Chapter 1. Me and My Wife Settled Down

 ‘If you refuse to listen to my advice then why do you bother to ask for it at all?’ Ferdibrand said between his teeth, and then he closed his eyes and swore a bitter oath under his breath. The Thain had been wondrously tractable since they’d reached an agreement of sorts a few months previously, but a few weeks ago he’d begun to mouth the bit, and that led to a tossing of the head, so to speak, and now it seemed he was threatening to kick the traces over completely.

So much for his word.

The suddenness of Pippin’s capitulation took him by surprise. ‘Of course, Ferdibrand,’ the Thain said quietly. ‘You have the right of it.’

He opened his eyes to see his cousin frowning with concern. ‘Is it your head?’ Pippin asked.

Truth be told there was a nagging ache at the back of his head and an echo near one temple, remainder from the spring storm that had passed over the previous day. He clenched his fists together under the desk, that he might not unconsciously raise a hand to rub at the pain.

 ‘My head is fine,’ he said. Well, for the most part it was.

Pippin sat back, though his eyes were still watchful.

Careful, Ferdi, or he’ll be sending for the healers, next thing you know, and they’ll be forcing bitter draughts down your throat, Ferdibrand thought to himself. He forced his muscles to relax, leaning back in his chair, easing his posture.

 ‘I must go to Pincup, but you say the streams are too high for safe crossing,’ Pippin said. ‘So what do you suggest? Take the long way round? That’d take days, to go there and back again! And we’re due in Buckland on the fifteenth of March!’

 ‘Perhaps we ought to work something out with the Master of Buckland,’ Reginard put in. ‘Borrow their engineers to build a few bridges over the streams. The way to Pincup ought not to depend on dry weather!’

 ‘They’ve always been an independent lot,’ Pippin said, momentarily distracted, but then he returned to the point. ‘Nevertheless, Regi, I must go to Pincup now, to speak with old Hildibald before he departs this world. I’m honour-bound... I cannot wait on the building of a few bridges!’

 ‘If you go by way of the Cockerel, perhaps the way is too dangerous,’ Reginard said, ‘but what about the other track you know, Ferdi, the one across the fields and into the woods? Is that one better, perhaps? I remember a bridge or two along that route.’

 ‘The water would still be higher than it usually is,’ Ferdi said, striving to concentrate. ‘And the way would be muddy, and treacherous in places.’

 ‘So we ride slow and sure-footed ponies instead of our fine racers,’ Pippin said. ‘Your Star and my Firefoot will be all the better for the rest and the good grazing. One thing you can say about all the rain we’ve had lately: the grass be greening!’

 ‘So it be,’ Regi agreed.

 ‘Tolly’s Meadowsweet is down with fever,’ Ferdi said, changing the subject. It seemed as if he had no choice but to plan this journey, so he might as well start now. First off they needed to establish who the Thain’s escort would be, this trip, whether or not Pippin acknowledged the need to be escorted. It would be better not to take the head of the Thain’s escort from his wife’s side; it would lead to Talk amongst the Tooks, for one thing, and Tolly would not have his mind on his business for another. ‘And if you’re planning to spend a week in Pincup...’

 ‘Aye,’ Pippin said, ‘we’ll leave Hilly here in the Smials. He’s earned a rest.’ Hildibold had ridden at the Thain’s side to Michel Delving the previous week, through one of the recent blustery storms in point of fact, and had been glad to return to hearth and wife. He aimed a mischievous glance at Ferdibrand. ‘Why not leave all the escort here, this trip?’

 ‘Haldi,’ Ferdibrand said, ignoring the half-jest. ‘Haldigrim will accompany you, cousin.’

 ‘And yourself as well,’ Pippin said. ‘You know that track better than anyone else, after all. It wouldn’t do to get lost on the way to Pincup.’

 ‘Or on the way back,’ Reginard put in. ‘But a week away, at this time...’

 ‘I need Ferdibrand there,’ Pippin said. ‘You know that, Reg. He’s better than a whole sheaf of papers, what with his memory for talk...’

 ‘Of course,’ Ferdi said, rising from the desk. ‘I’ll make the arrangements.’ He gave a peremptory bow and left the Thain’s study.

 ‘What do you know that I do not know?’ Pippin said, eyes narrowing as he regarded Reginard.

 ‘It’s not my news to tell,’ Regi temporised, but Pippin rose from his desk and stalked over to Regi’s desk, to stand looking down on his steward. Being the tallest hobbit in the history of the Shire, he looked down quite a ways.

 ‘What do you know?’ he said again sternly.

Regi sighed, caught between amusement and chagrin. The news would come out soon enough, but his wife Rosamunda would be quite put out with him for letting it slip. She was a healer, and took her responsibilities, including the confidence of her charges, seriously. Quite seriously.

 ‘Nell’s expecting again,’ Regi said.

 ‘What!’ Pippin responded, eyes widening. ‘She just had little Flora—’

 ‘A few months ago; I know,’ Regi said. ‘Seems as Pimpernel and Ferdibrand are making up for lost time.’

 ‘Regi!’ Pippin reprimanded, but there was a thoughtful look in his eye. Pimpernel was nothing if not prolific—six children with her first husband, may his dreams be peaceful ones, and now expecting another with Ferdibrand, their third since they’d settled down together just a few years ago! She seemed likely to fulfil the old wedding toast, wishing a dozen children on the happy couple—fulfil or perhaps surpass it! He settled for saying, ‘So I’m to be an uncle again. Well, well.’

He stretched, achieving even more towering height above Reginard, and then turned and ambled back to his desk, sitting down and picking up the next piece of paper from the pile. ‘So,’ he said conversationally. ‘Is there aught wrong? Is Nell in any danger, quickening again so soon after the last?’

Regi held his breath. It truly was not his news to tell, confidences overheard between healer-wife and Thain’s sister.

Pippin raised his eyes from the paper to fix the steward with a piercing look. ‘Is there?’ he repeated, steel in his tone.

 ‘Nell’s been a little run-down,’ Regi said softly. ‘Not gaining back from the last birthing as quick as she might. Why, she’s downright thin. Rosa told her she’d have to eat every two hours without fail, and even arise in the middle night to take a meal.’

 ‘Does Ferdi know?’ Pippin said.

Regi laughed. ‘What do you think?’

The Thain very deliberately laid the paper down on the desk and leaned forward. ‘Of course he knows she’s expecting again,’ he said slowly, spacing his words. ‘Does he know that the healers are worried?’

 ‘Nell – doesn’t want to worry him,’ Regi said, unusually diffident. He straightened and said briskly, ‘Really, Rosa says there’s no danger, so long as she follows the healers’ advice and stuffs herself like a fowl for the roasting.’

Unexpectedly Pippin laughed. ‘I can believe that Nell doesn’t want to worry him!’ he said. ‘All she needs is Ferdi hovering over her, counting every mouthful and urging ever more food on her!’ He sobered. ‘But I truly need him, Regi. Old Hildibald knows more of Shire history than any ten other hobbits put together, but he’s never bothered to write down more than a handful of what he knows. Now he’s taken to his bed, though lucid, his wife’s message said, and this might be our last chance... Ferdi can sit by his side by the hour, hear the stories, and when we return to the Smials he’ll write them down word-perfect, as if he hears the old hobbit spinning tales in his head!’

 ‘As he likely does,’ Reginard said. Ferdi had told him once that he remembered everything he heard. A remarkable talent that, but sometimes a curse as well as a gift. It made him invaluable to the Thain, however, and his related talent for knowing truth when he heard it also came in quite handy in dealing with Pippin, devious as that hobbit could be at times. Not that Pippin was a false hobbit, but he’d been known to mislead those around him for the sake of convenience...

He’d missed Pippin’s next few words, and lifted his head to hear the Thain saying, ‘...so you see that I need to have Ferdi with me, for the sake of the Shire!’

Regi nodded. ‘There’s no danger, Rosa says,’ he repeated, ‘and if you were to leave Ferdi behind he’d suspect something was up and badger Nell until she was miserable.’

 ‘We cannot have that,’ Pippin said. ‘Very well, we will act as if all is as it should be.’

 ‘As it is,’ Regi said, lifting an eyebrow. ‘Isn’t it?’

 ‘It ought to be,’ Pippin said.

 ‘None of your nonsense, now, lad,’ Reginard said, to forestall any whimsy on the Thain’s part.

Pippin only laughed, as he so often did when something struck him as humorous, though for the life of him Reginard never knew why. 'Get back to work, Regi,' he said.

 'I was working,' Reginard said with all the dignity he could muster, taking up his quill and scratching another figure in a column. He ignored the Thain as Pippin chuckled, and then the study was quiet once more.