18 A Matter of Opinion

Pippin slept late the next day. He had been quite worn out by the last part of his journey to Crickhollow, having to battle the wind and rain. Merry made no effort to wake Pippin, knowing the rest would help keep his cousin from getting ill. When Pippin did make an appearance, just in time for afternoon tea, he was still in his night clothes. He never did get dressed and spent the rest of the day, in accordance with Merry's orders, lounging in a large comfortable easy chair in the study in front of a good fire with some more of Merry's herbal tea and an array of foods to nibble on.

He and Merry talked about Pippin's time in the North Farthing, about his falling in love, the mad proposal, the even madder wedding date and the young couple’s plans for afterwards.

"You could just come back here, Pip." Merry observed. "The house is in two wings. You and Diamond could have one and I the other."

"But, wouldn't it make you feel a bit awkward to have the two of us hugging and kissing each other and you . . . well," Pippin looked uncomfortable, "you just with yourself?"

Merry smiled shyly. "Well, it might not be a problem for all that long, Pippin."

Pippin's eyes started to sparkle and he grinned happily at Merry. "You mean you have found a lass of your own?"

"Don't go getting too excited yet, Pippin. I have only been calling on her a short while, since the Festival Ball in fact, although we have both known her a long time. She spoke to me about how wonderful her cousin Persimmone looked all soaking wet, and we just kept talking." Merry was blushing just a little and a soft smile played about his lips. "It's Estella Bolger, Pippin."

"Fatty's sister!" Pippin exclaimed. "Oh, she's a grand lass, Merry! Sweet, smart, a good cook. She's even plump like you!" Pippin was interrupted by having to duck the pillow Merry threw at him.

"Better to be a proper hobbit than a scrawny Took!" Merry said laughing at Pippin who had always been sensitive about being of an unhobbitlike slender build. It was another characteristic of the Tooks that made other hobbits wonder about their ancestry, though they would usually get a bit plumper as they grew older.

Pippin shared in the laughter. "Yes, I know, I know. Diamond already said she has plans to fatten me up a bit. I wished her luck at it as no one has been able to accomplish it yet." He looked at the tray of food at his elbow as he spoke, picked up a small raspberry tart and popped it into his mouth.

"I think it could work well for us all." Merry continued with the subject of future living accommodations. "We would each have our own part of the house and be together for meals. Time together or apart as needed. It should work well until . . ." Merry stopped and looked Pippin in the eye.

"Until one or the other of us inherits his title." Pippin finished for him.

"Yes." They both looked away unhappily. Neither of them was in any hurry for his own father, or his cousin's father to die . They both sighed at the same time, then Pippin broke the moment of melancholy.

"Well, it all sounds grand to me, Merry. I'll have to ask Diamond, you understand, but I think she will like it too." Pippin paused as he changed thoughts. "You'll come back to Great Smials with me, won't you? I really would like you and Diamond to get better acquainted. Perhaps Estella would like to come as well."

"I think we would both like that, Pippin. I’ll ride over to the Quick Post and send a note off to Budgeford explaining about your good news. Then, I’ll ask her to come to Brandy Hall tomorrow if she wishes to go along with us to Great Smials. We can go over to the Hall ourselves in the morning as you do need to tell my Mum and Father your good news. Whether Estella can come or not we’ll start to Great Smials in three days."

All was agreed upon. Merry wrote his note to Estella and took it to the Quick Post office. When he returned they had dinner and the talk turned to other things for the rest of the evening.

Pippin’s Uncle Saradoc and Aunt Esmeralda were thrilled with the news of his betrothal. Esme in particular fairly glowed with excitement, happy that her only brother’s only son had found his special lass. In part because of the close relationship between their own Merry and their nephew, Pippin was especially dear to his Brandybuck relations. It was equally true that Merry was especially dear to Paladin Took’s family. Estella Bolger arrived in time for dinner the second day the lads were at the Hall and they all had a festive time, with Esme happily taking note of the smiles and blushes Merry and Estella shared from their places across the table from one another.

The trip to Great Smials was uneventful with both the roads and the weather cooperating nicely. Estella and Merry were obviously interested in each other and, once they arrived at the Smials, the Took females , Diamond included, once again had something to whisper and giggle about.

During the following week the betrothal announcements were properly done by two Tuckborough scribes. At the same time the wedding invitations were beautifully done by the same two scribes. Both the announcement and the invitation went out to each recipient in the same envelope. Highly unusual and soon the talk of the Shire. Some hobbits found this very confusing: were they being invited to a betrothal? Being told about a betrothal for one couple and a wedding for a different couple? Some even thought the whole matter a joke as no hobbit in their right mind would have a wedding on First Yule. But as the matter got thoroughly talked about in the taverns and inns and gossiped about in the shops and sewing circles it gradually was straightened out in everyone's mind. "Trust a Took," everyone agreed, "to get such a simple thing so muddled."

Soon the replies began returning to Great Smials and with them social invitations to the groom and bride to be. Pippin was invited to evenings out with the lads and their fathers; Diamond to afternoon tea with the lasses and their mothers. The days grew hectic. The decision had been made for Pippin and Diamond to live at Crickhollow and Pippin and Merry were busy figuring out which wing of the house the Tooks would have, and whether any architectural changes needed to be made to the dwelling. Diamond had the wedding to plan and all of those details that such planning entails.

Two weeks went past with Pippin and Diamond barely seeing each other, and even then they had not been alone. It was after breakfast one morning that Diamond sat at one end of the Thain's dinning table looking at a scattering of papers that held ideas and lists of things planned and yet to be planned for the wedding. Her hair was mussy and she looked tired. At the other end of the table slouched a pale disheveled Pippin. He was a bit hung over from yet another evening out and was staring blankly at a wall.

"I think I have the food all arranged." Diamond said aloud, not really to Pippin yet not quite to herself. She picked up and looked at another list. "And here are things that will need to be done in the next week or two." She read from the list: "Arrange for the greens for the decorations. Final approval of the cake. Choose presents for Merry, Rosie and Elanor and my sisters. Oh, and Peregrin, don't let me forget to cut your hair."

"What?" Pippin had nearly been asleep, he heard his name but nothing else.

"Your hair, Peregrin, I am cutting your hair." She looked at her list. "The week after next."

"I don't need my hair cut." Pippin said, unaware that he was reaching up to brush the hair out of his eyes as he said it. Why was she going on about his hair, his sleepy, slow thoughts were wondering.

Diamond saw what he did.

"You just had to move it out of your eyes, Peregrin. It's too long." Why was he acting so surprised by this, she thought as she looked at the list in her hand. He had told her the wedding plans were hers to do and she was doing them.

Pippin slowly sat up in the chair and looked down the table at Diamond. She was still going on about his hair. "I always wear my hair long. Always have worn my hair long. I like my hair long" His thoughts plodded and his stomach felt poorly. Was the food on his plate left from a first or second helping? He couldn’t remember.

"But it looks unkempt." She looked squarely back at him. "It's our wedding and I want you to look your best, not as though you give no care to your appearance."

Her tone wasn’t unpleasant but there was an edge to it that tugged at Pippin’s confused thinking. Was she getting upset with him?

"It will be clean and brushed." Pippin said defensively. He was starting to get a bit red in the face while the ache in his head was growing worse. He took the first good look at his betrothed that he had taken that morning. His eyes widened then squinted as he tried to force them to focus. The slightly blurry Diamond at the far end of the table looked as though she had just awakened. "Yours isn't looking all that good either," Pippin muttered.

"I'd like to see the hobbit I am marrying. Not an unrecognizable mop of curls." Diamond huffed and her head tipped ever so slightly back so that her nose was up in the air a bit. He was making such a fuss! He was sounding like her younger brothers. Why did lads have to make such a fuss over getting a hair cut? And her hair was fine, or would be on their wedding day, though she suddenly couldn’t remember if she had brushed it or not before coming to the table. She ran her hand through her hair to try to smooth it out.

Pippin was getting irked. Was there something he had missed? How could she have trouble seeing him? She was sticking her nose up just like his sisters always did when they were being bossy. He really didn’t like being bossed about by uppity lasses.

"If you can't see me and know who I am when you’re standing that close to me, the length of my hair is not your only problem." Pippin's voice rose in volume and pitch. "You would have to be blind!"

"Better blind than to look at you and think you are some ruffian outsider!" Diamond yelled and gave her head an angry toss.

Their words were now outrunning their thoughts.

"Ruffian!" Pippin stood and yelled back. "Outsider!"

"Long haired ruffian dressed like an outsider!" Diamond rose to her feet, the better to yell back at Pippin.

"A Took and a Knight of Gondor, if you please!"

"And I am a North-took and a respectable looking hobbit lass of the Shire." Diamond spat back at him. "And I don't please!" She was now in a rage with angry tears streaming down her face. "In fact you don't please! You don't please me at all!"

Pippin glared at her. "Fine! I won't be told what to do by some bossy lass from the backwards North Farthing!"

"I'd rather be an old maid than marry you, Pippin Took!" She turned and ran from the dinning room down the tunnel to her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

"Fine with me!" Pippin yelled after her and then went off down the tunnel in the opposite direction.