Chapter 10. If You Can't Stand the Heat...

Hilly fought down nightmare memory—summoned by the Thain, he was being questioned about his older brother, Tolly.

‘...why he would go to Fisher’s Bluff?’

‘I haven’t the faintest idea, no, he does not confide his every thought in me...’ Hilly said, remembering to add, ‘...Sir,’ though it was somewhat belated in his irritation. ‘Today is not his half-day, and even if it were, he’d have checked with Regi first, before taking himself off somewhere or other.’

And in the back of his mind, he was remembering that other occasion, when the Thain’s son had gone missing, and Tolly had seemed in the thick of it (though what he’d really been doing was trying to prevent a scandal, for Farry had run away and Ferdi had gone after the lad), and the circle of suspicion was widening. Ferdi and Tolly had nearly ended the affair banished from the Shire, before the lad in question popped onto the scene and cleared things up.

He was not feeling his best, as it was. He’d been a little under the weather last night, feeling chilled from the long riding with the muster in the icy cold, and the brandy, courtesy of the Thain, that had been poured out at last night’s celebration had not warmed him as much as he’d hoped. It had been too strong for his liking, actually, and he’d sipped only so long as the toasts went on, putting his glass down half-drunk when he and Posey took their early leave.

But the hunter who stood there before the Thain’s desk to make his report looked worse than Hilly, though it was cold comfort. He’d obviously taken in too much of the golden fire that was the finest Brandy Hall had to offer, and no doubt he’d be cursing the Brandybucks more than usual for the next day or two.

Hilly hadn’t heard the report; a mud-covered Renilard had been standing there when the hobbit of escort had arrived, summoned from his mug of tea and half-hearted game of Kings in the second parlour, to attend the Thain. He’d thought to himself that it wouldn’t be his first choice, to jump on his pony and ride out again into the winter chill, and if he could manage it he’d pass the task on to Haldi.

But it was no matter of a message to be run. The moment Hilly set foot in the study, Pippin rose to his feet and pounced. ‘Ah, Hilly. Why would Tolly ride to Fisher’s Bluff, knowing he was wanted this morning?’

‘Fisher’s Bluff?’ Hilly had said, goggling stupidly. ‘In this weather?’

Pippin looked to the hunter, and Renilard shrugged, little pieces of drying mud falling to the rug with the gesture. ‘He was there,’ the hunter said. ‘Followed his trail up, and then down again.’

‘Did he say anything to you?’ Reginard had said to Hilly.

Hilly’d had to shake his head. ‘Not to me,’ he said. ‘Have you tried Meadowsweet?’ And hearing a throat-clearing behind him, he swung around to see Diamond and Sweetie in the overstuffed chairs in the corner. How he’d missed their presence on his entrance, he didn’t know, but it might have something to do with the growing fog in his head. He shook his head to clear it, but he couldn’t shake away the bitter memory of Tolly, accused of child-stealing, and suspicion licking at Hilly’s own heels.

And so he was fighting a mix of fear and irritation as he answered the Thain’s persistent “Why?”

‘I haven’t the faintest idea, no, he does not confide his every thought in me, ...Sir. Today is not his half-day, and even if it were, he’d have checked with Regi first, before taking himself off somewhere or other.’

‘Somewhere or other,’ Reginard echoed, ‘or perhaps Fisher’s Bluff, and then along the Tuckbourn for more than a mile,’ looking to the hunter to confirm, nodding, and returning his puzzled gaze to Hildibold, ‘and then leaving his cloak and gloves, as if in sign.’

‘But you say there was no sign of ruffians,’ Pippin broke in.

‘No, Sir, not that I saw,’ Renilard said, ‘but then I was rather occupied with my assistant after he swooned.’

‘What, swooned?’ Hilly said in astonishment.

‘It’s that fever, going around,’ the hunter said apologetically. ‘Raolf’s not one for swooning, not usually.’

‘Left his cloak and gloves?’ Hilly said, his irritation turning to worry. ‘But it’s freezing out there!’ He’d been out to exercise his ponies before early breakfast, and had cut the sessions short. The icy breeze, slight as it was, had made his bones ache. Tolly was out in the weather without his cloak?

‘Just about,’ the hunter affirmed. ‘Sun’s doing her best to warm the air, but I think she’s feeling puny.’ He certainly knew the feeling. All he wanted was to crawl back into his bed and warm up his icy feet on his toasty wife... though of course it was just a fancy in his mind. At this time of day Anise would have been up for several hours, for she’d not made so free of Buckland’s brandy as her husband had. Matter of fact, she’d said a few rather smug “Told you so’s” when Renny had risen, groaning, from the bed at the Thain’s summons. ‘We found the cloak and gloves along the bank, but I didn’t get a chance to look further into the matter. Raolf toppled from his pony, right about then, and I had to get him back to the Smials quick as I could.’

‘But why would he drop his cloak?’ Hilly said, still stuck on the matter. He turned to the wives again. ‘Sweetie?’

Meadowsweet held an abused handkerchief in her hands, and at Hilly’s question she twisted it anew. ‘He left while I was still sleeping,’ she said incongruously, her red-rimmed eyes wide.

‘But he knew he was to see the Thain, first thing,’ the steward maintained.

‘We’ve been over this ground already,’ the Thain said, cutting Regi off with a sharp gesture. ‘Yes, Tolly was to report to me first thing, no, he seems to have taken a short-cut on his way to see me...’

Hilly saw the hunter roll his eyes at the whimsy, but he was too worried, now, about his brother. ‘Is Tolly in some sort of trouble, Sir?’ he asked carefully, and heard Meadowsweet gasp behind him, and then Diamond’s soothing murmur.

‘That was what I was about to ask you,’ Pippin said. ‘Is there some reason he would turn away from making his report?’

Hilly’s mouth opened to reply, but nothing came out, and a chill seized him, whether of dread or some other origin, he did not know.

‘He was sent with the ruffians caught by the muster,’ Regi said now, spacing his words to emphasize their weight. ‘Sent to deliver the ruffians to the Rangers.’

To their doom, hung unspoken in the air.

Hilly stood a moment, mouth still open, and then understanding dawned and he looked from Thain to steward to hunter, mopping with his hand at the sweat that had broken out on his brow. ‘You think...’ he managed, and could scarcely get the words out in his perturbation. ‘You think he let this pair go like that other lot...!’ His voice shook, and as he took hold of himself he realised that he was trembling all over.

‘Worse,’ Meadowsweet said, and he turned to see her rising from her seat. ‘O Hilly, they think these ruffians knew how to get into the Shire, how to get by the Rangers, because of the others that Tolly let go...!’

Hilly’s Tookish temper flared then, beyond his commanding, and he swung to the Thain, eyes sparking righteous fire, even though the icy cold clenched his heart, for Tolly was missing without leave, without word to anyone...

‘And after all your fine words of a little while ago, of how you’d honour the loyalty of those who served you...’ he spat, hardly knowing what he said.

‘Hilly,’ Regi said in warning, putting out a restraining hand, but the hobbit of escort shook the hand away, swinging to confront the steward.

‘Why are you doing this to Tolly?’ he demanded.

‘We’re not doing anything to Tolly,’ Pippin said mildly. ‘We only want to know where he went, and why.’

‘And now he’s out in the weather in his shirt-sleeves,’ Hilly said, the alarm growing in him even as his thoughts grew more disjointed, ‘and you don’t even have anyone trying to find him?’ He thought he’d got that part right, that Renilard and another hunter had gone out to follow Tolly’s trail, but had stopped when they’d found the cloak.

‘Hilly,’ Regi said again, reaching to grab at his sleeve.

The hobbit of escort tried to pull away, but the crackling of the cheery fire on the hearth was rising to a roar in his head even as the fire itself swelled to encompass the room. He was sweating, sweat was pouring down his face in point of fact, though he was too disturbed to pull out his handkerchief to wipe away the sudden onslaught.

The Thain, too, was talking, but the words made no sense as Pippin rose from his chair and skirted the desk to take Hilly’s other side. The hunter was protesting the slur on his character, and his assistant’s, and all the words mixed together to make a meaningless gabble.

Hilly tried to pull away from all the restraining hands, whose, he couldn’t now say, for before his eyes the hobbits surrounding him were turning to gibbering creatures that moved and shifted with the flames that inexplicably filled the room.

They held him fast, no matter which way he turned, and driven to desperation by a sudden vision of Tolly, lying frozen in a dusting of snow, he shouted, ‘Let me go! That’s my brother, out there!’

And then the roaring flames rose to engulf him, and they burned him all away, and he turned to blackened ash that sifted to the floor; all was darkness, and no more thought was left to him.