Chapter 23. To Meet Once More

The Thain and all who accompanied him to this momentous occasion arrived the day before the scheduled meeting on the Bridge, and this was a good thing, for Pippin was wearied by all the worry and effort of the previous week, though he would not admit to such.

Diamond elected to stay at the Stonebows Inn at the Bridgefields' end of the Bridge rather than riding a mile farther, much less ten miles or more to Brandy Hall. She professed to be “too tired” to stir another step. Argue as he might, Pippin could not convince her that it would be no work at all to ride in a coach, just ten miles more. In the end he had to send a messenger to Brandy Hall, for Diamond insisted that he remain at her side. After the fear of following a faint trail, not knowing what he’d find at the end, but all too familiar with the ways of ruffians to expect his beloved Diamond to be safe and unharmed, his wife’s least wish was Pippin’s greatest desire.

As a result, after Farry was tucked up in his bed and safely asleep, Pippin and Diamond shared a long, luxuriating bath, a leisurely meal, and an early bedtime, though they lay long awake, nestled in each other’s arms.

It was a relaxed and restored Pippin who awakened early the next morning, stretched contentedly, and reached for his wife... who wasn’t there. ‘Diamond!’ he said, pulling himself upright.

 ‘In the bath!’ he heard from the adjoining room.

 ‘What? Another bath?’ he called. ‘Didn’t you wrinkle your fingers enough last night?’

Diamond’s laugh rang out. ‘Not quite!’ she returned. ‘I found one unwrinkled span of skin and I am endeavouring to wrinkle it!’

There was the sound of moving water as she heaved herself out of the tub, and a moment later she appeared in the doorway, well-wrapped and towelling her hair. ‘We are to meet the King this day!’ she said, peering sideways at Pippin. ‘I want to do you proud!’

He rose from the bed to embrace her, laying a tender kiss upon her tousled curls. ‘You’d do me proud whether you were covered in dried mud, or the finest brocade, or nothing whatsoever,’ he murmured.

 ‘Nothing whatsoever might do at the moment,’ Diamond said with a smile, ‘but I think I’d prefer to meet Elessar again, decently clad.’

 ‘I’ll send him a message, then, shall I?’ Pippin said wickedly. ‘I’ll inform him in no uncertain terms that if he’s to meet us this day, he’s to be decently clad!’

Faramir popped up from the pillow on the wings of the resulting peal of laughter and his mother swooped him from the bed and carried him off to the tub for “one more go at the dirt behind those precious little ears!”

The Brandybucks, Tooks, and Gamgees sat together at breakfast that morning, for Merry and Estella had come very early up the road from the Hall, and the Gamgees had arrived shortly after the Tooks sought their beds the previous evening. The wives chatted merrily, the children were excited and animated, and the Travellers were quiet, thinking of another twenty-fifth of March, some years ago now, and another who had gone far beyond reach but was never far from memory.

At last it was time to change into their “fancy togs” as Merry and Pippin insisted on calling the suits and dresses made up for the occasion, fit for the eyes of a king, and for their part, the uniforms of Rohan and Gondor. Merry’s had been adjusted for the inevitable thickening of a hobbit in peace and plenty; Pippin’s long fight for his health had left no alterations needed in his uniform.

 ‘How do I look?’ Pippin said, throwing his cloak over his shoulder and taking up the uncomfortable winged helm under his arm, striking an heroic pose.

 ‘I fear he’ll take you with him, mistaking you for one of his guardsmen,’ Diamond said softly, holding Farry a little closer as their young son stared in awe and admiration.

 ‘I am one of his guardsmen, in daylight at least!’ Pippin said. ‘But I do odd jobs by moonlight, on the side. We have an understanding, you know.’

 ‘We’ll just make sure to wine and dine him until the moon rises, then,’ Diamond said.

They walked out of their rooms, and out of the inn, meeting cheers from the crowd of hobbits who had come from miles around to observe the august occasion. Merry, resplendent as a knight of the Mark, was waiting with the Brandybuck contingent.

 ‘There you are, cousin!’ Pippin called. ‘Are you ready at last?’

Merry did not remark that he’d been waiting on the Tooks, rather, saying only, ‘I’m right behind you, Pippin!’

 ‘We’ll thrust Sam before, just in case we need a shield,’ Pippin said with a grin.

 ‘Always happy to be of service,’ the Mayor said, affecting cheer, though he looked as if he’d rather be in his comfortable old gardening clothes than the fashionable suit coat and snowy linen shirt with tight-fitting collar that even a nervous finger could not loosen sufficiently for comfort.

 ‘Three cheers for Mayor Sam!’ an old gaffer called from the edge of the crowd, and Pippin was happy to lead the ovation.

Hilly pushed his way through the crowd. ‘The Men are approaching the Bridge, Sir,’ he said urgently to Pippin.

The Thain cocked an eye at the sun, shining merrily down. ‘Exactly on time,’ he said. ‘We had better move to our end of the Bridge!’ The plan was to meet in the centre of the broad and ancient Bridge of Stone Bows, the exact border between the Shire and the Outlands.

The Travellers and their families walked slowly, followed by a hobbit throng, to the edge of the great Bridge. There was the sound of silver trumpets, and the assembled hobbits gasped, looking to the opposite shore of the Brandywine, where a great army—to their eyes—was drawn up in glittering ranks, sun glinting from polished surfaces, Men as still as statues, the only movement the flapping of colourful banners in the teasing wind.

Merry lifted the silver horn of Rohan in answer, and another fanfare rang out from the opposite shore. Two figures moved to the fore: a grand and lordly figure on a finely-bred stallion of deepest ebony, and a slender and graceful one on a palfrey of purest white. The King was dressed as he had been the day of his coronation, in black mail girt with shining silver, a long mantle of pure white clasped at his throat with a great jewel of green that shone from afar; but his head was bare save for a star upon his forehead bound by a slender fillet of silver, for the crown of Gondor remained in Gondor when Elessar travelled to his northern kingdom. Arwen was clad all in silver, with a snowy-white mantle to match her husband’s, and a net of silver and diamonds to contain her midnight tresses.

Pippin took Diamond’s hand in one of his, and Farry’s hand in the other, and stepped onto the Bridge, Merry and Samwise following with their families. King and Queen seemed impossibly tall, sitting on their horses, awaiting the hobbits’ approach, grown to giants’ height, even. Pippin’s breath came short, and he felt Diamond’s hand tremble in his, felt Farry pull back in apprehension.

Pomp and pageantry, to be expected, endured, sometimes enjoyed, were a part of life in Gondor and the White City, and the hobbits had not been put off by the grandeur that surrounded them there. Here, in the quiet of the Shire, it was quite something else again. Pippin knew that the King meant only to honour his friends, but... hobbits are a shy folk, and quiet, and especially wary around the Big Folk, and Pippin had a feeling that if things kept going the way they were going, the silent crowd at his back would soon scatter and dive for cover, a most embarrassing prospect! He looked to Diamond, and saw her eyes fixed and staring. Beyond her Merry’s face was grim, and Estella looked frightened. On his other side, he could see that Sam was troubled, and the Gamgee children, so bright and bold, were hanging back, holding to their white-faced mother’s skirts. This would not do at all!

He squeezed the hands he held and released them, striding forward, jaunty and confident, raising an arm in welcome. ‘Strider!’ he shouted. ‘What’s the meaning of all this? Get down off your high horse and give your old friends a proper greeting!’

(Description of King Elessar was taken from “The Steward and the King”, The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien)