her hold on sleeping Farry.

Jack sat back and circled his knees with his arms, staring down at his boots. ‘It was to be so easy,’ he said. ‘Slip into the Shire, avoid the watchers, and slip out again, unseen.’

 ‘But why?’ Diamond breathed.

Jack’s eyes raised to meet hers. ‘You know very well, my lady Diamond,’ he whispered. ‘Word has gone out that your husband has more gold than he knows what to do with. We were going to creep in, mice in the pantry, lift a little nibble—why, not enough that he’d miss it—and creep away again.’

 ‘It’s not your gold to take!’ Diamond hissed, indignant.

Jack spread his hands, cool laughter in his eyes. ‘What matter? I hear the gold goes to those in need, and I certainly need it!’ He circled his knees again and said reflectively, ‘I worked hard all my life, to gain what I had, only to be robbed of it in the end.’

 ‘Robbed?’ Diamond said.

 ‘I was going to have a little shop,’ Jack said incongruously. ‘Leave the wandering life behind, and settle down. The King is coming to the North-land, did you know? Fornost will be built again, and a City by the Lake will rise from the rubble of Annuminas. The people will need shopkeepers to sell them goods.’ He sighed. ‘I’m growing too old to wander.’

Diamond stared at his silvering hair in silence.

 ‘Robbed, and beaten, and left for dead,’ Jack said, answering her earlier question. ‘I gambled, and won, and the losers took exception to that. They lay in wait for me, along the road, and took back the winnings and all else besides.’ He glanced over at little Rob and Will, curled together for warmth. ‘The lads found me, and took me in. They were living in a shack, a rude shelter, not much but it kept off the rain. Will was trying to be father and mother to his little brother, and he not much more than a boy himself. They took me in, and I took them on when I was ready to travel, and they’ve been with me ever since.’

 ‘You were robbed, and yet you would do the same?’ Diamond said.

Jack shrugged. ‘I could not spare what I lost, a lifetime’s earnings, but your husband has not only legendary gold but showers of blessing from the King as well. Surely he would not miss a bag, or two.’

 ‘There is a curse upon the gold,’ Diamond said. ‘Thain’s gold, given freely, brings blessing. Taken by stealth, it will bring only ruin.’

Jack nodded wryly. ‘Too true,’ he agreed. ‘Ruin indeed, as I know to my sorrow. What am I to do with you?’

Diamond stared, perplexed.

Jack nodded to himself. ‘You don’t know,’ he said. ‘They keep you safe, of course, but they don’t tell you how your safety is bought with blood and the lives of Men.’

 ‘I don’t understand,’ Diamond faltered.

 ‘It is death to break the King’s edict, to enter the Shire,’ Jack said. ‘Even if we win our way out again, you’ve seen our faces. You could give us up to the King’s Men, even years afterwards, and we’d hang, Will and I, on your word alone. The King sets great store by the word of a hobbit.’ Diamond, because she had travelled to Gondor with Pippin, was one of the few hobbits who knew what hanging was. She thought of Jack’s readiness to help, of Will crawling over the perilous bog to rescue Hilly, of how she and Farry might have died of the cold before anyone found them.

 ‘You’ve offered us no harm,’ she said slowly, ‘well, you didn’t at first, anyhow. You saved Hilly’s life...’ She saw that he didn’t understand, and pressed on, ‘I have no reason to give you up to the King’s Men.’

 ‘How can I trust that?’ Jack said. He rubbed at his face.

 ‘How did you mean to get the gold, if no hobbits should see you?’ Diamond said suddenly. ‘How would you find it?’

Jack laughed softly, dropping his hand again. ‘Before the King’s edict, I tramped about the Shire,’ he said, ‘amusing the little folk with my tricks. I’ve walked the length and breadth of every Farthing, and even the Tooks welcomed me before they started having trouble with renegade men. I’ve been all over the North-lands; at least, all over where there were hearths and homes and people, big or small. I wasn’t in the Shire in the time of Saruman, of course. I didn’t want to be pressed into his service, and I didn’t like the company he kept. When I saw which way the wind was blowing, I tramped along to Bree. They didn’t want any conjurors there, and so I cleaned stables for my bed and bread.’

Diamond nodded encouragingly. ‘The gold?’ she said. She was used to bringing a wanderer back to the topic at hand.

 ‘One day I was lying in a field of tall grain,’ he said, ‘plucking the heads and chewing their sweetness, considering which way I should go that day. I saw two riders on a track alongside the big hill, leading a pony. I watched them, thinking I might follow to whatever village might be their destination. They went around the hill, and I followed, quietly. The one had a bow, and it was strung and ready, making caution seem an excellent choice.’

Diamond smiled. ‘They were hunting, no doubt,’ she said.

Jack shook his head. ‘Only one bore a bow. The other was richly dressed. I was curious,’ he said. ‘It is a failing of mine. They went around the hill, as I said, and disappeared. I was very curious. I crawled up that hill through the gorse and grass and saw an opening in the hillside, but no hobbits, only the two saddled ponies. I waited.’

Diamond nodded. She knew the place: the treasure-hoard of the Thain. Pippin had shown her, on one of their picnics, where Ferumbras and the Thains before him had hidden their gold away.

 ‘They emerged again, leading the pack-pony, obviously heavily laden. One turned and touched the wall, and the hole became solid rock.’

At Diamond’s quizzical expression, he smiled. ‘Ah, yes, I know it was solid rock, for I waited for them to be gone, and I climbed up to that place. There was an overhang, and a circle of stones where some traveller had built a fire some rainy night, taking shelter. I touched the wall, and the stone fell away, and...’

 ‘How much of the gold did you take that time?’ Diamond said dryly.

 ‘None at all, if you’d believe it. I had no need of gold,’ Jack said. ‘My father raised me to work hard, to earn what I’d keep. One thing, and one only, did I take, and that only to remember afterwards that what I saw was no dream.’

He fumbled with the seams of his coat, bringing out at last a stone the size of his thumbnail, that flashed reflections from the fire. ‘This was one of the smaller stones,’ he said. ‘It was lying on the floor, as if it had fallen and been kicked aside without noticing.’ He smiled grimly at Diamond. ‘Your naming stone, my little lady.’

 ‘The thieves did not take it from you,’ Diamond said.

 ‘No,’ Jack said. ‘I kept it sewn in a seam, you see. It’s been my good-luck piece all these years.’ He stared at the stone, brooding. ‘It has never failed me until now.’

 ‘Not even when you were robbed and beaten?’

 ‘Ah, but it brought me luck, even then,’ Jack said softly, his eyes going to the sleeping boys. ‘For that brought me little Rob, and Will. They are like the sons I never had, and I bless the day they found me by the roadside and took me in.’

He sighed, and shook his head. ‘Now,’ he said once more. ‘What in the world am I to do with you?’