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One Who Sticks Closer than a Brother  by Lindelea

Chapter 51. A Tale that Grows in the Telling

The travellers set out from the Crowing Cockerel after elevenses the next day, again going very slowly. ‘At this rate the Thain will return before we do!’ Tolly fussed.

‘What of it, if he does?’ Mardi asked. ‘Where’s the harm of making a two-day journey into three?’

‘Where, indeed?’ Freddy said, adding his opinion. He was quite enjoying himself: a moving coach, lovely scenery going by outside, slowly enough to appreciate the sights, and all the food he could wish for – though Mardi and Meadowsweet seemed determined to feed the better part of it to Tolly. Still, inside the coach it was raining drink and snowing food, and there was little cause for him to complain.

‘Why – I –‘ Tolly said, and stopped. ‘I have duties…’

‘You’re on holiday,’ Mardi said firmly. ‘At least until you’ve gained back a stone, preferably two! Now, eat!’

Tolly refrained from pointing out that he’d been eating, nearly continually -- at least, when he was awake. The Thain’s best coach was so very comfortable… Often, during that journey, his snores blended with Freddy’s, though Mardi (and Meadowsweet, to tell the truth, though she’d never before found music in Tolly’s snoring) stayed wakeful and savoured the sound as he watched over his brother, snatched so recently from the jaws of death.

‘The children!’ Tolly said, for his next argument.

‘…will be waiting eagerly for your return. Indeed, I send a message to the Smials that they should expect you just before teatime on the morrow.’

‘The morrow!’ Tolly said.

‘That should give you plenty of time to win back some of your strength,’ Mardi said, thrusting a freshly filled plate at him.

‘Eat, my love, do!’ Meadowsweet put in, and Freddy said through a mouthful that the bread that had been packed in the hampers was quite good, and Tolly ought to stop fussing – it was quite enough to put a hobbit off his appetite -- and eat.

At last, Tolly gave in to the inevitable and ate, and drank, and slept, and awakened to repeat the cycle.

They spent the night at a small inn, halfway between the Cockerel and the Great Smials and a little off the beaten track, simply signed Home Away from Home. It was indeed homely, with all the comforts one might wish. It was one of Pippin’s favourite places to bring Diamond, when he felt she’d been working too hard at managing all the details that fell to her lot as Mistress, and as it also gave Pippin a breather, it was one of Diamond’s favourites, as well. The innkeeper, seeing the Thain’s best coach pull into the yard, was all smiles to greet them. It didn’t seem to matter that Pippin and Diamond were not with them; the keeper seemed to think they’d be coming along at any time, (and perhaps they would be, grumbled Tolly, we’ve been so long about our journeys) and so he provided all his best for the travellers, and many things they didn’t even think to ask for.

‘Yes, yes,’ Mardi told the innkeeper, next morning, as they prepared to undertake the last stretch of road. ‘The Thain and Mistress will be along, undoubtedly, later today or tomorrow, but we cannot wait any longer for them. We must be back to the Smials on very important business…’

The innkeeper was all bows and smiles. It was good to have a little warning that Thain and Mistress were due. Ofttimes they showed up on his doorstep without warning, sometimes in the Thain’s best coach, and other times riding ponies, just as if they were any other travellers. With a little warning, his wife could bake her best recipes, and he could kill the fatted calf and have it roasting on a spit when the Thain and Mistress arrived.

‘Important business?’ Tolly wanted to know, when they were well on their way.

Very important business,’ Mardi insisted. ‘Your children are expecting you at teatime!’

Tolly smiled and settled back in his cushions at this. ‘Home,’ he breathed. ‘It’ll be so good to see them again.’

‘They’ll be so glad to see you,’ Meadowsweet said softly. ‘They didn’t know…’

‘You didn’t tell them,’ he said, turning to her, comfort evaporating.

‘We didn’t,’ Mardi said, to spare Meadowsweet. ‘But you’re not raising any fools, Tolibold. They knew what was what. They have eyes, and they know how to use them… Now, sit back, and have a bite of this lovely beef…’

‘But you sent word ahead of us,’ Tolly said, leaning forward, his gaze intent.

‘We did!’ Meadowsweet said gladly. ‘The Thain did, that is – he said he sent a Pony Post rider galloping with the news, just so soon as the son of Elrond told him you’d be well.’

‘Bless his thoughtful heart,’ Tolly said, allowing himself to be pressed back against the pillows, and a cloth tied around his neck, and a plate full of good food settled in his lap.

‘I’ll have some of the same!’ Freddy said, not to be left out.

‘We all will!’ Mardi said with a chuckle.

‘It’s like a party on wheels!’ Meadowsweet said in wonder, and her husband laughed.

‘Indeed, it is,’ he said. ‘I’ve never known the like. It’s a far cry from eating cold food in the saddle, while riding to deliver messages…’ He did not sound a bit wistful, however, and the others understood that he was looking forward to being pronounced “well and whole” once more, so that he could take up his duties. Life in the lap of luxury might be well and fine for a holiday – a relatively short one – but it wouldn’t do to go on. Tolly liked to be busy; he liked variety, and change, and challenge. Head of escort to the Thain provided all of these, and more.

At long last the coach was rolling through the streets of Tuckborough, pulling up in front of the Spotted Duck, where Ned got down and opened the door for Freddy to leave the coach.

Freddy got down and stretched. ‘Well, then, that’s a journey well made,’ he said. ‘I suppose you’ll let me know, when next you wish to travel to the ends of the Shire in the Thain’s best coach…’

‘We’ll be sure to let you know,’ Tolly said from the window, as Ned secured the door and climbed back up to the driver’s seat. Haldi saluted, from his place beside the driver, and Freddy waved languidly back at him, then turned into the Duck, his thoughts already on the mug of beer he intended to enjoy, and sooner than later if he had any say in the matter. Which, of course, he did.

The coach continued on through Tuckborough, around Great Hill and into the yard of the Great Smials.

‘Right on time!’ Mardi said, consulting his pocket watch. ‘In twenty minutes it’ll be teatime, and… just enough time to freshen ourselves…’

‘Where are the children?’ Tolly wanted to know, and Meadowsweet was craning to look for them out the window.

‘There!’ Mardi said with a laugh, pointing, as a number of small bodies spilled out one of the lesser doors, tumbling like puppies in their eagerness to greet their parents.

Ned pulled the coach to a stop, but before he could get down, open the coach door, and set the step in place, Tolly was thrusting the door open and jumping down, his arms wide to embrace his burgeoning brood. ‘O my loves!’ he cried. ‘How glad I am to see you!’

Such a babble of voices came in reply, and such a bevy of hugs surrounded him on all sides!

Meadowsweet followed close behind, though she waited for the step, and Ned’s hand to help her down, and she joined the embrace, weeping tears of joy.

‘Don’t cry, Mama!’ one small voice piped above the others, and she wiped hastily at her eyes and protested that she was happy, not sad at all, and all was well. It is one of those things that mystifies young hobbits, but as she was laughing through her tears, they were content to surround mother and father and heap hugs and kisses on them, without further distress.

‘I hardly feel the need to freshen up, after such a short hop,’ Tolly said to his wife, as the children drew them forward, towards the door they’d spilled out of, Mardi following in their wake.

Haldi had hopped down to untie his pony from the back of the coach; he handed the reins to a waiting stable hobbit, with his thanks.

‘Tolly’s all well, then!’ that hobbit said, staring after the little family, as if he could scarcely credit the idea. He’d been the one holding the ponies’ heads, when they’d carried the stricken hobbit out to the coach, that cold, grim day not so many days in the past. He’d heard the Talk. He’d known what was what… and here was the head of escort, returned from the dead.

‘And not the only one,’ he added under his breath.

But Haldi didn’t hear; he’d already turned to the Smials, with a wave to Ned. ‘Take the rest of the day,’ he called, ‘and all of the morrow!’

‘I will!’ Ned called back with a grin. He happily turned over ponies and coach to the stable workers, and headed to his quarters, whistling a jaunty tune. Slow and steady had won the race, so to speak. Apparently he’d driven to Haldi’s satisfaction, keeping the ponies at a slow pace and steering all over the road to find the smoothest ride, something a drunken hobbit might do, though he’d been stone, cold sober.

That was something he intended to remedy! He’d lift a mug in celebration of Tolly’s recovery, and his part in it, and perhaps someone might buy him a second mug while he told the story of what he’d seen. He'd actually not seen much, but he knew how to embroider a tale to shine in the telling… By the end of the day, the son of Elrond would be known to have been wearing mithril mail and jewels under his dark, enveloping cloak, and his eyes would shine with inner fire and his face would be so fair that a body could scarcely bear even a glimpse of it, within the depths of the Half-elven’s hood.

He nodded to himself in satisfaction. That ought to be worth the price of the mug, and perhaps two or three more into the bargain.

He might have a big head in the morning, but he was celebrating. He had a feeling the whole Smials would be celebrating as well, upon the Thain's return, anyhow, with the King safely seen off to the Southlands and all the recent troubles firmly in the past. It had been a long, grim time, and he looked forward to drinking, and singing, talking and dancing. He was quite sure he'd have a lot of company, as well.

There's a time for weeping, and a time for joy, or so the old saying went, and he had every intention of enjoying the next few days, before things settled back to everyday dullness...

... just as they ought to be.





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