A blessed Resurrection Day to all! Here's to the celebration of life...

Chapter 52. East, West, Home's Best

‘I am not an invalid!’ Tolly protested under his breath, so as not to distress the children – who had abandoned their escorting of himself and Meadowsweet, to run ahead to the quarters belonging to the head of escort and his family. (Though, strictly speaking, running in the corridors of the Great Smials was frowned upon, no one would be frowning at Tolly’s children for breaking the rules, not on this day, at least.)

But Mardi and Meadowsweet seemed to have another idea, for they’d taken him firmly between themselves, each holding one of his arms, and were walking along at a slow and solicitous pace. Tolly not only had to put up with this ill treatment, but he had to continually acknowledge the greetings and congratulations that were being showered upon him from all sides, from Tooks and servants lining the corridor between the lesser entrance door and the door of his apartments.

Truth be told, to Tolly’s senses it was uncomfortably like a burial procession in reverse. Instead of silent hobbits lining the corridor from the shrouded hobbit’s quarters to an outside door, marking the passage of the departed on a last journey with sorrow and quiet respect, the head of escort was being cheered on his way home, and showered with smiles, cheers, and good wishes.

What had happened to decorum? What about the unspoken rule against shouting in the corridors? It seemed as if all propriety had flown out the windows!

Mardi and Meadowsweet, too, were uncomfortably struck with the similarities, though in their case, it simply caused a deepening of the sense of thankfulness that had taken hold from the moment Tolly had first opened his eyes and spoken, after the son of Elrond had completed his work. Both Tolly’s wife and his older brother had seen Ferdi’s final journey – or what was to have been his final journey – not so long ago, when Ferdi had been mistakenly declared dead by the healer in the group of hobbits who’d found him after ruffians struck him down, and Tolly had been out on the Muster that was attempting to recover the kidnapped son of the Thain. Ferdi had been carried through all the corridors in the Smials, not just the direct route from his apartments to the courtyard – an honour reserved for a hero of the Tookland, which of course he was – and out to the family graveyard, and nearly buried, save for Woodruff’s interference, and that based on a fever dream of her husband’s. Lucky rescue, indeed.

Still, all three set aside personal discomfort and walked along slowly, smiling and nodding to either side, quite as if they were returning heroes of some terrible battle.

And in a way, that is what it had been.

It was a relief to reach the door to the head of escort’s suite of rooms. Mardi opened the door and waved Tolly and Meadowsweet in, and was as happy to follow them inside, stick his head out of the doorway to shout his thanks and of course Tolly’s, and then slip out himself with a quick, 'I'll see you on the morrow!', closing the door on the welcoming clamour, and though Tolly and Meadowsweet did not see it, dusting his hands after his efforts.

‘Welcome home, sir!’ said Rusty, the hobbitservant who divided his time between Tolly’s and Ferdi’s families, coming forward to take Tolly’s borrowed cloak. ‘It is so good to see you at home!’

‘It is so good to be home, Rusty-good-fellow,’ Tolly said fervently, and then he stopped short, for there, sitting in the best chair with his feet elevated on a stool, sat Ferdibrand! …of whom, it must be said, Mardi had been cautious in answering Tolly’s queries about prospects for healing and health.

Nell stood beside him, with as big a smile as Tolly had ever seen her smile. Indeed, it was less than a week ago she’d feared that the two friends, closer than cousins, might go hand-in-hand to the Feast, and leave their wives and families grieving.

‘Ferdi?’ he whispered.

‘Tolly!’ Ferdi said – and he could speak! And he lifted both hands in greeting, and held them out to his dearest friend, and Tolly stumbled forward to grasp the hands in his own and to revel in the strength of the returning squeeze. ‘Welcome home! The… the P-pony Post message said you were healed, and I see that you are!’

‘And we had no message to say the same about you,’ Tolly said, bending to embrace Ferdi, and then rising to hug Pimpernel, looking for a long moment into her sparkling eyes before a grin spread over his face to match hers.

She nodded, an emphatic nod. Healing! He’s healing! Aloud she said, ‘Woodruff says she doesn’t know what Tookish heads are made from – something quite a lot thicker than bone, she said…’

‘Well, then, we can no longer call you “bone-head”,’ Tolly said to Ferdi, and the latter shook his head with a grin of his own.

‘I w-was growing quite fond of the term,’ Ferdi said. ‘And now you say you’re l-laying it aside?’

Pimpernel laid a restraining hand on her husband’s shoulder. ‘Don’t tire yourself, my love,’ she said. ‘Remember what Woodruff said! Make haste a little more slowly…!’

‘What nonsense!’ Ferdi said, but he was smiling. ‘Very w-well, then, bring on the food! If something’s going in, I w-won’t have to w-worry about w—‘ he stopped, as if to concentrate, and then finished in a triumphant rush, ‘what’s to come out!’ Being able to speak once more was a great comfort, and the stammer a minor inconvenience, manifesting itself toward the end of the day when he began to tire, and growing less every day as his strength returned.

‘An excellent notion,’ Rusty said. ‘If I may make up a plate for you, Ferdi-sir? And yourself, Tolly-sir? And Mistresses?’

‘No, Rusty!’ Meadowsweet said gaily. ‘This is a celebration, for everyone! You make up a plate for yourself, and join us – just this once!’ she added, seeing the hobbitservant’s scandalised expression. ‘Nell and I will take care of the rest, and glad to do it!’

There was a celebration for the two families, for a veritable feast was laid out on the sideboard, and the drink flowed freely – though the recovering hobbits were limited to juice and tea – and the Great Smials' cooks and their assistants had gone all-out in their efforts, with sandwiches cut into fancy shapes, several kinds of teacakes, and heaping plates of sweet biscuits of every description.

At last Rusty stopped putting out fresh platters, and began to clear away denuded plates and cups. Other servants were at the door with a trolley to take the dishes away, and working quickly, Rusty and the others soon had the room set to rights, all but a last pot of tea for anyone who wanted some. The wives took the hint, Nell saying, ‘But Ferdi, you promised a story for the little ones after eventides, and I think it would be best if you were to take a rest first, and allow this good food to settle.’

Meadowsweet affected a yawn. ‘And we are just come from a journey,’ she said. ‘Bath and bed – for myself at least…’

Rusty took this moment to marshal his forces. ‘Children!’ he said. ‘Come, there are to be games in the great room before eventides, by order of the Steward…’ He looked to Meadowsweet with a nod, and shooing the children before him, bigger ones carrying the littlest ones, he departed with a quiet closing of the door.

Suddenly the sitting room seemed much bigger, and enormously quiet.

Ferdi yawned himself. ‘Silent as the grave,’ he said. ‘Dull as ditchwater, I mean. Such a lot of noise as the children make…’ He grinned. ‘Isn’t it d-delightful?’ (And he might have been talking about the silence, but I expect he wasn't.)

‘Completely,’ Tolly said, sharing his grin. ‘Come, old friend, let me help you up.’

‘I’m well!’ Ferdi protested, but he allowed Nell to steady him as he got up from his chair, and he walked slowly to the door on her arm – but he was walking! Where one leg had been lame, before – the entire side of his body had been all but unresponsive, and now he was whole, and evidently well on the mend, if not completely well.

Tolly and Meadowsweet saw them out, and then closed the door, and Tolly took a deep breath and let it out with a whoosh. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘What now?’ He circled Meadowsweet with his arms and kissed her forehead. ‘The Thain is not here, needing any escorting, nor is his family – I seem to be at loose ends.’

Meadowsweet shook her head. ‘Oh, you,’ she said. ‘Do you never leave off?’

‘What?’ Tolly asked in an injured tone, rather spoilt by the grin on his face.

Meadowsweet stepped back and put her hands on her hips, tapping one foot, as she looked him up and down. ‘We’ve just come from a long journey…’

Tolly refrained from pointing out that this last leg had taken less than half a day.

‘…and if Rusty knows his business, as I expect he does, someone’s just finished filling a large tub with steaming water, and…’

‘Large enough for two?’ Tolly asked, putting his head on one side as if to consider, though he never lost his grin.

‘We’ll just have to go and look, I suppose,’ Meadowsweet said, affecting a sigh.

Tolly slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close, and then the two of them began to walk in the direction of the bath room, conveniently shared between the two suites. It was a very near thing, for the outer door was just closing (there was no knob on the public corridor side, so once that door closed behind someone who exited that way, one would have to enter again through one of the apartments), and the steaming water in the large tub was evidently very freshly poured indeed.

Instead of lamps, the room was lit with a multitude of candles, and the water was pleasantly scented, and thick towels hung warming by the fire on the little hearth that warmed the room, and fresh soap and flannels and even a new back-scrubbing brush were laid ready.

Rusty certainly knew his business.