Chapter 6. In which a Took considers appearances

Pippin heard a gasp close at hand, and turned to see Diamond, hand at her mouth. Catching his look, she visibly controlled herself, bringing her hand down once more to find and tightly clasp the other, below the level of the table, while she took deep breaths and tried to appear calm.

Healer Woodruff was there on the instant, jumping up from her own chair to hurry to Diamond. ‘Mistress,’ she said, her voice louder than necessary, but she was speaking for the benefit of other ears. ‘I was afraid that this festive fare would be too rich for you... let me escort you back to lie down a bit, and we’ll have something lighter brought...’

Pippin tried to smile as Diamond cast an agonised look his way. ‘I’ll join you soon, my dear,’ he said, ‘just as soon as we hammer out this evident misunderstanding.’

Merry was quick to take up the thread. ‘Misunderstanding, yes,’ he said, grasping Farmer Hammersmith by the arm and steering him towards the door. Pippin waved to the rest of the Tooks to remain seated, signalled the servants to continue their duties, and gestured to Samwise to follow them out of the great room, which after a quiet word to Rose, he did. And so the welcoming feast continued, curiously enough, without any of the honoured guests.

Once outside, Diamond withdrew her arm from Woodruff’s grasp. ‘I am well, really I am, Woodruff,’ she said, and turned to Pippin. ‘Just what is going on? I thought Farry and Ferdi...’

‘Any number of things might have happened, my dear,’ Pippin said. ‘Farry might have awakened with a fever or tummy ache this morning, or perhaps he fell ill after second breakfast, even, or if he’d fallen ill after elevenses, Ferdi would have elected to turn back to Whittacres, being much closer...’

‘Or even stayed at Goodweathers’,’ Merry put in hopefully.

‘Yes,’ Diamond said, ‘well, if perhaps Farry fell ill, would you not think Ferdi might’ve sent a message to that effect, or even come himself to convey such news?’

‘Yes,’ Pippin echoed, ‘well, any number of things...’ He brightened as Tolly came up to them. ‘That rockfall you reported,’ he said to the head of escort. ‘More might have come down, since you rode back last week...’

‘Would have had to have been after Ferdi rode to Whittacres, yesterday, then,’ Tolly said, raising an eyebrow. ‘For if the track were impassible he’d’ve been back here in the evening, and he wasn’t.’

‘So, yes, then,’ Pippin said, obviously grasping at words. ‘He rode through to Whittacres, and found the track impassible on his way back today with Farry. And now they must take the long way round...’ His voice trailed off as he noticed the tapping of Diamond’s foot, never a good sign.

‘This is about as much speculating as when you accused Ferdi of child-stealing,’ Diamond said grimly. ‘You don’t know anything, do you?’

‘We’ll have to find out,’ Pippin said.

‘Pippin accused Ferdi of child-stealing?’ Sam said. ‘I knew it was serious business, and he was in some sort of trouble, but I did not know it was that.’ He shook his head. ‘I’d never believe such a thing of Ferdi.’

‘Pity you weren’t on the spot,’ Merry muttered. ‘You might have saved us any amount of trouble.’

‘Diamond-love,’ Pippin said, turning to his wife. ‘You must go to Pimpernel at once. Good thing she wasn’t in the great room just now, but news takes wings and someone’ll be knocking on her door at any minute...’

‘And while I’m soothing Pimpernel and telling her that there’s nothing to worry about, so far as we know, I do trust that you’ll be finding out just how much there is to worry about.’

‘Indeed,’ Pippin said, turning to Farmer Hammersmith. ‘Ollie, did you send anyone back along the trail to see?’

The good farmer smacked his forehead with his hand. ‘I never thought of such,’ he said. ‘We waited and waited, and it was all I could think to do, when they hadn’t come, and it was time for someone to set out from our farm to reach the Great Smials in time for tea, and no one was there to set out, as it were, and so I saddled one of my own ponies...’

‘Yes, good thinking,’ Pippin said, breaking into the flow which seemed as if it might go on for a while. ‘Tolly, I want a hunting party, and I want them now, hobbits and ponies, ready to ride out just as soon as may be.’

‘Do you want to call a muster, Sir?’ Tolly asked quietly, poised for action.

‘A muster!’ Pippin said in shock. ‘A muster? For a tummy ache?’ He shook his head, and looking up, saw Tooks clustering in the doorway of the great room, listening, ready even, to take whatever action he  might decree. He raised his voice for Ferdi’s sake, and Pimpernel’s, though neither was there to hear. ‘Let us not jump to conclusions, now, Tolly, you of all hobbits ought to know better! No, a hunting party, say a good score of Tooks with their bows, all good shots of course, with lanterns and torches. It’ll be full dark soon...’

‘Aye,’ Tolly said, and motioning to the gathering Tooks he began to call of names of the best archers among them.

‘And,’ Pippin said, catching sight of the steward in the crowd, ‘ah, Regi, good. I want engineers. Ev’ard, and Dinny, would you fetch them? I’ll be wanting them to take a look at that hillside, to see if the track is safe or if we’ll have to put up warnings and spread the word to go another way, at least until the worst of it can be cleared away...’

Reginard nodded. So that was the way of things, as Pippin was pushing them to go, anyhow. The Talk would be spreading amongst the Tooks, and the Thain was insuring that the idea that the rock-fall had blocked the short-cut between Tookbank and Tuckborough would have at least as much weight as the idea that Ferdi was somehow at fault.

The early winter dark had settled fully before they rode out of the torch-lit courtyard, a full score of Tooks and a few more into the bargain, including the healer Regi had thought to include, seeing how the Thain was riding out into a frosty night, and without a doubt would be staying out until the dawning, or until he found his son, which ever might come first. But the moon was high in the sky, and he’d drunk his fill and was doing his best to make the frosty ground glitter. His light lent an unearthly sheen to the great hills that surrounded them, making torches and lanterns unnecessary, though the hobbits carried these along with them anyhow. They’d likely be needed, on reaching the rock-fall, if Pippin was bent on the engineers passing their opinions in the dark.

Tolly figured he’d be crawling over the fallen rocks blocking the trail—Pippin’s talk had him convinced, sight-unseen, of the reason for Ferdi’s tardiness—and then running onward, at least to the first farm, where he could borrow a pony to ride on to Tookbank, and Whitwell beyond, and then Whittacres, to reassure himself as to Faramir’s safety. He’d probably turn around and ride back in the same night, to bring the good news to the Thain. As a matter of fact, if Ferdi was taking the long way round to the Smials, through Waymoot and Bywater and then south to Tuckborough, he and Farry might well arrive before the Thain!

Farmer Hammersmith broke off from the rest as they passed the turnoff for his farm. It was barely seven of the clock; he’d fetch his younger brothers and older sons and nephews just in case the Thain decreed they’d be clearing the track that night, then and there. He knew the rock-fall; it was perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes’ ride from the eastern boundary of his fields. He’d been that relieved that it hadn’t occurred on his land, for then he’d bear most of the cost and trouble of clearing the track. He’d be happy to help the neighbour whose land was affected, however, especially as it was an older hobbit who’d lost his only son at the Battle of Bywater, and whose daughters had married and moved to smials of their own.

The Great Smials Tooks reached the rock-slide not long after the farmer left them, and reined in their ponies. Pippin gave a whistle. ‘Completely blocking the track,’ he said.

‘Much worse than when we came through last week,’ Tolly said at his side. ‘It’s no wonder that they chose not to come this way.’ Yes, Tolly was fully convinced in his mind now, that the way of things was the way the Thain had laid them out.

‘Ev’ard,’ Pippin said. ‘Can you make a determination? Is the rest fairly stable, that a path of sorts might be cleared or we might at least send a messenger over?’

Tolly snorted to himself. He knew, in all likelihood, what messenger. Himself, and some other hobbit for good measure, just in case a tinge of suspicion still clung to him. He had been cleared of wrong-doing, both by the Thain’s public pronouncements, and by his satisfactorily discharging his duty of bringing Farry safe to Whittacres. But now, in the face of Ferdi’s supposed dereliction—and appearances were everything, so far as the Talk was concerned—he could feel the bonds of suspicion tightening around him once more, and he could only imagine the Talk back at the Great Smials.

The night was young, after all. No telling what might happen between now and the dawning.